By: Diane Benjamin
In case you forgot, Gabriella Calhoun is the young lady from the Denny’s incident that happened in 2013.
Her case also led to the discovery of racists comments made by Sgt Shumaker that had been buried by the City. Sgt Shumaker wasn’t fired, he just got a letter in his file that will disappear in 5 years if no further incidents take place.
This is my original story from 2013: http://blnnews.com/2013/07/09/bloomington-police-bullies-racist-or-can-they-explain/
These are stories from last January when Calhoun was found NOT guilty of assaulting a police officer. They are also about the audio cover-up that led to the Not In Our Town public meeting.
http://blnnews.com/2015/01/16/what-did-renner-know-and-when/
http://blnnews.com/2015/01/15/not-in-our-town-hales-institutionalized-it/
http://blnnews.com/2015/01/15/seattle-suspends-cop-but-not-bloomington/
Chicago attempted to bury the video of an officer shooting a black guy. Bloomington attempted to bury audio of an officer’s racist comments.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the Chicago Police Chief. Today the New York Times called for Rahm to step down.
Renner claimed he didn’t know about the audio. Hales claimed Sgt Shumaker suffered severe penalties. The Police Chief at the time was temporary and is now long gone.
Meanwhile, Gabriella Calhoun has sued the City for her injuries – see pics of her at the 2013 link above.
Chicago bought off the family of the dead black guy for $5,000,000.
Bloomington will be paying Calhoun – the City can’t legally hide the amount.
Other than 17 year-old Laquan McDonald is now dead while Gabriella Calhoun was only injured, what’s the difference between how Chicago and Bloomington handled misconduct by officers?
More than a year after the shooting the Chicago officer was arrested, but only after a judge ordered the video released. In Bloomington the officer got a letter in his file.
What’s the same? Cover-up. Hiding the truth. Two mayors claiming they aren’t responsible.
Who paid for police bad behavior? Mostly Chicago and Bloomington taxpayers.
Something is wrong when Hales said that Shumaker suffered “severe penalties” (that being a letter in his file for 5 years), and then the city fires a 19 year veteran officer with an exemplary record like Brent Van HoveIn for refusing to participate in ticket writing quotas. Rahm and Tari are both corrupt, and THEY need to be held accountable.
I agree. The City is only costing taxpayers more by not reinstating him.
Can you imagine how far you would get, the exit door, had you said racial remarks at a place of employment other than the government where workers are union.
Rahm in my opinion held back because of the election and he should resign. Will he, I doubt it. His Democratic bud Lisa Madigan now wants a full investigation of the police department in what seems to be a diversion. Why take this long Lisa?
Tari will likely get his exit pass at the next election if he tries to run again.
I wonder how much Gabriella is asking for. If they settle before a trial won’t they try to hide the amount? From my experience on a school board that is how it was handled so the taxpayers would have a hard time finding out what was paid out. Usually insurance covers it and the taxpayers get stiffed on paying higher premiums.
They can try to hide it, they will FAIL!
No wonder government hates transparency.
FOIA the info from Shumaker’s punishment. If it was not “adjudicated” thru a formal process (if he agreed to the punishment letter instead of going thru the formal discipline process), they must release the letter and all investigative materials pertaining to it.
Done!
Reblogged this on BLNNews and commented:
The city of Bloomington mouthpiece (Pantagraph) announced the City is settling this case for $120,000. They got off lucky.