Gerth: Louisville police chief failed when she let ‘Slushygate’ detective keep his job
I don’t know what you do for a living, but I’ve got a pretty good idea if you got caught driving around in your employer’s car while your buddies rolled down the windows and threw Big Gulps or Icees on some unsuspecting rubes standing on street corners, you’d expect to get fired.
I don’t care if you’re a neurosurgeon, an accountant or if the hardest decision you make each day is which end of your workplace to start sweeping first.
It’s inappropriate behavior that doesn’t reflect well on you and doesn’t reflect well on your employer.
And any employer who would allow that to go on, well, it’s hard to imagine what they are thinking.
That brings us to last week, when we learned Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel had decided not to fire Det. Jonathan Robbins for being the wheelman on at least three occasions when several officers were launching drinks at unsuspecting pedestrians.
Two officers were fired and sent to federal prison for their roles. Four others were suspended.
Robbins got flogged with a noodle.
Gwinn-Villaroel had originally sent Robbins a letter telling him he was being sacked, but earlier in September — two weeks after she was sworn in ? after a hearing in which he said he was sorry for what he did, she let him keep his job with just a 30-day suspension.
I'd say I was sorry too if I was about to be fired from a job that paid me $99,277.80 a year. That's what the city paid Robbins last year, according to a city of Louisville database.
And you wonder why so many people – especially Black people – don’t trust police.
Here’s a guy who was behind the wheel of an unmarked police cruiser, pulling up alongside people in the city’s West End so his buddies could launch drinks at people – most likely Black people based on the part of town where they were doing this – and then speeding away.
And keep this in mind. He was conspiring with, aiding and abetting, and complicit with two others who were sent off to the federal pokey for assaulting innocent (likely) African Americans with drinks.
I can’t wait until he charges a Black person with crimes and the cross examination he’ll go through when he takes the stand.
Defense Lawyer: “Detective Robbins, did you on such and such a date drive fellow officers through the West End, target innocent Black people, and slow down so your fellow officers could assault them with a Big Gulp?”
Robbins: “Well, uh …”
Defense Lawyer: “And Detective Robbins, did you on such and such a date drive fellow officers though the West End, target innocent Black people, and slow down so your fellow officers could assault them with a blue raspberry Icee?”
Robbins: “Well, uh … “
Defense Lawyer: “And Detective Robbins, did you on such and such a date drive fellow officers though the West End, target innocent Black people, and slow down so your fellow officers could assault an African American with a cherry Slurpee?”
Robbins: “Well, uh … “
Defense Lawyer: “Then how do we know you’re not targeting Black people again with trumped up charges?”
Robbins: “Well, uh …”
But that’s not even the main reason we should be concerned about allowing Robbins to remain on the force.
We give Robbins a badge and a taser and a nightstick and a gun and we tell him to use his best judgment when deciding to use them ….
And his best judgment in the past told him it was alright to be the getaway driver three times when his buddies were assaulting the people he swore to protect?
Are you kidding me?
In so many ways – because we give officers weapons and tell them they can use those weapons to protect us – we should hold police officers to higher standards than we hold others in society. Not a lower standard.
We give them the power to throw cuffs on us and toss us into the back of a cruiser, and then we give them a degree of immunity to protect them if they violate our rights.
But here we are, holding Robbins to a lower standard than your employer would hold you.
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville police chief failed when she let Slushygate cop keep job
