(Newswire.net — January 18, 2015) — Baltimore – According to Detective Joseph Crystal of the Baltimore Police Department, most of the police officers are correct and they do ‘protect and serve.’ In his case, however, being honest and having personal integrity put him in the position to unwillingly but inevitably leave the force.
On one occasion, Crystal witnessed the illegal brutality of his colleagues but was told to keep his mouth shut. However, being the second generation of the Law enforcement officers, he just couldn’t. Both his parents were in the force and Crystal was proud to be a detective.
“If you snitch, your career is done,” one officer told him. He soon became despised by his colleagues inside the Baltimore Police Department. He become isolated and put on ridiculous tasks. Once, Crystal said, he was ordered to wait for 12hrs in an empty valley.
Before the incident, Crystal was considered a raising star in the police department. The leader at the Police Academy he was promoted to a detective after only two years on in the force. “Being a cop was all I ever wanted to do,” he explains.
All of that changed, however, after he came forward to report the 2011 beating of a drug suspect by another officer.
His testimony helped to secure convictions against the officer who beat the suspect and the sergeant who helped, however it triggered a systemic, pattern of abuse, Crystal said.
“I never imagined that doing the right thing as a cop could cost me so much,” Crystal told reporters from the Daily News.
Now, Crystal is suing the Baltimore Police Department for failing to protect him from retaliation after he disclosed the bad seed in Baltimore police department.
Crystal’s case is certainly not unique and we may newer now how many police officers are bullied by bad colleagues.
“Where are all the good cops? Critics of police brutality and abuse of power often wonder this – sometimes aloud, often on social media. But there is an answer to that question – it’s not purely rhetorical – the “good cops” are driven out of work by the bad cops,” Daily News report conclude.