Rick left a comment last night that alluded to an incident involving an alleged perpetrator and a Bay Police Officer, which I am told occurred approximately 30 days ago. I contacted Council President Lonnie Falgout for confirmation but he indicated to Slabbed that he was not aware of any incidents involving a Bay PD Officer beating up a perpetrator that was handcuffed to a hospital bed. That said the chatter is coming from places that have been previously very reliable so I can’t ignore the tip.
Like the Cruising Kerfuffle which Slabbed’s commenting community solved last month, anyone that knows anything about this is welcome to share what they know in comments.
If I am understanding this correctly and this happened inside our County hospital, I would think angry attack on a patient under any circumstances, should have to be reported by the hospital immediately. There could be more than the city at risk here.
Unreal!
WLOX has finally reported it. Doesn’t sound very good. The Sheriff’s Office will get to the bottom of it I’m sure.
Sun Herald has it online too. Was the officer wearing a body cam?!
He should have been wearing his body cam. Here is the link to the Sun Herald story by Justin Mitchell:
http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/hancock-county/article111850632.html
Mayor Fillingame just told WLOX in an interview on 10:00 News that the officer was not wearing a body cam. “It was not available. It will be one person’s word against the other.” What?!
I can barely contain my shock.
Business as usual.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it The mayors words He doesn’t know right from wrong Living the lie! Les Lie!
But who gets to determine whether or not it is broke?! There was a Ward I meeting tonight conducted by Councilman Seal to get feedback from his constituents on the potential take kvetch of the PD by Sheriff’s Dept.
My personal opinion is we only need one law enforcement agench in this small, poor county we live in. By State law the Sheriff is the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the county because he is elected county wide. For only 45,000 residents, we do not need 3 police departments and a sheriff’s department. Just my opinion.
I have to agree with Lana, There’s only One Sheriff in Town and that is Ricky… We don’t need multiple layers of law enforcement in our area with so few residents. These towns need to conserve their budgets and become fiscally responsible to their residents and businesses. Take away that major responsibility of 3 law enforcement entities and have 1 competent Sheriff to handle our legal issues. He has done an excellent job for the County, lets keep him in the Cities also.
It always seems he has to step in and take control, lets give him total control.
To the Mayors: cut the cord and not have another patronage job of appointing the Police Chief, lets make this an elected position as in “Sheriff” for Hanock County. Lets do what is right for our citizens and best protection we can get.
I am not promoting any particular person for Sheriff. Personally, I like Ricky Adam and think he is serving us well. I am talking about the system being one law enforcement agency over the County with the Sheriff in charge. The municipalities could be designed to serve under him with personnel
and equipment arrangements.
We sat and listened to the Waveland city officials grappling with infrastructure work last night at their meeting and Shane LaFontaine ( ward 3) said something that stuck with me. He told his colleagues,” Let’s just be sure we don’t build something we can’t afford to maintain”
It is a little too late for that in some respects, but it is never to late to introduce some forward thinking. Insurance premiums have us all by the throats at home and at our respective ” city halls.”
Dealing with our actions on a daily basis is the best teacher of all.
I would have to disagree with the mindset that having a single law enforcement entity is the best way to operate. Until recently, criminal activity (other than within the city administration) was known to keep away from BSL; which is a direct reflection of the officers that patrol the streets of BSL. When is the last time that anyone on this site stopped at Dolly’s or drove through Kiln, MS; it’s like someone chewed up 8 Mile and Compton and spit out a Southern version. Let’s clean that area up first; before declaring marshal law over the county.
You’re fooling yourself if you think the Bay is has less crime than the surrounding areas.
Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport and Ocean Springs all scored better according to City Data.
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Bay-St.-Louis-Mississippi.html
Having separate police forces, despite the close cooperation between the agencies, is bound to be less efficient as criminals do not respect City lines.
The only issue I see in Hancock County is the pay scale for deputies at HCSO is less than the City’s.
That depends on what crimes you are using for your scale. First of all, Hancock is very close to Harrison on many categories and there is a 100,000 person variance between the two county’s population; that has to be taken into account. Looking at the tables below, it appears that Hancock County has equal to or more Larceny and Car Theft than much more populated counties, but, less capital murder, rape, etc., so, it all depends on what you are using for your scale. That is also 2014 data, which I think we know has dramatically increased. Personally, I believe the theft numbers are a direct reflection of the drug problem in Hancock County. Many fail to see that the large majority of theft is committed to obtain money or trade items for drugs; therefore, they are always directly proportional in variance. I am betting that everyone that disagrees with my comment doesn’t spend much time at businesses outside the bay-waveland corridor. Like I said, stop in at the Kiln crossroad one day and just observe for a few minutes, or go on down to Necos. Every town has their problem areas, but, I believe BSL PD had a pretty good grip on their town and I think Hancock County lets too many small timers off the hook and allows them to develop into first class criminals that terrorize communities; personal opinion. Have you ever tried to get in touch with HCSD? They aren’t quite as bad as Diamondhead, but, communication and response could use some action.
Lilith is Johnny on the spot with some very good links.
“I am betting that everyone that disagrees with my comment doesn’t spend much time at businesses outside the bay-waveland corridor.”
I’m all over South Mississippi Fishbait. Draw a line from Highway 98 South and that would include the stop light in the Kiln, especially in fact. Then again none of that has any bearing on the wisdom of consolidating governmental services in a relatively small, poor Mississippi County.
There was a fairly recent murder on Felicity Street to go with the double murder a few months ago. I dispute that Bay PD is any more effective than HCSO or WPD, such distinctions existing only in the minds of the self proclaimed Old Town BSL civilized society set, that live under the illusion their existence is somehow not intertwined with the areas outside of Old Town. In case you missed it the former Bay Chief of Police was a criminal so I do not share your inflated opinion of BPD.
The far greater impediment to municipal consolidation would be the Bay being largely broke while Waveland is relatively flush with cash and Waveland is not dealing with a major taxpayer in decline like the Hollywood Casino.
Not to mention that Waveland has far fewer public safety employees, so of course having say, 4 firemen working rather than 6 or 7 certainly costs more; same with police. But then again, you don’t need a cop or a fireman till, well, till ya need one. Thanks, but I’ll take more rather than less in this instance, and I’m happy to pay more too. And the hit on former Chief DeNardo is, while typical of the venom spewed here, is far from a reflection of an entire department and completely unfair and downright wrong. Shame on you.
I see you still don’t read the newspapers Deena. Denardo being a criminal is not the only revelation about Bay PD that the public will be treated to but that story is still developing.
It appears the taxpayers in Waveland gets a bigger bang for their public safety buck based on your remarks, uninformed as they appear but then again the poor folks in the Bay have a Mayor that misspends police funds on decorative street lamps so that is no surprise.
The Les Lovers United will drop their jaw when it all comes to light.
The PD had a lack of institutional controls as was obvious from missing guns, evidence and payroll. Now abuse. Frustration possibly? Connecting dots sometimes can be hard for some people.
We have enjoyed a harmonious relationship with the BSLPD for years but at some point you have to get fiscal control. It is obvious to most that we have a serious lack of leadership and fiscal responsibility in BSL. Nefarious and Dubious behavior cannot become the norm.
Changing Legal Services will greatly help the Dubious and Nefarious but Fiscally we need to get rid Les Lie!
Well, I hope everything works out for you Doug; time will tell.
Fishbait,
“Have you ever tried to get in touch with HCSD? They aren’t quite as bad as Diamondhead…”
Aren’t HCSD and Diamondhead PD one and the same? I’m pretty sure Diamondhead outsources the police dept to the sheriff.
lol, that depends on who you ask and what you ask for! When bad things happen in Diamondhead, they will pawn you off on the HCSD, but, the HCSD will do the same thing when they don’t want to deal with it, so, who knows what the right answer to that question is; maybe it depends on who you get on the phone, if you get someone!
You are right on the pay, Doug. That will be the deal breaker. If that could be worked out, the rest would fall in line. The city dwellers pay a higher scale for most of their public employees, including school officials. Not saying they are getting more, just paying more.
Look around here https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014 for the FBI UCR Home Page for 2014, the most recent year.
This https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-10/table-10-pieces/Table_10_Offenses_Known_to_Law_Enforcement_Mississippi_by_Metropolitan_and_Nonmetropolitan_Counties_2014.xls is by county. Look around, you can usually find what you want, though not exactly like you might want it formatted.
So the cop conveniently had his body cam off. But I bet if a damn bank robbery was happening there would be no issue. And because the gentleman was expressing something the cop disagreed with he gets a pass and assaults a member of the public. Well I don’t particularly agree with what was said but it is that gentlemans constitutional right to express his freedom of speech. Don’t like it, probably should not have said it, but it did not give a thug cop the right to take the law in his own hands and violently assault a citizen and rob him of his right to free speech. I got to defend that because thugs like this will assault anyone one at anytime. Trying to balance this with all the great law enforcement officers that play by the rules and have to be branded by a rogue thug like this. They and we don’t deserve individuals like this.