Loading ...Sergeant claims dislocated jaw was self-defense
by Mountain Girl ~ December 29th, 2009. Filed under: Latest News.I hate to cast a pall over this magical season, but I think something must be said about the recent decision to allow a police officer with multiple assault charges to continue to work. The PG wrote has been writing a lot about Sergeant Hlavac’s case; you can read the most recent article here.
Mayor Ravenstahl promoted Hlavac in 2007 despite domestic violence accusations against him. Now he’s being accused of slapping his ex-girlfriend hard enough to dislocate her jaw.
His claim? Self-defense. As if it isn’t bad enough that charges against him were reduced from aggravated assault to simple assault, he and his lawyers think this is an adequate enough argument to acquit him. Exactly how is slapping someone self-defense?
Statistics from the National Center for Women & Policing put the number of police officers involved in domestic violence at home at up around 40% as opposed to about 10% in the general population. Typically, discipline amounts to no more than a little <wink, wink> counseling and the officer is back on the street again…with a gun. In spite of federal law passed in the 90s that forbids anyone (including police officers) to own a firearm if they’ve been convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence offense, this law isn’t routinely enforced.
I think that Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents (via the PG’s Cutting Edge column) summed it up well:
“How can a person with reasonable intellect and self-preservation skill emerge unscathed from the 2007 promotion debacle only to engage in escalating violence toward his intimate partner? It is called domestic violence, not a spat nor a dispute nor self-defense. A trained police officer does not need to dislocate the jaw of a woman to ‘defend’ himself. At least not a well-trained police officer. The women and men of our city deserve better than thugs like this man serving on our police force.”
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December 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I agree, this “cop” should be fired and stripped of any awards or promotions. I wonder who he knows in the mayors office that is helping him keep his job? This is wrong and I hope our Mayor realizes it and fires his ass and makes a job available for a real police officer that wants to serve his community.
This Sergeant Hlava is [EDITED]!
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:57 am
Very interesting. You censor anyone who disagrees with you AND convict a man before he has his day in court. Mt. Washington’s meeting place? What a farce.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:27 am
Steve O-
Let me ask you a question: Who did the owners of Club Pittsburgh know in the mayors office? Zober? Clearly, what they did was wrong. The gay stuff is not important. Whatever. They profited by selling sex and drugs. That shit is illegal and they didn’t even have to go to court to defend themselves.
I hope they make up for their misdeeds an make Mt. Washington the place it should be.
January 24th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I’ve been a long time reader, and I just thought it was time to make my first blog post. Hope all is well.