The following is
a rebuttal to this post. I am presenting it unedited in its entirety. My comments follow it.
------------
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
------------
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.
