Tempe, AZ - Police Sergeant Unfairly Villanized
Dr. Kardasz: The following story is a sad example of a public servant who gave someone a break and was then unfairly villanized and forced to apologize after being falsely accused of racism. As they say, "No good deed goes unpunished."
Unfortunately, the overall public image of law enforcement will never be as high as some of the other "helping" occupations. Police have the unenviable task of bringing people to justice; and some won't go peacefully. Some offenders will be brought to justice and then, to save face, will blame everybody except themselves for their misdeeds. That's not to say all cops are perfect, because they're not, they are human too. But the nature of the police function will always make the occupation a potential target of derision.
Many law enforcement agencies have special video services units that spend thousands of tax dollars filming police activities in order to attempt to create positive public images of the police. The filming activity described in the story below obviously backfired. Why don't we put some of these video services monies back into the tasks that police are supposed to be doing, to wit: making arrests and keeping the peace. Attempts to continually manipulate the pubic image of the police until they receive 100% approval ratings will fail until all police officers are tasked only with the jobs of smiling and waving and not with the jobs of making arrests and keeping the peace.
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Police Sgt. apologizes for rap request
The Arizona Daily Star, 12/22/06 / The Associated Press
Tempe, Arizona - A Tempe police sergeant has apologized for a television program that showed him asking two black men to perform a rap song to get out of a littering ticket.
"Nothing I did on that day, or nothing I've done in any day of my 25 years as a police officer, or nothing in my 48 years of being a human being, was ever driven by race, by the color of a person's skin or anything of that nature," Sgt. Chuck Schoville told The Arizona Republic on Wednesday.
Schoville, a 25-year department veteran, stopped two men in August in a mall parking lot after seeing a motorist toss a paper bag from his window.
The stop appeared on a segment of "StreetBeat," which showed Schoville talking to the men about the consequences of littering and asking them to perform a rap song to avoid a ticket.
Schoville said he talked to the men for about five minutes before the camera started rolling. He said he told the two men, Louis Baker and Robert Tarvin, that if one of them picked up the trash, he wouldn't give them a littering ticket. He also said he talked to them off-camera about how they were music producers and aspiring rappers, which led to his asking them to rap.
While Schoville said he hasn't spoken with Tarvin or Baker since the incident, he did meet with local civil-rights leaders.
He said the discussions he had with them were "productive, worthwhile and well worth it."
The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, president of the National Action Network in Arizona, met with Schoville on Monday night at a Tempe restaurant.
"During the meeting, I had the opportunity to begin to know the real Chuck Schoville," Maupin said. "He is a man of sincere service and integrity." But Maupin said that doesn't excuse what happened on tape. He said that Schoville's conduct was not representative of Tempe and that Tarvin and Baker are looking into taking legal action. "The words, phrases, and questions he chose to use demonstrated his failure in handling the situation in a professional manner," he said.
On Wednesday, authorities said Schoville would not be disciplined, but that the department would have to undergo diversity training, and the police-produced "StreetBeat" will be taken off the air for a few months until checks and balances can be developed. "And hopefully it'll never happen again," Tempe police spokesman Jeff Lane said.
Retrieved December 23, 2006 from http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/161480