Thesaurus Search for Screw-up:
Posted in Greensboro
Apr. 10, 2008 at 13:25
by BrendaBee
Thesaurus Search for Screw-up:
incompetent
useless
amateurish
Bungling
Ham-fisted
Mitch Johnson
GPD under Tim Bellamy
incompetent
useless
amateurish
Bungling
Ham-fisted
Mitch Johnson
GPD under Tim Bellamy
It seems never a week goes by that we are not appraised of another embarrassment from our city police department. Officers suspended for accusations of sexual assault, not reporting opening a business, embezzlement, lying, consorting with a known prostitute(s), and on and on. What do most of these have in common? Well first and foremost, most are suspensions WITH pay, which is a more politic way of saying a paid holiday. Some police officers have been suspended with pay for almost a year. The second commonality is that many of these names we, the public, have heard or read in our newspapers and on TV before for some type of unsavory if not criminal behavior. Now considering that North Carolina is a fire at will state the first question to come to my mind at least is : why haven’t these people been fired?
Today’s N&R has two stories in it. The first has made the national news. It seems a 78 year old man was quietly standing in the medium strip outside of the Coliseum where he had been told to stand to hold up signs supporting our troops in Iraq and elsewhere in the world. It seems that one of the GPD ‘s finest after riding by several times saw the old man talking to a reporter and decided it was time to make the senior citizen move on. The officer stopped to tel;l the old man to move on then turned to walk away. Well like a good many elderly people Pop Kohanowich has a hearing problem and had been distracted talking to the reporter so he failed to hear the officer. Remember he had been told by another officer to stand in the medium so he had no idea that this would be a violation. The police officer having made his demand and turned away caused Pop to touch his left shoulder to get the officer's attention to ask him to repeat what he had said.
Well what in the world could we expect from this much younger and presumably in good health police officer to do except to assume he was being attacked by a raging 78 year old bull and to go on the defense? So he flipped the old man to the ground and cuffed him. Then a group of our best and bravest arrested the “raging 78 year old bull” for assault and took him to jail. It makes one proud that our fair city is defended by such valiant warriors, doesn’t it?
The next article had to do with shootings. That is putting bullet holes thru people standing on our streets. So far in 2008 there have been 27. This is almost twice the 15 in 2007 but down from the 22 of 2006. It is however almost three times the 10 of 2005. Would anyone venture to guess who the Police Chief was in 2005? And would anyone care to speculate how it happened that in 2005 the homicide rate in Greensboro was only 15, and that it was the first time since 1983 the homicide count was in the teens? (For those of you with poor memories 2005 was the first full year David Wray was Police Chief. This was the police Chief whom our City Manager Mitchy Johnson had lost so much faith in that he forced Wray to resign in January 2006). It certainly speaks for our City Manager, whom our past and present City Councils have so much respect for, that he can now tell us with a straight face what a good police chief Tim Bellamy is.
So once again I beat a tired old horse that I have been beating for over a year as the only reasonable solution to this problem with the Greensboro Police Department:
My recommendation to clean up the GPD and get the police protection we people of Greensboro need:
1. Make the office of Chief of Police an elective office so he/she is answerable to the people every 4 or 6 years and not to a group of politicians, city employees or city movers and shakers who operate behind the scenes. Sheriff Barnes and the Guilford County police don't seem to be having all these problems.
2. In order to get and retain better qualified police officers have all law enforcement wannabes trained in one or several of the many fine schools in our area. All other professions that I am familiar with require the people wanting to practice in that profession pay for their own schooling and this should also be the case with police training. If people want to practice a certain profession enough to pay for the training you can presume better qualified people will do so. Instead Greensboro accepts applicants and trains then with pay for the 18 months before they are certified. Doctors, teachers and plumbers do not get paid for training let alone overtime pay as do the GPD trainees. People in other occupations are hired and given a probationary period of several years before becoming permanent members of the staff. A probationary period that tends to weed out those who are not suited or qualified for the job.
Since so much is invested in police officers training when they get thru training it is apparently felt that nothing short of having an officer commit murder is grounds for firing, and yet only out on the mean streets do the officers truly show their abilities as police officers able to deal with people and the problems they encounter. No amount of training can substitute for the streets. Wray fired Stacy Morton for committing a serious breach of police behavior when he assaulted a cuffed and restrained prisoner. City Manager Mitch Johnson who is so much more qualified in police matters than Wray made Wray rescind his order and reinstate this person who is obviously unqualified and violent. (see Bill Knight’s blog on David Wray’s achievements.)
Oh, and other occupations also require their people to take continuing education training at their own expense. This training would be eligible for the federal Pell Grant so the argument that the inability to pay for their schooling if it were privatized doesn't hold up. BB
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