Apparently it’s impossible in some places.
William “Robocop” Melendez of the Inkster, Michigan, police department has been sued a dozen times by citizens accusing him of vicious beatings, false arrest, framing suspects, planting evidence, lying on police reports, and racism. In the most recent lawsuit, brought against him by a 57-year-old autoworker with no criminal history who was beaten and choked unconscious but never charged with a crime, a federal judge has denied Melendez the legal defense of “qualified immunity” and allowed the lawsuit to move forward. The autoworker’s attorney says Melendez attacked him because he’s black.
Melendez, a former Detroit cop, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 but, in a shocking example of jury nullification, was acquitted a year later despite testimony against him by numerous witness including fellow cops. Melendez is a killer cop who cost the Detroit police department a $1 million wrongful death settlement for a 1996 shooting. He left the Detroit police force in 2007, and at some point joined the Inkster police force, which its former police chief says employs people who shouldn’t be cops. He said police unions and “administrative bureaucracy” made it difficult to fire officers who shouldn’t be there.
This man personifies the kind of police behavior that makes a mockery of our constitutional rights and undermines public confidence in the police. Why was he hired by another police department? Why is he still a cop? At least he’s no longer on street duty, according to his current chief.
Photo: Detroit’s infamous “Robocop”