Saturday, November 6, 2010

CMPD Responds to the Chaplain Dust-Up

The first week in November has been a handful for CMPD public relations staff as the news of CMPD Chaplains jumping ship hit the internet and then the airwaves.

CMPD released two letters to sources other than Cedar Posts and posted by Charlotte's QNotes. One undated memo addressed to "Dear CMPD Chaplains" with Chief Monroe's name at the bottom and the another undated and unsigned "Response to Fox News Story". Since it is unsigned, undated and without a speck of contact information it is impossible to tell who distributed the letter.

The Response to Fox News Story seems to be directed to Fox. Both are worth the read to understand CMPD's spin on the facts.

Another perspective can be found at QNotes where Matt Comer gives a time line of the breaking story.

QNotes points out that Floretta Watkins is not "Out" so they have removed her name in all but two places. Cedar Posts doesn't know if Rev. Watkins is gay or not, or "Not Out" or "Out" and frankly it shouldn't make a difference.

What does make a difference, is that at least 1 half of the CMPD Chaplain Unit quit over her acceptence as a Chaplain.

As Cedar Posts has pointed out the Chaplains left because Chief Monroe re-wrote the directives to bring aboard Floretta Watkins. A point lost at the "Local Paper".

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this thing because the HNIC hired a lesbian? Or is this thing because the HNIC hired a friend of his who happened to be a lesbian? Or, is thing about the HNIC forcing a lesbian friend of his on the chaplains? Or is this thing about a bunch of bigoted white chaplains quitting over having a Negro appointed over their objection? Or is this thing about a bunch of bigoted white chaplains quitting over having a Negro LESBIAN appointed over their objection? Or is it because these whiteys are simply fed up with being told what to do by a Negro? Or is it because the HNIC gives out patronage to all his black friends? How many black chaplains quit over this deal? Which is it? Once and for all, is it the honkeys or the Negroes at fault here? Let's black and white this thing once and for all! Come on, get it out in the open!

Anonymous said...

TO: 8:13pm

Actually, it is a black and white thing and Monroe created this division himself! If you are white you will not gain ground (only those token ones and that is just for show so he can't get sued)!

Personally, I say bring Stephens back and I was NOT a fan of his but he did NOT divide the dept! He actually cared about ALL his officers regardless of their race!

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:15
How right you are!

Rea Road Neighborhood Coalition said...

Looks like most everyone took off with the Gay vs Straight prespective.

The real issue maybe that Chief Monroe changed the rules to serve his game.

CMPD directives prior to just a few weeks ago and still showing on the CMPD web site stated:

“Chaplains are appointed by the Chief of Police” and “Must be recommended by an active senior chaplain”.

CMPD has put the spin on this story by saying: “the Volunteer Coordinator Unit of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department “now” has the responsibility of vetting all of the department’s volunteers, including those interested in serving as chaplains. The screening and selection process for our volunteer chaplains rests with the Volunteer Coordinator Unit and Major John Diggs”

Then for good measure: “While Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe is not part of the selection process for our volunteer chaplains….”

What does it look like to you?

Was there a game change because a senior chaplain wouldn’t recommend the person in question and Chief Monroe didn’t get his way?

Sure does look that way.

Anonymous said...

Cedar if the CMPD directives say the Chief appoints the Chaplains then why does Maj Diggs say and I'm quoting from your friend Morgan Fogarty's report on Fox News ....

"Diggs says the Chief has never been a part of the volunteer selection process and hasn't even met the new chaplain."

Is Diggs lying? And if so why?

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:56
Of course, that is the way rodney has operated since he arrived at CMPD, if he doesn't like a Directive, then he changes it or just gets rid of it completely!

He has done this way too many times to count, and it is what has so totally screwed up CMPD.

There are NO universal DIRECTIVES anymore....no one knows what is going on. And rodney likes it like that, keeping people in the dark and feeding them crap.

But people can't look to a directive to guide them, to make an impartial decision.

It has all become personal with rodney, his own little game book with his own little rules. Which, by the way, change on his whim.There are no impartial decisions with rodney, all of his decisions are simply personal with no thought to qualifications, etc.

Honestly, is this the way to run a PD?

Same thing with the "promotion" process. There are no longer any rules and regulations regarding announcing promotions....he just does it whenever he wants. While totally screwing up peoples lives while they are put on hold in limbo waiting for His Majesty to decide when to announce.

Really Screwed Up.

His own little "kingdom"...he's the Emperor with no clothes.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:18
You are 100% correct, he is the emperor with no clothes. And yet, despite all of the people who have "outed" this guy, people in the community and on the council still say, "My, what a nice outfit you have on, rodney!" Go figure... it makes me sick what that man has done to one of the finest dept's in the country.

Anonymous said...

Cedar you need to put your comment above and the rest of this in one post.

You now see what we have been dealing with at CMPD for more than two years.

RoMo and his goons try to use a thread of truth to claim it is all true.

What you have wrong is that Watkins is not a friend of RoMo's but of Foster's.

When Diggs went on camera he signed his own death warrant. I one poster said under the bus he'll go.

The Chaplain unit is now two lesbos, one homo, one muslim, and 3who are black.

Its has been said time and time again RoMo wants more chocolate at CMPD and he doesn't care how low he need to take the standards to get there he's going to have his chocolate soup.

Flo Watkins is about as low as you can go.