Last week, Mayor Annise Parker’s handpicked police chief, Charles McClelland, announced to media that he would be accepting a one-day suspension related to a September 4 incident in which the vehicle he was driving struck a pedestrian downtown.
Chief McClelland was not ticketed for the incident. As noted by KPRC-2 news, the chief’s initial, handwritten account of the incident gave the impression that the pedestrian darted in front of the chief:
In his initial handwritten accident statement given to police, the chief wrote that when he went to make a left turn he checked “the intersection and it was clear.” He wrote, “I made my turn and suddenly he was in front of me. I struck the pedestrian.”
Thanks to the following video that was released last Thursday, we now know that Chief McClelland’s account of the incident was inaccurate, that the pedestrian was clearly in the intersection, and that he was clearly blitzed by an apparently distracted police chief.
The chief’s supporters at City Hall have tried to spin the punishment as being more harsh than a citation, since it will cost the chief more monetarily than a citation. That’s bull. At the very least, he should have received a suspension AND a citation for his reckless driving. And the announcement should have come from his ultimate boss, the mayor. Not from Chief McClelland, and not in the manner it was announced (he’s “accepting” the punishment? Seriously?). And his obviously inaccurate initial account of the incident? That deserves a bit more scrutiny too!
Not the first time the Parker Administration Ruling Class has given itself a wrist slap
This isn’t the first time a key member of the Parker Administration Ruling Class has given itself a wrist slap for serious transgressions.
Recall that Mayor Parker’s political ally and choice to head METRO, George Greanias, was caught surfing porn sites on the public’s time and equipment. Indeed, some of those sites appeared to feature adolescent gay porn.
Greanias got a short suspension, and the apparent underage gay porn sites he was surfing never got any scrutiny from HPD. Greanias, as a member of the Parker Administration Ruling Class, was allowed to exempt himself from such scrutiny:
Greanias also defended the decision to avoid a police investigation, acknowledging that his agency’s Police Department has no criminal probe under way at all surrounding the content that may have been downloaded or the taxpayer funded time soaked up with searches for porn.
Greanias said no police investigation was needed because no laws were broken.
When Local 2 Investigates asked who got to make such a call that no laws were broken, thus keeping police out of the case, Greanias answered that the “record” of what transpired proves there were no crimes committed, and so a criminal investigation was not necessary.
Ridiculous. Of course, he too “accepted” his punishment, such as it was.
That’s how the Parker Administration Ruling Class rolls.
However, all you Little People better not try to exempt yourself from citation or investigation if you misbehave!
RELATED: Wall: Tie goes to the chief?, Bazan: Ruling class exempts itself from basic laws.
OTHERS: Isn’t the Coverup Always Worse? – Mark Bennett, Defending People.
