The armed and masked off-duty Phoenix, Arizona, cop said he wanted to get kids at a high school ICE protest arrested.

A police official in Arizona has been placed on administrative leave after showing up armed to a student-led protest and provoking an altercation that led to the arrest of a teenage girl. The officer told fellow police who arrived on the scene that he attended the students’ immigration rights protest with the intent of acting as an agent provocateur, according to a news report.

Dusten Mullen, a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, has been suspended with pay pending an internal review of his conduct at a protest at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, on January 30, according to Phoenix Police Chief Matthew Giordano.

“As law enforcement professionals, we are held to higher standards of conduct — both in and out of uniform,” Giordano said. “When we fall short, we must be accountable, and we will not tolerate actions which undermine the trust the community has placed in the Department.”

Fox 10 Phoenix, the outlet to first identify Mullen, reported that Mullen told Chandler Police Department officers on the scene that he was there in the hopes of getting a rise out of the kids that would then allow the local cops to cuff them.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    58·
    1 day ago

    The officer told fellow police who arrived on the scene that he attended the students’ immigration rights protest with the intent of acting as an agent provocateur, according to a news report.

    Dusten Mullen, a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, has been suspended with pay pending an internal review of his conduct at a protest at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, on January 30, according to Phoenix Police Chief Matthew Giordano.

    So he picked a fight with a teenage girl, she gets arrested and he gets a paid vacation?

    He doesn’t get the same charges?!

    • halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish
      222·
      1 day ago

      This is the type of stuff a Union can get you. The Police Unions in the US are the single greatest advertising for unions and collective bargaining on the planet. Everything you can think of to complain about the double standard with police, comes back to union negotiated requirements.

      The reasoning behind the whole suspension with pay stuff is essentially to not punish officers who are falsely accused while investigations are under way. Let that sink in for a minute as you think about everyone arrested for a crime and waiting months or years for trials…

      Police officers are falsely accused of things all the time. There are also a ton that are correctly accused and end up receiving no punishment. The two are not mutually exclusive.

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
        7·
        1 day ago

        Unions are supposed to protect workers from capitalism. But the police union has gone past that. How can we support unions in general, yet prevent them from going this route? (Asking seriously)

          • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            21·
            10 hours ago

            I disagree, because the state is still operating within the bounds of capitalism. In a perfect world, state employees wouldn’t need a union. But for example, teachers are state employees. The meager protections that teachers have can largely be attributed to unions.

            The bigger issue is that police largely work as state-sponsored union busters. Any job that involves union busting shouldn’t be allowed to have a union.