69 yr old black man using golf club as cane gets arrested. dash cam saves him from cop's lies

[Liberal_in_LA]

White female officer who trained gun on 69-year-old man using golf club as a cane is pulled from duty after her online rants against 'rampant black racism' exposed
Dash cam video revealed that Officer Cynthia Whitlach was lying when she claimed William Wingate brandished the club at her in July
In the video, Wingate appears confused at Whitlach's screaming demands he drop the club he was using as a cane
After having some trouble hearing Whitlach, Wingate refuses to drop the club and is arrested
Facebook posts in which Whitlach appears to rage against 'black racists' in the wake of the Ferguson protests also came to light in the investigation
Whitlach has been placed on desk duty as




She told him he had swung it at her, and that audio and video recordings from her cruiser would back up her allegations.
Wingate appeared surprised, seemed to have trouble hearing the officer, and then insisted he had done no such thing.
He said he had used the golf club as a cane for 20 years.
Wingate was eventually convicted of unlawfully using a weapon under a plea deal in which the charge would be dismissed if he had no other offenses for two years.
No recordings surfaced to bolster Whitlach's version of events, and after a state lawmaker questioned the arrest, the city attorney's office took another look.
Whitlach was initially just given 'counseling' when the dash cam footage emerged. She was placed on desk duty when her Facebook posts were revealed
Whitlach was initially just given 'counseling' when the dash cam footage emerged.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2932419/Seattle-officer-arrested-man-golf-club-reassigned.html#ixzz3QHB1R8DH

[tblue37]

1. Racist bully looking for any excuse--the manufacturing one out of whole cloth when

she can't find even a minuscule real world hook to hang her accusations on.

[braddy]

2. That is amazing, and scary.

[TheFarseer]

3. Probably lucky he didn't get tased or shot

considering how things are going these days. Am I a bad person for wondering what happened before the camera started rolling? Why would she even pull over and say anything to him at all? Did he just look like a good target for power trip police bull$hit?

[braddy]

4. I kept feeling like she was gong to shoot him.

[JI7]

5. i always start thinking of what they would have said if there was no video

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. he was convicted before dashcam viewed. so they believed her

[rhett o rick]

7. He had to use a public defender that doesn't have the resources to take

many cases to court. Probably told him to take a plea.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. they need to review all her arrests

[Suich]

12. They are doing that now.

We've got a new female Chief of Police and she's kicking butt and taking names!

[Liberal_in_LA]

45. good!

[Go Vols]

9. FTP

[tblue37]

10. He is an Air Force vet, too--20 years' service. The article says he's suing, but the text

gives one amount ($750,000), while the caption under a photo gives another ($75,000). I'm guessing the correct amount is $75,000. I hope he wins!

ON EDIT: Check out this comment from an article on a local site about this case--

The fact that Officer Whitlach claims Mr. Wingate "hit a stop sign" with his club/cane should have alerted anyone with half a brain that her story is utter bullshit, seeing as the nearest stop sign to where she stopped him at 12th & E. Pike would be one block west at the North-South intersection of 11th & E. Pike, which means she would have had to have seen him allegedly hit the sign when she made the turn at 0:16 (he would have had to have been out-of-frame to the left), and then be able to walk one full block in the roughly minute and a-half between the turn and when she stops at 12th & E. Pike. Granted, an able-bodied person could probably traverse that distance at normal speed, but a 70 year-old man with obvious trouble walking? Not bloody likely

Furthermore, if he *had* hit the sign, there would have been some sort of evidence of the blow on the sign.

Police officers should be seriously punished when caught out in such obvious lies. At the very least, no one should ever give a cop the benefit of the doubt in any cop vs. citizen situation where it is just one person's word against another. Their propensity for lying has been proven to be not a bug but a feature of their training and their policing tactics, so much so that it seems to be automatic. I have actually read about some cases in which cops falsify details even when there is no apparent advantage in doing so.

[cstanleytech]

19. Aye he deserves the money plus attorney fees. nt

[mythology]

11. Desk duty doesn't cut it.

She needs to be fired and prosecuted. Likewise the prosecutor and the chief of police need to also be arrested. Why was the dashcam footage not available before Wingate was forced into a plea deal.

Interestingly there's no email address for the police on the city of Seattle's website. However, there is a form to submit email to the office of the mayor.

http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/get-involved/contact-the-mayor

I doubt making them aware of my disgust will help, especially given that I'm not a resident, but it can't hurt either.

[cstanleytech]

20. I agree with you in regards to the officer but not over the chief of police and the prosecutor

to be arrested though they should be disciplined for not investigating.

[Baitball Blogger]

42. I think that a no tolerance level should be applied to these cops.

[PSPS]

13. Here's the dashcam. She's an unprofessional twerp who should get sacked.

More info at the Seattle Times here:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025578148_golfclubapologyxml.html

[cwydro]

14. Wow

what is wrong with her?

[Starry Messenger]

25. She's a racist.

That's what is wrong with her.

[cwydro]

35. yeah,

and that is some seriously wrong.

[Stellar]

15. That makes me angry....

I mean truly p me off!!! Should she tell him why he should put down the the golf club? You got whites carrying around rifles and guns and no one says a word about it or to them. But if a person of color, has a legal right to carry, he might possibly be killed even if it's a toy, just because...

[IcyPeas]

44. ^^^ THIS^ ^^ exactly Stellar

[C Moon]

21. I think she has a problem.

Did you hear her say "I'm going to shut off the video now and see if there's footage of him swinging the golf club at me as I came around the corner."
Wow!
And she seemed to become uncomfortable when the other officers arrived on scene, "I can't find his ID in here..." She sounded like she was sweating bullets and trying to find something wrong with the poor man.

[Midnight Writer]

29. This makes me sick to my stomach

Not only was this guy harassed and arrested for no reason, HE WAS CONVICTED.

Sadly, this story is courtesy of UK press. You won't see this video on our number 1 Cable News Channel, FOX, or indeed on any other of our news outlets.

I am no cop hater, and I readily admit that our justice system is better than most, but it is corruption like this that destroys the public trust.

[progressoid]

47. "Comments are disabled for this video"

Can you imagine the comments they would be getting?

Asshole.

[PSPS]

48. Yes, I can guess

Based on other YouTube videos of this ilk, the comments would consist mostly of racial slurs, most of which would be even worse than the cop posted on her own Facebook page.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. "I am tired of black peoples paranoia"

Who is the paranoid one? Assuming a club Wingate used as a cane was a potential weapon is paranoid. Whitlach is a dangerous person and psychologically unsuited to police work and carrying a loaded weapon.

[villager]

26. Gosh. *Why the fuck would they possibly be paranoid,* Miss Piggy?

n/t

[villager]

27. Lot of white racist skinheads in the PNW, too...

Guess they come into the "festering" cities to work as cops...

[Scootaloo]

33. Portland PD is definitely worse than Seattle

Not that I'm a fan of either, but at least the Seattle Police seem slightly aware that people are watching. Portland cops are a bunch of ham-necked screaming sociopaths.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

18. Fire her and settle with the old man.

This shit has to stop.

[cstanleytech]

22. It wont stop until they implement better training and background checks for the police

as well as implementing comprehensive psychiatric examinations for all future prospective officers.

[BlueStreak]

24. Seattle should hite the old man to head up a community relations effort

If they are serious about cleaning up their act, this would send a strong message. Put the old guy on the police review board.

Her behavior is really outrageous.

[SoapBox]

23. Fire her angry fucking ass.

And ban her from such work.

[MADem]

28. Someone ought to start manufacturing canes out of old golf clubs,

maybe adding footing to them and punching up the handles with some kind of fancy foolishness...they could call them "Wingates~!" Get a few famous people to carry them as a fashion accessory...start a new trend...!

[mackerel]

30. Can his conviction be overturned?

[Chakab]

31. This shit is rage inducing. She claims that black men have it easier than any other group

in the US and that all of their grievances about the police are fictitious while she's on the street everyday making their lives hell.

Here's an interview with her former partner, who is also an ex-police officer, who claims that she an overt racist.


http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/01/29/ex-tukwila-cop-says-spd-officer-cynthia-whitlatch-is-a-racist-who-once-stole-marijuana-from-police-evidence

So much for solidarity between ill-treated minority groups.

[BrotherIvan]

32. WHY IS SHE NOT FIRED!!!!!!

Evidence of racism in any interaction should be cause for immediate dismissal. She is a hazard and does not deserve to work on the police force, PERIOD.

[JI7]

34. she needs to be fired

[Cha]

36. Poor guy.. :( Getting acosted with a racist rant by wicked cop of the West.. We see you, Cynthia

Whitlach. Notice this is on a UK site.

[marions ghost]

37. THIS is what is wrong with this country

This is what happens when you whip up division and racism. People become subhuman.

All that pent-up hate launched on this poor guy (who reminds me of my quirky Dad who used odd things for a cane...)

Check out this video everyone--this is scary. Why is she not immediately out of a job?

[RedCappedBandit]

38. And these thugs in uniform wonder why people don't like them. nt

[marions ghost]

39. Here is her racist rant on Facebook:

'If you believe that blacks are NOT accusing white America for their problems then you are missing the point of the riots in Ferguson and the chronic black racism in this country. I am tired of black peoples paranoia that white people are out to get them. I am tired of hearing a black racist tell me the only reason they are being contacted is because they are black solely because I am NOT black. I am tired of black people saying poor poor me when other races and genders and homeless and gays sufer far more prejudice than any black man does in the US.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2932419/Seattle-officer-arrested-man-golf-club-reassigned.html#ixzz3QJ33aoSh

--Good G-d, what has this country come to? Thank you Fux and Rush...(not making excuses for her--but they are complicit)

[oberliner]

40. Her ex-girlfriend has some interesting things to say

In a phone conversation with The Stranger, Purucker agreed to go on the record because her father was a police officer, she said, and "he would want me to do the right thing." Purucker recognized Whitlatch, she said, because she was in a relationship with her for more than two years. During their relationship, Purucker said, Whitlatch made racist comments about black people she'd encountered while on patrol in Seattle and, in the spring of 2005, stole marijuana from SPD evidence that the couple then smoked together.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/01/29/ex-tukwila-cop-says-spd-officer-cynthia-whitlatch-is-a-racist-who-once-stole-marijuana-from-police-evidence

[TheKentuckian]

41. Hey, dumb fuck badges sniffers stop giving cops "the benefit of the doubt" because all you are doing

is aiding them in persecuting people.

[Jefferson23]

46. She should be off the force..gone. Big tough cop goes after old man...how proud. ugh. n/t