(Late note: The Tribune’s coverage can be found here)
Randy Smith offers a dispassionate and thoughtful analysis of the increasingly surreal case of Jack Messer and racist comments that were made, or not made.
The crux of the issue remains this, as phrased by Randy: “Without a formal complaint, how does this become a public issue? How does the Merit Commission even take up the matter?”
I like Jack Messer, and believe he’s done a fine job on the council. I’ve no clue as to his job performance as police officer, and having heard nothing negative, I’m inclined to take it as a positive — not unlike umpiring. If his words have violated the racial compact, there obviously must be discipline. But surely there is a procedure to determine this apart from the unfolding trial by press release and media circus?
Does such a procedure exist? Or, are we seeing it now? I’m neither rushing to defend not hurrying to distance, just inquiring …
Zero Tolerance, But What’s Real and What’s Not?
… Wednesday evening, the New Albany chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully summoned all 4 local TV stations, 2 local newspapers, and inadvertently 1 Internet journalist to a press conference on the steps of the New Albany Police Department.The occasion was a hitherto unknown meeting of the Police Merit Commission, whose purpose was to conduct an inquiry into whether comments made by police officer Jack Messer in January constituted officially inappropriate conduct.
