By Steve Pomper
The so-called riot police are misunderstood by so many in so many ways, in function, limitations, deployment, etc. First, the way the media often report on the “riot police” can make people get the sense it’s a specialty unit like SWAT, the bike patrol, or the traffic unit. It’s not. When departments have to deploy the “riot police,” that means fewer officers to patrol your neighborhoods.
When you’re late for work and disrespecting the speed limit or flipping off a stop sign, that officer filling your rearview mirror with pretty red and blue lights is a riot cop. The officers sitting next to you in a coffee shop are riot cops. Even detectives are often assigned to riot duties.
Also, it’s not like riots are necessarily planned events for police. Although, today, there are certain groups whom everyone expects to riot. For these situations, authorities can pre-deploy “riot police.” However, during my career, I saw riots develop spontaneously, resulting from honest misunderstandings or from manufactured hostility during a common police incident.
In Pennsylvania, the legal definition of a riot is:
A person is guilty of riot, a felony of the third degree, if
he participates with two or more others in a course of
disorderly conduct:
(1)
with intent to commit or facilitate the commission
of a felony or misdemeanor;
(2)
with intent to prevent or coerce official action….
Yes, ZZ Top could create a riot without any help from their roadies.
This brings me to the charges brought against 54-year-old Philadelphia Police Department Inspector Joseph Bologna Jr. In the PPD’s ranking system, Staff Inspector is sixth in an 11-rank chain-of-command structure that stretches from police officer to police commissioner. Aside from having a significant rank, Insp. Bologna has the apparent respect of the department’s rank and file. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, when Insp. Bologna arrived at court, some 100 rank-and-file police union member cops gathered at the union HQ to show support for the inspector.
After responding to a riot situation, Insp. Bologna was charged with aggravated assault for striking a rioter with his collapsible baton or ASP. In the video, as Insp. Bologna was attempting to make an arrest with other officers, Evan Gorski can be seen grabbing at Insp. Bologna’s arms (a felony), interfering with Insp. Bologna’s arrest (another felony).
The cop-hating, Soros-funded DA Larry Krasner claims Insp. Bologna struck Gorski in the head, causing a gash that Soros’ office said needed 10 staples to close. The police union says a close review of the video reveals the baton struck Gorski on his shoulder, not the head. I slowed the video down the best I could, and it appears the baton makes contact across the back of Gorski’s shoulders. There is further validation in a video on Twitter, posted by an obvious police critic who described the riot as “peaceful.”
The Tweet included a 20-second “slow-motion” video of the incident. Interestingly, the video stops just before the baton contacts Gorski. If the strike clearly hit Gorski in the head, that would have been included in the video, right? Also, the video shows Gorski had disarmed Insp. Bologna, snatching his baton and then tossing it away toward other rioters.
Riots create increased dangers for officers because cops have limited use-of-force options. If an officer is walking a foot beat and a person attacks an officer with a baseball bat, other club, or Molotov Cocktail, the officer may use lethal force. During a riot situation, that bat, club, or hand-thrown bomb remains just as lethal, but an officer cannot use lethal force. The situation is so dynamic, in most situations, it would be too easy to shoot an innocent bystander or another officer.
So, officers must take on the extra risk of using less-than-lethal alternatives such as batons to address the violence. Remember, these are rioters actively engaged in preventing the police from conducting their lawful duties. Just because cop critics say, and media report police started or exacerbated the violence doesn’t make it true. That’s simply what cop-haters do—every time.
One of Bologna’s attorneys, Fortunato Perri Jr. said, “Gorski also testified, and ‘admitted under oath’ that he had ‘intervened’ when police were attempting to make an arrest.” Cop critics may not like the techniques Insp. Bologna used, but that needs to be taken up with training. However, these days, for social justice warrior DA’s like Krasner, it’s all about demonizing police and sanctifying rioters. And there’s no use-of-force that “looks good” to the public. How many cop-assaulting rioters will Krasner prosecute? Sorry, on the floor, laughing.
If you consider the evidence reported, you’ll find Insp. Bologna did not hit Gorski in the head. Gorski admitted in court he was interfering with Insp. Bologna’s making an arrest, during riot conditions. With Gorski admitting culpability in a crime, isn’t he the one who should have been charged and be on trial?
The problem is one that keeps rearing its ugly head in Philly. According to the Inquirer, not one deterred by facts, DA Larry “Krasner’s office maintains that Bologna hit Gorski in the head.” Is it too much to ask for a photo of the injury or a medical report? Since they weren’t reported, don’t we have to assume they don’t exist? Krasner would have shown them if he had them, right.
After all, “Municipal Court Judge Henry Lewandowski III ruled that the District Attorney’s Office had not presented enough evidence to establish that Bologna’s use of his baton against Evan Gorski — captured on video — amounted to a crime.”
John McNesby, president of the Philly police union, FOP Lodge 5, said, “Cops have been getting dirt kicked in their face for the last eight months for doing their job. This is just one step in vindicating not only Joe, but the entire police department.”
DA Krasner can refile Insp. Bologna’s charges, which, no surprise, “his office plans to do ‘very soon.’” Krasner is the quintessential Soros acolyte, and the damage he has done to Philadelphia is disgraceful. He will never give up his tyranny against law and order and law enforcers. And, with Biden now at the federal helm, how long before the DOJ is on its way back to Philly to reinvigorate the 2011 consent decree, when he and his boss, President Obama, ran the DOJ?