City leader calls out, ‘you’re a bad police officer,’ during deputy’s award ceremony

[bnew]

City Commissioner derides BSO deputy during public meeting
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By C. Isaiah Smalls II and

Charles Rabin

September 27, 2019 04:54 PM, Updated September 27, 2019 07:39 PM


City Commissioner derides BSO deputy during public meeting
A ceremony honoring BSO deputies had just ended when Tamarac City Commissioner Mike Gelin decided to air out some previous grievances. Gelin proceeds to call out Deputy Joshua Gallardo for, in his words, "falsely arresting" him four years ago. By City of Tamarac | Pierre Taylor


A ceremony honoring BSO deputies had just ended when Tamarac City Commissioner Mike Gelin decided to air out some previous grievances. Gelin proceeds to call out Deputy Joshua Gallardo for, in his words, "falsely arresting" him four years ago. By City of Tamarac | Pierre Taylor
It was supposed to be a glorious moment for Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Gallardo. Standing in the chamber before the Tamarac City Commission, he was about to be praised for his work in the arrest of a gang member wanted for murder.

But one commissioner had an old beef with Gallardo. Things got ugly fast.

“You probably don’t remember me but you’re the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago,” Commissioner Mike Gelin told Gallardo. “You lied on a police report. I believe you’re a rogue police officer, you’re a bad police officer and you don’t deserve to be here.”

It was, in a small-town way, a move reminiscent of Kanye West upstaging Taylor Swift at the 2009 Video Music Awards, with Gelin hijacking a celebration to air personal grievances. The announcement during the Wednesday meeting stunned many in the chamber and has ignited the law enforcement community.

As Gelin spoke, Gallardo stood only a few feet away, looking directly at the commissioner. The deputy didn’t say a word, responded with a thumbs-up gesture and walked away.

Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomez then grabbed the microphone and tried to make amends. “We appreciate as a whole BSO and everything you do for us,” she said.

Her effort didn’t quell the backlash from the Sheriff’s Office, which patrols the Northwest Broward city of 60,000-plus. That same day, Sheriff Gregory Tony met with the commissioner and deemed his actions “unacceptable,” according to Miami Herald news partner CBS 4.

By Friday morning, a chorus of law enforcement officers were condemning Gelin. The online publication Law Enforcement Today ran a story with the headline: “Criminal city commissioner attacks arresting officer during awards ceremony — ‘You are a bad cop.’”

Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Association President Jeff Bell also issued a blistering statement, saying Gelin’s stance violated the city’s ethics rules and has borrowed a page from the “left wing Democratic Congressional playbook.”

In a press release, Bell called for operations that employ Gelin’s services as a lobbyist to reconsider.

Reached Friday, the union president said if Gelin had an issue with Gallardo, he should have taken him aside and discussed it with him, instead of berating him in front of the entire city.

“It’s like an anchor doing the evening news tonight and talking badly about his neighbor,” said Bell.

Gelin’s anger at Gallardo stemmed from the commissioner’s arrest back in 2015. Broward County court documents show that Gallardo arrested Gelin, who was not yet a commissioner, as he used his cellphone video to record police actions as they responded to a battery incident.

According to his arrest report, Gelin “failed to comply with [the deputy’s] commands to move from the area.” Though the case was later dropped, Gelin remains perturbed about the incident four years later.

On Friday, Tamarac Mayor Gomez said she was “astonished” by Gelin’s comments. Though on a video of the meeting someone can be heard egging Gelin on, the mayor said she had no clue the commissioner planned to berate the deputy prior to the meeting. She said the city attorney would review Gelin’s actions.

“This is not how we treat employees or people,” Gomez said.

Gelin had not responded to an interview request with the Miami Herald by Friday afternoon. He texted CBS 4, saying he’s ready to move on.

“I had a productive meeting with Sheriff Tony yesterday afternoon and we will move forward in a positive and constructive manner,” Gelin said.

 

[bnew]

he a real one for calling him out.

 

[KENNY DA COOKER]

Already been posted bro

 

[Lord Beasley]

Polite way of callin him a fukkboy

good on him, p*ssy ass nicca

 

[Silver Surfer]

This was already posted

 

[Lord Beasley]

IF IT ALREADY GOT POSTED, LINK THE THREAD

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

I cant find the longer thread, so Ill update here:
Sun Sentinel - We are currently unavailable in your region

A Tamarac commissioner who ambushed a deputy during an awards ceremony, calling him a liar and a rogue police officer, escaped being censured by the city Monday for his controversial remarks — but not criticism.

“There is no motion for censure, and we thank you very much for this conversation," Mayor Michelle Gomez announced after a nearly three-hour discussion about Commissioner Mike Gelin’s conduct, in addition to talking about police misconduct, accountability and timing.

Commissioner Gelin turned a Sept. 25 Deputy of the Month ceremony on its head when he called a deputy, who had just been celebrated for detaining an Interpol murder suspect, back to the front of the room.

Gelin accused Deputy Joshua Gallardo of falsely arresting him four years ago. Many looked on in discomfort, others clearly in dismay, when Gelin launched into his public shaming of the deputy.

Tamara City Commissioner Elberg "Mike" Gelin (Sun Sentinel)
“You lied on the police report,” Gelin said into the microphone he held. “I believe you’re a rogue police officer."

He went further.

”You’re a bad police officer," he said. "And you don’t deserve to be here.”

Clearly taken by surprise, Gallardo nodded, smiled and flashed a thumbs-up.

Some say Gelin crossed the line. A discussion of whether he violated the city’s civility code was taken up at Monday’s commission meeting at Tamarac City Hall.

RELATED: Elected official berates cop during ceremony meant to congratulate him »
Gomez, who brought the issue to the agenda, stood firm with law enforcement and her “wrong place, wrong time” perspective.

“Our police deserve much better,” she said.

Further, she lamented the wave of negative national publicity that had descended on the city since Gelin’s words and actions went viral.

Speaking before all others, Gelin doubled down Monday night, saying he felt violated by the criminal justice system, traumatized by his arrest and would forever have to explain a mug shot.

“I am not alone,” he said. “Police misconduct affects our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and our family.”

He called for a community coalition to further the discussion, seek solutions and exemplify “how to get it right.”

Many from the public on Monday took their three-minute turn at the podium to berate Gelin and criticize his use of a political platform to further what they deemed a personal agenda. His actions and remarks were inappropriate, shameful, humiliating to the deputy and put the city in a bad light, they said.

Gelin’s issue was his arrest four years ago when he video recorded — at close-up range — the arrest of an aggressive man who was bleeding after a fight in the Salvation Army parking lot in Tamarac.

In a video released from the old case, Gallardo is seen telling onlookers to get back, but Gelin stayed put. Gallardo again told onlookers to stay back, but Gelin was defiant. The two argued, Gelin said he didn’t have to legally move, and he was arrested on the charge of resisting arrest/obstruction without violence. Prosecutors declined to pursue the charge.

Gelin told the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Editorial Board that he has “no regrets” about calling out Gallardo as a “rogue officer."

“The way I look at it, I know someone who falsely arrested me and mistreated me and I only wonder how many other people he has done this to,” he said Thursday.

Several black men spoke from that perspective on Monday, young and old, pastors and ex-convicts. They thanked Gelin for standing up and representing their voices.

“This is a matter of public safety,” said Marsha Ellison, who heads the Broward NAACP.

“It would appear there is no right time to call out police misconduct,” she said in stating solidarity with Gelin. “We are not anti-police. We are anti-police misconduct, we are anti-bad police who don’t do the right thing.”