The following is a rebuttal to this post. I am presenting it unedited in its entirety. My comments follow it.
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Mr. Codrea,
I just read the email that you had sent to Chief Cramer and Chief Cooper. I asked Chief Cramer if I could respond to your letter.
First of all, thank you for taking an interest in this. What happened at the Wal-Mart on Dec. 24th was very unfortunate. I do need to tell you that you need to have your facts straight before sending a sarcastic filled letter to anyone. If you are relying on the media for the facts then you have made a mistake. Let me help you with the facts.
Fact #1 Officer Freeman did not refuse to show his receipt, the greeter asked to see the receipt of the other officer who did in fact stop and show it, Officer Freeman proceeded out the door.
Fact #2 During the interview of the greeter, he stated that he may have set the alarm off himself due to a tag he had in his pocket.
Fact #3 The Collegedale Police Department did not "decline to bring charges" against Officer Freeman as you so put it. I don’t know there you are from but in the State of Tennessee pushing someone is nothing more than a “Simple Assault” which is a misdemeanor. For an officer to make an arrest the misdemeanor must have happened in the officer’s presences. The procedure for an arrest to happen is the victim comes to the Police Department and fills out an Affidavit of Complaint which is then given to the Judge to sign. The greeter did in fact come to the station about four days later. An Affidavit of Complaint was completed and sent to the judge. Keep in mind that the words on the Affidavit are from the victim and not an officer. At this point the judge reviewed the Affidavit and felt it did not have enough evidence for a warrant and did not sign it. That is on the Judge and not the Police Department. We did what we could do. Like it or not, that’s the law.
I can tell you that the Collegedale Police Department has a very good working relationship with the Wal-Mart and its employees. It’s unfortunate that the Collegedale Police Department was placed in the middle of this situation but that’s the nature of the job and we take great pride in what we do.
One last comment, I won’t speak for the Chattanooga Police Department because I don’t work for them but I will tell you they did take action on Officer Freeman. What they did hurt him more then any judge could have done on a charge of “Simple Assault”.
I know it’s easy to target police departments when you don’t know all the facts. I hope this helps you understand a little more clearly.
If have any questions, feel free to email them to me .
Thank you,
Det. Lt. R. J. Barber
Criminal Investigation Division
Collegedale Police Department
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First, I'm painfully aware that "Authorized Journalists" don't always get it right. My real concern in this is more of an "Only Ones" nature:
Does Det. Barber sincerely believe this would have been the outcome, had it been a citizen conducting a "Simple Assault" against a police officer?
I'll send him this link and invite him to respond.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
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9 comments:
For what its worth the guy did have the balls to contact you and he's one of the very few that ever have.
Maybe he did it because he's PO'ed but he did and maybe he clued you in on the cop involved got a little more than his hand slppped.
I give him credit for taking the time as very, very few have the guts and balls to do or have.
I call bullshit on the explanation. There was a cop there for the second assault on the man who was pushed through the glass. There was a cop present when the first assault took place. He may not have worked for the Collegedale PD, but you can bet your ass if the assault had been in the other direction, his observations would have been sought and deemed enough evidence for an arrest and detention.
Detective Barber is being disingenuous, what we peasants refer to as lying. The reason for the requirement that an officer must witness a simple assault is because of the he said/she said nature of such cases; UNLESS there were witnesses. In this case there were witnesses, one of which was himself assaulted, an action which was also witnessed by many people including a cop who according to Barber must be a liar or an unreliable observer, else his statement as to what happened would not be discounted as regards the arrest or lack of arrest of Freeman.
[Yeah, "we did all we could do", we just didn't do it to honor our duty, we did all we could do to keep from doing our duty.] I think would be a much more accurate.
Barber, if you avail yourself of David's invitation to read and respond here, a word of advice. Stay in the gang you are in, you would starve to death as a conman.
I never even gave a hint that I agree with what he had to say. I still give him credit for having the balls to step up to the plate right or wrong and say his peace to us through David. Few have ever had the balls to do it. The only one I remember was some punk who more less called David out to come on down to Texas for some one sided violence. This cop was trying to set the record as he saw it and didn't wish violence on David.
Again, it takes some balls to say your peace and clearly state who you are. Count how many cops have ever done that. In order to move forward we have to talk to each other.
Thanks to Lt. Barber for taking the time to respond!
Strange. The last time a CSM asked to see my receipt, I handed him my bag and receipt. He then zapped the RFID device that set off the alarm, handed me my items, and sent me on my way. Nice fella, too.
The last time I saw someone refuse to show his receipt, he simply ignored the alarm and walked out the door. No pushing involved.
AJ, I was not responding to anything you said. I was responding to Barber's lame-ass excuse for not doing his job, collectively speaking.
If you took my comment as a criticism of you, be assured, it was not.
"I do need to tell you that you need to have your facts straight before sending a sarcastic filled letter to anyone."
a small act of tyranny. should i even read the rest?
Arrow, I did not take your post in any way but positive. I just wanted to make sure I made my point in posting as clear as it was in my head at the time.
Between us, I'm glad the guy reads the site or has started to and took the time to write. He didn't write us off as a bunch of nut cases and didn't bother. We all know who the rest of us are because we are alike in many ways. Hard working folks who have families and bills. We know what its like to go to work with a bunch of cold meds in us because we have to put the beans on the table and keep the roof overhead. We also know have much fun we have hunting and fishing with our buddie and just shooting a few cans with them poppng off some rim fire classic's we have had for years. I'm with you all the way.
And this is why I say "no thanks" and walk on when a WalMart greeter (or Best Buy or Circuit City for that matter) asks to see my receipt. Only once did any of them ever say more to which I responded "I bought this stuff, I paid for it, if you think I stole something, call the police. Have a nice day".
David, I stumbled across a story from last year not 5 miles from me along similar lines, more related to the "receipt check" that involved an arrest in the end. Yes, I'm aware it's not 100% on topic, but it's close.
arrested for not complying
also, related is the concept of the receipt check
no receipt
A personal wal-mart experience from yesterday...an elderly woman receipt checker reached out to physically stop me, almost grabbed my arm. I know how MY story would have ended had I knocked her down since I lack the "only one" aura.
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