Incompetent Rowland Police Officer Michael Sale was beaten up this past weekend for at least the second time in his career. As the video below shows, Sale lost his gun while struggling with a suspect, was subsequently overpowered, and beaten severely until backup finally arrived while onlookers cheered. It turns out that this is not the first time that Officer Sale has had his butt handed to him by a suspect. We can think of no other explanation for an officer repeatedly being dominated the way that he has other than him being incompetent.
The video below does not capture the entire encounter, so you never see the part where Officer Sale was disarmed. That might lead some viewers to think that Sale was just being a good guy and trying not to use lethal force even though he would have been legally justified doing so, but eventually you can hear the cameraman say that Sale is looking around the yard for his gun. It also appears that Sale could not use his radio and lacked other means to defend himself such as a taser or pepper spray. That is why he fought the suspect hand to hand until he finally got him into a partial restraint. Then the cameraman fled when he could hear backup closing in. Jamel Alphonso Roger has since been arrested and is now being held on $500,000 bail. Judging this incident by itself one might say that Officer Sale just had a bad night, but this has happened to him before.
In December of 2019 then Maxton Police Officer Michael Sale was brutally beaten outside of the Minit Shop on Middle Street in Maxton, North Carolina. That incident was also caught on camera (https://www.wral.com/video-captures-attack-on-maxton-police-officer/18859983/). That video shows Sale lose his footing during a struggle, fall to the ground, and repeatedly getting struck in the head whenever he tried to get up. Unlike the more recent incident it appears that Sale never lost his gun, so maybe he was just exercising restraint that time. Then again he has demonstrated himself to be so incompetent that he could have just as likely been scared of having his gun taken away and used against him by the suspect. The suspect was close enough to make a move for his gun and take it had Sale tried to draw his weapon. If Sale was taking a beating to avoid shooting someone then there certainly need to be more selfless officers like Michael Sale, but we doubt that was his reason. We think he was scared of having his gun used against him. Eventually the suspect ran away, Sale tried to chase him but he was too fast, and only then was Sale able to seek medical care. James Thompson was later arrested and charged with assaulting a government official.
Conclusion
Officer Sale is not competent to be a police officer. Competent officers do not get themselves beaten up by suspects twice in less than one year under shockingly similar circumstances. We think that if Sale is allowed to remain on patrol that it is only a matter of time until he is beaten again or worse, so for his own safety he needs to be reassigned to a desk. We are also concerned that eventually he may resort to deadly force to avoid a future beating in a situation where a competent officer would not feel that need.
UPDATE: Some media outlets are reporting that this officer is named Sales not Sale. We think that is because the name on his uniform appears to be Sales, but at the same time they say he is 27 years old. Public records list one 27 year old in North Carolina named Michael Sale and none named Michael Sales. There is a 25 year old Michael Sales in North Carolina, so some of the news outlets are wrong about either his name, his age, or both.