Lead from the front
Your editorial "Chief should leave policing to officers" (July 18) shows a complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of police administration. As a veteran of over 50 years in public safety, including service as police chief or commissioner of three departments, I can tell you that an effective police chief must lead from the front.
There is a difference between being an administrator and a leader, and police officers quickly recognize a true leader. They respond most effectively to a chief who leads by example, frequently answering calls and inspiring their officers rather than sitting behind a desk all day.
I have known and been guided by the examples of great police chiefs. They made every effort to spend time on patrol in spite of their hectic schedules. I remember a four-star chief of the NYPD asking a rookie cop, "Officer, can I walk your post with you?"
Chiefs who follow your advice to "stay out of field work" will never know their city and its people, and never command the respect of their officers.
Unless a chief has "day-to-day experience to deal best with the calls they receive," he should not be a chief. As I always told my officers, my badge says "chief" in small letters and "POLICE" in big letters. A chief is a cop first, and responding to calls is part of any cop's job. The chief who doesn't do that is shortchanging both the city and the officers who look to him for leadership.
ANTHONY N. POTTER
Winston-Salem
Potter is senior director of public safety for Novant Health. — the editor
Undoing the damage
The July 14 letter "A compelling public interest" angered me immensely. The writer tries to pin the blame for the state's eugenics program on what he calls "progressives" in an attempt to demonize progressives today. He writes about "an elite oligarchy of academics, bureaucrats and politicians" and says that the Journal trumpets their causes.
I don't know that what he calls "progressives" were responsible for the program, but there's no doubt that progressives have done more to undo the damage than conservatives have.
Rep. Larry Womble's involvement is the only reason our legislators were even aware of the problem. It was Gov. Mike Easley who apologized for the state being involved in the program and set up a committee to study compensation. And the "progressive" Journal has been trumpeting this cause foryears — why doesn't the letter writer give a little credit where it's due?
All this in the face of some conservative readers who have said, "Enough, already," or, "They don't deserve compensation." I remember all the letters we used to read in the Journal from conservatives who not only said that the program was right, but that it should be continued today!
So it would seem that conservatives were for it before they were against it. Now this writer is trying to place the blame for it on progressives, the very people who oppose it.
Typical conservative tactics. Get in line with Mitt Romney.
RON F. SLATER
Winston-Salem
Guilty in DUI
My reaction to the story of Kaitlin Smith Slater ("Woman pleads guilty in DUI," July 17) was, "Why isn't this woman on death row?" I believe that when a person gets behind the wheel of a car after drinking too much, he or she has decided to murder, although not whom, where or when.
This woman had prior DUI convictions, had used drugs, one of them illegal, which would impair her judgment, had been drinking for several hours and did not have a valid driver's license. Why did she receive a mere slap on the wrist?
She murdered a young man using a car, not a gun or a knife, but murdered him nonetheless. Why is she not on death row, or at least in prison for life without the possibility of parole? Can someone explain this to me?
DONNA JAFFE
Winston-Salem
Slater was sentenced to a total of seven years and five months to nine years and eight months in prison. When she gets out of prison, she will be on supervised probation for three years and be required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and perform 100 hours of community service. She will be prohibited from taking illegal drugs and drinking alcohol while on probation. — the editor.
Mr. Potter:
ReplyDeleteI, respectfully, disagree. Many police chiefs are no more than talking heads. Usually, the people that rise to that level have never really gotten their hands dirty. What? Put somebody in jail, that's for the dumb cops. You might get sued.
One only has to look at our very own sheriff, William T. Schatzman what LE leaders are generally all about. Schatzman, a former FBI agent, was in the bankers world of law enforcement before he came to the Forsyth Co. Sheriff's Department. FBI agents average two (2) arrests a year. Some police officers make that amount of arrests in a single night on patrol in a city of any size. Also, Schatzman was, reportedly, in the FBI training division for some 10 years of his tenure.
Schatzman is much like many police chiefs. You just hope he stays in the office. That way, you know he probably won't screw anything up. With Schatzman, you have a secondary issue to worry about. You have to worry if he's going to get in the bag, and crash his county car.
In most metropolitan police departments, Schazman would be in the rubber gun squad, with alcohol and drug testing being conducted on him on a random basis. Forsyth Co., being the backwater place that it is, will fool around and wait until Schatzman kills somebody while under the influence, and then do something. By then, it will be too late, and the county will get their pants sued off.
Although I was truly worried about Chief Scott Cunningham when he first arrived in Winston Salem, he seems to have proven himself in a measurable manner. Still, I'd be worried about his enforcement capabilities.
The bottom line is that street level law enforcement is a skill that police officers can lose over time.
Let's keep the talking heads inside, talking, where they belong, and not out doing any real police work. They might get somebody killed, as was the case with Chief Gamble of Kernersville, when he crashed his police cruiser into two suspects in custody.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/15/3384252/nc-police-chief-hits-suspects.html
Delete"As I always told my officers, my badge says "chief" in small letters and "POLICE" in big letters."
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Typical police administrator comment. Police officers don't 'belong' to anyone. They are employed by the city, county, state, or federal government.
Instead of rolling over, and becoming dead in a shooting situation, as Rush advocates. Citizens prepare to defend themselves.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/us/colorado-background-checks/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
(DENVER) — Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie theater massacre as buyers express fears that anti-gun politicians may use the shootings to seek new restrictions on owning weapons.
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They know that these nutty politicians, and others, like Rush, think by enacting more gun restrictions it'll stop similar shootings. Anybody that knows anything about these issues, knows it's all liberal hogwash.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Well, I wouldn't expect journalists and editors to have a complete understanding of the inner workings of police administration. Gamble should not have run into the apprehended men with his car, but to say there was no need for him to be on the scene at all is not a position any person outside of law enforcement should take without having any knowledge of their operations. I'm with Mr. Potter on this one.
LTE 2: More playing of the blame game (heavy, heavy sigh). BOTH sides had to be aware of what was happening which meant representatives from BOTH sides had opportunities to stop what was going on. Now, BOTH sides had opportunites to make amends and BOTH sides blew it.
LTE 3: I recall the DA trying to bring murder one charges against a drunken driver who killed 4 WFU students around 10 years ago. The judge only allowed 2nd degree for some reason. The nature of the sentence suggests there was some plead bargaining going on.
Thomas Jones was paroled in April after serving 15 years for his crime.
DeleteIn 1996 he struck a car carrying six female WFU students, killing two of them. He was tried and convicted of 1st degree murder, but the conviction was overturned by the NC Supreme Court. At his 2nd trial in 2003, he pleaded guilty to 2nd degree by agreement.
The Supreme Court quite rightly pointed out that the 1st degree charge should never have been brought because 1st degree requires premeditation…obviously Jones did not get into his car with a plan to kill someone.
The case was prosecuted by the notorious Vince Rabil, well known for having sent a number of innocent people to prison.
There is irony in this case, because the biggest threat from drunk drivers in our community comes from WFU students. In the aftermath of the tragedy, there was an outpouring of anger directed toward Jones by WFU students. Campus administrators had high hopes that the incident would serve to reduce the number of students driving drunk, only to be disappointed the very next weekend to note that nothing had changed.
Ahh yes..couldn't remember all of the particulars of the case. A major app I've been working on for over a year that deals with payroll went live today, so you can imagine the kind of day I'm having. I do recall Rabil using the death while committing a felony act to justify the murder one charge. The Supreme Court obviously interpreted the act differently.
DeleteBoth Rabils were second tier lawyers starting out. That's why Hunt probably got convicted in the first place.
DeleteHowever, at least one witness said that there were 'two' perps that accosted Sykes, which contradicts the person 'now' blamed for her murder. Because of ignorance surrounding the importance of DNA evidence, and political pressure, Hunt was set free. Was he indeed innocent? I have my doubts to this day.
On the subject of dangerous drunks......we can't leave out WS State and Forsyth Tech students as well as the chronic alcoholics that get drunk everyday and drive. Throw in the illegal and prescription drug abusers, and you've got a highway to hell, particularly at certain hours of the day.
First Degree Murder can be proved if someone, in the course of committing another violent felony – such as robbery or burglary – inadvertently kills a bystander or victim.
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Of course, Rush leaves out all kinds of stuff when he goes into his liberal chatter box mode. Plus, it's obvious he doesn't really know the law that well.
As always, copied and pasted, this time from http://www.chetson.com/2010/02/north-carolina-criminal-lawyer-first-degree-murder-2/
DeleteCopy and paste but never understand is the national motto of the Dunce world. After all, the definition of dunce is "one who cannot learn."
DUI, DWI, whatever, is not now, never has been, nor ever will be considered a "violent felony"...poor Dunce.
Romney leads Obama in N.C. If you could eliminate all the illegals that are registered to vote, Romney would easily win.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/nc/north_carolina_romney_vs_obama-1784.html
"However, at least one witness said that there were 'two' perps that accosted Sykes, which contradicts the person 'now' blamed for her murder. Because of ignorance surrounding the importance of DNA evidence, and political pressure, Hunt was set free. Was he indeed innocent? I have my doubts to this day."
ReplyDeleteEasily the most ignorant, ill-informed and stupid paragraph ever posted on this forum.
Eyewitnesses are next to worthless, because most people are about as sharp as the Dunce, in other words, flat dumb. Hunt wasn't there. He said so right from the start. Willard Brown was there...a half-assed detective would have found him right away. He said that he was alone...which matches up with his lone-ranger MO when he attacked four other women within five blocks of the Sykes murder.
One wonders if someone pays the Dunce to post stupid comments...if so, he may be the richest creature in Forsyth County by now.
Sounds like Rush is a Hunt supporter. Why am I not surprised?
DeleteWhat Dunce doesn't get is that when a crime is committed, you don't support or oppose anyone. You look at the available facts and figure out from them what happened.
DeleteOf course, dunces like him proceed in the opposite direction. First they decide who is guilty or not, then they pick and choose from the facts to make it fit their opinion. Thus Dunce chooses as his heroes such slime as Allen West, war criminal, and George Zimmerman, fool.
I have no interest in heroes...only what actually happened.
Before he was arrested and sent to prison, Daryl Hunt was a slimeball who hung out with another slimeball named Sammy Mitchell. They murdered two people one night at a drink house. But when the case came to trial, the witnesses were so afraid of Sammy that they didn't show up for the trial, so Sammy and Daryl walked. That is unfortunate, but it has nothing to do with the Sykes case.
And unfortunately, it is not against the law to be a slimeball, just as it is not against the law to be a sewer surfer like the Dunce.
Rep. Allen West (R) is a fine American. And he seems to be smart as a whip, unlike you Rush.
DeleteIf he were standing here beside of me right now, I'd give him a hug.
I don't doubt that, and a lot more to boot(y).
DeleteHAHA!
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