Seattle cop fired for....doing what again??
Sept 16, 2015 4:34:30 GMT -6
dirkgently, Daitengu, and 4 more like this
Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2015 4:34:30 GMT -6
Now this is a story that requires a bit more than a passing glance and half formed opinion, as the meaning as well as impact carries far deeper than one cop, and one situation.
What is not in dispute is that the old guy had a golf club, using apparently as a walking stick (yeah...right..and I use my 6 cell mag light as just a flashlight too..lol), when the officer passed in her car, heard a clank, looked back and saw what appeared to be the guy coming down from whacking a stop sign with it, while glaring at the cop. That is enough to get a cop to turn around in ANY city in the world, I'd dare say....and more than just turning in a good number of them.
Here is the actual video, and the original trigger incident is not apparently captured. Just what came afterward.
Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole terminated the officer, Cynthia Whitlatch, on Tuesday, citing sustained policy violations involving bias, abuse of police discretion and escalation of a contact during an arrest of 69-year-old William Wingate on July 9, 2014.
What is not in dispute is that the old guy had a golf club, using apparently as a walking stick (yeah...right..and I use my 6 cell mag light as just a flashlight too..lol), when the officer passed in her car, heard a clank, looked back and saw what appeared to be the guy coming down from whacking a stop sign with it, while glaring at the cop. That is enough to get a cop to turn around in ANY city in the world, I'd dare say....and more than just turning in a good number of them.
Here is the actual video, and the original trigger incident is not apparently captured. Just what came afterward.
Now, over the years of reading and writing comments about such stories, I'd guess I've seen at least 3 dozen of these sorts of videos. Probably quite a few more, if the truth be known. I've never seen a fuss made over so little, and such a small incident before ...let alone outright firing a cop.
aggressive? How so? Escalated? How? It seems to me, she could have entirely ignored what she thought was a provocation, and perhaps she did misinterpret something. It happens, but refusing to follow the lawful orders of a cop isn't an option. It just can't be, lest we *ALL* start decided when we do or do not 'feel like' following law or authority.
Source
Wow.. Really? So a white man could whack a stop sign with a golf club, loud enough for the cop to hear and see it as the message it was likely intended to be...and get away with it? Only a black man would have gotten attention for an overtly hostile expression toward authority? Really???
Hey...I'm white..so that means I can go do this with my cops, and expect to get a free pass? Well...that is the basis she was fired here, eh? She was enforcing law by skin color, or so it is suggested..
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An internal review of the confrontation found Whitlatch was in the wrong and recommended she be fired. The department did just that on Tuesday.
"Your behavior towards him during the stop was inappropriately aggressive and unnecessarily escalated the interaction," department officials wrote in Whitlatch's termination order. "Your actions in this case were far from trained expectations and policies."
"Your behavior towards him during the stop was inappropriately aggressive and unnecessarily escalated the interaction," department officials wrote in Whitlatch's termination order. "Your actions in this case were far from trained expectations and policies."
aggressive? How so? Escalated? How? It seems to me, she could have entirely ignored what she thought was a provocation, and perhaps she did misinterpret something. It happens, but refusing to follow the lawful orders of a cop isn't an option. It just can't be, lest we *ALL* start decided when we do or do not 'feel like' following law or authority.
The department stated there was considerable evidence Whitlatch's approach to the situation confronting an African-American man was motivated by bias and the officer had just the day before completed training on Bias Free Policing and Voluntary Contacts and "Terry" stops, "yet apparently did not utilize that contemporaneous training or what your years of experience should have taught you about acceptable behavior."
Wow.. Really? So a white man could whack a stop sign with a golf club, loud enough for the cop to hear and see it as the message it was likely intended to be...and get away with it? Only a black man would have gotten attention for an overtly hostile expression toward authority? Really???
Hey...I'm white..so that means I can go do this with my cops, and expect to get a free pass? Well...that is the basis she was fired here, eh? She was enforcing law by skin color, or so it is suggested..
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Now I would note, this goes well beyond the ONE situation, and it did that the moment a cops career got flushed over something this cheesy and chickencrap. If we want ineffective cops who choose to watch crimes happen or allow them to play out rather than interfere and risk their own careers to do their jobs? This is how to accomplish that. If we cherish a world where the gun IS the law, and those without one are slaves to those who have them? THIS is how to accomplish that. If we want a society where cops are scared to even do the basics of their job, as society has deemed they are needed for, then this will accomplish that.
It isn't that she got dinged for being a goober on this, and perhaps she really DID push a situation that didn't need pushed (tho...being ignored..again..cannot stand. Period. End of story, IMO). However, she didn't get 'dinged'. She got her career flushed for it.
THAT kind of ignorant reaction for social justice nonsense is precisely how every cop on the beat will second guess the smallest actions (like holding a mans wrist while searching pockets..as this cop was very specifically cited as wrong in doing) and become functionally ineffective on the street.
Some..who hate cops..will LOVE this. Some, like me, who are confident in their own ability to defend themselves...will just groan and note another rung fallen in the ladder of society here...and others, who have a predatory glean to their eye, will look upon this and quietly smile ...as their "jobs" get so much easier when the cops are scared to even make a routine stop and check for disorderly conduct.
Cops as a whole DO need checked for the abuses we see every day ...but Cops, as a whole, DO NOT need wrecked in the process. Cops, as a whole, are the *ONLY* reason we don't ALL require firearms or similar means of active self defense. When we don't have cops to call, or ones who care to come out until long after the crime is over? We'll need those guns...as a basic way to maintain our own personal freedom, and from each other...not authority.
That is a "victory" I hope I never see the cop haters achieve.
It isn't that she got dinged for being a goober on this, and perhaps she really DID push a situation that didn't need pushed (tho...being ignored..again..cannot stand. Period. End of story, IMO). However, she didn't get 'dinged'. She got her career flushed for it.
THAT kind of ignorant reaction for social justice nonsense is precisely how every cop on the beat will second guess the smallest actions (like holding a mans wrist while searching pockets..as this cop was very specifically cited as wrong in doing) and become functionally ineffective on the street.
Some..who hate cops..will LOVE this. Some, like me, who are confident in their own ability to defend themselves...will just groan and note another rung fallen in the ladder of society here...and others, who have a predatory glean to their eye, will look upon this and quietly smile ...as their "jobs" get so much easier when the cops are scared to even make a routine stop and check for disorderly conduct.
Cops as a whole DO need checked for the abuses we see every day ...but Cops, as a whole, DO NOT need wrecked in the process. Cops, as a whole, are the *ONLY* reason we don't ALL require firearms or similar means of active self defense. When we don't have cops to call, or ones who care to come out until long after the crime is over? We'll need those guns...as a basic way to maintain our own personal freedom, and from each other...not authority.
That is a "victory" I hope I never see the cop haters achieve.
