Former Baltimore Cop Details The Terrible Things He Did And Witnessed

Michael A. Wood Jr. is a former Baltimore police officer. During his time on the force, he witnessed and participated in a number of deeply disturbing acts of abuse and brutality, and he has started detailing them on Twitter.

In the wake of the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent turmoil in Baltimore, these revelations are decidedly disconcerting.

The Baltimore Police Department already has an awful reputation. Since 2011, the city dished out $5.8 million in legal fees after claims of police brutality.

In many ways, Wood's confessions, unfortunately, aren't surprising. Let's hope they help inspire meaningful changes.

Here are some of the tweets.

So here we go. I'm going to start Tweeting the things I've seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

A detective slapping a completely innocent female in the face for bumping into him, coming out of a corner chicken store. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Punting a handcuffed, face down, suspect in the face, after a foot chase. My handcuffs, not my boot or suspect — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

CCTV cameras turning as soon as a suspect is close to caught. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Pissing and shitting inside suspects homes during raids, on their beds and clothes. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Swearing in court and PC docs that suspect dropped CDS during unbroken visual pursuit when neither was true. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Note: "PC" means probable cause and "CDS" stands for controlled dangerous substance aka drugs.

Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Having other people write PC statements, who were never there because they could twist it into legality. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Summonsing officers who weren't there so they could collect the overtime. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Targeting 16-24 year old black males essentially because we arrest them more, perpetrating the circle of arresting them more. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

More tomorrow or later... — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

The enormous response generated by the tweets surprised him.

I'm shocked anyone is actually listening this time. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

He also made it clear these were not isolated incidents. They were habitual.

What's really hard to convey is that some things are so common place, they didn't register until I was on the other side. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

I don't remember details of any particular person getting illegally searched, it was every day. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Even he isn't exactly sure how we can move forward; he just knows it has to be a societal effort.

These things happen(ed), now how do we fix it? We need police. Let's figure out how to do it right. The starting line is marked "Empathy" — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

It doesn't matter whether anyone believes me or not Don't rely on arguments from authority. What matters? That future training prevents this — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Wood realizes much of what he's revealed isn't new, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to make an impact.

Every person in low income, especially minorities, knows all of this already. I'm not revealing anything at all, just confirming. — Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015

Citations: Undue Force (Baltimore Sun)