33 posts tagged “michael berkow”
Dude! What show were you watching?
Have you seen Vampire Diaries? From the internet chatter the show was either a poorly conceived poorly executed redheaded stepchild of Twilight or it was the Cinnamon Toast Crunchiest piece of Vampire/High School/Soap Opera since Buffy first sharpened a stake.
I thought it was pretty good… just pretty good.
I am trying to keep in mind that different eyes and different brains will experience the same things in different ways but I find it hard to believe that, Tom Bartoon or anyone else could have watched the almost three seasons we had of the Darth Berkow: Police Chief drama and come away with this assessment:
“He was the anti-good ol' boy. What he lacked in diplomacy skills he more than made up for in modernizing a force…”
Ummmm?
Let’s compare and contrast, shall we.
Our former Police Chief, Dan Flynn, had a decent crime story to tell. Throughout most of his time here crime remained lower than when he arrived. Unfortunately Dan Flynn was a lousy politician and could not sell this good news to the general public. In fact people were convinced he was fudging the numbers because they didn’t feel safe.
Our soontobeformer Police Chief, Darth Berkow, has a similar crime story to tell. Throughout his time here crime increased or at least didn’t drop much. Fortunately Darth Berkow is a master politician who could probably sell flood insurance during a volcanic eruption and he never caught much heat, other than from yours truly and a few other kooks, for this less than stellar outcome.
He was even able to cut off legally required public access to the actual police reports and instead provide a stripped down, sterilized, version and, instead of protesting for their legal rights to open records, Bartoon and Co. thanked him.
Berkow did modernize the police force, he made people feel safer, no simple feat that, but I have to wonder, is Bartoon in charge of writing how local history will remember this man? If he is then woe unto you who come seeking knowledge for Bartoon’s is a view askew.
It certainly didn’t take long for the Moronic Misanthropical Choir to warm up.
Tom Bartoon presumes to know the mind of Michael Berkow.
“City and county leaders who are still feuding over police funding succeeded in running off the chief.”
“I may be wrong. But I don't think Berkow would have been a long-timer here. He's not wired that way.
But if local leaders had searching for common ground instead of digging in their heels, he would have had a reason to stay longer.
Instead, they gave him a reason to give notice.”
I have always been of the opinion that this man doesn’t have the brain power necessary to light up a 40 watt bulb but I never thought he would be so stupid as to misinterpret and misrepresent a situation this badly.
Of course his own column was not enough the braintrust also polluted the “official editorial” of the paper too.
“Mayor Otis Johnson and Chatham County Commission Chairman Pete Liakakis must do a better job of resolving the ongoing political differences that have handcuffed the chief…”
“Essentially, the chief has been forced to serve two masters - one at City Hall, and another at the County Courthouse.”
Uh yeah….uh…that is exactly what the merger calls for you moroon. While Berkow is a City Employee, head of a City Bureau, he still has an obligation to keep county leaders in the loop. The Chief of this department will always serve two masters.
The battle over funding the department would not have impacted Berkow in the least. In fact, I speculate, keeping the electeds fussing over that kept them out of his hair in other matters.
The funding thing wouldn’t have changed what he was being paid or anything else about the day to day operations of the department. It is a non-issue for everyone but the bean counters and the politicians.
If you were going to pin his exit on anything currently going on in the local government, the ever-tightening budget belt would get my vote. Policing won’t get cut in the next city budget but it also won’t grow in that robust healthy way to which Berkow had become accustomed.
If I can crawl inside his cranium for just a moment, I would guess Berkow left for the simple reason that the opportunities, money and prestige are always better in the private sector.
Darth Berkow is leaving Savannah.
Here is the story behind that story.
I could start back when Berkow’s old boss Billy Bratton met Altegrity CEO Michael Cherkasky but I would have to whip out my Xscape and Ace of Base albums to get in the mood. That was way back in the 90’s when Cherkasky was an ADA in New York and Bratton came over from Boston to execute Rudy Giuliani’s vision of a tough but fair police department that would attempt to prevent crime.
No… let’s just start this summer. Bratton is in charge of the Los Angeles Police Department and Cherkasky is tasked with monitoring the Los Angeles Police Department as part of a consent decree federal officials forced on the LAPD in 2001 after decades of corruption and brutality complaints.
We are supposed to ignore the fact that Cherkasky urged that a federal judge lift that decree, basically urged the court to stop making sure the police department didn’t beat anybody up, during the same time he was offering Bratton a job in the newly created Altegrity Security Consulting.
“Cherkasky and Bratton, however, acknowledged that they had been discussing the new job in earnest before the formal end of the consent decree. On Wednesday, Bratton dismissed questions of whether that timing posed a conflict of interest since Cherkasky was still monitoring the LAPD and urging the federal judge to end the decree while he and Bratton were in discussions.”
BTW Altegrity is pronounced sorta like portmanteau of Altitude and Integrity.
I can hear you asking “Yes but where does Berkow come in?” Give me just a minute.
So Cherkasky lobbies the judge to remove the leash from Bratton’s
department, the
judge consents and then Bratton announces that he is quitting in order to
take a job with the man formerly holding the leash.
This all happened since July 17th, shortly after Altergity was formed out of three other companies; US Investigations Services, HireRight and Explore Information Services.
All those companies are involved in security in one way or another, basically they run background checks on cars and people for insurance companies and help businesses make sure no methheads get on the payroll.
So Bratton is hired in August to head up a new division of this new company that was created in July to:“…provide training and consulting services to law enforcement agencies and the federal government, as well as foreign entities.”
Which means…they are going to set up police departments in Kenya? Your guess is as good as mine.
Anywho… after getting the leash removed in July and announcing his resignation in August Bratton apparently called his former employee Darth Berkow and offered him a job in his new company and thus Savannah loses its police chief.
Yeah but then why did Berkow say this to Public Radio today?
"I was approached about a new career opportunity in April and I have thought about it...struggled with it... and truly agonized over what to do," he said. "In the end, I decided to accept this very unique and special position, working on issues that have been a personal passion of mine for years."
Altegrity didn’t exist in April. Bratton claims he and
Cherkasky were only having “Occasional,
informal discussions” before the judge lifted the consent decree in July because
to do otherwise would have been a conflict of interest so….Who called Berkow in April?
But then again, who cares? He’s leaving and the Berkowian Era will go with him.
All in all, despite the increase in some crime and his elastic view of sunshine laws and his ongoing manipulation of elected officials and his massaging of the truth, Berkow was a pretty good Police Chief and made people feel safer which is, at the end of the day, the toughest part of the job.
Things that need to be fixed the day after his exit:
Police Dept. Patch – Please give us something with a sense of pride and pride of place to replace the generic label Berkow instituted.
Police Reports – Please return to the proper and legal public access to police reports we all had before Berkow ended it this year.
Citizen Advisory Groups – These neighborhood
leaders used to meet with their precinct commanders on a regular basis as part
of Berkow’s commitment to Community Policing. What happened to that? Bring the practice back.
What in the fudge covered Oreo’s are you people talking about?
From the Vox:
"Is it coincidence that all of a sudden the police are enforcing jaywalking and you can't go to and from work without seeing nine police cars running radar? Is it coincidence that all this is happening now they have announced they have to cut their budget? I think not."
Uhmmm… Savannah/Chatham Police are not cutting, nor have they been asked to cut, their budget.
Their most recent budget is up $1.4 million from last year and up almost $10 million from 2007 they ain’t hurting for money.
That being said, all city departments have been asked to find savings where they can but there are no mandatory cuts that I’ve heard of. In fact, police and fire are the only city departments that are exempt from the city’s unofficial (official) hiring freeze.
Did I miss it or, as is far more likely, is this call just another result of journalistic malfeasance from the SMN? Now thanks to the printing of this heaping helping of misinformation in their most-read (Sunday) edition, the big brains at the paper have managed to pollute the public discourse yet again.
Speaking of polluted public, where in the world do you think this caller got the impression that the police budget was being cut?
Maybe it was the piston-poor way the SMN and other outlets have reported the disagreement between the city and county over the merged Police Department. (In a nutshell, the county still thinks it should pay less than they agreed to pay for police services in the unincorporated areas.)
(In a slightly bigger nutshell: Of course they already pay less per person than city dwellers for the exact same police services so what do they want? À la carte service? You should get a coupon every time you call a cop and then turn it in at tax time for your final bill?)
Back on track now, this is a wonderful example of what I have been complaining about lo these many years, the news media in all its forms must always offer complete and accurate information and yet they fail again and again.
They need to stop trying to soften everything, stir up tempests and dumb down intelligent discourse.
I get it. I mean, I understand what they are doing. It is an effort to attract folks who don’t care about the information, an attempt to sell papers and get ratings from people who would rather be reading or watching Oprah. Unfortunately for them and us, their efforts have been failing for more than a decade and the idiots running the business are just too stupid to see it.
They’ve trained an entire generation of journalists to think
that this tripe is the right and proper way to report the news and so now the
business dies slowly and painfully, hoisted on their own petard.
#SMNFAIL
#MEDIAFAIL
Darth Berkow has now put his stamp on our police department, literally.
The All New and Improved, pretend we ain’t from Savannah and overemphasize the METRO part of the name, official shield of Berkow’s Department was officially unveiled in today’s paper.
The new emblem reduces the Savannah-Chatham parts of the name to almost unreadable while the generic METRO POLICE is loud and proud. Berkow claimed there were “concerns” that the old badge over emphasized Savannah, as his mouthpiece put it:
"Everything on the current patch ... says Savannah and not Chatham County,"
One other concern, according to Berkow, was that the Oglethorpe statue that was centered on the badge looked too much like Captain Morgan rum. So the new badge no longer has a little captain in it.
The paper seems fully on board with Berkow's claim that that original emblem is problematic, pointing to the fact that (OMG!) it included an image the Talmadge Bridge which according to the paper implies the old badge is racist. The writer does two paragraphs on the bridge’s namesake driving home the point that Talmadge:
“…was known by some as a fierce racist and segregationist, he regularly attacked blacks and the poor, and he once praised Adolph Hitler as "a mighty fine man," according to news reports.”
So what does any of that have to do with what is or is not on the Police Department badges? Uh… Nothing.
I guess they removed all the recognizable icons in an effort to avoid giving the badges any sense of the actual place where the department is located. Instead they came up with something no one will ever mistake as representative of Savannah or any other specific place.
It might however be mistaken for a few other things:
A Funky Wine Label perhaps
Maybe a sweetass shield for one of those Live Action Role Playing Games
I also can see it as the emblem for one of those crappy euro smart cars
Or one of those novelty beer taps
Welcome to Generica ya’ll!
It’s like some parody designed to prove that government intervention is worse than doing nothing.
Seriously I didn’t really think much about the new
jaywalking fines when City Council passed them I first heard about them a few weeks ago. I mean when was the last time
you heard someone get popped for jaywalking? So I read it as a symbolic thing.
A “we take the death of that guy from Sweden very seriously” kinda thing that
would go on the books and never really come up until some overzealous moron put
up lots of video of morons jaywalking and demanded to know what the city was
going to do about enforcement.
Now I find out that Savannah police are reportedly standing in little groups, poised to pounce on those that cross against the light.
“I witnessed close to two dozen police officers, ticket book in hand, standing on various street corners. I asked one officer what was going on and he told me they were there to issue ‘crosswalk violations.’”
This is reported on a blog so take it with a pound of salt, but if true… WTF are Darth Berkow and his stormtroopers thinking?
Officers are also accused of lying to the people ticketed about the fine amounts.
“The officers told the violators they were not sure of the level of the fine and the offender would have to call in to get the exact figure.”
Bad form when the supposed good guys resort to lying.
Bottom line on this one: it’s just downright silly. You
look silly doing it. It sounds silly when people talk about it and only a
dumbass would think it is going to have any effect on the problem.
The problem is lots of people are stupid about their own personal safety and sometimes get their asses rundover because of it.
ADDENDUM 8:14pm
I really have been a slacker lately. I apologize for the lax fact checking. The jaywalking thing is a state law. I can't find if the state sets the fines or not but it is a state violation not some new local thing.
It is like the Savannah Morning News is in the business of creating misinformed tards!
Their latest weapon in the war on all things truthful comes by way of the Vox Populi:
"Regarding Chief Berkow interviewing for a position in the Cayman Islands, now is the time to open up the pocketbooks and pay for our quality police chief. Don't let him leave. We need him during these times."
Yeah.
Where to start with this one…
Darth Berkow started in 2005 2006 as the second highest paid employee
in the city at $158,000 at the time City Manager Michael Brown made a little
more than $166,000.
I can’t find his current salary published anywhere but just
giving him 3% raise a year (conservative in a town where most employees get
2.5% automatically with an additional 2.5% merit bump available) Darth’s
current salary would be in the $177,000 172,000 to $180,000 175,000 range which again puts him
just below or right at what the City Manager is making currently.
The fact is he is making plenty and we’re not going to pay anyone more than we are paying him now.
Look people; Berkow is not going to the Caymans; he is not even the best qualified person that is up for that job.
If Darth did leave what is the big whoop? He’s been here for
3 2 and a half years, he has made all the impactful changes and reorganizations
in the department that he is going to do. All he is doing now is political maneuvering
to get control of CNT and moving precincts around.
I personally think he is doing a pretty decent job with the day to day but he ain’t perfect and he is far from irreplaceable.
More stuff that should be reported but won’t be reported in Savannah this week:
There Goes the Hood
Darth Berkow is looking for a new base in the heart of rebel territory. Word comes this week that the city is buying the shopping center at 36th and Waters Ave.
You know the one, it home to IT$ AMAZING Hair and Beauty Center in the heart of the Midtown and Live Oak Neighborhoods.
The good news…
This area is not the safest or the cleanest so maybe the
popo presence will calm things down around the liquor store and the illegal
club right up the street.
Setting up a precinct there might also be the first step of revitalizing the Water’s corridor which hasn’t seen a new sidewalk poured in about 15 years.
The so-so news…
They are talking about consolidating the Downtown and Central Precincts into this one building. Currently the Downtown Precinct is off Lathrop Avenue in West Savannah while the Central Precinct is on Bull Street near 31st. If consolidation means moving these officers further away from the areas they are supposed to serve it's a mistake.
Right now Central Officers are housed near the northern end of the neighborhoods for which they are responsible. The move will bring them slightly east actually placing them near the middle of the Northern Neighborhoods. This is probably a good thing since that is where most of the crime in the precinct takes place.
For Downtown officers, a move to the Midtown Neighborhood is kinda stupid. They are already far to the west of their primary area of responsibility. This move will take them way south of the neighbors they are supposed to be protecting and serving.
The bad news…
One of very few active commercial properties in the Midtown Neighborhood and along the Waters Ave corridor will come off the property tax roles. We all know that areas with the highest potential tax revenue get the most attention in this town which is why Broughton Street is getting its second makeover in less than a decade right now and the MLK BLVD makeover hasn’t made any real progress in more than a decade of trying.
There he goes again.
Darth Berkow had the SCMPD storm troopers out with the reporters again today.
Last year, about this time, he staged a show of force with officers armed with clubs and riot gear. We never really got a straight answer as to why he thought it was necessary.
We’ve have been doing the parade for 185 years and other than that car running through the square a few years back I have yet to see any need for any kind of police response, certainly nothing that would require a cohort of heavily armored and shielded riot troops.
I can only imagine that a show of force like this is Berkow’s way of compensating for some cruel trick of genetics but I cannot imagine why Savannah’s media is playing along.
I actually just saw some cub reporter
on Fox wearing full battle gear and… get this… they set off a smoke grenade
while he was talking so it looked all dramatic. OooohOhoooAhhhAhhhAhhhh
Addendum: Wednesday 3:15pm
I wanted to post the video for you but apparently thecoastalsource.com doesn't have it. Here is the copy story. Maybe they'll post the video later. I wouldn't cause I'd be embarrassed about being a uniformed shill for the big bad but hey...
For those of you who don’t know, going to a staged event and dressing up in a costume is not journalism.
It is just a staged non-event that police have managed to manipulate you into reporting about.
Of course, the press release readers that are running around pretending to be reporters wouldn’t know real journalism if Walter Cronkite came up and bit them on the ass.
We should just give up. Think about it, we could solve all the money problems at Media General, Morris Publishing and others, by just making the government’s control official.
Savannah media has apparently already handed over control of content why shouldn’t the government pay the bills too?
I doubt any one of you would even notice
a switch to state-run media.
(Here is the link to the WTOC coverage. Their reporter did not put on the uniform but still covered the theatrics as real news)
(WSAV's reporter did get all gussied up in the riot gear. Her excuse was to describe the function and limitations of the gear.)
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
I love watching politics live and in person.
Mayor Johnson went head to palsied head with County Chairman Liakakis this morning and it was joyous.
The discussion was about the Counter Narcotics Team. Council has been stung of late by accusations that Darth Berkow failed to give the proper support in the form of manpower to CNT. Of course CNT is the prize in an ongoing tiff between Darth and the County.
Under the merger agreement, the Drug Team works for Berkow. County leaders see it differently; they have held on to control of the group in open defiance of the agreement for a very long time.
While today's argument didn’t focus on the main issue of who should control the unit, that issue simmered just under the surface as Mayor Johnson pushed for more accountability and some sort of outcome-based standard for the success of the unit and how many people are needed to reach that standard.
County Manager Russ Abolt and Liakakis tried to say that a unit like CNT is reactive not proactive, looking to shut down drug activity when it crops up as opposed to setting out to catch a certain number of drug dealers in a given period.
They tried to say that but rambled and bumbled and even compared the unit’s approach to drugs to the Vietnam War.
Abolt actually mentioned a case I profiled here last year. He mentioned it as an example of a surprising development for which CNT could not plan but that they nevertheless had to tackle. Yeah, let’s see, a whole bunch of college kids accused of smoking weed and selling magic mushrooms, HOW UNEXPECTED. Add to that the fact that, as far as we can tell, none of those SCAD kids were ever actually prosecuted and I don’t think that should be in the CNT scrapbook.
Lost in the dispute is the very real problem of manpower. While Chatham’s population has grown CNT’s Commander says the task force hasn’t seen an increase in staffing since 1994. While that sounds like a problem, no one could answer the Mayor’s main question, “How many CNT officers do we actually need to do the job?”
I don’t know if Supreme Chancellor Hubbard and the Trade Federation are happy or not, but he got a few of the changes he wanted for Savannah’s biggest party.
At his recommendation, to make the St. Patrick’s Day Festival safer this year, City Council approved removing the gates they put up ten years ago to make the St. Patrick’s Day Festival safer.
Everything else stays the same, so rednecks and others not in Hubbard's "Ideal Audience" can still come.
You will still need a wristband to drink but the bars will be staying open till 3 which should help ease the mass craziness of police trying to clear the streets at 1am.
While I will not be within 500 miles of River Street during the festival (I’m thinking Vegas or maybe Branson this year, some place with sequins) I will be watching the Savannah festivities with much interest.
