Posted on 03/05/2005 8:57:33 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Four dispatchers suspended in addition to five officers.
At 7:09 p.m. on Feb. 18, Austin police officer John Lengefeld heard a radio transmission that a Northeast Austin nightclub was on fire.
The seven-year department veteran, according to documents released Friday, said he immediately thought of the song "Disco Inferno" and sent a message from his patrol car to fellow officer Josue Martinez that said "burn baby burn."
Martinez replied 37 seconds later: "Hey ... LOL (laughing out loud). Those were my exact thoughts."
So began more than two hours of computer messages, which Police Chief Stan Knee on Friday called "inappropriate," sent by six officers and four civilian dispatchers who were disciplined for their comments this week. During a morning news conference, Knee said each had been suspended or received a written reprimand.
The messages during a fire at Midtown Live, 7408 Cameron Road, led to 15-day unpaid suspensions for Lengefeld and officer William White, who sent a note that said, "U can smell from (Interstate) 35. It is the smell of victory."
At one point during the flurry of messages, dispatcher Susan Negron wrote, "I have some extra gasoline if they need it," according to the documents. She was suspended for 15 days. White also messaged another officer: "My nite is made. I just had a lady ask me if it was burning. I said yep. She was upset. I was enthralled."
And dispatcher Ashlye Bauerle wrote, "You hear that Midtown is on fire!! The roof of a club . . . That's funny! Gives a whole new meaning to the roof, the roof is on fire," the documents said. Her suspension was three days.
All of the dispatchers and officers said in written statements that they regretted their actions and that their messages were intended as jokes.
Knee confirmed Friday afternoon that another dispatcher also was disciplined for activity relating to the fire and that a sergeant and an additional dispatcher remain under investigation.
Dispatcher Cleopatra Jones was reprimanded for running a computer check on one of the club's owners to see how often she was involved with the police and reporting the information to her fiancé, department documents and Knee said.
Sgt. Brian Gruetzner and dispatcher Heather Morris are under investigation for a conversation on a recorded phone line the day after the fire in which Morris made "inappropriate comments" about the Midtown fire, documents said.
Knee said he expects the investigation involving Morris and Gruetzer to be complete in the next few weeks.
Witnesses at Midtown Live saw the "burn baby burn" message on the computer screen inside an officer's patrol car during the fire. Knee said Friday that a commander and corporal who responded to the scene worked to calm angry witnesses who saw the message. Had the incident happened in another city, he said, it could have sparked rioting.
A two-week internal affairs investigation uncovered additional messages.
White's suspension was for not maintaining an impartial attitude, misusing equipment and bringing discredit to the department. Lengefeld was suspended for misusing equipment and bringing discredit to the department.
In addition, officer Steven Krippner was suspended for eight days, officer Shane Duprey was suspended for five days, and Martinez was sent home for three days without pay. A sixth officer received a written reprimand.
Dispatcher Robert Uribe received a three-day suspension, and fellow dispatcher Tammera Mojica received a written reprimand.
The messages also indicated that the officers were tired of responding to calls at the establishment. Statistics show that police responded to 129 calls last year for reports that included a stabbing, gunshots and public intoxication. The calls made Midtown the fifth busiest club for police response citywide, according to police statistics.
The club, with mostly an African American clientele, draws patrons from across the city. On a given weekend night, its crowd can include anything from a 20-something interested in hip-hop to a politician seeking votes.
"Everybody goes there," said Louie White, a former Austin police officer who has visited the club numerous times. "It's like what the Broken Spoke is to white people."
Midtown is owned by the prominent Cash family, whose matriarch, Selena Cash, is a retired principal at Kealing Junior High. According to its Web site, the club has been in business for more than 15 years and offers a free catfish buffet on Friday nights and karaoke on Wednesdays.
Its owners could not be reached Friday.
The gutted club, located in a small strip center between U.S. 290 and U.S. 183, remained ringed with yellow tape and a chain-link fence. Fire officials said the fire was caused by an electrical short in a restroom ventilator.
In a written statement Friday, Police Monitor Ashton Cumberbatch praised Knee's disciplinary decisions.
"Public trust will not be repaired unless the actions of the officers line up with their apology and oath to protect and serve with excellence, respect and courtesy," he said. "It will be the future actions of all officers that will signal true repentance and pave the way for the building of mutually respectful relationships between the community and APD."
My thought is "who were the top four"?
Just like a bad news story reported here sometimes turns into a jokefest, I'm sure that's what these cops were doing. You'll get a pretty warped sense of humor after awhile working for the police or an emergency room. It's a coping mechanism. Notice, too, that it wasn't just white cops making these wisecracks.
Oh, I thought the joke had more to with "Disco Inferno" from the Trammps, made famous by the movie "Saturday Night Fever" with the chorus:
"Burn, baby, burn. Disco Inferno.
Burn, baby, burn. Burn that mother down."
It goes back quite a ways, too. Remember the "Gorillas in the Mist" message in the Rodney King incident?
For some reason today, everything seems to remind me of the Rodney King incident, possibly because the media played a large part in hyping that incident. It had an example of one of those 'warped sense' moments you referred to when Larry Powell, requesting an ambulance for Rodney described him as a "victim of a beating", followed by a nervous little laugh. The laugh was given quite a sinister connotation at trial, but was most likely one of those coping/nervousness things you described.
Depends on which comment you're talking about.
>>Just like a bad news story reported here sometimes turns into a jokefest, I'm sure that's what these cops were doing.
Now they'll have to go to FR to post their comments instead, since the PC Cops are on their case.
Nah, just Berkley on the Colorado.
It's also a college town. Home of the University of Texas. Sixth street, essentially right downtown, is full of drunken college students, and even 20 and 30 somethings acting like they are still college students. I'll bet the highest calls are from those bars catering to the students.....although it could be a biker bar of course. Fort Hood is less than an hour away as well, and the road(s) between Killeen and Austin are especially hazardous on weekend evenings.
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