Joe Jones Manifesto: Black Ex-LAPD Cop Says Of Dorner, 'I Understand'
Ted Soqui for LA Weekly LAPD Chief Charlie Beck talks about Dorner.
I couldn't sleep last night. Woke me up out of my sleep and I had to express what was on my chest and what was in my heart.I'm not trying to be a cop-basher. There are definitely good police officers out there. This is about the reality that someone is killing innocent people. He's a person who doesn't realize there are people who have gone through similar if not worse circumstances. Taking innocent lives is not the answer to it.
The LAPD needs to fulfill their obligation to stop these types of things from happening. If a person has a complaint and they told the truth it needs to be adjudicated fairly.
Jones posted his thoughts on his Facebook page this morning.
Asked if he experienced racism on-the-job, Jones almost laughed. Asked if he was surprised to see the African American community in L.A. respond so differently to Dorner than the rest of town, he said, "Of course they're going to see it different:"
They've been victims of these same things. The average caucasian person hasn't been privy to being harassed, stopped and talked down to, treated bad by officers. They haven't experienced that. They feel only criminals get treated disrespectfully. But the reality is that police are human and some come there with certain issues.
Jones said his worst experience at the department came in the early 1990s when he was off-duty and headed to his car in West Hollywood. It was parked close to a red curb, and a sheriff's deputy had a problem with it. He pulled out his LAPD ID to indicate, he said, "I'm not an issue for you," but in response he says the deputy "proned me out" at gunpoint.
Jones complained, and nearby LAPD officers responded. He says those cops backed his side of the story in a department internal investigation but then changed their stories when he sued the L.A. Sheriff's Department for what he says was a case of him being "illegally detained and handcuffed at gunpoint."
He lost his case.
"I definitely know what it's like to go through having your name slandered after having done the right thing," Jones told us. "It's a terrible feeling."
See also: Wayne K. Guillary, LAPD Sgt., Appeals To Dorner, Says Cop Racism Remains
[Added at 12:35]: We talked to Jones today. He was upset and argued that this piece creates the perception that he supports Dorner.
He was adamant that he does not: "I'm not siding with him."
He wants readers to know that his greatest sympathy for the victims of the suspect in this case.
"No," he said, "I don't understand him killing people. I don't understand a police officer that's dead."
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