hey everybody it's James Freeman so about five days ago Southwest Harbor Police Department made this post a press release says Please welcome our newest police officer Richard strout officer strout comes to us with many years of experience while in Machias he received numerous commendations for outstanding work from the community and other agencies he graduated the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in 2003 he left law enforcement in 2011. while his departure was publicly aired he overcame the negativity and has been able to return to the profession he loves to ensure the Integrity of our profession to ensure the inter to ensure the Integrity of our profession with all new hires an exhaustive background check along with polygraph and psychological were conducted the results cleared his name and confirmed that we had found an excellent officer thank you officer strout for coming to our town and we've got a picture of Officer Stroup when I first saw this I had no idea what they were talking about this uh negativity that he overcame when he left the Machias Police Department back in 2011 so I went and looked it up apparently Richard strout was sued a number of times I think at least three back in 2010 2011. um one of those lawsuits was from Sarah cotton 24 year old at Columbia Falls who alleges that Stout violated her rights in May 2010 when he arrested her for a civil infraction that does not permit an arrest it's supposed to be a citation during the arrest he allegedly maester and fondled her breasts and just two weeks earlier another lawsuit was filed by Gabriel rushforth 24 years old of Machias filed a similar lawsuit in which she claims that her nose was broken by the officer during the arrest both women who I guess were 21 years old at the time of the incidents were originally charged with assault on a police officer refusing to submit to arrest and criminal mischief all of the charges against both women were subsequently dropped in Washington County superior court officer strout ended up being fired from the police department for these allegations while there were civil lawsuits filed here the allegations here are nothing less than criminal but Stroud was never criminally charged and therefore the facts were never brought to court to figure out one way or another whether Stroud was innocent or guilty had strout actually been taken to trial and convicted of the things that he was accused of there's no way he ever could have become a police officer again essentially lawsuits rather than criminal charges are a way for police to get out of true accountability the city or the county pays his victims and he gets to continue victimizing people if you or me punched a woman in the nose and groped her breasts we'd be in jail at the very least we'd be charged for our alleged crimes and be able to go before a jury of our peers but this almost never happens with police because their criminal behavior is treated as a civil issue or an internal administrative issue there is no other profession where you can commit a crime in the only consequences you lose your job for example let's say I work for Domino's Pizza as a delivery driver I knock on a woman's door to deliver her Pizza as soon as she opens it I punch her in the nose and grope her breasts yeah of course Domino's is gonna fire me but you better believe I'm gonna be facing criminal charges for my criminal behavior and officer strout being able to get a job as a police officer again and being put back on the streets to be able to victimize people is a direct result of him not being criminally charged and convicted since the southwest Harbor Police Department knows about the very public case of Richard strout back in 2011 I don't know why they decided to make a public press release saying hey we hired a cop that is allegedly Pretty Dirty but they did luckily the people exercise their right to seek redress for their grievances with the Department as you can see 459 comments Brian Diaz says it sounds like a small town looking to put meat in the seat to cover shifts Victoria Ashton says so y'all are just throwing rotten apples back into the barrel now Jimmy Rogers says you wonder why people don't like cops you rehired someone with a record of abusing their power nobody should trust any of your officers if you hire truly horrible people like him this is disgusting some justice system we have so the press release was made five days ago two days later the department made a new post on June 30th 2023 says to the residents of Southwest Harbor Mr strout is no longer employed by the southwest Harbor Police Department I am writing to publicly apologize to the residents of Southwest Harbor and the Greater Community for damaging your trust in this department this was never my intention I want to thank every citizen who came forward and expressed their concerns in whichever form that took the safety of the citizens is first and foremost and you did not nor would you feel safe if Mr Stout continued I hope that this can begin the process of regaining your trust Chief Hall wherever you're at in the world never let your government have your trust the cost of Liberty is eternal vigilance we should be constantly watching and checking up and re-checking up on our government because it is in their nature to become tyrannical it is in their nature to do whatever they want to serve themselves at our expense and therefore the only way to combat that is for people outside of government to be constantly breathing down the neck of and scrutinizing government so just two days after the department made this post saying that they hired an allegedly dirty cop the voice of the people got that changed now let me say this to the people out there who say if you you don't like the way your government's being run just deal with it and wait four years and then vote again that never worked never has never will but you know what did work when you see something that you don't like in your government when you see something that's going wrong you speak up loud and clear and you don't stop until they change or fix the problem in my experience of covering stories like this I personally have never ever ever seen a real change from an election or a vote but I've seen big changes on a regular basis when people like you reach out and tell your government you're fed up and you're not putting up with this and you're not going to shut up until they fix it stop letting government tell you how you can or cannot redress grievances or what process you have to use to correct your government your government was supposed to do what you delegate them and tell them to do but as we all know that hasn't happened in a very long time and as we all know they want you to be quiet wait four more years and vote for another piece of [ __ ] I know that a lot of people out there don't understand why I wear that shirt that it says don't vote it only encourages them but I don't care if you're talking about the presidential level or your local city council members in all the years I've been doing this I see that we constantly vote out one piece of trash to vote in a new piece of trash you don't have to wait for a new election cycle to get rid of your dirty government employees and officials when you see something happening that's not right in your local government get loud get obnoxious and make them pay attention to you make them fix the problem not just give you lip service and don't let up until they do well done America you're starting to take control of your freedom and your government back the same way that they took it away one tiny little piece at a time you don't have permission to record me sir if you don't like being recorded don't come out in public go home and close your blinds okay thank you have a good one same to you