Fairfax County Police Watch: Fairfax County logic

Fireman suggests putting cops in body bags and gets suspended and gets nasty letter from the police union.

Fairfax County cops murder 7 people and go on paid leave for several years and get “A good sound talking too”

Fairfax County Firefighter on Leave After Anti-Police Rant Online

Khalil B. Abdul-Rasheed posted comments on Facebook's Filming Cops page that said "we have to start putting them in body bags."

By MARY ANN BARTON (Patch Staff) August 8, 2015

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue has put one if its firefighters on paid administrative leave while they investigate comments he allegedly posted online encouraging violence against police officers, according to a statement posted by the fire department on Twitter.

Fairfax County firefighter Khalil B. Abdul-Rasheed allegedly posted the following about police officers, according to a report by WUSA-9:

“We have to start putting them in body bags. Pull the cops off, lay on the individual, form a circle or throw punches. Do something… they can’t massacre a mob.”

The post was allegedly made on a Facebook page called Filming Cops, which describes itself as a police accountability movement. It appears that the firefighter’s own Facebook page has been removed.

On Tuesday, Fairfax County released this statement:

The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is aware of a recent social media post by one of our employees that concerns us. We consider this a serious matter and the situation is currently under investigation. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department will not tolerate committing or inciting violence against law enforcement officers. Fairfax County public safety agencies continue to have a strong working relationship and solid professional respect for each other.

On Statter911, a fire and EMS news website, in an exchange with founder Dave Statter, Abdul-Rasheed allegedly posted:

“I’m upset and disgusted about the unfairness, racism in this country. As a black we’re not allowed to be angry. We’re a threat because of color or in my case color and religion. Black people are being gunned down… then they (officers) get to walk away.”

The president of the Fairfax Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 77, Brad Carruthers, wrote to the fire department’s Chief Richard Bowers, expressing concern about the alleged comments:

Dear Chief Bowers:

It was brought to my attention earlier today that Fairfax County firefighter Khalil Abdul-Rasheed recently posted some despicable comments on social media, urging violence against police officers. To say that I and my fellow Fairfax County police officers are shocked, angry and upset about these statements would be a major understatement.

As you know, it has been a challenging time for the law enforcement community, to say the least. We’ve been taking a lot of hits lately, from all directions. We’ve been unfairly criticized, misjudged, and second-guessed by the public, the media, and politicians. Even worse, there are some who are seeking to incite others to harm police officers, and several officers have been targeted and killed for no reason other than they were wearing a badge.

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.