- Video footage exhibits Kentucky police provides throwing slushies at pedestrians.
- The movies had been obtained by the Louisville Courier Journal below Kentucky’s open data regulation.
- The officers had been a part of an elite drug and gun unit in Louisville.
Video footage obtained by the Louisville Courier Journal exhibits Kentucky cops throwing slushies at pedestrians.
The two officers, Curtis Flynn, 40, and Bryan Wilson, 36, filmed themselves in 2018 and 2019 as they patrolled the streets in an unmarked police automotive and carried out the assaults.
They shared the movies, which had been obtained by the Courier Journal below Kentucky’s open data regulation, with colleagues in group messages and by displaying them the movies throughout breaks, the Courier Journal reported.
“That’s really bad. And it’s such a petty way, that it makes it almost worse, because it does reflect horrible contempt for the community,” Peter Moskos, a former police officer who’s now a professor on the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, stated, per the report.
Both officers pleaded responsible to civil rights violations.
In October 2022, Flynn and Wilson had been sentenced to a few months and 30 months in jail respectively, the Courier Journal reported.
The report says that no less than 5 different officers within the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) who had been conscious of Flynn and Wilson’s actions had stored their jobs.
Flynn and Wilson had been a part of an elite squad that was tasked with stopping drug and gun crime in Louisville.
But their unit had developed a fame for brutality and abusing authority, the Courier Journal reported.
“The reputation was they were getting a lot of guns off the street. They were making a lot of arrests,” LMPD Deputy Chief Steve Healey stated, per the report.
“You didn’t really hear about all of the other stuff until you would see the news reports come out, you would see the complaints come out,” he added.
In March, the Department of Justice launched a report on civil rights violations by the LMPD.
It discovered that the power engaged “in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law,” together with utilizing “excessive force,” discriminating in opposition to Black folks whereas finishing up its duties, and “unlawfully” arresting folks.
“The findings are deeply troubling and sobering, and they compromise LMPD’s ability to serve and protect the people of Louisville,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta stated in a press launch. “We are committed to working with Louisville on a path forward to constitutional policing and stronger police-community trust.”