The Seatle Cop who arrested that old black man with his golf club...FIRED!!!!

[Ichingcarpenter]

A Seattle police officer was fired on Tuesday over her arrest of an elderly black man last year who refused to drop a golf club he was using as a cane to help him walk, the police department announced.

"Officer Cynthia Whitlatch was served today with a termination notice for sustained policy violations involving bias, abuse of police discretion, and escalation of a contact on July 9, 2014," Seattle police said in a statement.

Whitlatch stopped William Wingate, now 70, as he walked down a city sidewalk leaning on the golf club, according to court documents.

In dashboard video of the incident, Wingate can be seen standing on a sidewalk, casually leaning on the club before the officer approaches and yells at him to drop his weapon. He refused for several minutes before he was arrested.

Whitlatch said Wingate had swung the club at her before she took him into custody. Nowhere in the roughly seven-minute clip can he be seen swinging the club.

The department's release of the video led to calls for Whitlatch's dismissal. The incident was also highlighted during waves of nationwide protests demanding reform in policing tactics following the deaths of several unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in the United States.

The Seattle Police Department, which has been under federal monitoring for excessive force, promised a full investigation into Wingate's arrest.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/16/us-usa-police-seattle-idUSKCN0RG0DH20150916


Don't forget that time she sprayed innocent people walking with mace

[snooper2]

1. Good she is fucking gone, hope she doesn't get hired somewhere else

[LiberalArkie]

8. She will, she has a certificate saying she is qualified. They need to start revoking the

certifications so they have to go back to school and relearn public safety.

[questionseverything]

27. once a cop is fired they should be placed on a national no hire list

[Faux pas]

2. ...

We still need a shaking-your-head-off smilie.

[Lee-Lee]

3. Looks like a good firing to me nt

[BarbaRosa]

4. That's good she was fired,

but what PD is she working for now?

[left-of-center2012]

5. Sadly, she is not unusual

Seems like almost every day across America we have cops who lie and break the law.
And other cops willing to lie in their defense.

[packman]

15. And other cops who will go out of their way to help and protect

as they are sworn to do.

[whathehell]

6. Good. n/t

[joeybee12]

7. Good...she was a reaal piece of work...nt

[SoapBox]

9. A fine example of why LAPD is wrong.

They are getting body cameras...but Chief Beck says video will never be released publicly...they are only for internal review.

Uhhh...WRONG!

[Chakab]

10. What's rich is that she posted a bunch of screeds online about how police bias against black men

was non-existent and how other groups are treated much worse in the US, then gets caught framing an old man who was minding his own business.

Disgusting.

[countryjake]

21. Right here...

From The Stranger, a screenshot of one of Whitlatch's FaceBook rants:


~ Courtesy of Brian Davis
~ Seattle resident Brian Davis calls this Officer Cynthia Whitlatch's "Ferguson screed." He says it prompted him to file a complaint with the Office of Professional Accountability.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/01/28/what-facebook-user-cynthia-whitlatch-wrote-about-chronic-black-racism

[uponit7771]

11. Liar and stupid

[Enthusiast]

24. Bad combination.

[groundloop]

12. Glad she's gone, people like that don't belong in public service

She needs to find a new career, one that doesn't involve interacting with the public.

One thing of interest involving this case (and far too many like it).... I've read studies about racial bias when people are forced to make a snap decision about whether a stranger is a 'good guy' or 'bad guy'. In multiple studies the general population was significantly biased against black people. Police officers, on the other hand, showed a much lesser degree of bias when forced to make a snap decision. It's obvious that most police officers receive good training, and most are able to make good decisions. Unfortunately there are still too many (like Cynthia Whitlach) who should have been weeded out before ever putting on a uniform.

[JLTaylor]

13. Pants on Fire.

Over and over again, police officers found to be lying. Are statements taken under any form of oath, how about not only being fired how about perjury charges.

[Takket]

14. Joe arpaio will probably offer her a job.

thanks for posting. I hadn't even heard about this case. they are hard to keep straight anymore. we need some sort of "police brutality" spreadsheet to keep track of them all.

[countryjake]

19. Let's hope your prophecy doesn't come true!

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/01/28/what-facebook-user-cynthia-whitlatch-wrote-about-chronic-black-racism

~snip~

Also, on what appears to be Whitlatch's Facebook page, a user under the name Cynthia Whitlatch—who belongs to a group of what appear to be SPD members—"liked" an article from Guns.com about Arizona's notorious Joe Arpaio purchasing AR-15 rifles for his sheriff's department. The same user also shared a right-wing blog post titled, "The Trayvon Martin Picture the Mainstream Media Doesn't Want You To See" and added the caption, "He's huge..."

Takket, see here if you'd like to catch up on things in the "Walking while Black" case of Mr. William Wingate:

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/15/22862489/the-seattle-police-department-fires-officer-cynthia-whitlatch

[C Moon]

16. I remember that video: she looked like she knew she was in too deep...

but couldn't figure out how to get out of the mess.
That was messed up. I hope they made it so she can NOT get a similar job elsewhere.
I think she needs help first.

[uppityperson]

17. Here's a Seattle Times articl. "without this ability to learn from your mistakes..."

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/spd-chief-fires-officer-who-arrested-man-with-golf-club/

...
Whitlatch, 48, defended herself throughout the internal investigation, insisting she acted properly. She also portrayed herself as the victim of discrimination because she is white.

O’Toole, in her termination order, cited Whitlatch’s defiance, noting that even in hindsight, Whitlatch had failed to recognize her misconduct and the damage it had done to community trust.

“Without this ability to learn from your mistakes, understand how you can improve and do better, and recognize your own errors, you are unable to effectively function as an officer,” O’Toole wrote.

O’Toole said Whitlatch’s response dissuaded her from considering Whitlatch for a lengthy suspension, disciplinary transfer to a unit that doesn’t interact with the public and removal from the sergeant’s promotional registry.....

[countryjake]

18. Here's more on this from "The Stranger", a Seattle paper that revealed...

what a lying racist pig Whitlatch is, by exposing her FaceBook comments and publishing her dashcam video of the extreme harassment of William Wingate.

This article by Ansel Herz is full of links, telling how the officers who arrived as back up that day of Mr. Wingate's arrest went above and beyond their "duty" in "backing" her up, a good commentary on the Blue Wall, plus how The Seattle Police Officers Guild is still intent on vindicating their bad cop:


http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/15/22862489/the-seattle-police-department-fires-officer-cynthia-whitlatch

~snip~

In a statement, O'Toole wrote that Officer Whitlatch continued insisting during a recent appeal hearing that she had done nothing wrong.

Even during your Loudermill hearing, you continued to blame minorities for your perceived mistreatment on account of your race (white). Your perceptions of race and other protected categories appear to be so deeply seated that they likely impacted the authoritarian manner in which you treated this man and your refusal to deviate from that approach towards an individual whose actions did not warrant such treatment...

I was disappointed by your failure during your Loudermill hearing to take any responsibility, or show any understanding that your conduct at issue here was inappropriate. In particular, when I asked you what if anything you would do differently in retrospect, you stated that you would do nothing differently.

And here's an earlier thread on Whitlatch's firing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10824553

[MrScorpio]

20. Finally nt

[cpwm17]

22. Good, she very much deserved it:

[Enthusiast]

23. Kicked and recommended! Love it!

Finally! A sliver of justice!

[Dont call me Shirley]

25. One gone, more to go. Retrain the police in non-violent practices.

[notadmblnd]

26. It's great that she has been fired

However it is likely that she will just go down the road a bit to the next department and rinse lather repeat. There needs to be a way to stop abusive LEOs from gaining re-employment in the field.