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Title: 70-Year-Old Veteran Abused and Arrested By Power Tripping Cop for Walking with a Cane
Source:
Free Thought Project
URL Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/70 ... wer-tripping-cop-walking-cane/
Published: Jan 28, 2015
Author: Matt Agorist
Post Date: 2015-01-29 05:25:34 by Deckard
Keywords: Badged Thugs, Elder Abuse, Power Trip
Views: 14529
Comments: 39
Seattle, WA — A 70-year-old retired Air Force veteran was abused and arrested for absolutely no reason at all. William Wingate, a man with no criminal record, was walking down the street, as he does every day, using a golf club, which he has re-purposed in to a cane. He’s been using this cane/golf club for 20 years. On July 9, 2014, however, his daily walk would cross paths with overzealous Seattle Police officer, Cynthia Whitlach. Completely out of the blue, at 1:00 in the afternoon, Whitlach pulls up to Wingate and demands he drop his cane. Wingate, obviously surprised and confused as to what was going on, tries to figure out exactly what it is Whitlach wants. “Drop the golf club!” screams the officer, seemingly jacked up on her authority. “What? this is my golf club,” says Wingate having absolutely no idea why Whitlach is demanding he drop it. “You just swung that golf club at me,” Whitlach yells. “No, I did not!” exclaims Wingate. “Right back there,” Whitlach says back. “It was on audio and video tape.” The fact that Wingate never swung the golf club at Whitlach and no video was ever produced showing this, did not stop this tyrant from kidnapping and caging this innocent man. The Stranger Reports: On the video, Officer Whitlach can be heard insisting that the recording would show Wingate swinging his golf club at her and hitting a stop sign with it. According to the SPD, there exists no video to back up this claim. (SPD did not make Whitlach available for comment.) “The allegation that he swung at the police car,” said city council member Bruce Harrell, who subsequently got involved in the case, “wasn’t corroborated by any other facts and was not caught on any video. What was caught on video was him minding his own business with the golf club at his side.” Eventually Whitlach tells Wingate that he’s going to be arrested and Wingate complied. Had he not complied, an innocent 70-year-old black man could have died in Capitol Hill that day. A few moments later, officer Chris Coles arrives, calls him “sir,” and he hands over the cane. The heart wrenching video continues as this poor man is loaded into the back of the paddy wagon. “The system failed this man. He never should have been stopped. Once he got to the precinct, reason should have prevailed,” said Washington State Rep, Dawn Mason. Wingate was subsequently booked into King County Jail on harassment and obstruction charges. He was held there over night. The video of this incident is saddening and deplorable. To watch an innocent man, minding his own business while out for a walk on a beautiful day, be deprived of his freedom by a cop on a power trip, is disheartening, to say the least. After backlash from the community and lawmakers, SPD Chief Carmen Best issued an apology to Wingate…… 8 months later. As for Whitlach, she still combs the streets looking for innocent old black men to abuse. She received not one day of suspension for depriving an innocent man of his rights, and only had to undergo counseling from her supervisor; a course of action that the “department believes to be an appropriate resolution.” Below is the Dashcam video from July 9, 2014. Officer Cynthia Whitlach’s interaction with Wingate begins at the 1:45 mark. But reason did not prevail.
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#38. To: Deckard, ALL (#0)
After backlash from the community and lawmakers, SPD Chief Carmen Best issued an apology to Wingate…… 8 months later. FWIW! By Mr. Militant Negro on January 28, 2015 • Officer Cynthia Whitlatch – Turd In Blue. Arrested Mr. William Wingate 70. Charge; Walking While Black With A Golf Club. Officer Cynthia Whitlatch – Turd in Blue Was This Racist Post Written by the Cop Who Arrested an Elderly Man for “Walking in Seattle While Black”? posted by ANSEL HERZ on WED, JAN 28, 2015 at 2:48 PM Today, after reading this story about Seattle police officer Cynthia Whitlatch’s interaction with an elderly black man—in which she yelled at him to drop his golf club, which he was using as a cane, and then arrested him—Seattle resident Brian Davis sent me a message. Davis is black, and says he had an exchange with Whitlatch last August that concerned him so much he filed a complaint with Seattle’s Office of Professional Accountability. In August, Ferguson, Missouri was in the midst of a series of explosive protests over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. I wrote about inflammatory Facebook posts from SPD officer Christopher Hall during that time right here. Davis, via e-mail, explained that he’s friendly with another Seattle police officer named Dorian Oreiro. He sent me the above and following screenshots, which show his reaction to a post he says is from Oreiro’s account, and his exchange in the comment section with someone posting under the name Cynthia Whitlatch. Facebook user Cynthia Whitlatch accuses Davis of being a “black racist” and writes, “If you believe that blacks are NOT accusing white America for their problems then you are missing the point of the riots in Ferguson and the chronic black racism that far exceeds any white racism in this country. I am tired of black peoples paranoia that white people are out to get them. I am tired of hearing a black racist tell me the only reason they are being contacted is because they are black solely because I am NOT black.” Davis calls this Cynthia Whitlatch’s “Ferguson screed.” “I’d never heard of her [Whitlatch] until I read her response to me on Facebook,” Davis told me in an e-mail message. “When she started talking about Public Records requests, I put two and two together and guessed she was an Officer, as well… I went to her Facebook page and there were other clues but it was a Google search that confirmed my suspicions that she was SPD.” The screenshots from his phone are all he has, he said, because after he filed a complaint with the OPA he was de-friended by Oriero. “I think what she wrote revealed a dangerous racial bias (especially coming from an Officer on a police force that is being monitored by the DOJ),” Davis explained. “And was problematic in almost too many ways to count… I just kept thinking she has already made up her mind about black people, especially black men, and carries that into every interaction she has with us.” He added: “She clearly didn’t know when she made the dig about gays suffering more prejudice than black men, that I am also gay myself. Never entered her mind that I could be both black and gay.” “I did file a complaint with OPA [Office of Professional Accountability] and was told that she had a talk with her Supervisor,” Davis added. “That’s it.” There was no OPA complaint filed regarding the incident on the street with Wingate last July, according to SPD. But the end result was the same: “Basically, she was talked to by her supervisor,” said SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb. Also, on what appears to be Whitlatch’s Facebook page, a user under the name Cynthia Whitlatch—who belongs to a group of what appear to be SPD members—”liked” an article from Guns.com about Arizona’s notorious Joe Arpaio purchasing AR-15 rifles for his sheriff’s department. The same user also shared a right-wing blog post titled, “The Trayvon Martin Picture the Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You To See” and added the caption, “He’s huge…” https://www.facebook.com/pages/Officer-Cynthia- Whitlatch-Turd-in-Blue/1444959005794102?fref=nf I’ve sent messages to Cynthia Whitlatch’s apparent Facebook page, the OPA, and to SPD asking whether this is, indeed, SPD Officer Cynthia Whitlatch. I’ve also asked for a copy of the complaint Davis filed with the OPA. A SPD spokesperson told me they are looking up the OPA complaint. https://mrmilitantnegro.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/screenshot- 4213.png?w=1062 Officer Cynthia Whitlatch – Turd in Blue: “Don’t worry citizens. I’ve been counseled by my supervisor and now will continue with the rewarding duty of teaching new officers.” •Cynthia Whitlatch is one of 123 Seattle police officers who sued to block the department’s new federally-mandated use of force policies. When Officer Chris Coles arrives on the scene, he approaches Wingate and addresses him as “sir,” and Wingate promptly hands over the golf club. Wingate has no criminal record. But the officers went on to handcuff him. Police walked him down the street to the East Precinct, where Sergeant Joe Lam approved of the decision to book Wingate into jail on harassment and obstruction charges. While still handcuffed, Wingate had difficulty stepping up and into the back of the paddywagon. On video, an officer can be seen sliding a stool toward the back of the vehicle, using his foot. Wingate spent the night in King County Jail. That moment from the video, when Wingate had trouble getting into the paddywagon on his own, said former Democratic Washington State representative Dawn Mason, “was awful. That one touched my soul.” She took an interest in the case after a neighbor told her what happened. “The man is 69 years old,” she said, speaking with me on Tuesday by phone.“Seventy years of beating the odds of never having been arrested—a black man. Served in the military for 20 years. Worked with the police, because you do that as a bus driver.” (Wingate turned 70 in September of last year.) “And here he is standing on the corner,” she continued. “He ends up handcuffed and put in a police wagon and put in jail overnight… The system failed this man. He never should have been stopped. Once he got to the precinct, reason should have prevailed.” But the system kept on churning. SNIP/
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe video of this incident is saddening and deplorable. To watch an innocent man, minding his own business while out for a walk on a beautiful day, be deprived of his freedom by a cop on a power trip, is disheartening, to say the least.
Replies to Comment # 38.
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