My guess is, because they don’t want to end up like Joe Crystal.
Crystal was a good cop, a detective with the Baltimore PD. He’d wanted to be a cop all his life, like his father.
In 2011, Crystal witnessed two fellow cops, Mariano Gialamas and Anthony Williams, beating a drug suspect, Antoine Green, with what he felt was excessive force. The two officers knocked Green — who was handcuffed — to the ground, and repeatedly kicked and punched him, also breaking his ankle.
So Crystal reported the incident to his sergeant — who told him to keep his mouth shut and not to report it to internal affairs.
But Crystal was wracked with guilt, and when he saw the police report — which had been falsified to portray the officers’ actions as self-defense — he met with Assistant State’s Attorney Anna Mantegna, and ultimately told her everything.
“Everything went to shit after that”, Crystal recalled.
For the next two years, Crystal — a highly regarded officer with a spotless record — faced daily harassment by fellow officers for being a “rat”, including finding an actual dead rat on the windshield of his car.
But he testified against Williams and Gialamas anyway. Williams was convicted of assault and obstruction and sentenced to 45 days in jail, while Gialamas received only probation for misconduct. All charges against Antoine Green were ultimately dropped.
As for Crystal, the harassment continued, until he finally decided he had had enough. He resigned in 2014 and moved to Florida, where he works as a deputy sheriff.
He sued the city of Baltimore for failing to protect him, and in 2016 was awarded $42,000. But he never would have left Baltimore had he not been forced to for violating the rules of the “blue wall of silence”.
‘Rat Cop’ Joe Crystal Shunned From Baltimore Police Department After Reporting Officer Brutality
