Police Officer Suspended Without Pay

If you follow with any regularity the police misconduct stories I post on this site, you're no doubt familiar with the phrase "paid administrative leave." No matter how serious the alleged misconduct, cops nearly always get paid while they're being investigated, a period that typically takes months.

But last week Stockton, Utah police officer Johsua Rowell was actually put on unpaid administrative leave.

His transgression? He issued a traffic citation to the son of Stockton Mayor Dan Rydalch.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

He did him for treason.

[fishbane]

But of course. It is vitally important to send a message to cops - they need to know where their duties lie.

[kinnath]

Below the belt Radley.

[?]

At least he didn't get shot. Yet.

[Big B]

series should be seriuos.

[Freedonian]

Skitt's Law in action

[nobody]

Ouch.

[FrBunny]

Cop v. Politician?

Can we just hope the ceiling collapses on them all before anyone wins, like we do when Duke plays North Carolina?

[Beer Keg Abs]

Duke? I hated that school ever since I saw Christian "so what if I'm a fag" Laettner stomp a Kentucky player who was lying on the floor during a play off game.

But Shane Battier redeemed the school when he stated that he nearly didn't accept Duke's offer to play basketball due the Laettner's stomping incident.

Shane Battier: great man.

Christian Laettner: POS

[John Thacker]

I'm a Duke fan, having grown up in Durham, NC, my parents work at Duke (the Medical Center), my brother went there, and I went there. Being from NC, I pronounce it correctly (dyook, not dook.)

Yes, Laettner is and always was an asshole on a personal level. Quite a good basketball player. The stomp does look worse in slow motion than live, and he did get a deserved technical.

The people who made gay jokes about him (even after he got married and had a kid) because they couldn't believe that his best friend and roommate, teammate Brian Davis, was black? Also assholes.

Shane, who was in my class, is an extremely nice guy.

Still, I'm suspicious about why everyone always hates our white players but doesn't mind our black players.

[proud libitard]

Dude, as an NC State grad, I welcome your comment with love and appreciation!

[John Thacker]

49-28?

[Aresen]

Didn't the officer know that the Political Class, including their families, is above the law?

[Xeones]

Ouch, Balko. Right in the nuts.

[kinnath]

Most guys where their belts above their nuts.

[Kroneborge]

See shoot a nobody in their home while looking for drugs that aren't there and you are fine.

But...

Arrest the son of a mayor, and you are outa there.

[J sub D]

He didn't even arrest the guy. Just gave hin a ticket for driving withiout a license. In many jurisdictions you can show up in court with it and get the ticket dismissed.

I hope the little prick never found his damned dog.

[Spartacus]

This is reason #74 why the drug war will never end. People keep saying, "Oh, just wait until some Senator's kid gets busted. Then they will change the laws." No they won't. They will just fire the arresting officer to send send a message to the others (see Aresen above) and continue as usual.

[Spartacus]

Delete one "send" above.

The hell with threading, what we really need is a preview button.

[John Thacker]

No, you meant "send send," to mean really send. Just like the difference between "rape" and "rape rape," right?

[NAL]

" Cop v. Politician?

Can we just hope the ceiling collapses on them all before anyone wins, like we do when Duke plays North Carolina?"

I know this is going to be unpopular to say on this cops-are-after-my-drugs website, but, imperfect as they are, I'll take a cop over a politician any day.

[DanD]

Word. Now a police chief or a sheriff, on the other hand....

[Xeones]

Most guys where their belts above their nuts.

Man, i ain't need to read your comment to make a similar one later in the thread.

[kinnath]

Just adding emphasis then, eh?

[anon]

This guy gets no sympathy from me. He stopped the kid for avoiding a DUI checkpoint. I try to avoid DUI checkpoints, too, but not because I'm drunk. It's a waste of my time to sit through one.

[ReallyAnon]

Its a legit stop. But the ticket and the resulting flap seem to be the ticket for driving without a license. Is that OK too, because carrying a license is too much of a hassle?

[bigbigslacker]

What is legit about impeding the travel of a citizen because he dared to avoid an unconstituional check point? Are we now required to drive through check points if we see one ahead of us.

[noreally]

people seem to be forgetting that they are only chased if they turn away within a certain distance of the point. if their far enough away they are ignored. also they are only allowed to hold up to 10 cars at a time any more then that and they have to let them go. oh by the way there was a warrant involved. that MAKES it constitutional.

[prolefeed]

Looks like that arrogant prick of a mayor will be out of a job.

Not that many of his constituents would use the term "arrogant prick", this being Utah and all, but some sort of squeaky clean condemnation has gotta be going through their minds.

[db]

Nah. He'll just cry publicly and everything will be OK.

[Xeones]

Just adding emphasis then, eh?

Well, some things can't be said enough.

[Invisible Finger]

I'm OK with this. I'm OK with every cop running a DUI checkpoint to get the axe, no matter what bullshit reason there is.

[John]

If the mayor was actually angry about the bullshit tactics as opposed to them being used on his kid, I would agree with you. But I doubt he is. I am sure he has no problem with the tactics just with his kid being subject to the same rules as the proles. Two wrongs, police authoritarian horseshit and political class exceptionalism, do not make a right.

[kinnath]

Boycotting the threaded comments?

[prolefeed]

Yes.

P.S. Irony alert!

[Xeones]

Yes.

[John]

Come X, feel the power of the darkside.

[Pro Libertate]

Does anyone think the threads a great?

[John Tagliaferro]

A great what?

[Pro Libertate]

You know, a great.

[John Tagliaferro]

I thought I knew them when I saw them, but now I am not so sure.

[Spartacus]

It would be nice if there were an option to simply display the comments in chronological order, instead of threaded. Surely it can't be that hard to do technically.
That said, I think way too much time has been devoted to bitching about this.

[Tulpa]

The problem would be that people using the threaded comments aren't explicitly identifying the comment they're replying to, so a chronological ordering would be very hard for the reader to untangle.

[kinnath]

The threads a great when you are arguing with a single person. For all other purposes, they are a travesty.

[prolefeed]

So arguing with married people is a travesty?

[kinnath]

Arguing with wives is pointless.

Confusious say men fuck with dicks, wives fuck with mind.

[Xeones]

Are you coming on to me, John?

[John]

No. Warty would hunt me down and kill me if I did that. He is very jeolous you know.

[Mango Punch]

He distracts you up here, and hits you down here... well played Balko, the first law of war: missdirrection.

[Xeones]

Warty lies. I thought you knew that by now.

[Episiarch]

This isn't match.com, you dicks.

[John Tagliaferro]

It always resembles a Manhattan adult video arcade when you and SugarFree get going.

[Caby Smith]

Too bad Sal Culosi's dad wasn't the Mayor...

[MNG]

I'm not upset at the "paid administrative leave"; that's usually just a bit of 'due process' they have in their contract with the employer (can't be fired until a hearing, yada, yada); but certainly this case is stinky to high heaven.

[anarch]

"I think the mayor did make a mistake," one Stockton resident told KSL News.

What will it take to revive the term misdeed?

[Warty]

I LOOM LARGE

[db]

OK, no more threaded comments for me. This sucks. Of course, if you read this on a mobile device, the threading doesn't show up as indents, but still sticks the threaded comments in between others.

[Matt]

They're both treasonous assholes, and as been suggested above, I think the best solution is to have a ceiling collapse on both of them.

The mayor should be executed for treason for presuming he is above the law simply because he is politically powerful, and the police officer should be executed for treason for the myriad of unconstitutional abuses he's performed as a function of his job.

We didn't accept the "I'm just following orders" defense at Nuremberg (or any other warcrimes tribunal, for that matter) and we shouldn't accept it as a defense of police officers who abuse us under the guise of blatantly unconstitutional laws either.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Stockton town council voted on the matter. The last line in the story is priceless, considering the PR disaster the mayor brought upon himself.

[John C. Randolph]

If I were that cop, I'd run for mayor. The publicity from this is like winning the PR lottery.

-jcr