Chicago Police Officers Jerome Finnigan, left, and Timothy McDermott with an unidentified man | Photo from court file
Posted on 05/28/2015 2:59:14 PM PDT by BBell
It’s a racially charged photo the Chicago Police Department didn’t want the public to see: two white cops posing with rifles as they stand over a black man lying on his belly with deer antlers on his head.
But a Cook County judge has refused to keep secret the shocking image of former Officers Timothy McDermott and Jerome Finnigan kneeling with what the police department says is an unidentified African-American drug suspect.
Believed to have been taken in a West Side police station between 1999 and 2003, the Polaroid photo was given to the city by the feds in 2013 and resulted in McDermott, a clout-heavy cop, being fired last year by the police board in a 5-to-4 vote. The four dissenters said McDermott should only have been suspended. But a majority of the board wrote that “appearing to treat an African-American man not as a human being but as a hunted animal is disgraceful and shocks the conscience.”
McDermott, who has been driving a truck to support his family, is now appealing his dismissal in court.
Even though police Supt. Garry McCarthy moved to fire McDermott, attorneys for the police department and McDermott both asked Judge Thomas Allen to keep the photo under seal earlier this year.
They said they wanted to protect the privacy of the unidentified African-American man. Allen denied their request in March. The Sun-Times recently obtained a copy of the photo in the court file.
Federal prosecutors gave the photo to police investigators in 2013 about two years after Finnigan — the notorious other cop in the picture — was sentenced to 12 years in prison for leading a crew of rogue cops in robberies, home invasions and other crimes.
The photo comes to light as conflicts in recent months between white police officers and black suspects
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
Chicago Police Officers Jerome Finnigan, left, and Timothy McDermott with an unidentified man | Photo from court file
And it looks like the black man is playing along.
rogue cops doing home invasions and robberies? How the heck did that happen?
Can we see the photos of the Democrats from 20 years ago speaking at anti abortion and anti gay events too?
No? I wonder why.
Likewise to the Duggar topic I don’t see what’s to be accomplished by punishing these police officers for something that happened 16 years ago. If they haven’t repeated this behavior then let it go and move on.
Looks like 3 guys messing around. Not worthy of a news story.
This just proves (once again) that liberals have no sense of humor.
The “deer” in the photo was obviously in on the joke.
They should be fired for stupid, if nothing else. What did they expect to happen when they did such a foolish thing?
there does not seem to be any stress visible n his face...and that was th first thing I noticed about the photograph.
the eyes are neither squinting in pain...nor “wider eyed” in fear.
given he’s sticking his tongue out....Im pretty sure this was completely staged
wouldnt this be great if it turns out the black guy was also a cop??
“Unidentified man” is Obama on one of his down low excursions.
howso?
Why, because the "Deer" is black?
Could it be three buddy's screwing around having a good time not caring about what freakin color they are?
What if one of the posed shooters was the black guy?
Why is it the fact that one guy is black even noticed?
They should be fired....really??
RIDICULOUS..!
That black guy is their BUDDY.
I can’t see anything racial in this AT ALL. They’re guilty of being NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS.
I’m totally disgusted that this created ANY noise.
Almost every “cop scandal” the media loves is a non-issue.
Meanwhile there are serious cop problems the media is ignoring.
Given the current political climate, I would say virtually anyone could have told them this photo would come back and bite them in the A$$.
They should have been acutely aware of the explosive reaction that this picture would have.
I’m guessing they photo shopped the picture to add in the antlers and tongue?
However the photo is not “racially charged” except that the guy is black.
Yeah, I’m wondering about whether the black guy is a cop and whether he was fired too.
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