Alabama officer kept job after proposal to murder black man and hide evidence

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/04/alabama-police-officer-murder-black-man-self-defense

A police officer in Alabama proposed murdering a black resident and creating bogus evidence to suggest the killing was in self-defence, the Guardian has learned.

Officer Troy Middlebrooks kept his job and continues to patrol Alexander City after authorities there paid the man $35,000 to avoid being publicly sued over the incident. Middlebrooks, a veteran of the US marines, said the man “needs a god damn bullet” and allegedly referred to him as “that ***”, after becoming frustrated that the man was not punished more harshly over a prior run-in.

The payment was made to the black resident, Vincent Bias, after a secret recording of Middlebrooks’s remarks was played to the city’s police chiefs and the mayor. Elected city councillors said they were not consulted. A copy of the recording was obtained by the Guardian.

“This town is ridiculous,” Bias, 49, said in an interview. “The police here feel they can do what they want, and often they do.” Alexander City police chief Willie Robinson defended Middlebrooks. “He was just talking. He didn’t really mean that,” he said in an interview.

Within months of the recording, Middlebrooks was the first officer to respond to a controversial fatal shooting by a colleague of an unarmed black man in the city. He was closely involved in handling the scene and gave a key account of what happened to state investigators. His fellow officer was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and both men continue to police the city of about 15,000 people about 55 miles north-east of Montgomery.

Middlebrooks, 33, made the threatening comments to Bias’s brother-in-law during a May 2013 encounter at his home, which Bias was visiting. Police came to the home after they discovered an unleashed dog.

A lawsuit from Bias that the city paid to settle before it reached court stated that while Bias remained inside the house and out of earshot, the officer remarked to Bias’s brother-in-law, who is white, that he was tired of “that ***” being released from jail.

Middlebrooks had arrested Bias on drug charges earlier in the year and Bias had been released on bail after paying a bond, according to Bias and his attorneys.

Middlebrooks expressed his frustration. “Something’s going on with that ###### lawyer he knows, and that ###### ... the judge or something,” he was recorded saying.

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Middlebrooks allegedly said “the police were going to pull [bias] aside on a routine traffic stop and [bias] would get killed”. According to the lawsuit, which has since been filed to court in a separate ongoing case against the city, this prompted the brother-in-law to retrieve a voice recorder that Bias had been carrying around with him in an attempt to monitor alleged harassment by police, and then return to the conversation with the officer.

On the recording, Middlebrooks is heard suggesting Bias had been behaving threateningly towards his relatives. The officer said if he were in the same position, he would “###### kill that #### with whatever I had in that ###### house”.

“And before the police got here, I’d ###### put marks all over my and make it look like he was trying to ###### kill me. I god damn guarantee you,” Middlebrooks said. “What would it look like? Self ###### defence. that piece of . I’m a lot different from a lot of these other folks. I’ll ###### tell you what’s on my ###### mind.”Advertisement

Middlebrooks also mocked the brother-in-law for allowing Bias to get the better of him. “That #### right there needs a god damn bullet,” he said. “And you ###### know exactly what I’m talking about. The way he ###### talks to you? Like you’re a ###### child? Like he’s your ... Are you his or something? He talks to you like that.”

[Jacque67 7,328]

A scene from a Coen brothers film?

[Operator 1,925]

Sounds like Mark Fuhrman.