A picture taken sometime between 1999 and 2003 has surfaced depicting two officers posing in a picture with an unidentified black suspect as if the suspect were a hunting trophy.
The picture was turned over to the city following the sentencing of Jerome Finnigan, one of the officers pictured. Finnigan was sentenced to 12 years for organizing robberies and home invasions, along with other cops.
The other officer, Timothy McDermott, was fired after a 5-4 vote against him last year on the police board, with the dissenters saying that the treatment of the black suspect in the picture as “a hunted animal is a disgrace and shocks the conscience.”
According to Finnigan, the man had been arrested because he was carrying “20 bags of weed,” but they let him go because the man did not have a serious criminal background. Neither officer filed any reports of the incident. He described the decision to pose the photo as a “spur of the moment stunt.”
The police superintendent has come out against the photo, saying that it is “disgusting” and “despicable.” He further said that both officers involved deserved to be kicked off the force.