CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES OF SELMA POLICE DEPARTMENT PATROL CITY STREETS WITH GUNS
2-4-08
Totally disregarding the law, SPD regulations, public safety, and common sense, Mayor Perkins and Chief Martin put EMPLOYEES (not police officers) of the Selma Police Department on patrol with weapons for a 12 hour shift. Two women, Evidence Technician Cole and Jailer Keebler were on Patrol last Saturday, February 2nd. Neither of them is a certified police officer. As far as we know, neither is authorized to carry a weapon. This stupid act of putting employees on the streets to patrol the city demonstrates the sorry state of affairs of Martin's tenure as police chief.
Everyone except Perkins and Martin realizes how dangerous it is to have employees patrolling the streets of the city. Suppose these 2 women, who were in uniform, had been attacked by some of the many thugs in Selma and been shot or suppose they had shot someone. The City would not have enough money to pay the liability for such actions.
We do not fault the women, Cole and Keebler. They probably needed the extra money. The fault lies with Perkins and Martin who endangered the women's lives as well as the citizens of Selma by this action.
Months ago, to cover up the shortage of officers in the SPD, Martin ordered all civilian employees of the department to wear police uniforms during work hours. This would give the appearance that the SPD had more officers than it actually had. More than 40 officers have left the force during Martin's tenure due to his and Perkins stupidity, lack of leadership, and general ignorance of how to run a police department. Forcing civilian employees to wear police uniforms endangered the employees of the SPD, who could have been mistaken by criminals as police officers and attacked.
For his stupidity, bad judgment and lack of common sense in having two women employees of the SPD on patrol with weapons, Martin should be fired today and Perkins should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.
We are printing this story (1) to let the citizens of Selma know how unprotected we are thanks to Martin and Perkins and (2) because a City Council Member told the Selma-Times Journal about this and incident and the STJ has not informed the public of this potential disaster.
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MEANWHILE, Officer Blanks wrecked another one of our police cars Saturday night. We believe that makes 2 he has wrecked, which is putting him in the ranks of Calhoun and Thomas for this year's award for the police officer who wrecks the most cars. The award has been renamed the "Calhoun-Thomas Wrecker of the Year" and is awarded to the officer who wrecks the most police cars in a year.
MEANWHILE, as Mayor Perkins was holding a conference with other mayors to talk about stopping copper theft in the area, the thieves were on top of Calhoun Food Store robbing the air conditioners of copper to the tune of $40,000. To Calhoun's Food Store we say: Perkins, because he has destroyed the Selma Police Department, is as responsible for the theft as the thieves. Perhaps store manager Jimmy Coleman and store owner Calhoun will not be so out front in their support of Perkins this year as they have in the past!
