New chief is in his position for less than a week. I'm curious as to how police force will react to his position.

 

I took it as he was the new chief because of this incident. Maybe that's inferring something that's not there explicitly, but I don't think all the PR stuff hurt.

Here's another article.

 

"From the city's end, the situation greatly changed in 24 hours from Tuesday when Cooper originally said West would handle the investigation. Also Tuesday, West told The New Orleans Advocate the Police Department was in possession of a video and had several witnesses that would support Short's actions, and "we hope to go to trial".

 

But by Wednesday evening, it was clear that the city had chanted course.

 

"What has changed in the last two days, obviously, is Capt. West was on his last day as interim chief, and on the second day, Tim Lentz became chief of police for the city of Covington," Cooper said. "Chief Lentz, in his capacity (Wednesday), reviewed what we had, and we came to this conclusion to make this request to the district attorney."

 

Lentz said as he began to investigate the situation, he quickly came to the same conclusion as Cooper to ask the district attorney to drop the charges.

 

"After speaking with Mr. Reed, we called both (referees) and informed them of the new developments and offered our sincerest apologies to both of them," Lentz said. "Both of them accepted our apologies."

 

 

Article concludes:

"As to whether any disciplinary actions would be brought against Short or any other police officer involved, the chief said, "My concentration (Wednesday) was the incident at St. Paul's. It became apparent that things should've been handled differently, and my focus was on restoring the credibility of those two gentlemen (Radcliffe and Gambino).

 

"I will now look at it from an administrative standpoint and take the necessary actions. I'd ask you to grant me patience while I do that; I've been on the job for like 12 hours. This will take me time. I'll have to navigate through the civil service aspect of everything, but at the end of the day, we'll do the right thing."

 

I take that to mean, give us time to find a reason to discipline and/or fire him.

Thanks for adding that Joker.

 

And it certainly looks like to me the new Chief has the officer's in his sites. What a cluster. You are on the job 12 hours and you not only usurp the authority of at least two of your highest ranking officers but you also interfere with the criminal justice system as a whole by going to the district attorney along with the Mayor.

Thanks for adding that Joker.

 

And it certainly looks like to me the new Chief has the officer's in his sites. What a cluster. You are on the job 12 hours and you not only usurp the authority of at least two of your highest ranking officers but you also interfere with the criminal justice system as a whole by going to the district attorney along with the Mayor.

 

From the reading I did on the guy you mentioned, looks like it might be another day at the office in Louisiana.

From the reading I did on the guy you mentioned, looks like it might be another day at the office in Louisiana.

 

Please explain what guy and what specifically you mean?

Here is another line of thinking. If I was the arresting officer I would hire my own attorney and my first stop would be the district attorney's office demanding that the charges not be dropped and/or their office not give into the political pressure. My next stop would be setting my sites on the new Chief and Mayor. This could get real ugly...

In all honesty, I think the death blow was struck by the Official's Association. They refused to send officials to the school unless the Covington PD was not in charge of security. It looked like the state's athletic association back them too. That forced the town's hand.

 

In all honesty, I think they probably had good reason for throwing their support behind the officials, but even if they didn't, the support they offered was going to start the process.

 

Given the Covington PD's recent PR fiascos, this was a no brainer on dismissing the charges, as it was a battle they just weren't going to win short of a video of the ref acting an obvious fool going viral.

 

Someone mentioned in one of the earlier posts about who was really in charge, and I said, "until the AD is on the phone with the state's athletic association being asked for an explanation on Monday morning". Looks like the explanation that was given was not satisfactory. Not trying to say the cops weren't in charge at the time, because the guys did spend the night in jail, but it looks like it's come at a cost of their jobs to do so.

 

If I'm the officer arresting the official, it has to be in the back of my mind that this would be a big ordeal and hit tons of news cycles, and even if I felt I were right, I'd probably swallow my tongue until most everyone was in agreement that the referee was out of line and there was no question I was in the right. I have no idea what kind of training and procedures this contradicts, because I'm sure it contradicts plenty of them, but in that situation, it's something that I have to say would be in the back of my mind if I were in that situation given the number of people there, the fact it was probably being filmed by both schools and on camera phones, etc.

Please explain what guy and what specifically you mean?

 

Lynn Davis.

 

And how you said that politics and the mistrust of officers was common in Louisiana.

Here is another line of thinking. If I was the arresting officer I would hire my own attorney and my first stop would be the district attorney's office demanding that the charges not be dropped and/or their office not give into the political pressure. My next stop would be setting my sites on the new Chief and Mayor. This could get real ugly...

 

Exactly what I thought when I read it.

 

The refs will probably sue.

 

The officers will probably sue.

 

This is the kind of situation where a lapel pin like was mentioned in the other thread in the Controversial Issues forum could be something that exonerated the officer and saved a lawsuit by the refs or exonerated the refs and saved a lawsuit from the officers. Might not stop them from being filed, but I'd guarantee that it'd expedite the process.

In all honesty, I think the death blow was struck by the Official's Association. They refused to send officials to the school unless the Covington PD was not in charge of security. It looked like the state's athletic association back them too. That forced the town's hand.

 

In all honesty, I think they probably had good reason for throwing their support behind the officials, but even if they didn't, the support they offered was going to start the process.

 

Given the Covington PD's recent PR fiascos, this was a no brainer on dismissing the charges, as it was a battle they just weren't going to win short of a video of the ref acting an obvious fool going viral.

 

Someone mentioned in one of the earlier posts about who was really in charge, and I said, "until the AD is on the phone with the state's athletic association being asked for an explanation on Monday morning". Looks like the explanation that was given was not satisfactory. Not trying to say the cops weren't in charge at the time, because the guys did spend the night in jail, but it looks like it's come at a cost of their jobs to do so.

 

If I'm the officer arresting the official, it has to be in the back of my mind that this would be a big ordeal and hit tons of news cycles, and even if I felt I were right, I'd probably swallow my tongue until most everyone was in agreement that the referee was out of line and there was no question I was in the right. I have no idea what kind of training and procedures this contradicts, because I'm sure it contradicts plenty of them, but in that situation, it's something that I have to say would be in the back of my mind if I were in that situation given the number of people there, the fact it was probably being filmed by both schools and on camera phones, etc.

 

I hear everything you are saying but either a crime was committed or one wasn't committed. I know the arrest is very unpopular with many people, including myself, but if the officer was right, he was right.

 

And there were plenty of witnesses so it should be easy to get to the bottom of this.

 

Finally, like I mentioned in the Officers wearing video thread, we are going to get to a point where no one ever believes anything that isn't on video (and that means clear video with good audio).

Exactly what I thought when I read it.

 

The refs will probably sue.

 

The officers will probably sue.

 

This is the kind of situation where a lapel pin like was mentioned in the other thread in the Controversial Issues forum could be something that exonerated the officer and saved a lawsuit by the refs or exonerated the refs and saved a lawsuit from the officers. Might not stop them from being filed, but I'd guarantee that it'd expedite the process.

 

I hear you on the Refs suing. The city is making it easy for them.

I hear everything you are saying but either a crime was committed or one wasn't committed. I know the arrest is very unpopular with many people, including myself, but if the officer was right, he was right.

 

And there were plenty of witnesses so it should be easy to get to the bottom of this.

 

Finally, like I mentioned in the Officers wearing video thread, we are going to get to a point where no one ever believes anything that isn't on video (and that means clear video with good audio).

 

Yep. Agree completely.

 

If he had a reason to arrest him, he should have been able to regardless of who he was, but it doesn't always work out like that.

Yep. Agree completely.

 

If he had a reason to arrest him, he should have been able to regardless of who he was, but it doesn't always work out like that.

 

Which assuming he was right the arresting officer needs to hire the best attorney possible and get busy.

 

Again, assuming the officer was right, my guess is the both the state and national Fraternal Order of Police will get right behind the officer on this issue. Politics can swing both ways and there are a lot bigger fish in the sea than a Mayor and his new Chief.