Wow. Way to ruin a public event and abuse his official position to air his personal grievance.
A Florida city commissioner shocked his colleagues during an awards ceremony for outstanding officers last week when he claimed one of the honorees was a “bad police officer” who had falsely arrested him years earlier.
The surprise moment came after other city officials in Tamarac, Florida, honored Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Joshua Gallardo with the deputy of the month award for his role in arresting an alleged gang member who had been wanted for murder.
Gallardo accepted his award, took pictures with the city’s mayor and was heading back to his seat in when Tamarac City Commissioner Mike Gelin took the microphone and asked him to come back to the front, as seen on a video recording of the meeting.
“Joshua Gallardo, will you come down for a second? It’s good to see you again,” said Gelin, before erupting into a tirade over what he believed to have been a false arrest in 2015. “You probably don’t remember me, but you’re the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago.”
“You lied on the police report. I believe you’re a rogue police officer. You’re a bad police officer, and you don’t deserve to be here,” he added.
Stop being a criminal thug and you will not get arrested…
This really comes down to whether the cop actually did something wrong.
Lets play pretend that he did falsify docs during an old arrest, then I have no problem with this guy calling him out. The problem is that even if he did, there probably wasn’t enough evidence or it wasn’t worth it to go after him. And this could be his best opportunity to call him out. Would our opinion change if in a few years we find out the cop had a history of that?
BUT, it could also be that the commissioner is a jackass and the cop is in the clear.
My personal opinion is that I actually believe the commissioner on this. What does he have to gain by calling this guy out years later like this? Whatever happened he probably believes that he is in the right and the cop did something wrong.
I respectfully disagree on the appropriateness of the time and place. The commissioner certainly has the right to be upset at his treatment and, according to the story, had his day in court. The issue is resolved and using a public meeting to vent his spleen over a settled issue was inappropriate.
Furthermore, the officer was not in a position to defend himself. It wasn’t that the commissioner was looking to seriously debate his alleged maltreatment. The commissioner was using his public office to berate an officer in public in a forum where the officer was not able to defend himself.
If we ever want to restore some level of decorum to our public discourse, it starts with people adhering to some sense of “time and place” restraint.
While I agree with you Owen that this was inappropriate, everything I have seen regarding this case was the video proved the officer falsified his statement and the charges were dismissed, and no investigation or censure happened. When the boys in blue have that big wall there’s little to be done.
For that I do applaud this guy for standing up for himself when the system dismissed him.