“If I had not been profitable in lowering the crime price, we all know what individuals would’ve mentioned,” Ms. Demings mentioned just lately thro
“If I had not been profitable in lowering the crime price, we all know what individuals would’ve mentioned,” Ms. Demings mentioned just lately throughout a tv look. “‘First girl chief, oh my God, she will’t deal with that job.’”
However her tenure additionally was marked by repeated allegations of police brutality.
The primary main case to return throughout her desk in 2007 concerned an officer who pushed a girl down the steps at a membership the place he labored as a safety guard. The officer claimed the girl spit on him and drunkenly fell. Prosecutors charged her with felony battery on a police officer, and she or he misplaced her job. (They later dropped the fees, however she didn’t get her job again, her lawyer mentioned.)
In a uncommon occasion of imposing self-discipline on an officer, investigators concluded his model was not correct and eliminated two of his trip days. However Ms. Demings returned one of many trip days, citing a technical mistake within the course of.
Maybe essentially the most scrutinized case she confronted occurred in 2010, when Officer Travis LaMont, then 26, encountered 84-year-old Daniel Daley arguing with a tow-truck driver exterior of a bar.
Mr. Daley urged Mr. LaMont to assist, and he later acknowledged tapping the officer’s arm a number of occasions. The officer informed him to cease, and when he didn’t, he carried out what is called a “dynamic takedown,” leaning into Mr. Daley together with his hip and throwing him to the bottom.
Mr. Daley landed on his head and broke his neck.
Ms. Demings defended Mr. LaMont, saying, “The officer carried out the approach inside division tips,” though she mentioned she would assessment the rules.
That call set off a protest exterior Police Headquarters; one demonstrator held an indication with a photograph of the veteran sporting a neck brace. “Risk neutralized,” it mentioned, in line with The Sentinel.