Very soon, I will begin changing the manner in which I post on this blog by using the real names of FWPD officers rather than employing my past practice of (mostly) using pseudonmms. Although my reasons for choosing to do this are really quite simple, the process through which I arrived at this decision was a bit more complex. In this and the next several posts I will explain how and why my plans for the blog changed many times during the past several months, why I took my blog off-line a couple of weeks ago, and what my current goals for this blog are.
I would begin by referring you to my post of June 10, 2009, which elicited a strong response from a person calling himself Jim Ritchie. And to understand why in my response to his comment I referred to him as Sergeant Ritchie, I would refer you to an older post on another local blog. There are several things about this post that are worth mentioning.
First of all, you might notice that while my comment was focused on FWPD, Dan’s post was actually complaining about FWFD. I have conceded from the beginning that my anger and frustration with the situation in my neighborhood often causes me to misunderstand the situation. In this particular case, it appears that my anger at FWPD was so strong that I actually read their name when it wasn’t even there.
Interestingly though, the person who responded as Jim Ritchie drew my attention as he seemed to me to be defending the poor actions of what I thought was FWPD. So I did a little investigating and came to the conclusion that this person was probably Sergeant James Ritchie of FWPD. I had never met Sergeant Ritchie before, and I had no idea where he fell within the FWPD hierarchy, but I unloaded on him as though The Chief of Police himself was listening.
There is nothing more frustrating than being ignored. Yet it seems to be the basic policy of FWPD to either ignore or lie about a problem, rather than to engage it openly and honestly. So here I was, sharing a public forum with an FWPD officer, and I was not going to let him off the hook easily. My intention was to word my comment in a manner that Challenged Jim Ritchie to respond, in order to defend the honor of FWPD. And while readers of that blog thread may have determined that his lack of a response indicated a lack of honor, that is actually very far from the truth.
So, my relationship and communication with Sergeant Ritchie during the past six months will be the focus of my next post.
Phil:
ReplyDeleteYou know that I know Sgt. Jim, and that after speaking with him candidly about many things in and around his patrol area (our neighborhoods), I've come to admire HIS stance and practices as an officer of the law.
I'm not blowing smoke up anyone's butt when I say that I've met a lot of officers in my life, and only a VERY, very few can even come close to the level of competence and dedication I have seen Sgt. Jim exude when speaking with him.
Let's put it this way...if I had to share a foxhole in a CZ with lead buzzing like hornets in heat all over, Jim would get a GO vote from me!
And at MY age, I choose people a LOT more carefully than in my dumb and youthful past.
Sgt. Ritchie is a lot like me (only more diplomatic, UNLIKE me)...he speaks his mind, and is not afraid to speak the truth (that usually gets me in hot water...well, it did in the past), so you will always know WHERE you stand with him.
I'm looking forward to the future posts.
Stay safe.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI only met Ritchie in person one time, but from what I have seen of him, I wold agree with your asessment. I think he is a good cop and a decent person and he is definitely someone you want on your side for a fight. But good does not mean perfect, and I fault him with being blindly loyal to his department.
When a person will not even consider the possibility that some people on their team may be acting inappropriately, even when he probably doesn't have acess to all the facts, I belive that person actually does a disservice to their cause.
There are a few things about Ritchie that I will not publish on my blog out of respect for him, even though it would make the story much more interesting. You and I can discuss it in person sometinme though, as I do appreciate your views on things.
And as a reminder to Sergeant Ritchie or any other officer who may be reading this. I am always open to dialogue and would much rather to have the conversation in private. But if I continue to be ignored by FWPD and it's officers as I try to help them understand the serious problems which exist within their organization, then I have no choice but to speak publicly.