Why I DISLIKE Cops, part 47

Two newspaper articles below do most of the talking.  The first was in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the second, linked to in the STrib article, appeared in the Winona Daily News and provides the original source material.

I will post comments in the article as thoughts appear.

The first headline, which drew my attention:

Houston County sheriff's deputy not disciplined for racing squad car while on duty

And the article [STrib] :

CALEDONIA, Minn. - Members of the Houston County Board are asking why a sheriff's deputy was not formally disciplined for drag racing in his squad car while on duty.

          --> INTERJECTION: That is a good question, isn't it?

The Winona Daily News reported Saturday that the deputy raced his Dodge Charger down a runway at the Houston County Municipal Airport in Caledonia on July 12 ( http://bit.ly/RRkVTz). A Caledonia police officer raced against him in a new Crown Victoria cruiser.

The Caledonia officer was suspended for a month when superiors learned what happened. Board members in the southeastern Minnesota county said there should have been consequences for the deputy too.

Sheriff Doug Ely declined to name the deputy to the newspaper or explain why he wasn't formally disciplined. Commissioner Jack Miller says he learned what happened from citizens, not the Sheriff's Department.

Chief Sheriff's Deputy Scott Yeiter defended the department's handling of the incident and described it as "an employee coaching session." He said the deputy's decision to race a squad car on duty "wasn't egregious enough to have a disciplinary letter placed in his file."

Ely, in an email to board members, declined an invitation to attend their next meeting to discuss the incident. Referring to both the racing incident and a previous dispute between his department and commissioners, he wrote that "more discussion about these items on their part will be considered harassment."

          --> INTERJECTION: Actually Sheriff Ely, you freakin' idiot, that's not harassment.  It's a fair, common sense question from those of us who are held to higher standards of behavior by your department.  Maybe you are as stupid as you look ...

Sheriff  Doug Ely: stupid as he looks?

Miller said the racing incident deserved a stronger response. He said if Ely skips the board meeting, that commissioners would have to consider their next move.

The sheriff "doesn't necessarily answer to the board, but we are the budgeting board, and I believe our jurisdiction does cover employees in his office," Miller said.

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And the original article, featuring the headline from the Winona Daily News.

On-duty officers drag race cruisers: Lack of formal discipline against deputy creates rift with Houston County Board

On the warm night of July 12, two squad cars driven by on-duty officers roared down the Caledonia municipal airport runway.

A Houston County sheriff’s deputy was behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger. A city of Caledonia officer drove a Crown Victoria.

The officers weren’t chasing a suspect.

They were chasing each other.

Apparently the drag race was inspired by the purchase of a new cruiser in Caledonia, according to Houston County Chief Deputy Scott Yeiter.

Once superiors learned about it, the Caledonia officer was suspended for a month.

The Houston County deputy, however, was not formally disciplined, a decision that has created friction between the sheriff’s department and the Houston County Board.

The incident became public this week at a county board meeting, where former commissioner Kevin Kelleher brought it up and asked commissioners to address what he alleged in an interview as a “culture of, quite frankly, bad behavior” within the sheriff’s department.

In an interview, Yeiter defended the way the department handled the incident and described it as “an employee coaching session.”

He said the deputy’s decision to drag-race a county squad car while on duty “wasn’t egregious enough to have a disciplinary letter placed in his file.”

          --> INTERJECTION: Did the asshole at least get a speeding ticket?  Seems only fair if you want to at least pretend that you place any worth in the written laws.

Yeiter declined to name the deputy, as did Houston County Sheriff Doug Ely. Ely declined to comment when asked to explain why the deputy wasn’t formally disciplined.

          --> INTERJECTION: Ah yes, the cover-up. Citizens ticketed or arrested routinely get the humiliation of seeing their names publicly in print.  But a guy speeding ON THE JOB, ON A RUNWAY ...?  Nah, let it slip.  Assholes.  That's the kind of crooked, Gestapo-style lack of accountability that featured so prominently in the reports on those Metro Gang assholes.  Good role models.

Caledonia Police Chief Kurt Zehnder also declined to comment on the incident and declined to release the name of the Caledonia officer involved.

The Houston County Board has asked Ely to attend the next meeting to brief commissioners on the incident and address Kelleher’s comments.

“The issue is a little bigger than what the sheriff and chief deputy are making it,” Commissioner Jack Miller said.

Miller said commissioners are frustrated because they were aware of the incident previous to the meeting — but not because they heard about it from the department.

“I certainly would have liked the full story from the sheriff instead of having citizens tell me,” Miller said.

Ely said in an email to the commissioners that he won’t attend the next meeting.

“The DVD issue and the driving complaint are done and over with,” he wrote in the email, obtained by the Daily News. “Any more discussion about these items on their part will be considered harassment.”

The DVD issue Ely was referring to was a 2009 incident where county employees were accused of using county equipment to illegally copy DVDs and sell them. Two county officials — none in the sheriff’s department — were formally reprimanded. The sheriff’s department did not investigate the issue or request an independent investigation, a decision Kelleher continues to criticize the department for.

          --> INTERJECTION: Whoa, whoa, WHOA!  Hold on.  I gotta stop for a second here and really consider this.  So at a time when we are losing more and more internet freedoms because of concerns over the pirating of copyrighted material, some ASSHOLES use county property to copy and SELL DVD's and the Sheriff declines to investigate?  WTF is going on here?  One of the primary reasons I hate law enforcement is that these assholes seem to think they can pick and choose who the laws apply to. This is a great example.

“We have law enforcement that just does not want to be accountable,” Kelleher said. “That is not giving people confidence in the county that they have a law enforcement agency that is not only enforcing the law but obeying it.”

“Houston County law enforcement is the butt of a lot of jokes right now,” Kelleher added.

If Ely doesn’t come to the next board meeting, Miller said, the board will have to discuss its next move.

“(Ely) doesn’t necessarily answer to the board, but we are the budgeting board, and I believe our jurisdiction does cover employees in his office,” Miller said.

It’s unknown who won the race, or what speeds the two officers reached. Ely said he didn’t know, and Yeiter declined comment.

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Law enforcement, what a noble profession.  Assholes.  And in the case of Houston County Sheriff Doug Ely, stupid assholes.

Don't forget Doug, you're accountable to the citizens of your county. Hope you've got a new job lined up, I'd like to think there's no way a crooked loser like you retains his job.