Posted on 09/09/2006 2:39:24 AM PDT by abb
Two days after Durham Police Chief Chalmers gave his press conference, absolving his officers for employing racial slurs, and assuring the public of his confidence that his officers did not violate drunk driving laws, I remain amazed by the transparency of Mr. Chalmers words of absolution. [end exerpt]
Chief Chalmers made right choice
The Herald-Sun
September 15, 2006 4:48 pm
Police Chief Steve Chalmers must have struggled last week with the decision to fire two police officers who have been charged with assaulting a citizen during a brawl in Raleigh last July. But doing the right thing is tough sometimes, even for a police chief.
Chalmers was absolutely on target in handing Gary Powell, 38 and Scott Tanner, 33, their walking papers for their part in the alleged assault of a cook a Blinco's Sports Bar on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. The Police Department's own investigation found that the officers' behavior that night was, as Chalmers said, "embarrassing" and brought negative attention to he Durham Police Department.
"These two were involved in what I would determine to be nothing less than a public brawl involving a total stranger, and certainly we feel there was no provocation for that," Chalmers said. "It really failed to rise to the level of what we expect our officers to do."
Let's be clear, neither Powell nor Tanner have been convicted of a crime in a court of law. There are those who will argue that the two shouldn't have been fired unless they were found guilty of assaulting Rene Dennis Thomas, the Blinco's cook.
They have a point, but only up to a point.
Chalmers didn't link the firings to convictions because an internal investigation found essentially that Tanner's and Lee's conduct the night of July 20 was unbecoming of Durham police officers.
Remember too, that three other Durham officers, all of whom have been cleared of wrongdoing in the case, were at the scene of the alleged assault, but reportedly took no part in it. One, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, the officer at the center of the Duke lacrosse rape investigation, even called the District 2 watch commander the same night to report the incident, although he did not witness it himself. So it appears Chalmers had plenty of solid evidence to support firing Tanner and Lee.
"It was an open-and-shut thing and the statements were consistent," Chalmers said. "The only thing we weren't able to substantiate was the racial slur."
Thomas, the cook, told Raleigh police that one of the officers called him the N-word prior to the alleged assault, which he says began outside the bar after he shouted at the occupants of a truck leaving the parking lot. Thomas admitted to responding by calling the offending, unidentified officer a cracker. As we said in July, none of the participants in the alleged brawl had much of which to be proud that night.
We applaud Chief Chalmers for dealing with this issue forthrightly and in the open. It was important that he did so to retain the public's confidence in the department.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-770120.html
Vote for Monks
Loyalty groups are akin to "good old boy networks." Both exist in municipal, state and federal governments. The controversial race for district attorney in Durham suggests that secluded sections of persons are busy at work to garner votes for their favorite sons. Consider this:
--MikeNifong, with his many years of experience, should have learned to appropriately conduct his behavior and avoid wide-spread media attention bringing forth the clatter of groups who place allegiance to the color of skin as opposed to the long arm of justice.
--Lewis Cheek, who waggles his voter registration from one political party another, is still afflicted with indecision of who he is and where he wants to go. His reason for "considering" opposition to Nifong is still not clear. If he receives a majority of votes, he will resign allowing the governor to choose your district attorney. If he falls short of votes, well, he didn't really campaign for the job. Sounds like he can't lose.
--Steve Monks, a newcomer to Durham. That's his best qualification. He hasn't been around long enough to become a part of the networks I've observed during my 80-plus years in this city. He is well qualified, impeccable in character, and as a newcomer, will be able to objectively approach the multiple problems that lie ahead in Durham.
He gets my write-in vote!
ANNIE MORGAN BOWLING
Durham
September 17, 2006
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
I do not think that Nifong was driven by the amount of his future pension. I think that Nifong was consumed by the fact that Freda Black might beat him out once again. I think Nifong was willing to do anything he could during the primary season to prevent her from ousting him again.
What happens to a prof who can't get any (or enough) students to sign up for his/her classes????
I think that you are absolutely right that the primary motivation is to hang onto the DA position. The pension thing is simply an added element in the equation, but one that I hadn't thought about until the article.
Pretty funny. A fight got started but nobody heard the racial slurs that started it.
Gottlieb saw nothing, heard nothing. Right.
And Nodong complains about the Blue Wall of Silence he claims is coming from the lax players? What a freakin' joke the entire lot of them are.
Truly pathetic. DPD is still operating in the stone age.
".....black male, mid-20's..."
No wonder Durham is disinterested.
There are no words to describe the depravity of NG.
So the DPD cops couldn't catch him even when they were right behind him in a chase but a bunch of Wal-Mart employees could.
Somebody should send Mr. Haynes a copy of the judge's gag order and a scholarly legal treatise on how and why the burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt, rather than on the defense to prove innocence.
The Haynes letter is yet another stunning reminder of the fact that people are taught nothing about the constitution anymore.
I, too, find it odd that Nifong would somehow forfeit his pension if he's not elected.
He would have been vested in his pension plan many years ago since he's been with Durham DA 27 years.
But most likely he would keep his pension, even if he's fired, so long as he's vested, which of course he is.
The sad thing about all these releases, in relation to the lax case, is that there is no relation to the lax case.
There was no DNA found on Mangum to compare anybody else's DNA to.
I forgot to add - the reason there is no DNA from the woman to compare anybody else's to is because there was clearly no rape.
In the Innocence Project cases cited, there were actual rapes and DNA amples to compare to.
Apples and oranges. This case poses an entirely different evidence question than those cases posed.
It's pretty clear Starn is a consummate asshole.
Good points, lol! :>
Right. What they're really saying is that it's excellent to eliminate excellence in favor of diversity.
"There was no DNA found on Mangum to compare anybody else's DNA to."
Actually, there was DNA--her boyfriend's DNA.
So she had sexual contact with another person other than the accused--her boyfriend.
But she did not have sexual contact with any of the players.
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