Officer Vincent E. Cosom Jr., a seven year "veteran" of the Baltimore Police Department, has finally been suspended. Back on
June 15 of this year, Kollin Truss and his girlfriend were in a liquor store. Officer Cosom says he asked Truss to leave the store and stop loitering. Truss was clearly intoxicated and possibly belligerent. Once outside, with no fewer than 2 other cops on the scene at this point,
Officer Cosom assualts Kollin Truss. The kinda-good news first:
A Baltimore police officer who was caught on video beating a suspect — but remained on the job for three months until the video was publicly revealed — was criminally charged with assault and perjury, city prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Yeah, well, they have to do an investigation and sure, the investigation should probably move faster than 3 months, but maybe they just found this security footage.
A surveillance camera operator flagged the footage on the night in June that it occurred, and prosecutors and internal affairs detectives were aware of it, but Cosom was not suspended until Truss' attorneys made the video public last month. Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said he had not been aware of the incident until then, and suspended Cosom on Sept. 16.
In addition to second-degree assault, Cosom was charged with perjury after writing in a statement of probable cause that Truss had assaulted him. All charges against Truss were dropped after prosecutors saw the video evidence.
Oh. So they knew that Truss had been assaulted and they were trying to slowly sweep this under the rug. It is reminiscent of the recent
NFL handling of Ray Rice's elevator assault. This has become the crux of many of these police misconduct investigations. The city conducting the investigation only
begins to make the correct evaluation and apply the laws of the land, once the public is made aware of how terrible a job they are doing.
While things look like they are moving in the right direction now, there are gaping holes in how things are being handled.
On Wednesday, Bates said he was concerned that two other officers, who he contends failed to intervene, were not charged. Those officers have not been identified by the Police Department.
"For the state not to charge the other two officers really allows Kollin Truss to be victimized again," Bates said. "The state has to give a message to police that if there's one bad apple in the group and the group goes along with it, everybody in the group should be held responsible."
It is unlikely that anyone besides Vincent Cosom will be punished.
Below the fold you can watch the entire interaction, from the front of the liquor store all the way to the bus stop, where Truss is assaulted. Note the other police officers, note the only person trying to de-escalate the situation is the girlfriend. Note that no matter what Truss may or may not have said, there is no single justification for Cosom's actions.