Community Comment

uniform criminal justice in Spokane?

Posted by Dave

Nov. 14, 2009 1:41 p.m. • 18 comments

Good afternoon, Netizens…

Sergeant Brad Thoma of the Spokane Police Department was recently charged with drunk driving and hit-and-run after leaving the scene of an accident at Farwell and Highway 2.

For a brief moment here, let us pretend like we were in fantasy land. Let’s pretend I am blitzed out of my gourd, driving my perennial van down Farwell Road near Highway 2 and I hit the back of a woman’s Ford Ranger. Rather than face the music, I simply drive away, but since lots of people know me, it isn’t long before the gendarmes arrive at my house and I am taken into custody. Within less than a week, because I seriously feel sorry for the woman whose car I hit, I pay for her expenses in getting it fixed.

Since this is fantasy land, we can use the fast-forward button, and then we come to trial. What kind of a sentence would I get? You can bet there wouldn’t be any visiting Whitman County Judge for me, no sir. The deferred sentencing? No way. I was drunk as Three Lords and they reserve the best cell for me to spend 90 days, mostly because I never have had any drunk driving citations ever.

Now we substitute Sergeant Brad Thoma of the Spokane Police Department for yours truly and look at how the picture of justice changes. Did I get the same justice as Sgt. Brad Thoma? Would you?

I want the same set of criminal justice for everyone, including police officers who violate the law. Have we gotten there yet?

Dave

18 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

ChefGus/ John Olsen on November 14 at 5:09 p.m.
Hey Hey Hey guysn gals… NOT to worry… this officer failed several of the Chief’s five rules …break one and you are gone… I am SURE she will let this officer see the door…. and send him through it.. WHERE is your faith in the Chief of the Force?? just wait till we see what disappearing Anne Kirkpatrick does after the internal investigatin…gus
Ron_the_Cop on November 14 at 5:15 p.m.
Where I’m from his little stunt would have gotten him fired. Not the DUI but the hit and run part. At the very least busted back to police officer. This guy has no business being a supervisor. For the size of this department we sure have a lot of folks with problems popping up. Why?
JeanieSpokane on November 14 at 7:01 p.m.
O, this just riles me. No words can say what I want without the profanity police taking me away.
Rifleman__Dodd on November 14 at 10:36 p.m.
“uniform criminal justice in Spokane?”

If your in uniform, your a criminal. If your not in uniform, there is no justice.

Dave, did I pass the test?
commonsense12 on November 14 at 10:52 p.m.
WOW thats pretty much all i have to say! you should probably meet the person you are gonna talk bad about before you come forward with these comments or articles!
commonsense12 on November 14 at 11:36 p.m.
Also i love that picture of officer thoma its a really good one he looks happy! havent seen that look on his face in a few months =(
commonsense12 on November 14 at 11:48 p.m.
wow took that a little to far… he would be the last one to pull a gun and murder someone… but you wounldn’t understand that concept considering you think the SPD are a bunch of arogant people who can do whatever they want and get away with it.
BitofBacon on November 15 at 8:04 a.m.
Guess again, Lewis
lewis8457 on November 15 at 10:33 a.m.
I notice they took the story off the front page of the website. Odd seems people are upset.

We need to get our pitchforks and other sharp farm tools and go down to the city hall and demand Verner do something about this travesty of justice.

She can no longer deny there is a problem any normal air breather can see there is a serious above the law issue.
commonsense12 on November 15 at 1:21 p.m.
when you say “Tooma reporting for duty” are you referring to THOMA??? maybe if your gonna trash someone spell thier name right?
commonsense12 on November 15 at 1:53 p.m.
if you all knew the person your sitting here talking s**t about maybe you would realize that he isn’t perfect and he sure as hell doesnt think he is.
this is an eye opening experience for him and everyone who knows him. he feels as if he has let everyone down, including his daughter, he didnt think people would stand by him after this.
he may have had a lack in judgement but thats a mistake that many people make everyday… you may say that driving while intoxicated is not a mistake and you’re right but if you or someone close to you was put in this situtaion would you be writing the things you are writing now or would you be sticking up for them? especially if you knew the kind of person they really were.
he may be a member of the spokane police department but he was not treated in any way better than a regular citizen would have been treated. he for the first time experienced what it was like to be on the other side of the bars, he rode to the jail in the back of cop car in handcuffs….
I am pretty sure if you were the one in his shoes right now your family and friends wouldn’t be on here talking s**t about you saying you deserve to go to jail, and you deserve to lose your job, no they would be the ones trying to tell people that you were a good person.
maybe next time before you write a comment on here you should think about the peolpe who are hurt from your words…
JeanieSpokane on November 15 at 6:58 p.m.
I have deleted any reference to anybody not in the article above.
Rifleman__Dodd on November 15 at 10:23 p.m.
While you have the dictionary out, commonsense how do you spell THEIR?
spokelooneh on November 15 at 10:33 p.m.
Selective reality, double-plus good!
arliacne on November 16 at 11:20 a.m.
Spokane cops certainly do enjoy a sheltered life.
lewis8457 on November 17 at 4:43 p.m.
of course anybody would stand up for a buddy. this isnt what this is About. It is about a city cop driving drunk hitting someone running and not paying for the mistake.

There is no lesson learned here.

He is on an extended paid vacation.

What lesson is going to keep him from doing it next time? The realization that he can skate through it? Is that going to keep him from doing again? I don’t know I am doubtful, and sadly I don’t think I am the only one.
Rifleman__Dodd on November 18 at 7:59 a.m.
Maybe he can join the State Patrol and get his “instant” degree as a Substance Abuse Counselor or Driver’s Ed Certificate.

The sad part is that the SPD/SCSD has a very bad track record of discipling their wayward officers due to the strangle hold that the Guild’s (aka Union) has upon our elected/appointed officials. The first move in cleaning up Spokane is to remove their direct enfluence from our government.