PAGING D.A. FRUGOLI
The federal lawsuit filed by Jeremy Portje, accusing Sausalito cops of racial intent when they arrested him, reads like an acting prompt from Norman Jewison’s 1967 flick “In The Heat Of The Night.”
Portje says scary, angry-faced “Caucasian” cops came at him “smirking and chewing gum.” (Think Rod Steiger’s portrayal of Chief Gillespie.)
In this case, we now have two radically different versions of Portje’s arrest.
Police say Portje pushed a police officer twice and injured him. However, the District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute because “intent” could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Armed with the DA’s inaction, Portje now goes full-on Chief Gillespie, saying Sausalito officers brutalized him because he is Black and Sausalito and Marin politicians are all in a Deep South conspiracy to thwart his “reporting” and to harm the homeless. He calls the Sausalito officers involved racists and “goons.”
Look, I don’t care which side you might tend to believe, this has become a freakin’ mess.
Do we have racist cops preying on innocent Blacks in Marin, as is claimed in the Portje lawsuit? Or, is this another dog-and-pony show from the homeless lobby to garner attention to their multiple gripes about how Marin treats the homeless? District Attorney Lori Frugoli needs to step up her leadership game here and she can start by making all the body-cam footage public.
Another wonderfully inaccurate and incomplete depiction of events you keep making abundantly clear you know nothing about. Excellent job minimizing an experience you know nothing about, you’ve outdone your ignorance especially given you’ve not interviewed anyone related to this case. Given your lack of knowledge around this issue and the first amendment, your opinion hardly seems to serve a purpose other than to stroke your wounded ego.
In your lede, do you mean to write In the Heat of the Night? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/
*another error, please hire a copy editor.