Three police agencies hired him, a fourth gave him the gun to kill her.

Here’s another story about how the criminal-industrial complex works. It’s a story about the revolving door in law enforcement, and how bad cops get hired over and over again by just moving from one agency to another. And it’s a story about the good ol’ boy network in law enforcement. (Not to mention, a story about a murderous cop.)

Meet “former” police officer Jason Bragg McIntosh. He murdered his estranged wife, Megan Montgomery, on November 30, 2019. On March 31, 2021, he pleaded guilty to the crime.

There’s a lot to this story. I don’t ordinarily write much about the victims of police, but this is complicated enough that I need to include her for clarity.

On February 23, 2019, McIntosh shot his wife, Megan Montgomery, in the leg during a domestic dispute. She told an officer that her husband shot her. McIntosh was arrested. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) investigated and took McIntosh’s gun. In an interview, he said it was an accident. She then told investigators it was an accident. The ALEA investigation dragged on and ALEA kept his gun.

Here, we’ll quote from NBC News of June 4, 2021:

The ALEA report does not include any reference to a chilling 13-minute recording of a conversation between McIntosh and Montgomery that Montgomery’s attorney says she gave the agency. On the tape, reviewed by NBC News, McIntosh talked about his fascination with serial killers and how planning mass shootings was a “soothing thought” that helped him sleep at night. He also told his wife he’d felt the urge to beat her to death with a tennis racket, and if he did do it he’d stand over her body and say, “Laugh now, bitch.”
The district attorney did not file charges, concluding in a letter there was “no evidence of the commission of any felony offenses by either Mr. Mcintosh or Ms. Montgomery.” The DA left open the possibility that the City of Hoover could file a misdemeanor offense against either one of them. That never happened.
McIntosh resigned from the Hoover department in March amid an internal affairs review of the shooting.

Montgomery moved out and filed for a restraining order. In it, she asked that his firearms be removed.

The judge issued a mutual restraining order and did not order McIntosh’s firearms confiscated.

McIntosh and Montgomery moved back in together.

On May 5, 2019, McIntosh was again arrested for domestic violence against his wife. He again made bail.

She got another restraining order, filed for divorce, and moved into an apartment.

He kept asking for his gun back, and ALEA gave it to him on November 15, 2019.

On the night of November 30, 2019, she was at an oyster bar with friends. He entered the bar and dragged her out to the parking lot.

Whereupon he shot her. Three times. Dead. With the gun that ALEA had given back to him two weeks earlier. The gun that a Good ol’ Boy Alabammee judge refused to confiscate in the first place.

That’s the human story. Now here’s the big picture.

The Revolving Door and the Criminal-Industrial Complex

Observe:

A couple of years before McIntosh murdered his wife, he was a cop for the Birmingham, Alabama, Police Department.

Why’d he leave that department? We don’t know. Because cops hate transparency. So there isn’t any.

After that he was a cop for the Mountain Brook, Alabama, Police Department.

Why’d he leave that department? Again, we don’t know. Again, that’s because cops hate transparency.

But McIntosh’s daddy was a police chief. I smell the odor of good ol’ boys in the back room. Wink-wink, nod-nod.

So then, after he left that second police department, he was hired by the Hoover, Alabama, Police Department.

That’s when he began assaulting his wife.

McIntosh resigned from the Hoover Police Department shortly after that first domestic assault on his wife.

By resigning instead of being fired, McIntosh kept his employment options open for another cop job.

See the Revolving Door? Now observe:

The ALEA report of that first assault never mentioned the recorded conversation in which McIntosh said he was fascinated with serial murders and wanted to beat his wife to death.

The prosecutor didn’t prosecute that assault.

(“The Law” probably tied the prosecutor’s hands on the case. But in the big picture, this is a precise example of how even “The Law” fails to protect people — in this case, from bad cops.)

The judge didn’t confiscate McIntosh’s weapon. (It’s Alabamee, and he The Judge.)

Alabama’s top law enforcement agency, ALEA, gave him back his gun.

(Excuse: no legal justification for keeping it. There’s “The Law” again. “Not our fault.”)

There is no national law that prevents bad cops from being hired over and over again. It happens all the time.

And that’s by design and intent of the cop unions, police chief and sheriff associations that all contribute to the coffers of their lawmakers.

There isn’t even a national database for mandatory reporting of misconduct by bad cops.

That, too, is the intent of cops and the lawmakers in their pockets.