System of Injustice in a Demockery: According to the NewsObserver Wake County Sheriff’s Deputy Cameron Broadwell pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges in the case of siccing a K-9 dog on an unarmed man last year. It was a rare conviction for an officer in the line of duty and it was weak considering the facts and evidence. The trial had already been underway and apparently the cop struck a deal before jurors heard all the evidence and had deliberated.

Broadwell will permanently surrender his law enforcement certification as part of his plea. Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway, who is also white, gave Broadwell a suspended 45-day jail sentence for his plea, placing him on unsupervised probation.

In April 2018, officers responded to a 911 call reporting a man standing in the middle of Raleigh Boulevard, possibly holding a gun. A state trooper and four Raleigh police officers found Kyron Hinton screaming and waving his arms near the intersection of Yonkers Road, holding a cell phone in one hand and his genitals in the other. They formed a circle around him and waited, one officer holding a Taser behind his back. [Here, we know a white journalist in his feelings is writing this article and is caught up in the presence of color/the phenomenon of “race.”. How could Kyron “possibly be holding a gun?” unless he had a 3rd arm? Remember racists imagine Blacks to be a different species! lol.]

Hinton initially was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting a public officer and assault on a law enforcement animal, but Wake prosecutors dismissed all charges against him.

According to police, they received a series of calls about a man walking down Raleigh Boulevard around 10 pm. When police responded to the area, they found Hinton.

First on the scene was the North Carolina Highway patrol, followed by Raleigh police. In a video shown to jurors last week things remained calm as officers talked to Hinton until Wake County Deputy Cameron Broadwell arrived on the scene with his police dog, Loki.

Hinton was peacefully standing there, talking with deputies when deputy Broadwell decided the time for talking was over. Without cause or provocation, Broadwell begins shouting at Hinton to get on the ground.

“Get on the ground now or you’re gonna get bit,” the deputy calls out. “Get on the ground or you’re gonna get bit. Get on the ground or you’re gonna get bit.”

Hinton appears confused and frightened and does not immediately get on the ground. At this point, Broadwell forces the dog to bite Hinton and as he goes down, Broadwell begins punching Hinton in the face.

“Get him, get him, get him!” Broadwell screams as more than a half dozen cops pile on top of this unarmed man.

The chaos and gore was so horrific that even one of the officers yelled, “Get that f—king dog out of here!”

Hinton, who was clearly distressed, can be heard saying “Yahweh help,” and “God is good.”

After nearly five minutes of dog biting and beating, the dust settled and police attempted to justify the pseudo lynching they just dished out.

“He wouldn’t get on the ground,” Broadwell said, claiming that he thought the situation was a 10-80, police code for a chase in progress. But there was no chase, and Hinton—although he may have been in a diminished mental state—was simply talking with police, who had him entirely surrounded.

“I sicced my dog on him while he was in the middle of the street,” the deputy tells another officer as he breathes heavily, catching his breath. “My dog bit him in the side. I’ve got to take pictures of the dog bite. I got to get my camera, man.”

During a portion of the video, Broadwell is heard saying, “I’m glad my radio broke, man. I punched him in the face while Loki was biting him.”

Another officer then says, “hey,” as if to warn him he was being recorded on body camera.

Broadwell then responds, “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. I gave him a chance to get down on the ground.”

For walking down the road, Hinton was severely beaten, mauled by a K9 and hospitalized for several days. He suffered 21 dog bites all over his body, a broken nose and a fractured eye socket.

Broadwell was charged with felony assault. Those assault charges were dropped in exchange for the deputy pleading guilty to willfully failing to discharge duty.

Troopers Tabithia L. Davis and Michael G. Blake were fired for their role in the beating and they have been charged with assault inflicting bodily injury and willfully failing to discharge duties. Their patrol sergeant, R.W. Goswick was also placed on administrative leave for his role in instructing the troopers to cover it up. The trooper was captured on video telling his officers to lie.

Dashcam video from the scene captures Goswick telling Davis, Blake, and another trooper Zachary C.Bumgardner to lie on their statements and report “no use of force on our part.”

Goswick would conclude—in spite of the horrific video showing otherwise and officers admitting to the abuse—that all the troopers did was “assist in holding the man down” and “that nobody threw any punches.”

“The actions of Mr. Broadwell on that evening were unnecessary, excessive and against the policies of his agency,” District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said. “Today marks a big day in this community. We appreciate the acceptance of responsibility.”

Hinton’s mother Vicki has said her son has long suffered from mental health trouble along with drug and alcohol problems. Still, she said, watching the video of her son getting bitten left her “heartbroken for America.” She fled the courtroom as it played Thursday.

Hinton died in February from causes unrelated to the dog assault, a day after receiving an $83,000 settlement from Wake County. Freeman said evidence in the case has been changed by Hinton’s death, making a felony conviction uncertain. The priority was making sure Broadwell no longer served in law enforcement.

“We count this as a victory,” said Diana Powell, executive director of the Raleigh community group Justice Served. “He will never be able to put a dog on another human being.” [spoken like an obedient citizen-slave. A costumed orderly commits an unprovoked series of felonies on a Black man and only loses his job?]

Freeman said she will urge Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker to adopt a no-bite policy for K-9 dogs, using them only to apprehend violent criminals. Baker said Monday that the policy is already under review.

On Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office announced that Broadwell had officially been terminated.

The case marked a rare prosecution of an on-duty law-enforcement officer, both in Raleigh and nationwide.

Freeman, who tried the case personally along with Assistant District Attorney Patrick Latour, could recall only one other recent example: Markeith Council, the Wake County detention officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2013 for fatally beating inmate Shon McLain.

Nationally, only 54 law-enforcement officers faced charges in fatal shootings between 2005 and 2015, out of thousands of such incidents, according to a 2015 Washington Post report.

Broadwell’s attorney Rick Gammon said the deputy had no prior excessive-force complaints. But he had a choice between protecting his family and risking a felony conviction. He criticized the deputy’s prosecution, saying he was motivated only by protecting the public.

“My advice to any and all law enforcement officers is they need to get another line of work,” Gammon said. “This is just the beginning.”

The deputy choked up as he admitted his guilt, his voice breaking as he spoke to the judge.

“He has been punished, your honor,” said Broadwell’s attorney, Joe Zeszotarski. “He has given up his career. It was what he always wanted to be. It was what he always wanted to do.”