Cop does right ... it doesn't end well

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/baltimore-joe-crystal_n_7582374.html


Rat Cop' Joe Crystal Shunned From Baltimore Police Department After Reporting Officer Brutality


BALTIMORE -- Former Detective Joe Crystal sat at a back table in Martin’s West Ballroom last Thursday, scanning the room filled with police officers for any friends he still had left.

Under glowing chandeliers, more than 500 law enforcement officials and their families mingled prior to an awards ceremony honoring Baltimore’s finest. Crystal, 34, was one of the people up for an award, though few had expected him to show. He was a pariah. He had informed on two other cops who engaged in police brutality. And it had cost him his livelihood.

Earlier that day, Crystal showed off the house he was staying in while in town for the ceremony. He ran his hand over the marble surface of a bar he had made himself.

“If I still lived here," he said, "this thing would be packed with liquor."

Crystal once owned this home, but gave it to a friend when he left the Baltimore Police Department and moved to Florida. He feels he had no choice but to leave.

In 2011, Crystal witnessed two fellow cops beating down a drug suspect after the suspect, fleeing from the officers, kicked in the door of a home belonging to another officer's girlfriend.

For reporting the officers’ actions to the State’s Attorney’s Office, Crystal was labeled a "snitch" and a "rat cop." The threats and intimidation -- which included someone putting a dead rat on Crystal's windshield -- are outlined in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that Crystal filed against Commissioner Anthony Batts and the BPD.

The police department declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.

“You know that sickening feeling you get when someone is after you?” Crystal asked. “That’s how I felt every day.”

A Passion For Police Work

Ever since he was a kid in New Jersey, Crystal wanted to be a cop. His parents met while working for the NYPD. His father was forced to retire after his head was bashed with a bat during a bodega robbery attempt. At 18, Crystal joined the Coast Guard, where he would stay for the next six years. The day after the 9/11 attacks, Crystal went to Ground Zero, where he volunteered with the bucket brigade to sift through rubble.

Crystal applied to be a Baltimore police officer in 2008. He graduated from the police academy with top test scores. In 2009, he received the Commissioner’s Award, given to the trainee who shows the most leadership. Sheila Dixon, then the mayor of Baltimore, was there to hand it to him.

After just one year on the force, Crystal was made a detective with the Violent Crimes Impact Section, where he was tasked with getting guns and drugs off the streets.

“He was a really good detective when he was here,” one BPD officer, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of Crystal’s case, told The Huffington Post. “He had a lot of passion, a lot of drive. He was a natural fit.”

Crystal prided himself on his ability to talk to suspects as humans and not act like they were beneath him.

“I remember the first time I went to work with my mom and saw groups of homeless people. As a kid, it broke my heart," he said. "I went home that night and tried to give my mom my Donald Duck piggy bank to help them out.”

Crystal liked working in Baltimore’s poor communities because that’s where he felt he could effect the most change. “You really impact somebody’s life,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it can be the most rewarding job you’ve ever seen.”

But his run in the BPD came to an end when he decided to turn in his colleagues.

“Crystal has always been good to his word,” one officer told HuffPost. “He screwed up his whole career over it.”

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(much more at link)