At a press conference held by ex-gang officer AJ Blake and Latin King leader (and city council candidate) Jorge Cornell today at the Beloved Community Center, another city council candidate expressed support for Blake.
DJ Hardy, who is, like Cornell, running at large for Greensboro City Council, asked Blake: "Do you feel you're going to file suit on this obvious miscarriage of justice?"
Blake, who is appealing his termination from the Greensboro Police Department, responded, "I believe that will be part of it."
Blake was acquitted by a Guilford County jury of two charges of misdemeanor assault on a female last month. The police department reportedly fired Blake after an administrative hearing based on a finding that he committed one but not the other assault. The Rev. Cardes Brown, who accompanied Blake to the hearing, said the police department held Blake responsible for assaulting Lorraine Galloway, who testified in court that she confronted Blake when she witnessed him kick his girlfriend. Brown said the police department concluded that Blake had not assaulted his girlfriend. Why then, he asked, did they conclude that he assaulted Galloway, when Galloway's intervention was allegedly to stop Blake from assaulting his girlfriend?
Later, Hardy told Blake he commended him for wanting to continue to be a police officer, and asked how he would handle expected hostility within the ranks if he were to be reinstated.
Blake responded that he would do his job "professionally and ethically."
