[Photo from FOX News]
May 9, 2013 -AP
A northeastern Pennsylvania city official says a blog photo showing a
woman poised to lick the badge of a moonlighting officer outside a bar
probably isn't a crime, but may violate department regulation.
Wilkes-Barre spokesman Drew McLaughlin says the police chief is
investigating that photo and two others showing a provocatively dressed
woman posing on the hood and the trunk of a police car.
The spokesman says no officers are pictured in the police cruiser
photos, but that the photo of the woman poised to lick the officer's
badge could violate regulations if the officer were actively
participating in having the photo made.
Wilkes-Barre officers are allowed to moonlight to provide security at bars through a program run by the police union.
Based on evidence in the photo, police believe the badge licking occurred more than a year ago.
Commentary: All's fair in love and Wilkes-Barre
Several incidences in the Banana Republic of Wilkes-Barre involving the city's finest have preceded the revealing of this pic.
First, they have a creepy relationship with the city's contracted tow truck operator, Leo Glodzik of LAG Towing, and have reputedly harassed innocent people on his behalf.
Wilkes-Barre police officers have received cars on loan from him in spite of being in a position to increase his earnings by having more cars towed--a direct conflict of interest. When reporters waited outside city hall to get some answers, the cops actually
tried to issue them citations for trespassing.
Additionally, Wilkes-Barre city police refuse to enforce a provision of the contract with Glodzik which reportedly mandates that he submit logs of all his tows to police so they can ensure he is charging industry standard. Several years passed without Glodzik ever submitting any records, while he routinely charged double and triple the standard price for a tow.
Second, police Chief Jerry Dessoye is
alleged to have frequented a crack house on McLean Street and to have refused to shut it down.
In short, many of the city's police are thugs. Most probably aren't, but if there were any good men in the department, there would have been some whistle-blowers. Perhaps the crime spilling into the city from New Jersey, New York, and Philly has caused a war-like atmosphere among the cops where morality takes a backseat to survival. If this is true, then the incompetent mayor has only made the city more attractive to criminals by building Coal Street Park near the locus of many violent crimes in the city. Oh well. All's fair in love and the new Wilkes-Barre.
