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Fired APD officer had Previous Excessive Force Complaints
The Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | June 1, 2020 | Christian Boone & Jennifer Peebles

Posted on 06/01/2020 10:03:38 AM PDT by Cecily

One of the Atlanta Police Department officers fired Sunday for forcibly arresting two college students had previous complaints of excessive force that were upheld after an internal review, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Mark Gardner, who joined APD in 1997, was the subject of four citizen complaints from Richard Williams. Two of the complaints against Gardner were for "maltreatment or unnecessary force" and two were for violation of the department's policy on personal weapons.

The charges were sustained in 2016, according to APD data previously provided to the AJC. The officer received written reprimands for two of the complaints; no action was taken on the other two allegations.

(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: atlanta; christianboone; georgia; jenniferpeebles; kumbaya; lookwhohatescops
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To: Cecily
2. Higher salaries for police along with higher standards to be hired.

Salaries for "public" "employees" are already high enough.

3. Adopt purity of arms philosophy like the IDF has.

Purity of arms philosophy? What's that?

41 posted on 06/01/2020 12:25:49 PM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: Howie66
Liberal controlled cities have liberal controlled police departments who seem to have an awful lot of “bad” cops. There is plenty of proof that will support this theory.

Careful, you'e gonna trigger the "back the blue" and "thin blue line" crowds.

42 posted on 06/01/2020 12:26:38 PM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: redcatcherb412
" AR15's are military weapons in civilian legal form. So, they should not have AR's, but can have a mini-14. Can you expand on the difference in ammunition, rate of fire, muzzle velocity, magazine capacity and reload time difference between these 2 popular platforms? "

You have made my point perfectly. There is little difference in effectiveness between the Ruger Mini-14 and an AR15. So there is NO REASON, for a civilian police agency to use a military weapon. Use of AR15's has the immediate effect of militarizing of the police and compounded over time we arrive at the inevitable conflict.

Again, dress like a soldier, act like a soldier. Possession of AR15's and M16's creates the mindset of a soldier. Expand and compound this over years and next thing you know, you have police who think they are at war with the people. You have the people who increasingly see the police as an occupying military force, which in all reality they are just that.

43 posted on 06/01/2020 12:26:52 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: wastedyears

Purity of arms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purity_of_arms


44 posted on 06/01/2020 12:28:21 PM PDT by Cecily
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To: alternatives?
"“AR15’s are military weapons in civilian legal form.” There is a lot of difference between automatic weapons (Military) and semi-automatic weapons (civilian)."

No there is not. There are only a small handful of parts and this is only because of our unconstitutional NFA laws. Most importantly to the public eye, these small differences cannot be seen. The public cannot tell if a cop wielding an AR style weapon does indeed have a third position on the selector or not. The effect is the same. A cop holding an AR15 or an M16 takes on the image of a soldier. We don't want our police to look like soldiers and we don't want the public to perceive them as such.

This is critical and needs to be addressed or this divide will never be resolved.

45 posted on 06/01/2020 12:33:35 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: Flaming Conservative
Retest for mental stability at least yearly.

They'll just lie.

46 posted on 06/01/2020 12:36:24 PM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: precisionshootist

Uh no. Rifles have been made of polymer for 50 years paw paw. Your Fudd logic is ridiculous.


47 posted on 06/01/2020 12:36:53 PM PDT by The Toll
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To: The Toll
"Uh no. Rifles have been made of polymer for 50 years paw paw. Your Fudd logic is ridiculous."

I'm pretty sure no one has any idea what you are talking about.

48 posted on 06/01/2020 12:44:18 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: precisionshootist
“AR15's are military weapons in civilian legal form. The police are NOT the military.”

Since the police are not military, they must be civilians, right? And as you noted, the AR15 is a civilian-form rifle. So, why shouldn’t they have AR15s?

Obviously an AR patten rifle is more ergonomic to most people than a Mini14 and the action is less prone to problems,, but the caliber and “firepower” of the two are equivalent. If you don’t think cops should have AR15s, you shouldn’t be suggesting they have access to Mini14s either.

” Most importantly they have radios that can call in virtually limitless numbers of more cops..

And I don’t know where you live, but in my neck of the woods there isn’t an unlimited supply of police officers twiddling their thumbs waiting to be called if a serious incident happens. It makes far more sense to have a small number of officers specifically trained and armed to handle bad situations (IE a SWAT team) than to think you can pull officers off patrol, traffic, and responding to other calls, to respond to one bad incident that in your ideal world they aren’t equipped for anyway.

“ There is no incident that cannot be handled by normal peace officers who dress and act as cops.”

Again, one of the reasons SWAT teams and heavier weapons for cops started to happen was because of a growing number of incidents in the 70s, 80s, 90s that couldn’t be handled by patrolmen armed with revolvers.

49 posted on 06/01/2020 12:44:45 PM PDT by TheDandyMan
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To: wastedyears

They’ll just lie.


It’s not that easy to lie on a psych evaluation; the possibility of lying is built in.


50 posted on 06/01/2020 12:54:00 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: TheDandyMan
"“AR15's are military weapons in civilian legal form. The police are NOT the military.” Since the police are not military, they must be civilians, right? And as you noted, the AR15 is a civilian-form rifle. So, why shouldn’t they have AR15s? Obviously an AR patten rifle is more ergonomic to most people than a Mini14 and the action is less prone to problems,, but the caliber and “firepower” of the two are equivalent. If you don’t think cops should have AR15s, you shouldn’t be suggesting they have access to Mini14s either. ” Most importantly they have radios that can call in virtually limitless numbers of more cops.. And I don’t know where you live, but in my neck of the woods there isn’t an unlimited supply of police officers twiddling their thumbs waiting to be called if a serious incident happens. It makes far more sense to have a small number of officers specifically trained and armed to handle bad situations (IE a SWAT team) than to think you can pull officers off patrol, traffic, and responding to other calls, to respond to one bad incident that in your ideal world they aren’t equipped for anyway. “ There is no incident that cannot be handled by normal peace officers who dress and act as cops.” Again, one of the reasons SWAT teams and heavier weapons for cops started to happen was because of a growing number of incidents in the 70s, 80s, 90s that couldn’t be handled by patrolmen armed with revolvers. "

While you are entitled to your opinion I would suggest you are actually part of the problem. Many people like yourself believe the police are justified in arming themselves with military weapons and gear while simultaneously training and operating as a military force. I disagree soundly and the results speak for themselves.

51 posted on 06/01/2020 1:14:43 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: wastedyears

I will NEVER back a dirty cop. Never.


52 posted on 06/01/2020 1:43:03 PM PDT by Howie66 ("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
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To: precisionshootist
Police should be known as Peace Officers and not law enforcement.

Sorry, that's their job, law enforcement and to reduce citizen disruptions of police enforcement of the law we need to emphasize that the job of the police is to enforce the law, and not hide it.

If laws are unjust, they should be changed. Meanwhile, the law needs to be enforced.


53 posted on 06/01/2020 2:24:17 PM PDT by nicollo (I said no!)
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To: nicollo
"Police should be known as Peace Officers and not law enforcement. Sorry, that's their job, law enforcement and to reduce citizen disruptions of police enforcement of the law we need to emphasize that the job of the police is to enforce the law, and not hide it. If laws are unjust, they should be changed. Meanwhile, the law needs to be enforced."

So many like yourself think we have to stay this course, we don't. We are the boss, the police work for us, not the other way around so if we say they are to be known as peace officers then they are peace officers.

Meanwhile with your mindset our country will continue to suffer and the division and conflict between civilians and the police will only escalate.

54 posted on 06/01/2020 2:38:43 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: Cecily

Get rid of police unions or make them pay for liability insurance and responsibility for payouts stemming from lawsuits. If it costs them money, they will get rid of the bad apples themselves.

Reform qualified immunity.


55 posted on 06/01/2020 2:50:43 PM PDT by Valpal1
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To: precisionshootist
Possession of AR15's and M16's creates the mindset of a soldier.

I had to chuckle when I was active duty and had cops refer to ME as a 'civilian'...

56 posted on 06/01/2020 5:47:21 PM PDT by ETCM
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