CopSpace II: The Hearing
Police officers get discipline hearing for MySpace.com postings:
The Lexington Ky. Police officers who posted inappropriate content on their MySpaces are getting ready for their dress down…
A board made up of city police and law officials met behind closed doors today to discuss the cases of six officers who have been administratively charged for content and postings they made on the popular Web site MySpace.com.
The six officers � Gene Haynes, Joshua Cromer, Aaron Noel, Richard Sisk, Adam O�Quinn and Paul Stewart � were present for the meeting along with their supervisors, said Maj. Mike Bosse, commander of internal affairs and chairman of the disciplinary board. The meeting lasted more than four hours.
Bosse said the board made discipline recommendations in each of the officers� cases. Although he could not release the specifics of the recommendations, Bosse said punishment can include anything from a written reprimand to termination.
The board will forward its recommendations to Police Chief Anthany Beatty, who can accept or adjust them. Beatty will then present his discipline to each officer, probably within the next couple of weeks.
The officer can accept Beatty�s decision or reject it. Rejecting the decision would send the case to the Urban County Council for a hearing. If the council finds the officer�s conduct improper, members would decide on the punishment.
�The board carefully considered all the aspects of each individual case and made recommendations based on evidence and the officer�s response to the questions,� Bosse said. �I think the board was professionally conducted with the interest of the public as well as the rights of the officers in mind.�
The six officers could not be reached for comment or did not return phone calls today.
The police department began investigating the MySpace.com Web sites on March 20, when another police officer informed a supervisor about the sites. That officer was �very disturbed� by some of the content on the Web pages, Beatty said.
On the Web pages, officers discussed their jobs, commented on arrests they had made and used derogatory language about gays and the mentally disabled. Officers said they worked for the �snobby people of Lexington� or the �Lexington Fayette Urban Communist Gov. PD.� Many of the pages featured Lexington police badges or photos of officers in uniform.
1 opinion for CopSpace II: The Hearing
Michael Dean
Sep 27, 2006 at 12:57 am
Maybe we should thank these cops as they proved that what I have said for years–most cops hate gays. It is unprofessional and sad, but true. Maybe cops are trained in the academy to hate gays or maybe the cop profession simply attracts men who hate gays. Whatever it is, gays have a right to be afraid.