<story><title>Sheriff Fires Cop Who Threatened to Arrest Me for Taking Photos of Cops</title><url>http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/02/03/sheriff-fires-cop-who-threatened-to-arrest-me-for-taking-photos-of-cops</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo</author><text>Heartening? I wish:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Saulet has long history of misconduct, with approximately 120 allegations against him and 21 cases of sustained misconduct (more than any other officer in the department).&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t exactly progress if the worst officer in de the department is fired after sustained abusive behavior. And the union immediately attempted to overturn the dismissal as well. This is pretty much as bad as it gets.&lt;p&gt;So I see no reason for optimism, given the circumstances. There are no signs of structural improvement. Not so heartening.</text></item><item><author>netcan</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Your ill-advised actions also play to some of the most basic fears among some citizens, which is that a police officer may indiscriminately exercise his or her power in violation of their rights,&amp;quot; Urquharts discipline letter continues. He explains people fear that &amp;quot;in the event of a complaint, the officer will just deny the allegations and &amp;#x27;circle the wagons&amp;#x27; with his or her fellow officers with the expectation they will take care of their own. In a matter of minutes, your actions violated the trust that we, as a department, spend years trying to build and maintain.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heartening.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ChrisBland</author><text>I am not a fan of public unions either, but this is a cheap shot at them and it hurts the ability to have a discussion about unions. Unions have what is called &amp;#x27;duty of fair representation&amp;#x27; - which requires them to defend their members. If the union failed to defend him here he could sue the union claiming it has failed to fulfill its statutory duty to represent the employee in that dispute. If they got to pick which cases to defend, the whole point of having union reps&amp;#x2F;arbitration&amp;#x2F;mediation would go out the window.&lt;p&gt;More reading: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flra.gov/Guidance_duty%20of%20fair%20representation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flra.gov&amp;#x2F;Guidance_duty%20of%20fair%20representati...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Sheriff Fires Cop Who Threatened to Arrest Me for Taking Photos of Cops</title><url>http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/02/03/sheriff-fires-cop-who-threatened-to-arrest-me-for-taking-photos-of-cops</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo</author><text>Heartening? I wish:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Saulet has long history of misconduct, with approximately 120 allegations against him and 21 cases of sustained misconduct (more than any other officer in the department).&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t exactly progress if the worst officer in de the department is fired after sustained abusive behavior. And the union immediately attempted to overturn the dismissal as well. This is pretty much as bad as it gets.&lt;p&gt;So I see no reason for optimism, given the circumstances. There are no signs of structural improvement. Not so heartening.</text></item><item><author>netcan</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Your ill-advised actions also play to some of the most basic fears among some citizens, which is that a police officer may indiscriminately exercise his or her power in violation of their rights,&amp;quot; Urquharts discipline letter continues. He explains people fear that &amp;quot;in the event of a complaint, the officer will just deny the allegations and &amp;#x27;circle the wagons&amp;#x27; with his or her fellow officers with the expectation they will take care of their own. In a matter of minutes, your actions violated the trust that we, as a department, spend years trying to build and maintain.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heartening.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baldfat</author><text>I am pro-Union BUT this is the type of things that get them in trouble all the time. People who perform poorly at work should be held accountable and not defended by the Union. It really is in the Union&amp;#x27;s benefit to weed out bad apples themselves and not protect them.</text></comment>