Police Chief Fired after not attending 3 funerals for Officers but attending killers' funeral

[speltwon]

http://www.policeone.com/chiefs-sheriffs/articles/3393919-St-Petersburg-chief-fired-after-not-attending-slain-cops-funerals/

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg police chief Goliath Davis was fired Friday after a controversy that involved the funerals of three cops recently killed in the line of duty.

Chief Davis did not attend the funerals for Officer Jeffrey Yaslowitz and Sgt. Thomas Baitinger, but did attend the funeral of Hydra Lacy, the man who killed them.

A third officer, David Crawford, was killed less than one month later, and Davis did not attend that funeral either.

"I paid my respects to those families and those officers at a wake,” Davis said at a press conference today explaining his firing.

[MadMaddie]

1. He was the chief so with that role and money

comes obligations and responsibilities.

He should have been fired after he missed the first funeral.

[FarPoint]

2. That's unfair.

He should not if been terminated. We all deal with grief in our own way. I don't go to any funerals.

[speltwon]

4. We are not all public figures who represent the face of the police dept. to the public

That's who a police chief is. He's an appointed politician, in most jurisdictions, who serves at the pleasure of the mayor or city council.

He does not have civil service protection usually. His officers are his "flock" so to speak. If he disliked funerals to the extent that he "could not" go to them then he was unfit for the job and never should have taken it.

Political figures take actions and do things (or don't do things) in public that are public actions in ways that actions of a private non-public figure are not. In my state, I can't recall the last LOD cop funeral that the GOVERNOR missed, let alone the police chief from the agency of the officer that was killed. No matter what his justification is in his mind, there is no way that members of his force will not take his absence as a direct slap in the face, and no way that the people in his city won't have serious questions about why he didn't attend.

Most importantly, he DOES go to funerals. He went to the funeral of the person who killed the first two officers.

[Cid_B]

6. Different situation...

It doesn't matter if he isn't a "funeral guy." His job as the top of that chain of command is to go, represent and set that sterling example.

Seriously, what else does he have to do that is more important than that? He is crap as a leader.

Also, don't forget to note that he attended the funeral of the murderer who killed his officers but not the funeral of the officers themselves.

[Sonoman]

3. What the heck was he thinking?

Jeebus, how did he ever get to be Chief?

Good riddance, pig (no reflection on honorable pigs or pancetta).

Sonoman

[flvegan]

5. ...and he attended the funeral of the guy that killed two of them.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. weird choice

[H2O Man]

12. The family of the

thug that murdered the cops is actually a decent group of people. I suspect that the police chief was there for them. I do think he should have been at the other funerals, too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. When one of your own falls in the line of duty

YOU ATTEND THE FUNERAL...

[Tx4obama]

8. When I was younger ....

growing up in a small town in Illinois, more people usually went to the wake compared to the funeral the next day.
Maybe this is a regional thing.
But since it was a fallen policeman, he should have went to BOTH the wake and the funeral.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Why I phrased it the way I did

In Tijuana most people attend one or the other... but we EMS people, we attended both if it was one of our own.

When the director died from a heart attack he had a 24 hour honor guard. When one of our vets died of old age... every medic, even those on duty, showed to the cemetery... they were the only ones out of a dress uniform. I was lucky none of my kids was killed in the line of duty (my shift) but when one of our own died in the line of duty... well yes I skipped school that day... and instead went to a funeral

[Historic NY]

10. Good, image he didn't have any respect from the rank & file...dumbass.

[Blue-Jay]

13. "Goliath"? "Hydra"?

What the fuck?

On topic: I'd fire the asshole too. Bad form.