A three day suspension seems way too light for this behavior. I have a hard time understanding why any chief would want these two officers on the force. Via AP ("
Midland officers suspended for homeless sign contest," Feb. 27):
Two police officers in an oil-rich West Texas city
spent weeks competing to see who could take the most cardboard signs
away from homeless people, even though panhandling doesn't violate any
city law.
Nearly two months after the Midland
Police Department learned of the game, the two officers were suspended
for three days without pay, according to findings of the internal
affairs investigation obtained by The Associated Press through a public
records request.
Advocate groups immediately blasted
the department's handling, suggesting that the punishment wasn't harsh
enough and that the probe should have been made public much earlier,
before news organizations, including the AP, started asking about it. ...
The investigation found the two officers, Derek
Hester and Daniel Zoelzer, violated the department's professional
standards of conduct. There is no ordinance against panhandling in
Midland, an oil-boom city of more than 110,000 where a recent count put
the homeless number at about 300. About a quarter of those are
transient.
Evan Rogers, founder of Church Under
the Bridge Midland's ministry, said the failure by police to disclose
the officers' behavior once discovered made it appear the department was
"pushing it under the carpet."
"I think that does give the public the wrong message," he said.
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6 comments:
The moral of this story is: the department likes young and aggressive cops who enforce their own will for the "fun" of it.
Let's give it back!
How long before Midland has an "aggressive panhandling" ordinance?
I will say this is not a new thing, when my wife and I were homeless in Houston, we lived around the bridge at 1960 and I 45, There were several Harris County Sheriff deputies that harassed us and wrote us 4 to 6 tickets at a time and took away our signs. I only remember 1 name Deputy Gary Worley call sign 30-zebra-50. He was kind mean character. They played the same game, saving the signs in the trunk till they compared numbers.
Unfortunately, even if they were fired, an administrative court would probably reinstate them.
Why not charge them for the crimes they committed? If a visibly-armed man takes something from you by force, that is armed robbery.
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