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.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Like, can anyone explain how they thought this got in a police report if all cops supported this shit?

    Very possible that they just filed it all on reflex because nobody really thought hard about what they were putting in the record. Cops are both evil and stupid. Sometimes they just do stupid shit, thinking they’ll never get caught.

    That said, maybe someone actually did the right thing here. And maybe that’s why it is a news article getting passed around the back alleys of social media, rather than a conspiracy theory whispered at DSA meet ups.