(Three complaints and you’re out) Should Citizens Have the Right to Fire a Police Officer?

TruthBeckons ‏@BeckonsTruth

(Three complaints and you’re out) Should Citizens Have the Right to Fire a Police Officer? http://fb.me/1pVaonTP6

http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/three-complaints-and-youre-out-should-citizens-have-the-right-to-fire-a-police-officer/

Here are the facts. On September 22, 2011, Officer Richard Schoen stopped Jeanine Tracy, because she made a sudden lane change without the proper signals. She was handcuffed for disorderly conduct and driven to District Seven police station. During the ride, she cursed, spat at the car’s partition, and stomped on the backseat. When they arrived at the station, she did not get out. With his left hand, Schoen grabbed her shirt. With his right hand, he punched her repeatedly in the head. He grabbed her by the hair, dragged her out of the car, threw her on the ground, and struck her with his knee. These are the facts and we know they are facts, because there is video from the squad car’s dashboard camera.

Here’s what happened next. Schoen was fired on May 1, 2012, because he violated the department’s code of conduct. That code says a police officer must use the minimum force necessary to accomplish his or her purpose. But the story doesn’t end there. Schoen had been a police officer for nine years. He had a positive record, and only praise from superiors. Before he joined the MPD, he gave ten years of his life to military service. So, when he appealed the case to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, they held a two-day hearing. On December 3, the Commission reinstated him, deciding sixty days without pay was a better punishment.

Here’s what the community thought. Three days later, at least a hundred people showed up at the Commission meeting to protest the reinstatement. Audience members said they wanted both the chief and the mayor removed from the Commission. Some held signs that said the MPD supports violence against women. Occupy the Hood, Urban Underground, and ABE (All Black Everything) organized community protests. Some marched to the home of Mayor Barrett — who saw the protest from a distance and drove away. The NAACP Milwaukee and county supervisors stood with the community. County Supervisor David Bowen wrote, “The commission’s inability to make sound and responsible decisions to protect the public enables officers who choose to violate the rights and humanity of city residents.”

(More at the link.)