One Year Later, Still Looking For Justice

While everyone is enjoying pulling pranks on naive coworkers or friends Andy Cortez' family is still looking for justice. One year today Andy Cortez was shot by off duty officer Jorge Gonzalez after a minor fender bender. Andy is now paralyzed from the neck down. He is learning how to use a motorized wheel chair that he controls with his chin to be able to move around. Andy has spent time in a rehab hospital out of town and has been in the hospital twice since he was shot for medical reasons. His family has had to adjust due to this major change to all of their lives. Andy requires care 24 hours a day. He can't just get up and go with his friends like most 21 year olds. He is not out living life and enjoying what he should be enjoying at his age. In fact he doesn't get out much at all. In fact he has only been out of his house six times in the last year. The family doesn't have any way to transport him and all the medical equipment he needs. An ambulance has to transport Andy to his doctors appointments or when he gets sick and ends up in the hospital. The family needs help to get Andy a vehicle that could transport him and his wheelchair.

Now on the other hand, Officer Gonzalez' life has not changed one bit. He was back on duty after a short stint  on administrative leave. But now he's back on the job. It's back to normal for officer Jorge Gonzalez. He's back in uniform, he's back on the street but it seems that he is back to his same old tricks. The investigation on the shooting has not been closed yet. In fact, the DA's office has not ever taken a statement from Andy at all. So this case is far from closed. Yet officer Jorge Gonzalez is back on administrative leave. Yes, that's right. He is back on administrative leave pending the investigation of yet another shooting. The interesting thing about this shooting is that Officer Jorge Gonzalez has a very similar story to "justify" it.Just like in Andy's shooting Officer Jorge Gonzalez claims that the driver reversed and attempted to strike the officer with his vehicle and tried to escape. That's when Officer Gonzalez shot at the vehicle. What makes things even more ironic is that both shootings took place after a minor traffic infraction at best. That tells me that this officer has control issues. They should have been addressed the last time he was ordered to go to anger management classes. They might want to send him to a more intensive class this time because there is obviously some issues there.

Andy's family just asks that Andy get a fair chance. The preliminary investigation said that the shooting was justified yet Andy was never interviewed, the DA's office has never heard Andy's side of the story and the witnesses who did make statements had them twisted around and taken out of context. Andy deserves to have a fair and unbiased investigation. The officers statements were taken as facts simply because he is a police officer even though he was suspended for lying to protect himself on a previous arrest yet Andy's credibility is questioned because he had been arrested before. Both have to be held to the same standard. You take both of their records into consideration or you don't take either of their records into consideration. Critics have said that i am taking Andy's side on this because I hate the Police. I want to set the record straight. I am taking Andy's side because the officer was in the wrong. The officer abused his authority and then lied to cover it up. The Police Department has the responsibility to protect and preserve. We have the responsibility to put them in their place when they over step their boundaries. Tax payers do pay their salaries so we have every right to give our input on their actions both positive and negative.