Cop Who Pointed Gun at Protesters, Journalists in Ferguson Has Resigned

By Joel Currier, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

30 August 14

wo police officers are no longer working at their departments due to their actions during the protests in Ferguson.

A Glendale police officer suspended last Friday after commenting on Facebook that he thought Ferguson protesters should be "put down like rabid dogs," has been fired, officials say.

Meanwhile, a St. Ann police lieutenant resigned Thursday after he pointed an assault rifle at protesters and cursed at them, officials said.  Lt. Ray Albers had worked for the department for 20 years.

Glendale Officer Matthew Pappert, suspended with pay last week, was fired Thursday after an internal investigation wrapped up Wednesday, said Glendale City Administrator Jaysen Christensen.

Pappert's comments also included postings that said Ferguson protesters were "a burden on society and a blight on the community." Another posting said, "Where is a Muslim with a backpack when you need them?"

The posts were preserved by the news and opinion website "The Daily Caller."

Pappert's last day with the Glendale Police Department was Thursday, Christensen said.

Pappert later apologized for his comments in a prepared statement through his lawyer. Pappert said he was “deeply remorseful” for his comments and said he recognized “that his words were insensitive and hurtful.”

Christensen said Thursday that Pappert's views did not reflect those of anyone who works for the city or police department. Christiansen said details of the internal investigation are closed personnel records.

Glendale, a suburb of 6,000 residents, now has nine sworn officers remaining on its force, Christensen said. With Pappert's termination, the department has two openings to fill including one vacated by another officer who recently retired.

Pappert had worked for the department since June 2008 and was paid $54,000 a year.

In St. Ann, Albers resigned after the city's board of police commissioners met and recommended to the board of aldermen that he be fired or resign.

“I'm not condoning his behavior whatsoever,” Chief Aaron Jiminez said Thursday. “It's very hard because he is a good friend, he was a good boss. There's going to be those who didn't like him who are high-fiving now. Altogether it's going to be a black eye on the city of St. Ann because he represented our department.”

A YouTube video captured Albers pointing his rifle at protesters on Aug. 19 but doesn't show what happened before that. (You can watch the video here, but warning, it contains profanity.)

Members of that crowd verbally confront the officer, who appears to say, “I will (expletive) kill you. Get back.”

Asked his name, he responded, “Go (expletive) yourself.”

Jiminez said that Albers raising his weapon was “totally justifiable.” Prior to the camera turning on, Albers had had water and urine thrown at him, Jiminez said. He then saw three men with bandanas in the crowd, and one of them had a gun. He then heard gunshots, but not from that gun. So Albers raised his gun. The three men started running, and then a crowd of people with cameras raised saw him with the raised gun and came toward him. They were “a whole bunch of what you'd call citizen journalists, who were sitting with cameras recording, waiting for something stupid to happen, which they got. They won on this one.”

Jiminez explained that Albers got scared when the crowd got close to him. “That's why he used those words,” he said. That still doesn't make the choice of words excusable, said Jiminez.

Albers had three past disciplinary incidents, Jimenez said, one in 1995, one in 1996 and another last year, when he "used a wrong choice of words with a resident, didn't let the conversation go when he should have." In the other incidents, a man came into a jail cell with jewelry on and Albers hadn't properly checked him, and once Albers accidentally released somebody who had a misdemeanor traffic warrant in another jurisdiction, Jiminez said.

Jiminez said that if the Ferguson incident had happened at any other time, he and the board believed Albers would have been suspended without pay. “He solved burglaries, homicides, stealings, you name it, the guy did it,” Jiminez said. “He chose to work 14-hour days.

“Bottom line is, I have a job to do. As the chief of police, I have to do what's best for the citizens. And the police commissioners saw that and the board did, too.”