What a Moron!

A Georgetown Police officer was indefinitely suspended Friday for pulling a dangerous prank with a colleague's gun.

Officer George Bermudez had been in trouble before. In April 2014, he was caught on video tripping, kicking and pushing Georgetown High School students as they rushed a soccer field following their team's victory in a state championship. He was suspended for 40 days.

Now Bermudez is accused of tampering with the sights of a fellow officer's duty rifle as a joke, according to an investigation by the Georgetown Police Department.
The report said Bermudez was at a Georgetown shooting range on Feb. 2, 2015 with other officers, including Officer David Lanier. Lanier left the range early, forgot his rifle, called Bermudez and asked him to pick it up.

Bermudez grabbed the rifle, denying other officer's offers to bring it to Lanier themselves, and took it to a Guns Plus gun store, where he discussed altering the weapon with store clerks "to teach him a lesson not to leave his [expletive] laying around."

"You brought Officer Lanier's duty rifle into the civilian gun shop, discussed the rifle with employees including tampering with the rifle, and allowed Guns Plus personnel to put their hands on the weapon, inspect it and manipulate the weapon's components," said the report, addressed to Bermudez.

Bermudez even texted a photo of a store clerk handling the rifle to Lanier, "which caused him great concern as to why you were allowing others to handle his duty weapon."

Store staff moved the gun's sights out of line, 12 clicks left and 12 clicks down. The next day, Bermudez returned the rifle, but never mentioned the sights had been changed.

Lanier worked two shifts with the manipulated gun. He worked the night shift on February 3, and responded to a gun call for which he unlocked his rifle and removed if from the mount, but did not have to use it.

On February 4, Bermudez told Lanier to check his rifle sights. Lanier asked if he was serious. He said he was.

"Officer Lanier immediately retrieved his duty rifle and discovered that both the red dot optics and rear iron sights had been tampered with and were 'way' off," the report said.

Bermudez told Lanier he had personally changed the sights, but did not mention the gun store.

Lanier caused concern when he relayed the story to superiors. An investigation began. Bermudez said he thought the department was overreacting.

Over the course of the months-long investigation that included interviews with several officers, the Guns Plus staff and a friend of Bermudez, the now-terminated officer gave conflicting testimony and lied on multiple occasions.

At the start, a police investigator asked Bermudez if his answers would stand up to a polygraph lie-detector test. He answered, "yeah, but I'll tell you right now I suck at polygraphs." The investigator reminded him he passed one to get his job.

Bermudez was asked if he or someone else changed the sights on Lanier's rifle. He said no twice. He failed two polygraph tests.

The report concluded, "Your actions are sincerely disappointing. You have breached my trust in your abilities to meet the expectations of a Georgetown Police Officer. You have breached the trust of your fellow officers. You have placed officers and our community at unnecessary risk as a result of your poor decisions. You have demonstrated the inability to provide truthful answers during this investigative process. Your actions demonstrate an ongoing pattern of poor decision making that is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. For these reasons, the only acceptable outcome is your indefinite suspension from the Georgetown Police Department."

Termination.

With EXTREME prejudice.

For both of them.

Who in the world forgets his rifle at the range?

If he thought an investigation was overreacting, he'd really hate what I'm thinking right now...

the guy sounds like a doofus


why would you take a pard's rifle to a gun store to "adjust" the sights?


and while I could see doing it as a practical joke, if you could immediately have the guy shoot it the minute you return it to him, that'd be one thing. To let him go on patrol with it? Fing Ahole


hell I'd be pizzed if a pard did that to a hunting rifle


the guy's a maroon

That is not a prank, and I too feel both should be dismissed. Forget a duty rifle? Geeeeeeze!

Word. At the very least the fella that left his rifle should be moved to a position of babysitting and handing out chit tickets with only pepper spray on his belt.

If the guy forgot his rifle at the range, one day he is going to set it on his trunk and drive off.

I don't know which "Georgetown" this is, but THIS should have gotten him fired:

"Officer George Bermudez had been in trouble before. In April 2014, he was caught on video tripping, kicking and pushing Georgetown High School students as they rushed a soccer field following their team's victory in a state championship. He was suspended for 40 days."

Sadly, he will probably continue in some L.E. position somewhere.

Wait a minute - we non-LEOs surely can not have the correct inside info here - we will need to get the real facts straight before commenting further. Clearly we need experienced LEO assistance in understanding and assessing this situation.

Georgetown north of Austin? Sounds upscale, I'm surprised the parents of those kids didn't get him fired back then.

Birdwatcher

That's not a prank. Pepperspray I'm the AC vents... That's a prank.

Yep...... That's why I asked "Which Georgetown".

Not sure what you are getting at, but the cop is an asshat and is likely getting fired.

How's is this some sort of "whatever" other than what it is?

Or is the fact that no one's defending the guy causing issues?

Georgetown, TX.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/georgetown-officer-suspended-40-days-after-trippin/ngD3F/

Claimed the suspension for assaulting the high school students "wasn't fair" and got a reduction in his suspension.

http://kxan.com/2015/01/14/georgetown-settles-with-suspended-officer-who-tripped-students/

That was in early 2014.

Here's the article on the current incident:

http://kxan.com/2015/07/17/georgetown-officer-suspended-for-tampering-with-colleagues-rifle/

He is, of course, being represented by the police union.

" and his attorney cited cases where two other Georgetown officers who had more egregious issues had lesser punishments than he did." [re the tripping incident]

So...... "everybody else does it" is an effective defense.

At least it worked for him. His suspension was reduced.

Saddest thing is that if a parent of one of the girls he pushed down, had pushed the officer down in retaliation, that same Police Chief who is "outraged" would have arrested the parent.

Assuming one of the other cops didn't shoot him.

I like the "if" posts.


Could you come up with one where I win the lottery?

WORD!

"IF" you buy the winning ticket, you win the lottery.

"IF" you interfere with a cop mistreating someone, any other cops present are gonna interfere with you.

Is that better?

Question to Officer Bonehead:

"How would you have felt if the situation arosw that your colleauge had to defend you or another fellow officer with that tampered weapon? What if that tampered wapon cost the life of an officer?"

Can the idiot.

Or, if the officer with the altered weapon had to make a precise shot in a situation with a kid's life on the line. 12 low and 12 right could have quite easily ended up hitting someone not a perp.

Officer Bermudez should have been fired for assaulting the high school students. He is being fired for this.

He should have gotten his ass kicked over both incidents.

I can also guarantee you that if there were any people arrested by that jackass during his 10 years with Georgetown PD that had any issues at all, they'll be filing suit and wanting a full investigation.

Keeping that jackass on the PD in Georgetown is going to end up costing the Georgetown taxpayers a lot of money.

I'll post a little more later when I've got a minute....

Short story is that Bermudez is a criminal who not only should've been fired already, he never should've been hired to begin with. Anywhere.

Lanier is an idiot.

The Officers' Association is run by Bermudez's best friend, who should also be fired. The overwhelming majority of the officers have left the association to start a new one, so the guy in the news DOES NOT represent the views of the average street cop in Georgetown.

Now THAT is some interesting intel.

I am sure the good citizens of Georgetown feel ever so well represented and protected. "Serviced", perhaps, too.

I have to agree. If he had done something that would deserve being suspended for basically two months, then he earned a dismissal.

Now, as to the second issue of screwing with another officer's duty weapon.

Had the weapon been mine, I'd have had to fight.


You do notice that his name is Bermudez. Not Smith, or Jones.

He is one of the protected class.

Regardless, he is in line for a job termination and a first class ass whipping.

Picture of the fat bastard in the link.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/...n-police-officer-reach-settlement/njpqL/

Until there is a STATE mechanism to revoke their LEO certification [ I THINK it takes a felony conviction] for repeat offenders, these guys just move down to a smaller department somewhere.

I notice that his suit was based on two officers breaking use of force policy and receiving less punishment than he.

They were white, he, of course, not.

One deployed a TASER on a handcuffed subject, the other on a subject who was running away from him.

I can see why both of those guys DIDN't get 40 days.. (HINT. It isn't because they were white.)

I definitely see your point, but you would think that the smaller hiring agency would uncover some of these patterns of behavior in a background check of even rudimentary proportion.

The most dangerous thing is when the kook is a female or minority. If you are trying to kick them out on a background, you gotta have your $hit wired tight, or they will sue on the EEOC basis.

And your small municipality will have to write a check, because it is cheaper than litigating.

Handcuffed guy was probably kicking at the cop, or refusing to load up.

As far as tasering the guy running away, I thought that was what tasers are for.

But.... being white counts against them.

That's why the podunk little towns shouldn't even have police departments. If they can't afford to hire decent people, they should just rent a deputy from the sheriff.

If they have a cert and will work for minimum wage.. they get hired.

Fixed it for you, Blue.

He had better hope flipping burgers soon pays $15.00/HR.

I overheard two sheriff deputies discussing this at lunch today, and they were contemptuous of Bermudez...said he shows LEO in a bad light in general. BTW, we have a GREAT Sheriff's Dept here...1st Class all the way.

Yall ready for some drama?

Bermudez was hired by Goergetown's previous chief, who was worthless. He was retired on duty and needed to hire people to fill the vacancies his poor leadership created. So you get people like Bermudez, who nobody liked or trusted but was smart enough to never do anything that would get him fired (in front of everyone else anyway). GPD is governed by civil service rules, which makes it difficult to fire people and impossible to fire them on grounds of "you're an idiot".

The old chief was fired and the new chief came in and started cracking heads and running off the riffraff. At the same time the president of the officers' association left and nobody filled his shoes (because the new chief was a good guy and the association really wasn't needed).

Bermudez's true colors shine through when he kicks the kids on the football field and makes national news. Couple of things about that:
-The sheriff's office investigated the criminal case against Bermidez and couldn't get a single "victim" to cooperate. The parents of the kids supported the cop and said that they didn't even want him in trouble, because their kids knew better than to run into the field...."I would've tripped my kid too".
---So there wasn't some sort of cover up. Without a victim, there is no crime.
-The suspension that Bermudez got for the football field incident was reduced by an independent arbitrator when he appealed. Firing him really wasn't an option, since even his suspension was reduced.

In steps Rey Rodriguez, Bermudez's buddy, to become the new association president. Everybody ignored Rodriguez. Until he got his buddies in office with him and started his typical shady stuff up. All of his just emboldens the losers like Bermudez.

That's the setting for what this news report is all about.

The cop that left his rifle is Lanier. Lanier is dumb, but he's harmless. He's one of those 70% guys who do a decent job but will never be remarkable. The range he left his rifle at is a closed facility for LE only. He left it on a rack at the rifle range, switched ranges, then had to take off to get to work. He realized he left it and called someone to grab it for him. Was it stupid and careless? Yes. But it's not the end of the world either. Coming from a guy who drove away from a police station with a laptop on the top of his car ( that skipped across the road after the first turn), I won't cast too many stones. Stuff happens. Learn from it.

Bermudez takes the rifle to Guns Plus in Georgetown and at some point hands it off to the employees, one of which changes the zero on it.

Guns Plus is owned by an ex-Austin PD officer who retired while under investigation for a fireable offense. The owners son was arrested last year by Georgetown PD for possession of a controlled substance (a felony), but the case wasn't prosecuted and he still works AT THE GUN SHOP.

Bermudez gets investigated for months and is finally fired for idiocy.
_______________________________

That's all I know that I can share, as it's basically all public knowledge. I just tried to compile it into one place.

Post Script....

The overwhelming majority of the officers at GPD have left the Rodriguez / Bermudez officers' association and created a new one. The city counsel refuses to acknowledge the new association (a prominent city councilman is drinking buddies with Rodriguez) and are about to get sued.

So when you read "the officers' association" says...... Just remember that the "association" represents about four people.

Sounds like a great place to live.

He should have his arse kicked before getting fired.

Sounds like a great place to be a criminal, the police have a hard enough time hitting their target without their sighs being off a Foot or Two

This

I think we need more information.............

So he did get fired? He should be charged for endangerment or whatever similar statute Texas has for this. Wow- this changing his sights and letting him carry it on the street is too much.

I'll tell you what a prank is; I worked with an officer who only liked to do DUIs. We would do our reports on Word or word perfect. There is an auto-correct feature where you can make up a short word and it will automatically insert what you really want. Can be a real time saver on repetitive phrases. Any way, this guy was always leaving his computer on and unattended (big no-no). I changed his name to auto correct "[bleep] cop". He typed his whole report and turned it in. His sergeant chit a brick when he read it! Now that's a prank!

Yes he's fired.

"Indefinite suspension" is what civil service calls firing people.

He should have his azz kicked and be indicted as well.

Yeah, but if an aardvark got into a termite mound, you could be damn sure the cop would arrest someone for assault, if they hit him.

The problem is letting the civilians touch it.

Officers lose weapons all the time and sight alignment aren't biggies.

Fixed it for you.

Cops can't mistreat anyone other than other cops. Any civilian an officer is using violence against has it coming as we have seen in videos where other officers assist the main officer.

I can't count the number I know of that have left thier weapons on the back of public toilets, range racks, ect.
That's why cops don't need guns. Give them a night stick and a can of pepper spray.
I mean , if they think its good enough of the populace to go about unarmed then they should lead by example.

Me thinks some police agencies have demented youths standing on street corners that vet their prospective recruits!!

Every officer that ever lived is a thousand times better than the best civilian.

The dipschit doesn't have the judgment to be a cop. Immediate termination.

The only think he did wrong was doing wrong to a fellow officer. Had he stole a firearm from a civilian and tampered with it then we wouldn't be hearing about any wrong doing.

One wrong is he has shown a complete lack of moral character. And had he any moral character he would have resigned with out looking to the Police Officers association to save his sorry azz.

That wasn't that big of a deal. Officers are allowed to tamper with items, they never go down without a fight, and going to the group is acceptable when statute or practice has not worked to exempt them from punishment. Once again, his only wrong was doing wrong to another officer. With any luck when he gets hired at another agency soon he will stick to wronging civilians and he will once again be as happy as the day he was kicking and tripping the kids on that field because he could.