Can’t Win For Losing
By Mitch Berg
Joel Rosenberg apparently got a lot of crap from cops for his coverage of the Hixon case – in which a couple of police, responding to a bank robbery they’d been told involved a white guy, grabbed and (according to the ensuing lawsuit) “jumped-and-thumped” a black guy. The case resulted in a big lawsuit and settlement in Hixon’s favor.
Later, Joel heard:
“I showed that to another friend of mine,” he said. “Retired cop.”
“And?”
“He went off. ‘Who is this bastard and why is he saying this shit?'”
“So, I said, ‘he’s right, you know.'”
“‘Yeah, but that bastard shouldn’t be saying it.'”
We get a lot of that.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:25 am
🙂 As you know, a thick skin not only is essential in all of this, a sense of humor helps.
One quasi-correction: it wasn’t really a “settlement,” except technically; in return for Hixon waiving less than 10% of the judgment — there’d already been the trial, and motions to throw out the judgment and reduce it had been denied — Golden Valley and Officer Rodriguez waived their right to appeal the more-than-megabuck judgment. Think of it as a ten percent discount for cash.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Thank you, joelr, for “saying it”.