It's highly unusual for a police officer to be fired when they shoot an unarmed person, which happens on a regular basis. It's even more unusual for a cop to be fired just for the words he uses, but the officer who threatened a group of people last summer by saying he was "trigger happy" has just been canned. Shocking but true.
The video above shows Stephen Barone, a former police officer from the Hartford Police Department in Connecticut, talking to a group of people who had been hanging out on a porch without any lights on. The officer didn't like the looks of things, and demanded their IDs. And he wanted to know what was on their persons. Even worse, he let them know he was the bully in charge by telling them that if anyone wanted to run, "I'm a little trigger happy, guys, I'm not gonna lie."
He then brags about how he'll be "paid a ton of money in overtime if I have to shoot somebody, so don't do anything stupid."
According to The Daily Dot:
On Wednesday, the Hartford Police Department put out a statement that they had fired Barone after finishing an investigation into the incident in the video, as well as a traffic incident in July.
"Our success as a police department depends on our relationship with the community we serve," said Police Chief David Rosado. "This officer's conduct does not reflect the values of our agency. I did not make this decision lightly. We hold ourselves to high standards, and when we fall short, we take responsibility for it."
Image: MaxPixel
