Spoiler: The officer has been investigated at least twice before, once for assault and another for shooting an unarmed black man. In both cases it seems he was likely guilty of breaking the law but faced no consequences. I can’t imagine a more shocking turn of events
He denied threatening the driver with arrest, but kept threatening him with obstruction, which is a secondary charge unless I’m mistaken.
Sounds like this cop needs to be out of a job. What an asshole you have to be to threaten a bus driver, of all people
I feel like it’s important to look at the history of an officer when something like this happens. Is this an isolated incident and the guy reacted badly, or is this a guy that’s got previous paper on him and he’s gonna abuse the public every once in awhile cause reasons?
“The OPA has investigatedBelgarde before, including in 2015 after a Port Orchard City Prosecutor charged him with fourth-degree assault for his involvement in the beating of a man at a bar. The prosecutor eventually dismissed the charges in exchange for Belgarde paying the victim compensation. The OPA recommended no discipline in that case due to the fact that the investigation went past the Seattle police union’s negotiated 180-day time limit for OPA cases. The OPA did recommend discipline against Belgarde in 2016 after he and two other officers shot at Cornielous Morris, an unarmed Black man. Then-police chief Kathleen O’Toole reversed the OPA’s disciplinary recommendation in that case.”
So yea. This is just the stuff that was bad enough to put pen to paper on him. Exactly the kind of guy that the MORE COPS crowd need to account for when explaining how cops are the answer to anything cause let’s be real, that rap sheet ain’t all of it. That’s just what got that far.
I don’t know how to fix this problem but holy shit is it a problem.
I initially felt bad about assuming gender. Then I laughed and had a nice big swig on this Good Society Pale Ale.
As if.
Good work filling out the story by The Stranger. Them and Publicola deserve a tip in their jar for this reporting. Toss a coin to your starving reporters.
