OK. It is pretty simple now. Thanks to WFAE getting the details on the mysterious incident involving Marcus Jackson and his estranged wife in Mint Hill, Charlotte city council can either ask CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe to explain his handling of Officer Jackson from September 1st, 2009 on…or not.

If council members continue to duck this matter they are unfit for office and should be removed by any legal means possible. If City Manager Curt Walton continues to obstruct a fuller public accounting of this grave matter, he should be fired by council with cause. If City Attorney Mac McCarley continues to obstruct a fuller public accounting of this grave matter, he should be fired by council with cause.

No more hiding behind the personnel file cover.

Assuming council and the city manager do ask Monroe for additional information, Monroe must explain what he did in response to a November 5th memo from his Internal Affairs unit which stated that Jackson should have been charged with a crime as a result of his breaking and entering at his wife’s apartment on September 28th. The memo to Monroe also stated that Jackson was suspended for two days as a result of the incident. Monroe has previously stated that he was only aware of one disciplinary incident involving “speed, operating a vehicle outside of policy.”

We now know that not to be true either. Jackson was given a two day suspended suspension for filing a false police report in connection with an accident involving another CMPD officer which Jackson witnessed.

In sum, we now know that CMPD knew Jackson had committed multiple serious breaches of department policy within weeks of hitting Charlotte’s streets on solo patrol. We also know — from 911 tapes — that CMPD supervisors knew that Jackson was pulling over women drivers, looking to make arrests that the supervisors believed could be better addressed with citations.

What will still do not know is if anyone at CMPD, informed as they were about this rookie officer’s behavior, wanted to fire Jackson before his alleged crime spree — nor do we know why Rodney Monroe has not been more forthcoming about what he knew about Marcus Jackson.

Bonus Observation: It would also be nice to get Mint Hill PD on the record as to why it did not charge Jackson with a crime.