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Media dredges up record of cop who shot Leonard Cure during traffic stop fight

October 20, 2023 | | Print Article

Anti-cop sentiment and the race card are again on the national table after a Georgia police officer fatally shot a recently exonerated man during a traffic stop.

Leonard Cure was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery and was finally released from jail three years ago after spending a soul-sucking 16 years behind bars.

On Monday, Cure, a 53-year-old black man, was pulled over near the Florida border by Camden County Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge for allegedly speeding down the I-95 at 100 miles per hour.

After learning that he was being arrested for speeding and reckless driving, a fight broke out between Aldridge and Cure. Ultimately, Aldridge shot Cure, killing him.

Almost immediately, progressives on social media and in the press began framing the incident as another tragic example of a black man — one who was robbed of 16 years of his life — becoming the victim of excessive force at the hands of a white cop.

At a Wednesday news conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Cure’s family, called the incident “god awful.”

“It is god awful that he would escape that injustice to have his life claimed by more bias,” he told members of the media. “Just because you’re black should not be the determining factor whether you get a death sentence for a traffic stop.”

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(Video: YouTube)

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a predictable statement.

“SPLC is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Leonard Cure in Camden County, GA,” it said. “We urgently call for a transformation in policing that honors every individual’s rights. The ongoing anti-Blackness in policing must end. Every leader must act for justice and accountability.”

The Daily Mail on Friday ran with the headline, “Georgia cop who shot dead recently exonerated man Leonard Cure was fired in 2017 for using excessive force during a traffic stop.”

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In the story, the outlet reveals that, in 2017, Aldridge was “fired from Kingsland police in 2017 over an incident in which he reportedly picked up a woman and threw her on the ground during a traffic stop.”

The Daily Mail doesn’t give any context to the story, such as what led up to Aldridge’s actions, but they do cite an internal investigation report into the 2017 incident in which “another officer involved in the stop who is noted as saying he thought Aldridge’s reaction was ‘a bit much.'”

A second officer reportedly said, “I see a police officer being way too aggressive to start with. He had no business picking her up and throwing her on the ground.”

Again, the Daily Mail didn’t go into specific details about that incident, but what it did report was that Aldridge “received several warnings about his conduct in the years leading up to his firing.”

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“In 2013, a performance review highlighted room for improvement on his judgement and decision-making. A comment from the record advised him to be ‘calm, cool, collected,'” the outlet states. “The following year, he was issued a warning for unnecessary use of force during a traffic stop.”

“During his five years with Kingsland, Aldridge completed 618 hours of training including on issues such as de-escalation techniques, use of deadly force and traffic stops,” the Daily Mail continues. “Experts speculated that he may have been able to get a new police role despite his history due to staffing issues.”

The Innocence Project of Florida also expressed its dismay over Cure’s death.

“We are so terribly sad to share the news that our exonerated client, Leonard Cure, was shot and killed by a Camden County Georgia Sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop this morning while driving back from Florida to his residence in Georgia,” the group said.

“Lenny was doing well and aspired to attend college for music production and start a career in the music business,” they wrote in a statement. “Sadly, his life was tragically cut short today.”

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Were it not for the fact that the Camden County Sheriff’s Office released dashboard and body cam footage of the shooting, one might even believe that Aldridge’s response was solely racially motivated.

But they did release the video, and it tells a different tale.

Cure was visibly belligerent and non-compliant from the moment he exited his vehicle.

He placed his hands on the back of the vehicle only after Aldridge warned him that he would be tased if he didn’t. When Cure refused to put his hands behind his back as Aldridge instructed him multiple times to do, the officer deployed his Taser.

Cure then attacked Aldridge, grabbing him by the face, forcing his neck down, and strangling him. Aldridge attempted to use his baton to subdue the speeder as Cure taunted him with, “Yeah, bitch.”

Finally, Aldridge pulled his weapon and shot. Cure fell to the ground, and Aldridge called in the “shots fired.”

“And the media pumped this story as a hate crime,” wrote one user on X. “Shame on the media.”

Melissa Fine
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