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Former Police Sgt. Michael A. Wood Jr. recently took to Twitter to reveal the numerous abuses and injustices that he witnessed during his 11 years with the Baltimore Police Department.
“So here we go,” tweeted Wood June 24. “I'm going to start Tweeting the things I've seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not.”
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So here we go. I'm going to start Tweeting the things I've seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 24, 2015
The former sergeant then opens a Pandora's box of confessions:
“A detective slapping a completely innocent female in the face for bumping into him, coming out of a corner chicken store;” “Pissing and shitting inside suspects homes during raids, on their beds and clothes;” “Punting a handcuffed, face down, suspect in the face, after a foot chase;” “A detective staging a hit & run to cover up crashing a departmental vehicle.”
Pissing and shitting inside suspects homes during raids, on their beds and clothes.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 24, 2015
A detective staging a hit & run to cover up crashing a departmental vehicle.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 25, 2015
Aside from the sheer brutality of some of these actions, Wood noted other cases of sheer corruption and twisting the law to suit the needs of local police.
“Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification;” “Summonsing officers who weren't there so they could collect the overtime;” “Having other people write PC statements, who were never there because they could twist it into legality,” he tweeted – with PC referring to 'probable cause documents,' the papers that police file to obtain a warrant from a judge.
Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 24, 2015
In an interview with the Washington Post, Woods said these actions can be explained by the “us vs them” mentality that is ingrained in police officers during their time of training and “inundated” in the policing culture.
“It’s ingrained in you that this is a war, and if someone isn’t wearing a uniform, they’re the enemy,” said Wood.
The former sergeant admitted that he also fell into that culture, which is why he did not initially come forward to report the incidents. It was not until 2011 when he was put on a special drug task force and left to monitor certain neighborhoods for hours on end that he realized that the people he was watching were not the enemy.
“But sitting in the van and watching people just living their lives, I started to see that these were just people,” he told the Post. “They weren’t that different from me. They had to pay rent. See their kids off to school.”
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Though the media only caught on to Woods' revelations this week, the former sergeant says he has been tweeting about police injustices for a while. In his interview with the Post, Woods said it was the national discussion that evolved after Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson that pushed him to get more involved.
4 interviews, none for money, it's about fixing policing, not me. Ignore me, just discuss.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 25, 2015
After protesters in Ferguson forced Brown's killing to become a high profile case, dozens of other cases of police overuse of force against African Americans have surfaced.
Earlier this month, Woods tweeted, “We target 16-24yo b/m (black males) because they are arrested more, but they are arrested more because we fucking arrest them more, C the circle?”
We target 16-24yo b/m because they are arrested more, but they are arrested more because we fucking arrest them more, C the circle?
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 17, 2015
Among other high-profile cases of police killings is the recent death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, who died as a result of a “high energy injury” while in police custody. Gray was arrested in the Western District of the city, which was Woods' first beat in 2003.
According to Woods, the solution to the problem is teaching empathy among police officers.
“The important thing is to change the mindset, to foster a sense of empathy, so police officers see themselves as the protectors of these communities, not as an occupying force that’s at war with them,” he told the Washington Post.
In one of his last Tweets Thursday, Woods told his over 10,000 followers to stay tuned, “Tomorrow I'm switching to internal corruption and showing some of the deplorable ways in which police are treated by command & city.”
Tomorrow I'm switching to internal corruption and showing some of the deplorable ways in which police are treated by command & city.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr)
June 25, 2015
