Rage, rage against cops

His attempt to alter the narrative during a police-sponsored press conference backfired badly, leaving many aghast at his cheekiness to turn himself into the victim.

In so doing, dismissed cop and consequently dismissed Supreme Court employee Wilfredo "Willie" Gonzales sent heedless Quezon City police reeling, badly bruised by their poor judgment as to the gravity of the now infamous road rage incident caught on video.

Now well-known, Gonzales' all-too-viral social media notoriety came about when he pulled out and cocked a handgun at the height of an altercation with an unidentified unarmed cyclist near the Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City last 8 August.

Days after Sunday's bizarre press conference, Quezon City Police District Director Nicolas Torre III — who had sat beside Gonzales and strangely appealed for "compassion" for him — rued his poor judgment.

"I really regret that press conference; I really regret it deeply. In hindsight, we have a 20/20 vision. I could have done it better with the same result, but it has happened," said the chastened police general, who then proceeded to resign from his post.

Besides poor judgment, police brass and other higher authorities doing damage control forced Quezon City police to file "alarm and scandal" charges against Gonzales and revoke his gun and driver's licenses.

Despite those recent developments, however, it remains to be seen whether a visibly outraged public has been placated.

As I speak, a wrathful public still harbors perceptions that police bent over backward to shield a former colleague who, it turned out, had an unsavory record.

Still, the bizarre Gonzales press conference once again highlighted how police go about presenting anyone involved in a criminal incident.

Not least of those procedures is the police's penchant for physically presenting suspects in press conferences.

Despite being often reminded that the practice is questionable, police and other law enforcement agencies stubbornly persist. This is despite official directives discouraging it.

Strictly speaking, such unprofessional practice by police and other law enforcement agencies of parading suspects has no bearing on reporting the progress of a case nor does it benefit police credibility.

In fact, the mere handout of mug shots should suffice to satiate enterprising media and the curious public.

And, as the Gonzales case made clear, ceasing such unprofessional and other practices saves police from unforeseen embarrassment.

Even more crucial, unprofessional police procedures further compound the justified public unease about Philippine police solely serving the moneyed powers that be, rather than the poor and powerless.

Serving the interest of the politically and economically influential is debauched enough but allowing miscreants the impunity to exercise petty power through mere legal gun possession, as in the Gonzales case, is equally a depraved impunity that is alarming even the government itself.

Listen, for instance, to Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. who said, "For the sake of a peaceful and orderly society, we cannot allow a culture of impunity. We cannot allow bullies to just go around intimidating people with deadly weapons. There must be consequences here."

Yet, the dire consequences for brandishing a gun with impunity can, in fact, be nipped in the bud if only the police would do the simple job of scrutinizing the records of these miscreants.

In the Gonzales case, for instance, news reports indicated he had been demoted for a similar gun-toting incident in 2017.

Neither was he a paragon of law enforcement virtue. Daily Tribune learned he was dismissed by the Ombudsman for his participation in the release of two Chinese drug suspects in exchange for P650,000.

With such a record, how was it even possible that he had a gun license?

Don't the police stringently check all available public records, particularly criminal and judicial records, of a gun license applicant?