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Opa-locka cop German Bosque is Florida’s most troubled police officer. State records show he has been fired at least five times for everything from using excessive force on kids in handcuffs to car theft, keeping seized narcotics in his car, and sexual harassment.
But Bosque says the media has got it all wrong. “The whole thing is false,” he says of the 41 (and counting) internal investigations against him during his career. And in a bizarre, Charlie Sheen-esque email to Riptide, Bosque says that he’s “a winner” who owes it to his city not to quit.
“I am Opa-Locka,” he says. Keep reading to see his strangely self-incriminating version of events.
When Bosque first called Riptide, he had just finished doing the rounds on local media. His life had been upended by “disingenuous” Sarasota Herald-Tribune articles that exposed his rap-sheet-like resume, he said.
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“They didn’t tell my side of the story,” Bosque complained, despite this passage in the article:
“You should see the files, chicho,” [Bosque] says. “I been fired five times. Five. It’s like, why do they keep giving this loser cop a job? People ask that. They wanna know that.”
…
“I’m an excellent police officer…But I break some rules. Like right now. You’re not even supposed to be in the car with me.”
Bosque also either misses or denies the articles’ basic point: that only a broken system would allow someone with so many complaints still work as a cop.
“How could I have succeeded, how could I still have a badge if I had really done everything that they said?” he asks. “There has got to be more to it.”
Here is the email attachment Bosque sent us, his J’accuse. It’s also an ode to Opa-locka.
“My City of Opa-Locka [sic] is a beautiful city, with beautiful , decent citizens,” he says. “Since 1993, I have personally witness my city come a long way. We have both had our share of black eyes, and struggled through some rough times, but have overcome the obstacles and continue to move forward.”
The question remains: Is Opa-locka proud of German Bosque? Maybe not when he insists that there is a big difference between “beating” a juvenile and slapping him around a little bit.
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