The story hit the news a little while ago. Sgt. Bullard of the North Charleston Police Department actually shot himself in the early morning hours of July 4th, 2012. We were automatically suspicious because no real description of a suspect was issued, but we refrained from discussing the case. The comment sections of the local media sites are now going crazy with citizens calling the officer everything but a child of God. Justifiable outrage? Maybe. Knee-jerk reaction? Maybe.
Immediately after the incident we were informed by our local media of all the good work done by Sgt. Bullard in his fifteen years of service, including his years of work with juvenile victims of sexual assault and child abuse, juvenile suspects and organizations supporting victim's rights. The media reported on the commendations he received from organizations representing those victims, noting he even devoted his off-time to assisting those who needed it.
Will Sgt. Bullard lose his job? Definitely. Will he be charged with a criminal offense? Possibly. We expect the local media to go after his head. They do love a scandal when the party involved is not one who falls under their protection. What concerns us is the thirst for blood exhibited by the public.
So, what could drive a person with an exemplary career to do something so out of context with the character previously exhibited? We don't know, but we can venture a guess. We are not excusing Bullard for what happened. We are simply presenting facts you won't hear from the talking heads.
Police officers in the South are not often paid on par with those in other areas. We firmly believe most of those in law enforcement in the Lowcountry are highly dedicated and go into the profession in spite of that drawback so they can serve their community. If a department allows it, many officers take on additional details, sometimes referred to as 'off-duty security'. The officer who fired a shot at an armed suspect in a convenience store on Dorchester Road a few weeks ago was working one of those details. Officers who have families to support will take any chance to do what they love and make a few extra dollars.
The law enforcement field is hard enough on families. Read through the pages of Charleston Thug Life and you get an idea of what these officers are dealing with during a typical shift. If the things we bring to light here frustrate the average citizen, we have to take a moment to imagine how police officers feel when they have worked hard, jailed a violent criminal and have to watch as a solicitor or a judge sets them again. Bullard's specialty was crime against children. Even worse.
Officers work long hours, see things we can't imagine and spend considerable time away from home and family. They are told they shouldn't take any work related issues home with them. They are told to make sure problems at home don't affect them at work. We think those are impossible goals.
When we factor in forty hours in a normal work week, another twenty hours of off-duty jobs, time spent in court and probably a variety of other drains on the limited hours in a week we begin to see issues. A person can only miss so many anniversaries, birthdays, baseball games and school functions before some modicum of resentment sinks in among other family members. Just ask a military family about that.
All of this takes place in a culture where the individual officer is supposed to be 'tough'. It takes place in departments who only provide nominal mental health counseling to employees - just enough to limit the liability of the department should anything untoward happen. It takes place in departments whose main source of mental health services is nothing more than an on-call volunteer chaplain.
We aren't claiming any of these factors are in play in the case of Sgt. Bullard. We don't know him and we don't know anything about his situation, but we think the public should at least consider the possibility before throwing him to the wolves. Maybe further investigation will prove him to be the complete opposite, but until additional information comes to light we will give him the benefit of the doubt. We can still agree the act was costly and wrong, but we won't string him from the gallows until we try to understand the 'why' behind the act.
Good job presenting this..
ReplyDeleteI agree with CTL and Hang. Too early to comment on this one until we know what is going on his head. Police work IS stressful. I know I couldn't do it. It's obvious he isn't fit to be in LE any more but before we publicly hang him let's hear his side of the story.
ReplyDeleteOh come on...it has nothing to do with low pay or any of the other excuses listed above. He is a sorry excuse for a man and as for the being away from his family...if he wasn't out knocking up women who aren't his wife...he would be with his family more. Had he been able to keep it in his pants and not have one kid with one girl and another on the way with another...causing problems with his wife...this wouldn't have happened. Maybe he should have aimed a little lower and blown it off...that way he could stop cheating on his wife and having more kids...
ReplyDeleteWhat is there to understand????charleston thug blog is full of what comes out of your ass!!!If it was a black on black crime...it would have 50 comments...and a different view!Dont overlook the big factor...Cop shots himself and said it was two assailants!What else are police officers hiding???
ReplyDeleteClose to the family, Liz?
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, Tiffany. The bulk of those on CTL ARE, in fact, pieces of shit. Nice job recognizing that.
ReplyDeleteTiffany, you said "if it was a black on black crime". Of course it would have a different view. It would have been a different crime. You can't judge this for what it is by basing your judgement on what it isn't.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I keep seeing people ask why he said it was a black person and not whites. Look at the history of crime in N Chas. Look at who is committing most of the crimes. Not to mention who tend to shoot at cops the most. If he had said two whites in that neighborhood had attacked him and shot him his lie would have been seen for what it is immediately. The blacks in this town have set a pattern of violence and the get mad when others use that pattern to their own advantage.
There will be no winners on this one. He, along with a whole list of NCPD officers over the last couple years, make that dept look bad. According to Liz he has a lot of personal demons to work out and, thanks to people like her, it will just make them harder for him and his family. The black community will continue to sit there surprised that someone could actually accuse them of this crime and even more confused that everyone would believe him. They will learn nothing from it.
Oh and Tiffany. You ask what else are the police hiding? First what does that have to do with this event? If they aren't hiding it (if they were as bad as you think you wouldn't know it was a lie, it would be swept under the rug) why do you think other stuff is?
Tiffany-you dipshit...what are they HIDING? It doesn't sound like this is being "hidden", does it? Get a grip...that damned persecuted thing you people have. There are going to bad individuals in every career path. You show up for this, but did you praise the black officer for defending himself and doing the right thing when he eliminated that threat the other day? Of course you didn't...he's a "traitor", right? 50 comments on Charleston Thug Life....for a black on black crime? Find and paste ONE LINK TO ONE BLOG ON HERE THAT HAS 50 ARTICLES. Don't just make it up...the truth doesn't have "versions"..it is what it is. So, who's hiding what, Tiffany? You think the police are HIDING SOMETHING? Maybe they should just hang the truth out of their mouths between their gold teeth..then it would be something you could recognize.
ReplyDeleteIt also sounds like Liz knows the real deal...so, TIFFANY, realize that cops are doing a JOB. And it's not a highly paid job. Your boyfriend probably has more money that he has gotten from the corner-walk-ups he does from 7am-1pm than the cop sees in a month of full time employment. Don't expect them to be superhuman...just expect them to be BETTER than the sh#t that they have to deal with everyday...your friends...you know the type I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteI think the main difference between this officer and the usual thugs (black and white) featured on this blog is that Bullard did a lot of good in society helping others before this incident. The thugs have spent most of their lives hurting others and repeatedly committing crimes. That makes readers wonder what may have caused the officer to go off the deep end. I don't condone what he did and I believe that his days as a police officer should be over. I also cannot tolerate a liar or a cheater, so if Tiffany's claims are true I wouldnt have any respect for Bullard. BUT there still exists a vast difference between the benefit of the doubt deserved by Bullard and career criminals.
ReplyDelete@Liz.. Wow, if what you say is true then you must be very close to the family, I am guessing a friend of the wife. GREAT job, you are a real stand up friend to put her personal business on the Internet. With friends like you who needs enemies.
ReplyDelete@ 19acf86a-3bae.. Excellent point. Apparently Liz and Tiffany have been known to walk on water since they have taken a judgement stance.
All of these holier than thou people commenting all over the internet have me highly pissed. Yeah, Eddie fucked up. He will pay the price. It is interesting how many people who were close friends of his on Thursday now talk shit about him. People at NCPD like to throw each other overboard and write them off as soon as something bad happens.
ReplyDeleteOne commenter here is the daughter of a former police lieutenant who can't pay his bills. Look at all those judgements and eviction notices on the publicly accessible internet. Wasn't someone close to her charged with a crime of moral turpitude by CPD back in the 90s? Did daddy have anything to do with making that go away? Maybe they didn't tell you about that. Yep, your family is uniquely qualified to comment on the indiscretions of others.
Since you are at it why not discuss some other problems at NCPD? Get it all out in the open - rip the band-aid off quickly as it were.
How many individuals STILL working there have failed urinalysis in the past for illegal and prescription drugs? How many have been thrown out of their church for having an affair with a high ranking member of the staff, then promptly got promoted several times and are now high up the chain? How many good and decent officers have been severely disciplined and even had their career advancement stopped cold simply for being critical of that corrupt culture or of certain policies? How many incompetents are still employed there because they are well connected? How many officers investigated for actual cases of sexual harassment are still employed there? How many civilian employees are STILL working there, even after it was proved they were passing information on to their family members who are likely to be seen on this website? Who was that officer who missed a court date on a CDV, resulting in the defendant being released. That defendant promptly murdered his victim. That officer was suspended for a couple of weeks and then promoted to a very high rank before he retired.
There is so much extra-marital sex going on there I am surprised they didn't incorporate a special conference room in the new city hall and put some beds in it. An enterprising condom salesman could set up a booth in city hall and make a fortune selling thin blue line rubbers.
Maybe Eddie did stick his dick where it shouldn't have been but he was only following the examples set by his leaders.
I was able to flee that den of inequity a few years to take a job with the military but I still get the scoop on the goings-on from friends. I could go on but why bother? Nothing ever changes there. I feel sorry for all my friends who continue to serve honorably in a morally deficient department.
All we can say is - Wow.
ReplyDeletewow, you know cops are human too, and they see things everyday that many of us would not understand. Kids murdered, woman raped and abused, and way to many people playing the system, while you work and work to do what is right, all while seeing so many POS who get over, you know telling the police they will pay their fines on the first "when I gets my check!", tyou know the disability check for "having a phobia"(was it of work?), or the check for 'getting shot doing a drug deal', or the check for "being a slow learner", so on and so forth. In law enforcement if one doesn't have balance in their life, well one could go off the deep end, after all, cops are human too. Who knows why he did what he did, it was wrong, and his personal problems didn't make it any better, but anyone who takes a .45 and puts it to their vest, they have a serious problem and need help and my heart goes out to his family who has to suffer their dirty laundry aired out in public now that he has made that foolish decision.
ReplyDeleteLOL @ thin blue line rubbers!
ReplyDeleteHaving been asked by others, I would like it to be known that the comment by 'Gimme A Break' is NOT me! Yes, I worked there a few years ago and yes, I currently work for the military. However, when I comment on things, I do so using my name, not an anonymous moniker, because I have nothing to hide. If I burn a bridge, I want it to be by my own hands, not someone elses!
ReplyDeleteWhile what he said may be based in fact, there is no reason to 'out' the department because all of those other people he mentioned haven't committed the public act of betrayal that Eddie Bullard did.
As far as Liz listing personal information here, keep in mind one important thing; Eddie's first baby-momma was the first to lay out his personal information on very public forums to complete strangers. For those that have seen her multitude of posts, you now know the same info (if not more) than what Liz or I have said.
I only had brief contact with Eddie, certainly not enough to consider him a friend. With that said, I am disgusted by his act of betrayal to his co-workers, department, and profession. 'Gimme A Break' is correct, there is a lot of sex going on in pretty much any department. Thats why what he did to his wife doesn't really shock me, however I do believe is the crux of the matter. It is how he handled the aftermath that denegrated his worth in my opinion. Many of Eddie's friends will remain so, and that is fine. However, those same friends should NOT excuse what he did simply because he is 'a nice guy'. Good friends hold other friends accountable when they screw up.
The 'Thin Blue Line' rubbers comment was pretty good. I wish I could have taken credit for that! -Tom Hess
FYI I'm not his 1st "babymama" nor am I the last.
DeleteFYI I'm not his first "babymama" nor am I his last.
DeleteThanks Thomas. You would be surprised at the number of anonymous e-mails we have received regarding the organization. So far we have chosen not to publish personal information of officers, but there appears to be a lot of issues bubbling up.
ReplyDeleteI love the excuses made for him in this blog. I don't know why he shot himself, nobody does. I do know he's a bad father to ALL of his biological kids.
ReplyDelete