The sad thing is that I know Jim on a first name personal basis and I always liked him and he did a really great job on the force. I saw him and spoke with him briefly a week before this happened in passing.
Sure, I knew he always seemed kinda grumpy all the time and yeah, you could see how he could get angry easily, but never violent, and yeah, he was a bit of a tough guy.
For all intents and proposes he is a good cop, I definitely know this. Was he a perfect cop, no, and I'm not sure there is one.
Just goes to show that anger can sometimes make you do things and say things that are against departmental standards, as the Chief who let him go said. I've heard the new Chief is a good man, but I have not met him yet.
He knows the Constitution and he knew that it was illegal for him to search the whole vehicle, even though most bad cops would have done exactly that. He didn't know that free speech was not a good enough reason to pull the vehicle over.
If you look at the dashcam, as stated by the Chief, the officer left a stop he was already on, ignored the pulled over person, and only once he got up behind them, did they touch the white line to the right side road. He had in his mind to already pull them over due to what was said out of the window. He did not have good cause for the stop.
As far as him threatening to fight him and all the other BS he said, it was exactly that, BS, and he was acting the tough guy to try to bully and show that little kid what a punk he was for saying that. It worked.
Also, other bad things, he didn't let dispatch know he was on this new stop, so if the kid had decided to fight him, and Sanders had to pull his weapon in self-defense, it would have looked very bad, and would have placed the whole stop and everything in question. He also didn't put down a reason for the stop in his backup. He wanted that stop to remain completely off the books. Probably another departmental no-no.
Probably a good idea with letting him, as you can take other threats he made while on duty as well, they were in his file, but gosh, you do hate to see a guy you liked go like this, but I think it was probably the smart move.
I don't think Jim is dangerous or violent, even that bad, but yeah, he'll tell you he's a bit of a *******, and I do believe he is angered easily and may kind of have the bully with a badge mentality a little bit, but nothing too crazy or excessive. He seemed to always stay fairly grounded even when angry.
I don't care what anyone says, I like him, but yeah, it was probably a good idea letting him go after this, and other things that were on his file, such as threats to high school staff he made while he was on duty. I'm sure they were in jest, though, because yeah, he is kinda doggone funny.
opcorn:
