Fairfax County Police Watch: In Troy, a loud call for dialogue

Allegations of police brutality during bar fight open old wounds

By Kenneth C. Crowe II

Tensions regarding racial discrimination and police brutality received a public hearing Tuesday night, 11 days after a bar fight forced them to the surface.

Some demands, such as suspending police officers without pay and an external investigation, were repeated, while in other cases suggestions for reforming police department operations were new.

The City Council Public Safety Committee hearing grew from the melee on Jan. 25 at Kokopellis, 124 Fourth St., that was captured by surveillance and cellphone cameras and showed a police officer striking a bar patron several times on the head with a baton.

The Troy African American Pastoral Alliance has pushed the city government to respond growing criticisms of police brutality, particularly in the city's minority community.

"I warned you this was going to happen," Pastor Willie Bacote of the Missing Link A.M.E. Zion Church told the committee.

Bacote said the city has to change the way police act and that everyone has to take responsibility for changing the community.

Anger and passion could be heard from many of the 300 people in the audience at Christ Church United Methodist Church as they reacted to comments about the police department and actions of some officers.

"What we heard tonight is telling of people's feelings. The issue is real. It can't be ignored anymore," said the Rev. Eric Shaw, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church.

The hearing followed a march of 100 people led by the Troy African American Pastoral Alliance from Bethel Baptist Church down Fifth Avenue to police headquarters and then to Christ Church United Methodist.

Alice Green of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany urged the committee to adopt true community policing similar to what has been done in Albany.

Barry Glick, co-owner of Kokopellis, blamed the police for the fight at the club.

"The police entered my building looking for a fight," Glick stated.

Ben Brucato of the Community Alliance Against Police Violence demanded the police drop changes against anyone arrested that night, suspend without pay any police officer with a baton and have an external investigation of the incident.

Officer Robert Fitzgerald, president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, said some recommendations had merits, but that the demands were outlandish. Mayor Lou Rosamilia said his administration and the police department have opened a dialogue with the pastors but that it is in its early stages.

Shaw added that race is a component of ongoing discussions and that it must be dealt with and not ignored.

Councilman Robert Doherty, the committee chairman, said the meeting was a good start, but that more information has to be gathered to decide what actions to take.

Chief John Tedesco will speak to the committee when it reconvenes at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 at Christ Church United Methodist.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.