Is depicted in the three Meidl shows that have taken place thus far!
Now the Citizens of Spokane have to rely on the judgement of the Spokane City Council to determine if the Spokane Police Department will be led by someone who’s recent and past history clearly demonstrates a leadership style that includes all of the above.
Some Councilmembers have stated that the decision concerning the individual chosen to run SPD is perhaps the most critical decision they will make during their tenure on the City Council, the question is will they truly examine the evidence and make a decision based solely on what is good for the Citizens and not underlying ideologies or agendas. Condon and the City Council completely ignored the warnings not to hire Frank Straub because of his well-documented lack of control and leadership in White Plains NY, and Indianapolis Indiana, will the City Council do the same with Meidl where the same is true? Condon already has ignored the warnings and his reasons are obvious he must have a pliable, non-transparent leadership in place to help him hide his own failures as the ultimate leader of SPD.
I’m getting a little tired of the constant “We need to move on” cry from Condon, Meidl, and other City Leaders. I personally moved on regarding the infamous Salute and 505 Facebook page soon after the realization that David Condon, Frank Straub, nor any members of SPD leadership would ever deal with those issues in an honest straight forward and transparent way. Meidl is handling questions about those issues in his public showcase exactly the same way he and SPD leadership and Condon dealt with them while Meidl was third in command at SPD during the Salute and the 505 Facebook page despite the national embarrassment both were.
Let me reiterate that the Salute and the 505 Facebook Page are ancillary to the issue of whether or not Meidl can lead SPD. Did Meidl run away from those issues when he was an SPD leader? Does his history of leadership at SPD demonstrate that instead of facing problems he ran away from them? The evidence is quite clear even from Meidl’s own statements that has continually runaway and there is NO Evidence that he won’t continue to do so.
For today for the most part let’s just take a close look at his answers in this video:
Remember the promises that Councilperson Kinnear made that Meidl would be asked and would answer all of the Community’s questions including those submitted in writing? The video above clearly shows that Kinnear’s statements ended up NOT BEING TRUE, the question is WHY and especially when many of those unasked and unanswered questions went directly to Meidl’s ability to lead SPD. Was there some kind of an agreement between Kinnear and Meidl beforehand to not deal with hardball questions?
I’m going to primarily stick to the 29 questions I had which were glossed over by Kinnear and Meidl near the end of the video. My reason for doing so is because along with my questions Kinnear was provided a packet of public records that gave the answers to the questions. I suggest that those who submitted written questions take a very careful look at Meidl’s answers to your own questions. The gloss over of my questions begin at 40.10 on the video. You can find the questions and the truth in the links below.
https://examplepro.me/2016/08/13/unanswered-questions/
https://examplepro.me/2016/08/13/unanswered-question-addendum/
***Note to Councilperson Kinnear. Despite your statement regarding my questions that Meidl “has covered them before”, he never has covered them, nor if you or someone else doesn’t ask them he never will!
Please be aware that last night at the second Meidl public show one of my questions, “Who “yelled” present arms?”, was asked twice by a gentleman and both times Meidl refused to identify Detective Bryan Tafoya. It is clear that Meidl will never truthfully answer questions regarding the Salute or the 505 Facebook Page. You might also note that Meidl refuses to answer questions regarding Furniture-gate using the typical “ongoing case” refusal, and one of my questions dealt specifically with the ethics of his decision to act for the City in Mediating Arleth’s appeal when he was in fact the person who made the complaint against Arleth, instead of recusing himself, an issue that goes directly to the heart of Meidl’s judgment and ethics. Is that a good indicator of things to come if the CC confirms him? Given Meidl’s leadership history one would have to conclude the answer is YES!
Did Meidl as third in command of SPD run away from the Salute and 505 Facebook Page issue that caused so much public outcry? His own words in the gloss over of my questions, if you are willing to believe them, clearly shows he did run away.
After outlining to Kinnear all of the media attention and “the dark season” facing SPD at the time of the Salute and the 505 Facebook Page, Meidl, when someone very much needed to standup and be a leader ran away again. Meidl told Kinnear in one breath that those issues “needed to be addressed”, but the fact is they never were, nor did he make any effort to address those issues other than to demonstrate his undying support of Karl Thompson.
If you or the City Council are willing to believe Meidl’s current story that his writings weren’t his own true feelings, they were simply a “compilation” of the feelings expressed to him by other cops suffering “darkness” and “depression” then I have a bridge in Brooklyn NY for sale you may be interested in.
I can’t help but wonder if Meidl even knows the real background of this great man Karl Thompson he keeps pumping up time and again. Does he even remember when Karl Thompson dumped 5 rounds into Chris Felch’s truck while another cop was in control of Felch and a weapon to Felch’s head? Just one of many issues Thompson had some even prior to Thompson landing at SPD.
One has to ask if the “Cowboy Culture” at SPD and the “Us against them attitude” Meidl admits exists now is a direct result of leadership, including his own, running away instead of facing issues head on. Craig Meidl should go back and read the entire Felch case file.
Meidl offers the explanation to Kinnear that the reason that he attended the Salute as an SPD Leader was;
“I was attending …I showed up because again I think what I heard there was a general feeling on the department that no one in leadership was coming forward to express their concern for the rest of the department so when I was attending it was to show my support for the rest of the department I know you guys are suffering from a myriad of emotions and there is a dark cloud over the agency.”
So which one is it? The explanation he gives above or the other explanations, because Thompson was a revered cop, decorated Nam Vet, and mentor to many cops?
“It was about the Karl Thompson we knew as busy officer with a very good work ethic.”
IF the explanation he gave Kinnear is true the CC and the Community have to question his judgment as a leader in even attending and whether or not he will continue to put the concerns of the officers he leads ahead of the Community concerns.
IF the other explanations he offers are true the CC and the Community have to question his judgement about the people he respects and reveres, including the ones he has just promoted to leadership roles at SPD.
As you will see in the video Kinnear asks him to talk a little bit about the Facebook page.
“Ya, I know one of the employees on the department had a Facebook Page that they set up.”
Meidl knows damn good and well that it was his recently promoted Major who set up the 505 Facebook Page yet he runs away from that fact, and Councilperson Kinnear allows him to run away yet again.
“Again, about that time is when I canceled Facebook.”
IF you believe that statement, I’ve still got that bridge in Brooklyn. On the other had IF you do believe it you as well as the CC should be asking why with all of the media coverage of the 505 Facebook Page many documenting negative and derogatory comments posted by Cops as well as new Major Kevin Kings involvement would Meidl as an SPD Leader cancel his own Facebook account and not monitor all of those derogatory postings by cops and taken action. Was it because he again wanted to run away and hide his head in the sand? Is that what we can expect from him as Chief of Police?
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/nov/04/thompson-supporters-express-outrage/
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/oct/17/police-use-505-support-thompson/
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sirens/2011/oct/03/spokane-police-prepare-busy-time/
“The bracelets…I never had one… I know there were blue bracelets that were sold and my understanding was that was monies that came from those were going to go towards his family.”
***Meidl did admit in the public forums that he gave money to Thompson’s family. Something I never really understood since we taxpayers paid for Thompsons entire defense, he was still working and being paid by SPD right up until the time he was led away in handcuffs and Saluted, as well as the coverage he had with the phony divorce to protect his assets.
So where did the all the blue bracelet money go Kevin King?
There is much more information and documents available that give a good picture of Meidl’s lack of leadership skills, including his own formal statement to Chris Cappel where he documents how he ran away instead of confronting the Frank Straub issue, and amazingly even though Meidl was Straub’s Assistant Chief he didn’t observe the terrible conduct all of the other people document in their statements.
The big question at this point is… “Does the City Council really have the best interest of the Community at the forefront?” We will find out August 22nd, 2016!
Buffalo Brian Breen 