It's just one story that's getting more attention all the time - 3 years and 6 months after an incident that the City of Mesa tried hard to cover-up for far too long.
Last week we found out about a new twist to the shameful saga when local mainstream media ABC15 revealed that Mesa Police Officer Philip Brailsford had been granted a pension last year: "The local five-member PSPRS board, which includes Mesa City Manager Brady, voted in October 2018 to grant Brailsford an accidental disability pension. physical or mental condition .
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BLOGGER NOTES:
1. Foreshadowing all of this in the public record is this statement from Brailsford's attorney at the trial:
"Craig Mehrens previously said Brailsford was “in shock” after he was charged with murder and believes he did nothing wrong, according to the Arizona Republic. "
2. There's plenty of blame to go around - both for the individuals involved and "the entire system" that's broken-down. It needs to get fixed no doubt about that, but some house-cleaning might be in order to clean up the mess here in Mesa.
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Time to Wake-Up Mesa! Evidence is piling-up big time
After murder acquittal, Mesa ex-cop Philip Brailsford made a pension deal
Posted: 6:39 PM, Jul 10, 2019
"Two years after he shot an unarmed man and was fired, former police officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford was rehired by the City of Mesa in order to obtain a special pension. Now, Brailsford is considered medically retired, not fired, according to a Mesa city spokesman. . . The Spokesman: City Manager Chris Brady >
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"Brailsford was fired from the police department after the shooting for violations of department policy. He was also charged with murder, but he was later acquitted. Brailsford appealed his termination. . Later in 2018, he signed an agreement with the Mesa City Manager’s Office. The agreement, obtained by ABC15, included that Brailsford would be rehired temporarily to allow him to apply for an accidental disability pension and medical retirement. The terms prevented Brailsford from performing any job duties or getting paid during the period of reemployment. "He was eligible for retirement benefits, so he applied for them," City Manager Chris Brady said.
"More than two years had passed since Brailsford's termination, so he would not have qualified without the special agreement to be rehired. Mesa city officials claim the whole process was held in "abeyance," or put on hold, while Brailsford stood trial."
BLOGGER NOTES: The trial dragged on for a long time. The real-time police body-cam video was first released in an edited version instead of getting released immediately. The judge in the trial, justifying the delay for months, said viewing the video is "prejudicial".
If that might seem a questionable assertion and a picky legal point, watch the video if you have not seen it before.
The voice you here at the opening is from this guy at right >
He skipped outta town afterwards to The Philippines.
The quote is an example of the "Command-and-Control" training tactics used by the military and special operations forces deployed in combat zones to attack the enemy.They are now civilian warriors who escalate encounters to justify 'Shoot-to-Kill."
As far as "legalities go", there's a father-son family history in the Mesa Police Department that might help to explain the outcome of the case, and the new twist in the story.
His Father Was a Lieutenant in the Mesa PD’s Internal Affairs Unit - Brailsford's father, also named Philip Brailsford, left the Mesa Police Department last year to join a local law firm.
He was a lieutenant and had worked in the department’s Internal Affairs Unit. According to a press release from the law firm where he now works, Fennemore Craig, the elder Brailsford was a police officer for 19 years, and also served in Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Army.He graduated from Arizona State’s law school._________________________________________________________________________
> There's another twist to this story that has not been picked up in mainstream media and by no means relieves anyone of culpability or blame for their actions while "on-duty".
The Free Thought Project has been given photos and background on Philip Brailsford—the cop acquitted for murdering an unarmed innocent father of two—which paint a much different picture than a cold-blooded killer.
Philip Brailsford: How the Police State
Made a Mormon Missionary a Cold-Blooded Killer
Philip Brailsford went from spreading love in the Mormon church to gunning down an unarmed innocent father of two for no reason.
What happened?
Miscarriage of Justice Here In Mesa Gets More National Attention: The Case of Philip Brailsford
Image credit: TomTingle Arizona Republic via AP |
The opening image for this post - with the cop looking back over his shoulder - is taken from the first of a number of articles used in this report.
He Killed an Unarmed Man, Then Claimed Disability
The latest twist in the police shooting of Daniel Shaver
EXCERPT: In 2010, Brailsford, like many of the Mormon missionaries before him, would travel to Ecuador to help people and to spread his faith
BLOGGER NOTE: Missions usually last for two years.
Brailsford became a rookie cop in 2013. . . While TFTP will not pretend to have psychoanalyzed Philip Brailsford, this is not necessary to grasp the alarming trend among police that has been increasing over time.
Policing in the United States metamorphosed drastically over the last few decades after the NDAA in 1990 allowed departments to obtain surplus military equipment free of charge. With the weapons and gear of war likewise came the warrior ethos. Though unprepared to handle accouterments of the battlefield, hapless American police waged war on the very communities in their charge — an epidemic level of violence by law enforcement has since erupted.
And the military-industrial complex is still making a killing (literally and figuratively) at taxpayer expense from the transformation of small-town police forces—“kitted out with Marine-issue camouflage and military-grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles”—into extensions of the military.
Policing in the United States metamorphosed drastically over the last few decades after the NDAA in 1990 allowed departments to obtain surplus military equipment free of charge. With the weapons and gear of war likewise came the warrior ethos. Though unprepared to handle accouterments of the battlefield, hapless American police waged war on the very communities in their charge — an epidemic level of violence by law enforcement has since erupted.
And the military-industrial complex is still making a killing (literally and figuratively) at taxpayer expense from the transformation of small-town police forces—“kitted out with Marine-issue camouflage and military-grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles”—into extensions of the military.