Wednesday, April 22, 2015

A Hard Thing to Do

Many elected or appointed officials have one thing in common.  They don't like to fire people they have hired.  Usually, these are people they like and trust and who are given more chances to perform than many others would get.  But sometimes things just don't work out and it is time to get them to resign their positions.  It is an uncomfortable thing to do as I found out on several occasions in my career.

Now it is time for Mayor Richard Berry to ask for the resignation of his police chief Gordon Eden.  I am still unable to figure out why this unqualified pol was hired to run a troubled police force in the first place, but the Mayor must have had a reason to believe he could handle things.  But, Eden has failed time and again.  And so has the Mayor in not admitting he made a mistake in this appointment. Things keep getting worse.

And I look on in astonishment at the fact that our city councillors have not chimed in on this issue.  Perhaps a vote of confidence should be taken on Eden's leadership.  I have a feeling that even the GOP members of the nonpartisan body might see some wisdom in sending a message to Mayor Berry.  After all, history will be looking at every councillor's tenure in regards to this APD disaster.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Council won't do anything Jim, like the current city administration they are in it for their own gain. Council has had plenty of time to act but they choose to sit back and watch our city go down the toilet. The next time any of the council will act is when they run for something, then you will hear all of them say they are the ones to fix all our problems. They are as lame as the Mayor and his minions. Maybe next election more than twelve or thirteen percent of voters will show up and " throw da bums out"!!

Anonymous said...

Berry latched onto Ray Schultz and refused to get rid of him for $$$$millions of reasons. I see the same now.

The only way Berry will get rid of Eden is if the media in this town does what Mary Lynn Roper of KOAT did last night. Call Eden out for being a coward. Now it is KOB and KRQE and the Journal's turn. If the other three join KOAT then Berry's hand will be forced and he will dump Eden by the wayside. He should dump the entire APD command staff while he is at it.

Anonymous said...

That's very interesting about Mary Lynn Roper. People like that don't go out on their own. That's corporate talking.

I wrote today about a shift taking place in network TV coverage of police criminality. Some are covering it as more of a systemic problem now and not as just a few bad apples.

We're talking about corporations here. These news outfits are corporations. In other words, a segment of the ruling class sees a problem and wants reform.

Alas. It's the same as with relying on city councilors. We'll have to accept the reforms the ruling class wants to enact and it won't be anything that threatens their bottom line or their grip on power or their perks and privileges, or changes things fundamentally for us.


Anonymous said...

Screw the MSM corporations.

Start a blog or a FaceBook page, design or get a press pass and get a camera/YouTube channel...

Just like this guy is doing: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Charles+Arasim

Anonymous said...

The mayor has no interest in firing Eden, never has, never will.
Look carefully at every piece of their language, every time they discuss anything that has to do with their own culpability, credibility, or viability, and you'll see it over and over. There have been exactly ZERO sentences written about finding firing and prosecuting the criminals on APD. ZERO. Bad number, if you're looking for reform.
There's plenty of talk about spending millions on unspecified reforms that include classes and such, but this does not address the fact that teaching a felon how to do things lawfully does not make them a born-again non-felon, just a felon who sat through mandatory classes to keep their job....
There's plenty of talk about lookig forward, making positive changes, etc., but no talk of removing the people who have caused these problems.
No administrator who is unwilling to remove the criminals from his midst can ALSO credibly say he is going to fix his crooked department. "We are going to show these felons how to be good men and women, and let them move forward in their careers informed and unscathed" is a ridiculous attitude, and it's the one we hear espoused over and over and over and over and over by Eden, Berry, Perry, the city council....