Thursday, July 28, 2011

Taking a distinctly wrong turn

Of late a lot of truly weird, perhaps criminally so, stuff has been turning up. The recent debacle with Officer William Harless and his partner in idiocy Officer Mark Diel in Canton, Ohio and now we have Quartzsite, AZ.

Seems several officers of that fine cities police department found the courage to point out that, in their considered opinion, their chief was corrupt.

In the normal course of events, one would expect that the accused would step aside in the face of such serious charges, taking administrative leave while waiting to be cleared (or convicted) of the charges as someone holding the office of Police Chief should reasonably be expected to conduct themselves above reproach in their professional duties.

If the charges were sustained, the officers in question might reasonably expect a pat on the back for their exemplary professional courage.

But not in Quartszite. Nope.

In Quartzsite, apparently a bubble universe exists where it's ok suspend officers constituting over half the department (placing citizens in and out of town at risk as now many calls will be answered more slowly by the county sheriff and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, stressing those organizations resources) for the grievous offense of reporting what appeared to the suspended officers as corruption.

In Quartzsite, it's ok to tell officers they have to spend their suspension time in captivity in their homes (where in the real world, if you're suspended, you can take up pole dancing or motorcycle racing until recalled to duty) for eight hours a day.

And in Quartzsite, the Chief now under investigation for corruption by the AZ Department of Public Safety, is still warming a full-duty chair with a half-strength department (due to his own, suspiciously retaliatory, actions) while still paying for a full-strength department.

Am I alone in seeing some problems with this?

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