Soooo let me get this straight. An annonymous email is sent and it makes it on cnn as news. The media is making this country look like shat. There are so many topics that could use coverage, but instead the media is going to focus on "THE BEER SUMMIT". All three displayed error on the matter. Why can't they just chalk it up as a bad day and move on. How many of us at one time or another, snapped at someone while having a stressful day? You simply tell the other person, " My bad, I'm having a bad day" and move on.
Now, Lehr chronicles corruption inside the Boston Police Department, focusing on the 1995 beating of African-American officer Mike Cox, who, while working in plainclothes, was pummeled by another officer during Cox?s pursuit of a murder suspect.
Neither the Boston Police Department nor any judicial body charged a single police officer with the brutal assault. As Lehr makes clear, the initial crime of viciously beating a fellow officer was compounded with a second outrage: a massive police coverup. Although several officers were on the scene when Cox was beaten, apparently nobody saw anything, nobody said anything, and nobody asked critical questions to find the truth.
It all began with a gang-related shooting at a late-night burger joint on Dorchester?s Blue Hill Avenue. As shooting victim Lyle Jackson lay dying, four suspects fled in a gold Lexus. Lehr describes in breathtaking detail the massive police chase that ensued. The chase ended when the Lexus drove down a dead end street in Mattapan called Woodruff Way. Mike Cox and his partner were in the lead car pursuing the four suspects. When suspect Robert ?Smut?? Brown jumped out and ran toward a nearby fence, Cox followed.
Suspect Brown hopped a fence and, as Cox began climbing over, he suddenly received a blow to the back of his head. ?[T]he second blow then ripped open the right side of Mike?s forehead,?? writes Lehr, ?More blows followed, ferocious blows.?? Cox never saw his assailant?s face, and officers on the scene remained silent. Regarding the post-incident reports, Lehr pulls no punches, accusing officers of holding ?a creative writing seminar?? and concocting a cover story that Cox had slipped and fallen.
Without police cooperation, the Internal Affairs investigations sputtered, as did state and federal investigations. As Cox dealt with his injuries, which left his speech and memory damaged, his urine dark, and brought regular headaches, only one police officer seemed willing to tell investigators everything he knew. That officer was Kenneth Conley of South Boston, who arrested the suspect Cox had been chasing. Fully focused on apprehending the fleeing suspect, Conley told investigators that he hadn?t witnessed the beating.
Federal investigators did not believe Conley, and they targeted him as a potential informant they could ?squeeze.?? Lehr shows exactly how Conley became a pawn in a prosecutorial game. ?The pitch went something like this,?? Lehr explains, ?We don?t want to hurt you; we want your cooperation. But if you don?t cooperate, we will hurt you.?? Conley was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. All Conley needed to do was name names. But Lehr explains the ultimate irony: The straight-shooting Conley wanted to help find Cox?s assailant, but he had no relevant information to give prosecutors.
Conley would be found guilty and sentenced to prison. Only later would the conviction be tossed out when a federal judge ruled that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory documents from Conley?s defense team, rendering his trial unfair. As for Cox, he?d be left with a civil case against the city, which was settled out of court. Surprisingly, Cox remains with the Boston Police Department, but understandably has lost some of his trust in his brethren.
Lehr has vividly rendered two tragic stories, exposing a police culture of silence that victimized one of its own while also showing the ?by any means necessary?? mentality of federal prosecutors that destroyed another innocent officer?s reputation. Still missing here are truth and accountability.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/07/21/the_fence_scales_bostons_blue_wall_of_silence/
http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html
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