- A Philadelphia police officer has been charged with assault over an alleged bar battle.
- The officer grew to become enraged when somebody placed on hip-hop or R&B music, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
- The identical cop was arrested in 2011 and accused of punching his spouse. The Fraternal Order of Police saved his job.
A Philadelphia police officer has been arrested and charged with assault after an inner investigation discovered that he grew to become enraged when somebody at an area bar placed on hip-hop or R&B music, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday, with the affidavit for his arrest accusing him of punching three individuals throughout the incident, together with a detective.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Division advised Insider that the officer, Sgt. James Graber Jr. was arrested on March 9 “and subsequently suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.” He faces costs of aggravated and easy assault, terroristic threats, and reckless endangerment, the Inquirer reported.
The identical officer was arrested in 2011 and charged with easy assault and reckless endangering after he was accused of punching his estranged spouse within the face at one other bar. The division tried to fireplace him after that incident — which noticed Graber enter a diversion program on the request of his former accomplice — however was thwarted by the native chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which filed a union grievance to have him reinstated.
There have been different incidents.
Final yr the officer, who’s white, went viral after video was posted on-line of him shedding his mood and turning into bodily aggressive throughout an interplay with a Black household at their house; within the video, one other officer, a Black girl, may be seen holding him again.
And in 2013, the Inquirer reported, Graber was additionally suspended for accusations of abuse of authority whereas serving on the town’s Bomb Disposal Unity. The police union once more intervened and efficiently overturned the disciplinary motion.
As Insider has reported, some police unions search to stop officers accused of wrongdoing from shedding their jobs, even when division leaders — themselves oft-accused of being too lenient on unhealthy cops — not need them on the power. In Philadelphia, specifically, the native FOP has intervened dozens of instances in recent times to stop officers accused of wrongdoing from shedding their jobs.
John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia FOP chapter since 2007, is a vocal critic of legal justice reform who has accused the native district lawyer, Larry Krasner, of being delicate on crime. In 2016, McNesby made headlines after endorsing former President Donald Trump and later visiting the White Home to sentence so-called progressive prosecutors.
“The criminals know that there aren’t any repercussions,” he stated in 2021.
An FOP spokesperson advised Insider that, this time round, the union “shouldn’t be representing the officer and has no additional remark.”
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