Wow,
while I was first busy then sick last week, the story of Harris County
Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth's murder blew open into an amazing mess,
as it's now been revealed that
at least two other deputies besides Goforth were having an affair with
the woman allegedly at the center of the event. Further, "There is
another investigation in the process, with similar allegations against
another deputy." Miles is mentally ill, has been declared incompetent to
stand trial, and has been sent to a state mental hospital for
competency restoration.
A love triangle - or quadrangle, o mas - between sheriff's deputies and a "badge bunny," in law-enforcement lingo,
might provide all sorts of possible avenues for the defense to suggest
other motives or scenarios. For example, if it turns out one of the
deputies involved with the woman had an independent relationship with
Mr. Miles, one might begin to wonder if he were acting on his own
behalf. Compared to the officers she was dating, Mr. Miles doesn't sound
like her type. ¿Quien sabe? The mind reels at the possibilities opened up by these remarkable revelations. Who knows how deep the rabbit hole goes?
Whatever
the truth turns out to be, we're a long way past the point when Sheriff
Hickman can blame the Black Lives Matter movement. Last week he issued kind of a bullshit non-retraction on that topic, declaring absurdly to a Chronicle reporter,
"'At the press conference, I drew a conclusion based on the absence of
any other information,' he said. 'I stand by that.'"
So similarly, if based
on a complete absence of information, Grits were to draw the conclusion
that Sheriff Hickman spends his evenings dressing up in women's
clothing and performing a lounge act in drag, that'd be perfectly
reasonable too, right? Because it's clearly okay to say inflammatory crap with no factual basis whatsoever, then "stand by" it after it's proven to be a bunch of demagogic horse hockey. What's good for the goose, after all ...
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31 comments:
Please, he hasn't done that lounge act for years.
I was involved in an employment law case about 20 years ago where the plaintiff (small town officer) fancied himself a whistleblower, and the accounts he gave up were just as sordid. His complaint was that a gay female officer found herself homeless after breaking up with her lover, so he offered to take her in with him and his wife. Of course, his ulterior motive was to get the three of them in bed together, and he succeeded. His problem was that his wife then ran off with the female officer, which got him retaliation from the chief, because the chief was also having an affair with the female officer.
Of course, while he was at it, he was also confessing all sorts of suspect beating, retaliation against citizens, all manner of use of force violations, etc. My favorite was, "A: and then there was the time where the deputy chief was hanging out the window of a squad car shooting at a suspected stolen car in the middle of a chase. Q: Did the chief know about that? A: I guess so, he was driving the squad."
It doesn't hardly get any better than this! Sounds like they need to fire the whole bunch of them.
There's a partner-swapping underworld in the LE circle. Not really new to anyone inside that community. Weird as hell for sure. Really disgusting to hear a judge disallow any challenges to a peace officer's general character based solely on their position and authority. You see, background checks on LE is a one-time thing. If you pass this incredible scrutiny, you're in with no further questions asked. These background investigations should be just as invasive if not more so on a periodical basis even after employment. Every 3 years at a minimum. I say this because I've encountered a number of officers that were "straight arrows" on paper but seemed to realize they were seriously underestimating the ability of anyone to detect certain types of activity. And they went nuts with all kinds of sexual improprieties. This was 20 years ago. They're all senior administration now.
Anon No. 2, agreed. Make it part of recertification or something.
'At the press conference, I drew a conclusion based on the absence of any other information,' he said. 'I stand by that.'" In other words he pulled this out of his backside, lied. This is just one instance but it happens to frequently and is just sweep under the rug by law enforcement. When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.
Anonymous,02.26.16 @ 12;38 PM: Interestingly, you would raise the issue of background checks and the issue of judges suppressing challenges to an officer;s character, when in fact, unless fixed by the Texas Constitution, all officers are restricted to two year-terms and must reapply every two-years for reappointment.
Reapply. Okay, let's say that you had a point and it was to let some anons. in on a lil secrete. All officers must reapply somewhere. Where. With the state. With Ann in Admissions. With their boss.
Does reapply mean they fill out an application as if it was the very first application for a peace officer position but where it says - experience they put all positions held up to their current role. Where it says - referrals they put down Sergeants', Lt's., Captains', etc... Where it says have you been arrested for any Misd. or Felony's, if they say no, will anyone check. When a background check is performed, who in the hell is performing it. Do they get a sheriff's deputy to take their prints and submit a fingerprint card and pay $15. to the DPS. Do they put the new application next to first one and compare them.
See what happened here, when a person tells everyone to chill out, they must reapply every two years assuming that it equates to rooting out bad apples with background checks, people that can't be tricked reply with the same stinky shit.
Don't worry, every two years the cart is turned over and all of the bad apples are removed and some small town in Texas gets to savor the Apple-Jax created out of small minority of badapples.
Tune in next week when Gunny explains what the Texas Constitution says about married dispatchers on the third shift and positive pregnancy test revelations' in the break room. They must do something....
Checks - If all forms of LE were ran by corporations their Insurers would force all employees to submit to a battery of pre and post hiring exams. Exams including mandatory monthly / random drug, alcohol & psychological screening in addition to explaining why it is not okay to have sex in Interview Room #2.
Insurers weed out potential law suits vs. allowing them to pile up and weed themselves out. As it is, the taxpayers pay the premiums and the payouts which explains the disconnect.
It would be nice to see an interview with the insurance company that covers Harris County employees and listen / watch them squirm as they attempt to address the issue of unethical acts conducted by individuals in uniform and responsibilities being covered by premiums in the form of taxes.
Hickman has a sorted history in terms of his own liaisons, one could find out about some of them by asking any of his five wives, others by how a new hire was placed in a choice spot contract or if you can find any of the city police he worked with, get the truth behind why he left for the county under a dark cloud. It won't matter as he'll win the primary with ease and then the general election without a sweat. At best, the killer might have been influenced by some BLM rhetoric but it would be nice if the mainstream press demanded Hickman put up or shut up and just apologize.
But as far as the badge bunny in question, it is my understanding that she was hooking up with those deputies long before the murder. They were consensual encounters so firing people seems counter intuitive, her huge black book full of all sorts of folks in the field. If having affairs is going to be a job killer, we might want to stop aggressively selecting alpha male personalities like we do.
Anonymous, 02.17.16, 10:44 A.M.: Reapplying? We are not talking about rocket science. Police officers are, as the name implies, "Public Officers." Additionally, they are para-military, meaning, in part, that they must adhere to certain policies, to include restrictions to holding office. They are not a secret organization and their oversight is mandatory and administered by their respective command who are mandated with the determining that all officers meet the qualification of an office holder, meaning: screening for qualification. With the power of taking someone's life, they are denied he protection of immunity.
Background checks wouldn't uncover much, especially if conducted by those in the brotherhood.
Psychological Testing would provide a much better insight. Go apply at any Fortune 500 company and if seriously considered, you will be put through a battery of testing not duplicated by any police department in this country. Which explains why over 22,000 cops have been convicted of child sex crimes in the past 3-years alone. And also explains why so many unarmed citizens are murdered each year. The hiring of psychopaths as police officers can only be prevented by the use of intensive psychological testing. And any comprehensive police reform absolutely must include this.
Beyond this all, seemingly bad apples often can get hired somewhere else.
(Often happens in the teaching world, too, if you've got connections, BTW.)
I reiterate the claim that a BI occurs only during consideration for employment. That's it. For the next 40 years of employment (and often numerous misdeeds along the way) there will not be another BI like the first one. Only cursory record checks. I propose that they go through the same process as the first time every three years. Polygraph, interviews with neighbors and anyone known to the candidate, verification of education and credentials, affiliation with known Felton's or the criminal element outside of work-related activity. Nobody in this state does this yet. Sure, a new Sheriff can opt-out of rehiring the same deputies when he takes office. But the ones he keeps do not go through any BI whatsoever. Only deputies of Sheriff's and Constables technically have to be "re-hired" every year due to the nature of the office and the political issues inherent within. There are no other officers that have to renew their employment every two years. That's misleading.
Generally federal law enforcement does a background every 5 years. :~)
@ Gunny,
"They are not a secret organization", really? Then why can't the public have access to all the internal investigation records, why can't the public have access to all video and the list goes on and on. Must I remind you Gunny that all of this is paid for by the public, the tax payers. Since we paid for it, we should own it, correct? So explain to me exactly why there is so much "secrecy" yet you say there is none?
You make a fool out of yourself when you make such comments. The days of ignorance are over and people such as yourself are enablers that long for the days when people didn't really know for sure just how corrupt pretty much everything associated with what is called law enforcement and the "justice" system as a whole really is.
You, as well as the other corrupt police sympathizers, defenders of corrupt district attorneys, and supporters of bribe accepting politicians should stick to the blogs that pander to this sort of thing. This blog is usually read by intelligent individuals that have a vested interest in seeing that all injustices are at least challenged to some degree or another. Instead of trying to blow smoke up people's asses, try a bit of self-searching honesty.
Perhaps Texas should be more stringent.
Anon 2/17/2016 07:01:00 PM, do you have a credible cite for that number or is it yet another web statistic that can't be independently verified by a reliable source? While I am of the belief that even one such crime is one too many, I've seen that comment on here several times in the past and those who make it never seem to answer inquiries. I'm not looking for projected or imagined cases but something more substantial, as in convictions in criminal or civil courts.
anon 2/19/16 7:01pm.
instead of saying prove it, why don't you do the research and let us know? just saying.
Anonymous 2/19/2016 06:17:00 AM, here you go. See the documented, indisputable cases here, all 22,000+ of them: https://www.facebook.com/PoliceOfficersRapingKids.
anon 2/20/2016 10:08:00 AM.
A facebook page with a handful of newspaper articles is not proof of anything, nor does it meet any rational basis of furthering the discussion. As you are likely one of the people who is in charge of the facebook page, the circular logic needed to consider it as valid is not the kind most expect on GFB. Nobody is saying such cases don't exist, a few of us are merely questioning your repeated assertions of such high numbers of cases.
If you have an academic source, one from official sources, or something even slightly credible, lets see it.
Handful, now that's funny. Few would agree that 22,000 is anywhere near what most consider a handful...
I think he's saying he doesn't believe the 3 year number. I admit that I don't either but it's not an important part of the discussion for the article.
Anon 2/20/16 10:08 AM
Your "prove it to me" statements doesn't meet any rational basis of furthering discussion either, so either do the research or leave it alone.
Anon 2/21/2016 01:37:00 PM, I checked it out the first time you mentioned it here previously and found no supporting data. If a FB page that anyone can generate serves as the best you can come up with, I'll let others decide for themselves how credible your assertions are. On their face, they are bogus and the best guess is you think posting the same lie repeatedly translates into verification while it does not. For that matter, nor does counting the same case over and over using different media accounts, the kind of numeric embellishment little kids might come up with.
Oh, and for the record, I've worked for a few Fortune 500 companies and they did not have any such battery of testing you claimed either. Those were for mid-management level positions so perhaps your applications for janitor openings were treated differently, most big city police departments demanding far more extensive testing by comparison. Testing doesn't really catch the small number of psychopaths for either type of organization, having had ample opportunity to see the results of subordinates over the years to find most testing amounts to educated guesses.
Harris County is self insured.
anon 2/21/2016 3:20
One, I'm not the original poster, merely pointing out you were not really furthering the discussion.
Two, while true there doesn't seem to be any way to verify the original contention, it was fairly easy to find the Cato study showing the police are accused of sex crimes at a higher rate than the general population and over half the accusations involved minors.
And you're willing to pay for all that with higher taxes, right?
Anon 3:20:00 PM
Why would you expect some facts to get in the way of an anonymous internet assertion? The OP baits people like you to look up his FB page all over the place, including several local media outlets.
anon 3:20 pm
People like me? I know why you don't add to the discussion now.
No, have the officers pay for it out of pocket in lieu of the "bond" most cities/counties require for appointment. No, taxpayers aren't footing this one. You are.
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