A fired San Antonio, Texas, police officer, who was ratted out by fellow cops for giving a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog shit, was reinstated because of a technicality, proving that once again, being born with white skin and a penis and getting a badge on top of that is like hitting the lottery when it comes to Teflon justice.
Matthew Luckhurst, formerly a bicycle patrol officer in San Antonio, had his 2016 dismissal voided because he was not punished within the required 180 days of the alleged incident, reports the New York Daily News:
Officers said the dog feces incident happened on May 6, 2016, while Luckhurst was on patrol, and he was informed of his indefinite suspension on Oct. 28, 2016. Luckhurst challenged the May date, saying injury prevented him from riding a bicycle during a three-month period.
An arbitrator also cited a lack of evidence in voiding the officer’s dismissal earlier this month.
Yet, as reported by MySanAntonio.com, more than one officer crossed the thin blue line against Luckhurst more than two year ago because of the callous, egregiousness of his act, where he bragged to another officer that “he had picked up some feces, placed it in a slice of bread, and put it in a Styrofoam container next to the unknown homeless male,” according to a press release from the chief of police’s office. The other officer told him to throw it away at that time, which according to Luckhurst’s brags, he did not.
Police could not locate the homeless man at that time.
As reported by The Root, both the police chief and the mayor of San Antonio went on record to decry the shitty act.
“This was a vile and disgusting act that violates our guiding principles of ‘treating all with integrity, compassion, fairness and respect,’ Chief William McManus said in a prepared statement. “The fact that his fellow officers were so disgusted with his actions that they reported him to Internal Affairs demonstrates that this type of behavior will never be tolerated. The action of this one former officer in no way reflects the actions of all the other good men and women who respectfully serve this community.”
The mayor at that time, Ivy Taylor, also noted: “Firing this officer was the right thing to do. His actions were a betrayal of every value we have in our community, and he is not representative of our great police force.”
Luckhurst’s lawyer said then that the officers’ actions were basically all a joke, and besides that, there was no evidence. He also correctly surmised at that time that Luckhurst would prevail in arbitration.
“It didn’t happen,” said Ben Sifuentes in November 2016, continuing: “There are no eyewitnesses or video recordings and no statement from the homeless person.”
The Daily News reports that Luckhurst, however, is still not back on the streets, as he is appealing another suspension involving feces. It is alleged that he and another officer bragged about leaving crap in the women’s restroom.
I’m sure he’ll get off for that too. I mean, if you can shoot someone with their arms raised or choke someone out on video and face no consequence, what’s giving a shit sandwich to a bum that no one can find?