A Buffalo police officer has been charged with taking $130 from a woman’s pocketbook while on duty this summer outside an Elmwood Avenue cafe.
Northwest District Officer Michael R. Missana, 42, was arraigned Thursday before acting State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller on a sealed indictment charging him with petit larceny and official misconduct, Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said.
The alleged theft occurred Aug. 21, after a woman’s pocketbook was found at Caffe Aroma, 957 Elmwood, Sedita said.
“Someone obviously left behind her pocketbook,” Sedita said. “A Good Samaritan discovered it and did what you’re supposed to do, turned it over to a police officer and asked the officer to find the owner and return the property.”
Missana, who was outside the cafe at Elmwood and Bidwell Parkway, agreed to return the property, Sedita said.
He returned the pocketbook but allegedly had lifted $130 out of a wallet that it contained, Sedita said.
Missana has been on the force for less than two years and only recently completed his probation, police sources added.
Police officers disturbed about the theft interrogated Missana, who confessed, sources confirmed.
Is this surprising. I'm sure the police officer felt he was entitled to the money. This is part of the problem with police in the U.S.A. Part of it is "badge worship", where the media, and society puts police on some pedestal as heroes. They are not heroes because a hero takes risks...risks his own life. A police officer is trained specifically to NOT risk his/her life. The first priority of a police officer is "officer safety". This comes before the safety of the public. Specifically, an officer is trained to do first what keeps him/her safe. If that means shooting before asking questions, the officer can justify it by merely stating that he felt in danger, regardless of whether the danger was real.
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem. The officer should be held accountable if he/her uses his weapon to kill someone in a case where there was no danger. An officer should put the lives above citizens above his own if he wants to be considered a hero.
Firemen work under the same concept. Scott Walker died because the firemen wouldn't remove him from the car, because there was some danger they could become burned. They wouldn't let his friends pull him out, because there was a chance they could be injured in doing so.
Whatever happened to taking risks for others?
Between this guy, and the cop in Buffalo that has a shot 28 dogs in just a few months if I lived there, it would be a message to move or lock and load.
ReplyDelete