New Jersey Chief
Albuquerque Chief
Nex Benedict
It is not often that police chief’s are the subject of our articles - as they typically do not become directly involved in interesting or controversial incidents. But, this week we have two cases where police chief’s did not give us much choice.
Takeaway - Often times police officers complain that they are disciplined or criticized by department leaders for actions that occur within a split dynamic second - by people who have not worn a uniform or taken a call for service in a decade. Officers often wonder how their department leaders would have reacted if faced with a similar situation. Well, now officers in Bradley Beach, NJ and Albuquerque, NM have the privilege of knowing the answer to that question.
1. New Jersey Chief
On November 9, 2023 Bradley Beach Police Chief (Leonard Guida) showed up to a multiple vehicle crash scene. The only problem is that Chief Guida was in plain clothes and drunk out of his mind.
Sergeant William Major was managing the crash scene and ensuring that a drunk driving investigation was initiated by on scene officers.
For some reason Chief Guida began to berate the Sergeant about the jacket that he was wearing. The Chief complained that the lettering on the back of the jacket had faded and explained how that was “unprofessional”. Sergeant Major seemingly wanted to get back to, you know, working, and discuss the wardrobe issue later. But, Chief Guida refused to drop it.
At one point Chief Guida waled towards Sergeant Major and grabbed his arm. Sarge immediately responded and shoved the drunk Chief onto a patrol car and then pushed him away.
The Chief then tried to convince on scene officers to “take him in” (ie. arrest the Sergeant).
Chief Guida then verbally “suspended” Sergeant Major on the spot.
The end result of this case is that Chief Guida is still suspended with pay. Hopefully on his way to being fired.
Sergeant Major is back at work - hopefully on his way to making Lieutenant.
Sergeant Major did the right thing and set a good example to the patrol officers under his command.
I am sure that this incident stems from something deeper and the Chief may not be a bad guy. It’s likely an inconvenient warning that it’s time to retire.
When you show up on scene, drunk, barking nonsensical orders - it’s time to allow the next generation take the reins.
2. Albuquerque Chief
Albuquerque Police Chief (Harold Medina) was on his way to a press conference on a Saturday Morning (2/17/24). The Chief had his wife with him as a passenger in his unmarked police car.
On the way to the press conference the pair stopped to check on a homeless camp that was spilling onto the sidewalk. While on scene a “bum fight” erupted. One individual pulled put a gun and fired a shot. The gun shot was not aimed at the Chief’s car but it was in the general direction of where his car had been parked.
The Chief then immediately sped away, ran a red light, and crashed into a classic Mustang - seriously injuring the driver.
The Chief did not have his body camera running and likely violated multiple SOPs. Chief Medina did publicly request that his actions be investigated by Internal Affairs.
Imagine being the IA detective on this case?
Keep in mind that this is a police agency that is a decade into a DOJ Consent Decree with a documented history of retaliating against officers who speak out.
The entire administrative investigation should be outsourced to a different agency.
To his credit Chief Medina did publicly state that this experience helped him to remember what it was like to be a patrol officer, on scene during a dynamic incident, and expressed how difficult that can be. Thank you, Chief. I just ask that you take those sentiments into consideration when officers are disciplined for mistakes on duty.
(Surveillance video of crash).
3. Nex Benedict
Nex Benedict was a trans individual and I honestly do not know what pronouns to use or what the transition was to or from.
Nex was a teenager(16) who attended Owasso High School in Oklahoma.
On February 8, 2024 Nex died and immediately this tragedy became a national story.
Trans-activists immediately blamed the State of Oklahoma, conservatives, and Chaya Raichik (founder of Libs of Tik Tok) for the death of Nex. It was also reported that Nex was beaten to death by multiple female students in a bathroom. This cause of death had been reported as factual by thousands of media outlets and “influencers”.
However, the autopsy has been completed and here was the comment from police, “Preliminary information from the medical examiner's office is that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma."
There are hundreds of “influencers” who find this information inconvenient to their narrative and have refused to update, retract, or correct their previous reports. I responded to one of these grifters on X (here).
Standing on the grave of a dead teenager in order to score political points is disgusting.
Saw the NJ police chief video and it was shocking to see a chief being that stupid in public with his officer. The chief is lucky the officer didn’t slam him and cuff him on the spot for DUI and assault on a peace officer. That is the one rule I live by, don’t care if its a Sheriff, Chief, or anyone else except my mother, father, wife, or kids, nobody touches me unless I allow it and especially in that manner. Trained for decades in the martial arts and the chief would have gotten the automatic reaction my body did and wouldn’t have liked it. The problem I have is the with pay part, he is the chief which means he is an at will employee of the city council or mayor one, he should have been packing his office up the next day after that video was shown to them. As for the Sgt, yes, as the next highest officer was promoted to chief hopefully and the promotions went up the line, he should have been one of those promoted.
The next article about the chief who stops at a homeless encampment with his wife in the car, he is stupid on so many levels it’s not funny. 32 yrs on the job, 5 yrs in custody as a deputy, 8 yrs on patrol as deputy/FTO, 6 yrs as a full time member of a 9 person tac/entry team, 5 yrs as a detective/lead detective in a detective unit charged with investigating anything and everything from theft from the wrong politically connected person to homicide, and the remainder of my career as a patrol sgt/FTO and the last couple was running three major court houses we were in charge of security on. The only time my wife ever rode in one of my vehicles, had numerous take home cars, marked, unmarked, heck on the tac team I drove a deuce and a half home on numerous occasions as we used it in operations all the time, was when I was tasked to drive in a parade or some celebration. My kid, who is now a deputy and has been for 8 yrs, never went on a ride along with me until he was 20 and decided he wanted to become a deputy and I couldn’t talk him out of it and his mother said yes. He got a crash course in the ugly side of law enforcement at that point riding with me two or three times a week to every nasty call I could find and as a patrol sgt I could go to anything and everything I wanted. To his credit, he didn’t shy away and is now a good law enforcement officer that I helped train in everything he would need to survive on the streets and the politics of law enforcement. Ok, back to the chief, driving fast away from a guy shooting at him, I don’t see him getting in trouble for this as our policy was that we weren’t allowed to place a ride along in a dangerous situation, no pursuits or anything close to a shootout between the chief and some homeless guy.
This article showcases the problem with modern law enforcement and their failure to understand how fast the world works now with the internet and social media. Agencies are used to just not giving information out till their investigation is 100% compete and in the old days that was fine, but not today. Today, unless you want a bunch of progressive cult nutcases tearing your town apart or depending on the situation, the nation, if there is relevant information, release it. This report, the kid didn’t die from trauma, what the hell does that mean, OD, suicide, was there signs of blunt force trauma to the body like (whatever pronoun) was beaten up or assaulted. Sorry the 6 week wait time for a drug screen which can be done in about 20 minutes or less, thats not gonna fly with the cop hating crowd who wants nothing more than to find an excuse, legitimate or not to go off on you. If you have the information, release it if its not going to impact the case, you have body worn camera footage or unit camera coverage, release what you can and show in real time what happened, period. Bad, take the lumps, good, get in front of the nut jobs.