- Jan 14, 2013
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Perfect example of police being above the law. Guy gets drunk at a house party, gets pissed at guest taking leftovers home, grabs a shotgun, and fires it at people, nobody gets hurt. Gets arrested....but then nothing happens. Turns out the guy is a cop in town. Unfuckingbelievable. And people wonder why citizens are mad at the police. Guaranteed many many of these situations are replicated across the country. Considering you are a cop who is armed at all times put into tense situations, this guy should be terminated instantly. Police simply operate in a legal gray area which way more often than not puts them above the law.
newjerseymonitor.com
"It was a fight that started stupidly enough, as fights at boozy bashes tend to do.
The party’s host got mad at a guest packing leftovers into a cooler to take home. The host threw tomatoes at him — and then went and grabbed a shotgun.
“Today is your day!” he shouted at a few guests as they scurried away.
Then he turned the gun in their direction and fired.
No one was injured in the August 2019 incident at Michael Timmins’ home in Sussex
County. State police responded, charging Timmins with terroristic threats and possession of weapons for unlawful purposes, which are both typically felony offenses, records show.
The system seemed to work as it should: Guy breaks the law, guy gets arrested.
But two years later, Timmins’ position suggests just the opposite: that the system failed. Timmins is a police lieutenant in Jersey City Police Department.
The details of his 2019 gun arrest are known only because documents including their details became part of the public record — obtained by the New Jersey Monitor — as exculpatory material prosecutors provided in an unrelated murder case.
Timmins’ department has worked hard to hide the incident, writing recently in a state-mandated disclosure only that Timmins “negligently discharged a firearm while off duty and on his personal property.” That disclosure left out all other details, including that he’d had six to eight beers beforehand, as noted by an earlier departmental report on police discipline that shielded officers’ names.
And despite the criminal charges, Timmins has no public criminal record, because he was placed in pretrial intervention, a diversionary program for first-time offenders that results in no conviction.
Police watchdogs suspect Timmins is just one of countless law enforcement officers statewide whose misbehavior has gone unnoticed — and therefore possibly unchecked — because state law protects the secrecy of police discipline records.
If the public doesn’t know about officers’ wrongdoing, they can’t ensure they’re being held accountable for their actions and the public can’t protect themselves, said C.J. Griffin, a Hackensack public interest attorney who advocates for public records access.
“I live in Jersey City, so it’s insanely alarming to me that there’s a police officer walking the streets with a gun and he’s a person who has the temperament to get in a fight, pull a gun and shoot it,” Griffin said. “He’s in a job that requires him to interact with hostile people, maybe even on a daily basis, and yet he has that short of a fuse.”"
Case of Jersey City cop highlights lack of police transparency • New Jersey Monitor
Lawmakers this fall could vote on a bill to make police discipline records public. Supporters say transparency is key to accountability.
newjerseymonitor.com
"It was a fight that started stupidly enough, as fights at boozy bashes tend to do.
The party’s host got mad at a guest packing leftovers into a cooler to take home. The host threw tomatoes at him — and then went and grabbed a shotgun.
“Today is your day!” he shouted at a few guests as they scurried away.
Then he turned the gun in their direction and fired.
No one was injured in the August 2019 incident at Michael Timmins’ home in Sussex
County. State police responded, charging Timmins with terroristic threats and possession of weapons for unlawful purposes, which are both typically felony offenses, records show.
The system seemed to work as it should: Guy breaks the law, guy gets arrested.
But two years later, Timmins’ position suggests just the opposite: that the system failed. Timmins is a police lieutenant in Jersey City Police Department.
The details of his 2019 gun arrest are known only because documents including their details became part of the public record — obtained by the New Jersey Monitor — as exculpatory material prosecutors provided in an unrelated murder case.
Timmins’ department has worked hard to hide the incident, writing recently in a state-mandated disclosure only that Timmins “negligently discharged a firearm while off duty and on his personal property.” That disclosure left out all other details, including that he’d had six to eight beers beforehand, as noted by an earlier departmental report on police discipline that shielded officers’ names.
And despite the criminal charges, Timmins has no public criminal record, because he was placed in pretrial intervention, a diversionary program for first-time offenders that results in no conviction.
Police watchdogs suspect Timmins is just one of countless law enforcement officers statewide whose misbehavior has gone unnoticed — and therefore possibly unchecked — because state law protects the secrecy of police discipline records.
If the public doesn’t know about officers’ wrongdoing, they can’t ensure they’re being held accountable for their actions and the public can’t protect themselves, said C.J. Griffin, a Hackensack public interest attorney who advocates for public records access.
“I live in Jersey City, so it’s insanely alarming to me that there’s a police officer walking the streets with a gun and he’s a person who has the temperament to get in a fight, pull a gun and shoot it,” Griffin said. “He’s in a job that requires him to interact with hostile people, maybe even on a daily basis, and yet he has that short of a fuse.”"
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