A former Baltimore detective has started tweeting daily examples of police brutality, false arrests, and lying in court, which he said he witnessed over the course of 11 years serving in the Baltimore Police Department (BPD)
Michael A. Wood, Jr. used nine tweets on Wednesday to blow the whistle about things he had “seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not.”
Wood wrote that he will tweet some examples each day “so that we have time for ?s, reflections, and improvement in between.”
His first batch of tweets makes for harrowing reading about allegedly routine behavior at the BPD. Six of the department’s police officers are already in caught in legal crosshairs after being accused of being responsible for the death of African-American man Freddie Gray, who suffered a serious injury while in their custody.
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
A detective slapping a completely innocent female in the face for bumping into him, coming out of a corner chicken store.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Targeting 16-24 year old black males essentially because we arrest them more, perpetrating the circle of arresting them more.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Having other people write PC statements, who were never there because they could twist it into legality.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Summonsing officers who weren't there so they could collect the overtime.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
This is not the first time Wood has broken the ‘blue wall of silence,’ the term used to describe the unwritten rule that exists among police officers about not reporting on a colleague’s errors, misconduct, or crimes. In a three-hour-long candid radio interview on Dogma Debate with David Smiley, back in May, Wood talked about racism in the police department, where a culture exists to get the arrest even if it means breaking the law. He also discussed what was wrong and illegal about the arrest of Freddie Gray.
Swearing in court and PC docs that suspect dropped CDS during unbroken visual pursuit when neither was true.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Pissing and shitting inside suspects homes during raids, on their beds and clothes.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Wood said he changed his views about policing when doing patrol in the drug-filed neighborhoods of Baltimore, in what he refers to as “the failed drug war,” where he witnessed how the system traps people into a cycle of involvement within the criminal justice system.
“It’s not just police who are participating in the culture,” Wood told the Secular News Network. He believes “the culture of the nation must change.”
Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
CCTV cameras turning as soon as a suspect is close to caught.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Punting a handcuffed, face down, suspect in the face, after a foot chase. My handcuffs, not my boot or suspect
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Wood’s words were retweeted and favorited several hundred times, and people have begun responding.
Yup. The @BaltimorePolice are even worse than you could dream. Ex-cop @MichaelAWoodJr pulls the curtain back - http://t.co/o6nHHTElWD@Salon
— John M (@TheFreedomSuite) June 24, 2015
@MichaelAWoodJr thank you for your honesty... more need to be honest and even better stop treating innocent people badly...
— dreamwithfaith™ (@dreamwithfaith) June 24, 2015
whatever your motives are, i appreciate you @MichaelAWoodJr.
— brook (@bkconazole) June 24, 2015
Wood was a special operations sergeant in the Marine Corps before joining the BPD.