Although Mayor Anthony Foxx gets bonus points for attempting a crafty compromise, having the Charlotte city council eyeball Marcus Jackson’s personnel file in secret is no substitute for releasing it to the public. More stunning is that council members Andy Dulin, Patrick Cannon, Edwin Peacock, Warren Turner and James Mitchell think that even that half-way measure is too much council oversight of CMPD operations.
Their see-no-evil position is incoherent. If in fact Jackson’s actions are not at all representative of CMPD, and we’ve heard this repeatedly from Peacock and others, then what possible precedent could be set by examining his personnel file? How many more times can we expect a CMPD officer to be arrested and charged with felonies within weeks of coming off of suspension — and perhaps days after some at CMPD sought his firing?
This is the very narrow issue at question: How did CMPD handle Jackson’s alleged violations of department policy between July 2009 and his arrest six months later? That’s all, that’s it. As of this moment, we do not know.
Charlotte city council evidently likes it that way. Wonder why?
Bonus Bleg: Still need some legal-beagle to suss out my supposition that Jackson’s alleged victims could sue the city and CMPD for negligence for putting Jackson on the street with a gun, badge, and cruiser after his supposed brushes with department policy.
