PAX Centurion - May / June 2015

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • June/July 2015 • Page 37 Legal Thoughts: Kenneth H. Anderson, Esq. Byrne & Anderson, L.L.P., Counsel to Members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association The world we live in and other random thoughts “W e’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.” For those older people reading this, you may recall those are words from Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 song Total Eclipse of the Heart . Although those words were written for what was called a vampire love song (whatever that is), from a dif- ferent perspective those words could certainly apply to the Baltimore police department in lateApril and early May of this year. They could also apply to Ferguson, Missouri. They could also apply to Cleveland. By the time this article is published there could be a new city on the verge of chaos. Could those words apply to Boston? I do not think so, but I cannot be fully certain. I certainly hope not. I do not have any knowledge of what went wrong during Freddie Gray’s arrest onApril 12, 2015 at the hands of the Baltimore police. I do not know if he suffered a spinal cord injury during the arrest itself, or of that injury occurred while being transported to the station in the back of the wagon. From the snippet of cell phone video I have seen, he certainly appears to be injured as he was dragged like a store mannequin toward the transport wagon. On the other hand, he could have been completely healthy at that point, but doing his best to be non-compliant. I simply do not know. A high school classmate of mine suffered a freak spinal cord injury while diving into a swimming pool where he made contact with another person. He has been in a wheelchair since tenth grade. Could Freddie Gray have suffered a freak spinal cord injury during an arrest where police officers did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary? That is certainly possible. Could he have suffered a spinal cord injury when police deliberately used excessive force while arresting him? That also could be the case. I simply do not know. Could he have been injured in a freak accident while being transported? I am skepti- cal of that, but again, I simply do not know. What I do know is that for the week following Freddie Gray’s April 27, 2015 funeral, I sat glued to the nightly news, horrified by what I was seeing, repeatedly asking myself “could this happen in Boston?” As a lawyer who represents police officers, I concluded that week that police officers get blamed for everything. Do a quick Google search on “poverty in the inner-city” and you will find a long list of causes: the breakdown of the family, drugs and alcohol, lack of educational opportunities, lack of employment opportunities, a dys- functional welfare system that often results in generations of families dependent on welfare, racism, teenage pregnancy, children with in- carcerated parents, a culture that glorifies violence, songs with violent lyrics… the list could go on and on. Collectively as police officers, you have very little to do with the vast majority of the factors that cause there to be such rage and hatred. Unfortunately, when a spark hits the powder keg as it did in Baltimore, deep-seated anger over all of what causes inner-city poverty gets projected onto you. We live in a complicated world, and being a police officer is a complicated job. You face the wrath of an ignorant public as the result of things you are not responsible for and that you have no control over. So what are the lessons from Baltimore? As I just said, it’s a complicated world, and I do not profess to have many answers. One image that has stuck with me from the first night of the riots was the image of the teenage kids throwing softball sized boulders at police officers equipped with clear plastic riot shields. If you have seen this particular clip that is stuck in my mind, there is a red car on the left and what looks like a white landscaping truck with a trailer on the right (youtube.com/watch?v=8oERciGvVbe ). As the teenagers continued to press quickly toward the officers, one defiant officer got dangerously out in front of the line and was deflecting the boulders with his shield. Another officer without a shield ran up to that officer, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and pulled him back as the officers retreated from the young van- dals. My advice to you is to do what that officer without the shield did: watch out for your brother and sister officers. Keep each other safe. Think before you act. Don’t act impulsively. Take time to collect your thoughts before you begin to write police reports. And reach out to your union representatives if you need anything. Remember, it is not your fault, but you will get blamed for it anyway. Is Your Auto Insurance Protecting You N o one can dispute that you have a dangerous job. Part of your job involves driving a police vehicle, something which in and of itself can be dangerous. Rule 302, Section 2 of the BPD Rules and Procedures relating to Emergency Driving specifically acknowledges the “hazards it entails,” although we all know that even driving your own personal vehicle can be hazardous in this city. The question for you now is this: Is your auto insurance policy keeping you protected? This office recently assisted an officer who was injured when his cruiser was t-boned while on the way to an emergency call. The officer had significant medical bills and significant lost wages as the result of being out of work. Unfortunately, the person who struck him only had $25,000 worth of insurance. As many of you know, there are people that drive around this city with no insurance at all. Go sit in any district court and watch the arraignments of people charged with “unregistered and uninsured.” Go ask your station’s Tango officer how often they stop uninsured drivers. For a very nominal amount, you can purchase “underinsurance/ uninsurance” coverage to protect yourself in the event someone with no or low insurance coverage hits you. If the officer who had been t-boned had “underinsurance” under his own personal auto insurance policy, he would have been able to recover substantially more than he did in his claim. When you re- cover against someone else’s insurance policy, the City will put a lien on what is paid out as the City wants to get reimbursed for medical expenses and wages they have paid you as the result of your injury. Under your “underinsurance” policy, there is no lien and the City See Anderson on page 44