By Carlos Miller
Responding to a complaint from his son, who had just been involved in a fender bender, a Philadelphia police officer walked into convenience store with his gun drawn and grabbed a young woman from behind, pressing the gun into her face.
The stunned woman spun around and broke free. The cop ordered her and her three male friends to lie down on the floor. Words were exchanged.
“You think you can hit my son and get away with it,” the officer, Alberto Lopez Sr., said.
“You think you can fuck with me?”
But it was actually Lopez’s son who hit them from behind. A punk named Alberto Lopez Jr. who left the scene of the accident to go call daddy. A bully who grabbed the woman by the neck and pushed her over the counter as she tried to leave the store to go find, what she calls, “a real cop.”
The woman, Agnes Lawless, was arrested for assaulting a police officer.
The charges were dropped once the surveillance video emerged.
But that still doesn’t make up for the fact that she spent the night in jail that night in August 2008 where she counted 23 mice and dealt with feces smeared on the walls.
Internal affairs investigated and determined that Lopez Sr. committed “departmental violations” but allowed him to return to work after a few days of desk duty.
The District Attorney’s Office investigated and declined to prosecute Lopez Sr.
Obviously, nobody in authority has a problem with a cop who retaliates on behalf of his son yet only refers to him as “the witness” in his arrest report.
A cop who after making the arrest, told the store clerk to “do himself a favor and get rid of the camera tapes.”
A cop who is caught on video sneaking up behind an unarmed woman and jamming a gun into her neck. And then falsifying a report about the incident.
A cop who testified at the preliminary hearing that he simply walked into the store and ordered them to the floor, but Lawless “freaked out, started punching, slapping and kicking me multiple times.”
The Philadelphia Police Department has proven to be one of the most corrupt police departments in the country.
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, which wrote an excellent article on this incident and has done an excellent job reporting on all the other police abuses within that department, more officers tried to intimidate the store clerk into deleting the video the following day:
Ruiz told investigators that Lopez mentioned erasing the tape again after other officers arrived. He said that police visited him at the store twice the next day and asked him whether he would erase the tape. He also said that they had advised him to “help the cop out and testify for the cop.”
Fortunately, the store clerk did the right thing and provided the video to internal affairs as well as to one of Lawless’ friends.
Below are a sequence of images from the video cameras from the moment the cop walks in to the moment the cop’s son grabs Lawless by the neck and pushes her over the counter with his dad helping.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
Wow, no tasings or hail of gunfire so I guess that our hoplophiles would say that they showed restraint.
I just found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfG48Fs8FUY
C’mon jones, I’m dying to hear your take on this one.
This is disgusting. Using his gun completely inappropriately, putting her in a choke hold repeatedly, filing false reports, and after that, giving veiled threats for a witness to give false testimony and DESTROY EVIDENCE. That’s only departmental violations?! What do you have to do to get fired from being a cop?! Why not just institute tenure, after 10 years of not shooting any unarmed people on camera, you can do whatever you want and don’t even need to lie about it! At least then you’d pay taxes on the massive windfalls you find.
Assaulting, choking and threatening a woman at gunpoint… and no charges.
Who is the gutless DA who decided to let this one go?
I have to say I am quite happy with the comments on this story at policeone.com. It’s not the actions of cops like this that really bother me as much as when I hear other police defend any action, no matter how illegal, another police officer takes. They’re raking him over the coals on this one. I’d like to see a similar reaction from the Philadelphia PD.
http://www.policeone.com/legal/articles/1857461-Store-video-catches-Philly-cop-confronting-woman/
Yea really. Where’s Jones?
His actions are blatant and obviously criminal (of course he won’t be prosecuted). He’s not going to get any defenders, even from jones I’d say. The problem I see is that the conspiracy by his fellow officers to cover his crime is being completely ignored.
Rob M. ,
There are some really decent cops that comment on policeone.com. They give me some hope.
“Internal affairs investigated and determined that Lopez Sr. committed “departmental violations” but allowed him to return to work after a few days of desk duty.”
“Departmental violations”? That’s disgusting. That pig broke the law, allowed his son to break the law, then he broke the law again after the incident. Does RICO cover witness and evidence tampering? ATM, I’d like to see the whole department up on charges and dealt with under Federal ‘Organized Crime’ laws.
(“Pig” is a term I rarely use, but it seems appropriate, in this case. Judge Dredd was a comic book and a bad movie, not a handbook on good police procedure.)
I recently got into an argument with a LEO from Philly. She made some snide comments to my girlfriend about my posting of these articles on my Facebook. When I angrily flamed her about this, she took the moral stance and suggested that people like me make it harder for police, because I cause them to lose respect and also mentioned that officers she knew had been killed in the line of duty.
I retorted that she should stop protecting these thugs and treat them like the criminals they are. I also then pointed out that she was still stinging from an incident in my personal life where I had confronted two police officers for carrying weapons in prohibited areas while drinking alcohol. I had only found out after I wrote about this subject that this LEO was known for doing the very same thing, as well as other sundry criminal activities and other morally reprehensible actions.
So yeah… Philly; bastion of law and order…
Simon,
That’s such a common tactic. Attack the messenger rather than the culprit.
It’s the most common attack I get from those who don’t agree that cops need to be held to higher standards.
There’s just no excuse for this kind of behavior from any professional organization, least of all those charged with serving and protecting the populace.
Disgusting that this behavior is just glossed over like this. It’ll only lead to more incidents like it.
xdamousex,
If you haven’t checked Rob M.’s link to Policeone.com, you should. This Philly cop is getting a near universal “dump him” over there.
Glad you posted this Carlos, i wonder how many people besides me sent this to you
Josh,
I think you were one of three who sent it to me.
Rob Molecule also sent it. It was still kind of fresh.
Had I not posted it by today, I would have received more emails.
This type of story has become the epitome of my blog.
So thanks guys!
`Lopez Sr. committed “departmental violations” ‘
In some parts, that’s called “assault with a deadly weapon,” and is punishable by a lengthy jail sentence.
Unbelievable. The trouble with all cases of out-of-control cops is, the people who would prosecute them are their best buddies: the DA.
That’s why many cities set up toothless police complaint commissions to “investigate” and sign-off on crimes by our public officials who carry guns.
I find it just plain wrong that cops breaking the law would fall under departmental discipline rather than to the courts as would happen to any other citizen. Has anyone heard about the drunk off duty Pittsburgh police officer who pistol whipped a guy on the street and accidentally shot him in the hand? He claimed the guy had punched him in his car a few blocks away, but witnesses said the guy he shot looked nothing like the guy he was looking for. The judge dismissed the criminal charges saying it was up to the police department to police itself. He dismissed evidence he was drunk because the police took too long to do a breath test.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09163/976825-53.stm
Is that the son putting hands on her in the 4th picture? Why has he not been charged with assault?
So IA reviewed this case last year and put the guy back on the street with his gun almost instantly. Now, after this story was published and no doubt a lot of poeple called, he’s off the street again.
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090722_Cop_caught_on_video_bullying_woman_is_taken_off_street_duty.html
Obviously no facts about the case changed, the only thing that changed was that people paid attention.
Still, no criminal charges will be filed against the officer, the son, or the officers who tried to cover up their crimes. So while it’s a win, it’s not much of one.
I recently got into an argument with a LEO from Philly. She made some snide comments to my girlfriend about my posting of these articles on my Facebook. When I angrily flamed her about this, she took the moral stance and suggested that people like me make it harder for police, because I cause them to lose respect and also mentioned that officers she knew had been killed in the line of duty
Yeah that sounds like one of the scum from the Philly pd. Don’t ever move there. I swear, the mindset in Philadelphia is 10 years behind the rest of the world. Because some of these dumb cops get shot people there think they’re heroes no matter what they do. Typical attitude towards the reporter who broke the Cudjick story, http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090225_Jill_Porter__Go_ahead__be_furious_-_but_not_at_the_messengers_of__Tainted_Justice_.html
“You f—— piece of s—!” one reader wrote to Laker in an e-mail. “You are a disgrace to yourself and your family and this city! “Its a shame that you have an ability to get the word out about the positives of this police department . . . and this is how you earn your money.” “The timing of its publication was obviously planned to coincide with the last cop killing to lessen the severity of its impact. It’s people like you who are to blame for the unprecedented violence against the Philadelphia Police.”
Notice how the Philly cop goes after the young girl but not her boyfriend?? Tough guy Philly cops get their kicks by messing with women, the poor and the weak.
“THE BURLY narcotics officer yanked down the young woman’s underwear as they stood in the doorway of her second-floor Frankford apartment, she said.” http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090617_Again_a_woman_alleges_indecent_assault_by_same_cop_during_a_narcotics_raid.html?viewAll=y
Two days later, Naomi said, she was walking near her apartment when two uniformed officers in a patrol car stopped her. They handcuffed her, threw her in the back of the cruiser and warned her to recant her account of what happened Oct. 16. Then they let her go. One officer told her, ” ‘You’ll be seeing me around,’ ” she said. Terrified, she called her mom from a pay phone…. “But I didn’t have a name. They told me they had thousands of police officers,” she said. She and her mother left, frustrated and angry. She moved from the apartment. Then the phone calls started. Too scared to complain Naomi’s phone rang at all hours from “restricted” or “unavailable” numbers. She said the callers said things like, Drop it. . . . Don’t say nothing. . . . We know where you’re at. . . . We’ll find you. She and her mother changed their phone numbers several times, she said. Still, the calls kept coming.
Theres more.
“Rodriguez, alone in that dark bedroom with an officer forcing himself on her, emerged shaken and sobbing.” http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090601_New_cop_misconduct_alleged__4th_drug_officer_off_street__women_cite_groping.html?viewAll=y
Internal Affairs has investigated Tolstoy before…..”To show 80 photos that are outdated is not a legitimate investigative technique,” said Ibrahim, who accompanied Gonzalez to Internal Affairs. “It’s clearly unfair to the victim.” The process almost seemed as though it was designed to help conceal the identity of the assailant,” he said, “rather than provide the victim a fair opportunity to identify her assailant.”
Honestly don’t ever move to this city. The scumbag cops can’t even pretend to police themselves. I guess how do you control a bunch of animals?