Lordy
The thing s
peaks for itself:
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges learned that Police Chief Janeé Harteau would appoint Lt. John Delmonico as inspector of the North Side’s Fourth Precinct 90 minutes before police announced the decision.
The mayor urged Harteau to come to her office for a meeting, and Harteau declined, according to sources with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
Finally, Hodges said that either Harteau needed to undo the appointment of Delmonico, or Hodges would undo it herself. Harteau left the task to the mayor, and Hodges issued a statement late Wednesday overruling the decision.
A few thoughts:
- Minneapolis has some really screwed up people running the city. Hodges is embattled on many fronts and stands a good chance of losing her seat, primarily because the demands of the job require her to have a few Menshevik moments, even though her operational preference is to combine careening self-congratulation and incoherent shaming of anyone who would dare disagree with her deep thoughts on any given subject.
- Harteau clearly was trying to give Hodges the needle. Anyone who has ever watched the local news in the last 15 years has likely seen Delmonico on television, usually in the position of defending the latest indefensible act a cop committed. As the head of the police union, it was Delmonico's job to explain that beating the hell out of an unarmed person with a broken tail light was always fully justified. Delmonico also made a very public accusation against Hodges a few years back, claiming that she was flashing gang signs. For Harteau to make Delmonico the top cop in the most combustible neighborhood in Minneapolis is, without question, a provocation, and an especially nasty one at that.
- I'd like to argue the citizens of Minneapolis deserve better than this, but frankly they don't. If you elect someone like Betsy Hodges to run your city, you get what you deserve.
4 comments:
Five years ago, even without having watched the gentleman, I would have instinctively argued with you about the police union chief more or less "closing ranks" or "circling the wagons" around corrupt officers. Now I've seen way too much closing ranks all over in politics on too many important issues to do that.
Clowns like that, and those in Chicago, seem to be killing as many kids as gangbangers sometimes.
If you elect someone like Betsy Hodges to run your city, you get what you deserve.
"The people have spoken....and they will be punished."
-Ed Koch
All the drama of a jr. high slumber party.
The most insidious torpedo one can fire at their boss is the once cloaked in "I was merely following established procedure." Being "unavailable" for a meeting with the boss because of a pre-scheduled family birthday event is another nice touch. I don't know what Sun Tzu would say, but I'm thinking one doesn't take these shots unless the perception is that the boss is weak and on the way out (and you want to hasten the process along). History is full, however, of examples of what happens to those who make the mistake of striking at the king (or queen) but not killing them.
The truly sad thing is that whatever poseur replaces the mayor is apt to be even worse.
The truly sad thing is that whatever poseur replaces the mayor is apt to be even worse.
Yes.
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