Julie Kelly: The DC City Government Settled a Lawsuit Alleging Racist Police Abuse... by CNN's Favorite Cop, the "Anti-Insurrectionist" Opportunist Michael Fannone

As Julie Kelly notes, this leftwing pansy sure has parlayed his "30 minutes of struggle" in a three hour riot that happened two years ago into a lot of money and fame.

And yet, no one seems to be interested into looking into the background of this newly-minted Political Superstar.

But Julie Kelly's interested.

Michael Fanone, the former D.C. Metropolitan police officer using his presence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as a pathway to fame and fortune, is on a major publicity blitz. Along with his Pulitzer-prize finalist co-author, Fanone managed to turn his 30-minute struggle that afternoon into a 256-page book: Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul is an "urgent warning about the growing threat to our democracy from a twenty-year police veteran and former Trump supporter who nearly lost his life during the insurrection of January 6th.

Never mind that Fanone was well enough on the evening of January 6 to call CNN and complain about its news coverage or that he sat for a lengthy interview with a Washington Post reporter a few days later. Fanone is part of a quartet of celebrity cops juicing every second of their involvement in the four-hour disturbance nearly two years ago, earning lucrative book deals, congressional awards, and cable news gigs in the process.

...

[O]ne name is missing from Fanone's profane screed: Michael A. Maddox.

And for good reason. In 2014, the District of Columbia settled a lawsuit filed against two D.C. Metro police officers for violating the civil rights of Maddox, a black attorney working at the time in the legal department at Howard University. The city paid Maddox $175,000 in damages.

One of the officers named in the lawsuit was Michael Fanone.

On the afternoon of October 8, 2009, Maddox was standing on the corner of 5th and K Streets looking at his BlackBerry when Fanone and his partner, Officer Samuel Modin, confronted him. "Maddox sensed the presence of two individuals assuming aggressive positions when he was suddenly and without warning cornered and seized by--Modin while Defendant Officer Michael Fanone blocked Maddox's only other means of escape," Maddox's lawyers wrote in a 2010 complaint. Modin shoved Maddox, an Air Force veteran, against a garbage dumpster.

Modin then forced Maddox's arms over his head and Fanone interrogated him. "Do you have any weapons or drugs on you, sir?" Fanone asked. (According to the timeline in Fanone's book, he was on the vice squad in 2009.)

Modin proceeded to frisk Maddox while Fanone stood in an "aggressive posture." Modin, under Fanone's watchful eye, conducted three "testicle-striking attempts" to find contraband in Maddox's pockets, finding nothing more than his BlackBerry hip holder and a money clip.

When Maddox asked Fanone what the problem was, Fanone responded that it was a "high crime area."

Neither officer identified himself or explained the reason for the aggressive search; as Fanone and Modin attempted to depart the scene of the assault, Maddox grabbed his cell phone to record their faces so he could later file a report with D.C. police.

And that's when Fanone flew into a rage.

"Maddox's videotape commences with Defendant Fanone halting his progress to the patrol car, covering his face in an ill-fated, last-ditch effort to continue to mask his identity from Maddox and reversing his direction of travel to advance on Maddox's position standing on a public sidewalk holding his cell phone." Fanone angrily walked toward Maddox, asking if there "was something he could help with" and got "face-to-face" with Maddox. "Put the camera away!" Fanone demanded.

Fearful that Fanone would physically assault him, Maddox backed away. "Put another way, at that moment on his cellphone video, Maddox alleges that he was assaulted by Defendant Officer Fanone." Maddox twice asked Fanone why he had to stop recording; Fanone did not answer. When Maddox asked Modin on what basis the officers shoved, searched, and menaced him that afternoon, Modin replied they were conducting a "citizen's contact."

In other words: Maddox was "standing while black."

Under oath at a subsequent deposition, Fanone denied ordering Maddox to stop taking video -- until confronted of the video of him doing just that.

posted by Ace at 02:00 PM

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