And he might walk again.
This case will test whether the worst of America’s bad cops gets another “Get Out Of Jail Free” on account of the immunity society confers on those wearing the shield, or whether there’s a line beyond which awful cops will go to jail if they cross it. We can’t take anything for granted; this thug has beaten raps before.
Bill Melendez, ex-cop of the Detroit and Inkster police departments, is facing three felony charges for brutalizing Floyd Dent, a black autoworker, on Jan. 28, 2015, and trying to frame Dent for cocaine possession by planting drugs in his car.
Known as “Robocop,” Melendez was indicted in 2003 for “corruption, falsifying police reports, and planting drugs/guns on suspects who had been illegally arrested,” but despite the fact dozens of witnesses (including police officers) testified against him, “the case crumbled with jury nullification.” As we’ve seen in other recent cases, grand juries aren’t willing to indict, prosecutors aren’t willing to prosecute, and juries aren’t willing to convict cops — although taxpayers in some jurisdictions have been stuck with multimillion-dollar legal settlements to victims of police killings and brutality.
Melendez is a world-class bully. During his Detroit PD stint, he “received more citizen complaints than any other [cop] in the city,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Melendez is also a killer cop; in 1996, he “shot and killed Lou Adkins, an unarmed man, who witnesses said was on the ground and posed no harm when Melendez shot him, execution style, 11 times.” After being run out of Detroit, he got a police job in nearby Inkster, where he nearly killed Dent with a chokehold and 16 brutal punches to his face and head. Dent was hospitalized.
Melendez is no longer a cop, but how many years did it take to get this monster off the streets? Of course, the larger question is, why does America allow such terrible people to be cops in the first place, and then give their terrible behavior so many free passes? And, finally, with growing evidence the public’s patience is running out with that, when is it going to change?
Photos: Robocop and the innocent man he nearly killed during a traffic stop