Earlier this week, a video spread across social
media showing Green Bay Police Officer Derek Wicklund beating a man
named Joshua Wenzel, 29, outside a bar. While the Green Bay Police
Department is investigating, Wicklund’s police union has come to
the officer’s defense and is demanding an answer to the
real issue: Why did Wenzel make Wicklund punch him in the
face repeatedly?
The video
captures Wenzel asking officers why they’re arresting another
bar patron. Wicklund pushes Wenzel, and Wenzel yells “Fuck you!” a
few times. Wicklund then charges at the man, grabs him by the
collar, and slams him onto the hood of a police cruiser. Instead of
ending the altercation then and there by handcuffing Wenzel,
Wicklund throws him to the asphalt and punches him in the face a
few times.
Besides the bloody nose, the officer gave Wenzel a ticket for
disorderly conduct and resisting arrest,
according to the Green Bay Press Gazzette.
“We haven’t had, per se, a formal complaint filed, but based on
the information we received we have decided to start our own
investigation,” Green Bay Police Department Capt. Bill Galvin
said. “We’re going to be looking at everything that took place
before, during, and after that incident.”
The Green Bay Professional Police Association doesn’t have time
to wait around for some investigation to decide who was right and
wrong. No sir, they knew who was to blame for this mess and they
set the record straight with a
press release on Wednesday.
First of all, the police union assures, this was a “justifiable,
legal, and lawful arrest.” No need for further explanation.
Second, the media is spreading “propaganda” against Wicklund by
showing the video. Shame on the media.
Third, the union doesn’t understand why people are being so
judgmental toward the cop caught on camera charitably feeding some
guy a couple knuckle sandwiches. Why don’t we focus on the selfish
bum hogging all those sandwiches?
Why isn’t anybody asking, “What did the man do to force Officer
Wicklund to use force?” “What law did the man break?” “What was his
demeanor?” “What was his condition?” “Did the man put himself in
this unfortunate situation, by refusing to follow simple
directions?” All of these questions, and many others, must be
answered BEFORE judgment is passed.
And finally, the cold, dead lens of a camera cannot understand
the raw emotion and tingling Spidey Senses of a cop:
Cameras do not capture what an officer was thinking at the
moment. Cameras do not capture what an officer’s perception of a
threat is at the moment. Cameras do not capture tactile feeling or
what officers were physically feeling at the time, such as human
aggression and tension.
Well, whatever tactile, phyiscal feelings the camera didn’t
catch, Wenzel’s face did.
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