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Sometimes, when I hear about the wayward, racist police officers who beat, shoot and kill often innocent, often unarmed Black men and women, I fantasize about what I would say to these people if I ever had the chance to meet them.

The likelihood of that happening is highly unlikely, I know; but now, thanks to the Honorable Judge Vonda Evans, I don’t have to.

Judge Evans presided over the case of William Melendez, a former officer in Inkster, Michigan, who brutally beat 58-year-old Floyd Dent after stopping him for a minor traffic offense. Dent pulled over, stopped and held his hands out of the car.

On January 28, 2015, instead of giving Dent a ticket for driving with a suspended license, a dashboard camera showed Melendez and his partner John Zieleniewski dragging Dent from his Cadillac before throwing him on the ground. They wrapped his arm around his neck, kicked and beat him, punching him the head 16 times and tazing him. Then more Inkster police officers arrived on the scene to watch without intervening to stop the heinous and unnecessary violence.

So caught up in a frenzy over their actions, Melendez and his partner continued beating Dent on the hood of their police car, directly in front of the dashboard camera, as blood ran down his forehead. Once he was arrested, the officers celebrated their actions by fist-bumping. After all of that, Dent was arrested for resisting arrest and possession of cocaine, which he alleged the police planted on him.

Dent was put in a cell where he heard police officers joke about his injuries as they washed his blood off of their uniforms with disinfectant.

Eventually, all the charges against Dent were dropped. He sued the city of Inkster and was awarded $1.4 million. One of the most damning moments of Melendez’s trial came when text messages between Melendez and Zieleniewski, after the Dent incident, were read aloud in court.

Melendez wrote: “At least give me the satisfaction of knowing you’re out there beating up niggers right now.” 

Zieleniewski responded: “Lol, just got done with one.”

In announcing her ruling in Melendez’s case, Judge Evans took a full half hour to speak.

Here are some of the highlights.

“But the one image that struck out to the court was looking at Mr. Dent in his cell, shaking his head, in disbelief of what had occurred to him. If his conduct was indicative of what he was thinking, I would have thought this, ‘What crime did I commit, being a Black man in a Cadillac, stopped for a minor, traffic offense by a group of racist police officers looking to do a n*gger.'”

Judge Evans then went on to talk about the culture and codes of conduct for police officers.

“They come in three forms. 

1. The Blue Wall of Silence: Protecting police officers at all costs because supervisors and citizens are distressful, evil and untrustworthy. 

2. Us vs. Them: The good police vs the others. Citizens and offenders, they’re all grouped together, they’re one in the same. 

3. Cover Up Mentality: Discourages officers from trusting supervisors and citizens because police officers believe that the public doesn’t understand them. They don’t understand true police work…

These pressures and expectations force officers who have a pure desire to purely serve the community, as an occupation, to conform to this group mentally or face being ostracized or labeled as an outcast among that group. These methods of indoctrination are passed along to new police recruits in the academy by stressing the importance of obedience to authority, through a structure of shame and honor. It teaches them to perform and obey of the prevailing police culture.”

She also talked about a study published in Law Enforcement Today which found that police officers have the highest rate of alcoholism, divorce, drug abuse, and suicide. Their life expectancy is ten years less than the average American.

“Their job is made worse because they see, on a daily basis, more than any other occupation, the worse behavior that people can inflict on one another. They go to work everyday with the knowledge that some of the people they are sworn to protect want to kill them.” 

Before addressing Mr. Melendez specifically, she directed her comments toward government officials and politicians alike, saying that if we don’t start investing in the training of our police officers and improving their salaries, we were going to see more incidences like the one she was presiding over today.

“Mr. Melendez the purpose of this long and protracted sentencing is to offer you the one thing that this court believes you didn’t give to Mr. Dent, justice and due practice… On January 28 2015, you did not fulfill your job. You performed Just Us, a game that began with a police stop. The purpose of it was, to harass and degrade a motorist in Inkster. The man chosen for your game was Floyd Dent, a Black man…The dash cam (which Judge Evans refers to as “the eye of justice”) that was designed to protect you, ended up being what convicted you. Fist busting after taking him down as a sign of bravery was just another cowardly act caught by the eye of justice. You knew better! You were better trained than any of those officers out there. You were more experienced.”

Evans said it took her several days to read the letters people had sent on Melendez’s behalf, three of the letters Evans believed were from African Americans.

She said, about the letters, “One or two things, either they’re all racist or there’s something redeeming about you that somehow, in some way, you forgot that night. The way you denigrated that man was awful. Who would know and who would care about a lone, Black man being assaulted by upstanding police officers? Boy, were you wrong… You led your fellow officers down a path of cowardly behavior. But today you will pay for it. You will pay for two things, not being an example of greatness, which I know that you are from all the letters of support, awards and commendation that you have shared with this court and resorting to cowardly acts of barbaric behavior that lead you to be convicted of these crimes…You betrayed your city, you caused your lovely wife heartache and you caused Mr. Dent severe anguish…Today I can only punish your conduct but only you and God can change your character.” 

You can listen to Judge Evans’ speech around the 25 minute mark. It’s certainly worth a listen.

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