One is entitled to massive cynicism syndrome when observing politicians at work.
The case of the Milwaukee cop who shot and killed Dontre Hamilton gets more......ahhh........interesting every day. (It must be noted that I don't have a dog in this fight; I do not know if the cop was right or wrong in his action. I do not know what Hamilton did, other than what I read on the interwebs.)
So how does the cynic view this? Easy!!
Ed Flynn is a politician first and a cop second, no matter what Ed Flynn says. Flynn decided to fire the cop Manney, obviously taking the arrow on behalf of John Chisholm, who is in enough hot water for his openly partisan, un-ethical, and probably illegal persecution of conservatives. Chisholm also has to get along with the cops, so Chisholm has evaded any decisions on prosecuting the cop. Clearly, Flynn was tapped to bail out Chisholm.
It's also clear that Flynn telegraphed the firing at least a week ago. How do we know that? The cop applied for "duty disability" two days before he was canned. ("Duty disability" is, perhaps, the single most abused benefit afforded to cops and firemen in all of the recorded history of Wisconsin.) In this instance, the cop claimed that shooting Hamilton left him with "debilitating health issues" and he "has not been able to sleep for months."
Hmmmm. A lot of cops have shot and killed a lot of civilians. How come all the OTHER cops don't have "debilitating health issues" resulting in "duty disability" claims?
Should the claim be approved, the cop gets 75% of his average earnings, TAX-FREE, until he collects his regular pension. That will be a minimum of $37,500/year net-spendable cash, not to mention continuing health insurance benefits.
Not bad at all, for a few sleepless nights and a little 'stress.'
So here's the sequence of events: 1) The cop encounters Hamilton who reacts with violence. 2) The cop kills Hamilton. 3) Chisholm "investigates" endlessly to avoid making any decision AT ALL in the case. 4) Chisholm (or Barrett--same difference) has a few quiet lunches with Flynn and persuades Flynn to fire the cop. 5) Flynn tells the Cop Union that the axe is about to fall--signaling that it's time for the cop to apply for "disability." 6) The cop applies, and voila!!! two days later he's canned.
There follows the usual dog-and-pony show from the Cop Union--which is only for show--and from Flynn, who swears on the Bible that this is 'not political.' Barrett goes all milk-carton, and Chisholm talks in circles about 'more investigation.'
One dead civilian, a lot of fleeced taxpayers, a cop who lost his job--and most important, re-election for Barrett, Chisholm, and contract extension for Flynn!
Well-played, boys. We get the picture, right up our a&^%es, no Vaseline.
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If Chisholm could have built even a weak case against the cop it would have been done long ago. The fact that a DA desperate for a PR win isn't persecuting/prosecuting here tells the story.
Flynn can fire a cop simply because he doesn't like the shine on his shoes, but it seems to me his reasoning in this case is exceedingly weak and has only served to gift wrap the Hamilton family's future civil suit against the city. Determining all by himself that a bad stop resulted in the justifiable death of a citizen? All he's really done here is punt the cop's employment disposition to the Fire and Police Commission. It will take some time, but this cop won't be the first of Flynn's firings that the Fire and Police Commission has reversed.
I just can't grant Tom Barrett enough political master-mind status to have guided this mess this far. Since "something" has been done we can infer from experience that the perpetually dithering Tom Barrett has had nothing to do with it. You've got a better shot at getting a ride from Amelia Earhart than a significant decision from Barrett.
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