Cassius Methyl

October 18, 2014

(TheAntiMedia) Amidst the rampant, brutal corruption of American police departments today, another department decided to cross the ‘thin blue line’ this week, signing a petition to fire their chief of police who has a long record of power abuse.

Lt. Mark Byrd was a vocal figure in the creation of the petition and movement against the chief of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina.

He says he was retaliated against by the chief because his wife sued the department over sexual harassment.

The chief who is being held accountable for being corrupt by his department, William Anderson, faced previous accusations of racism in Florida, and has brought controversy wherever he went, including Greenville, NC and an unnamed city in Florida.

In the petition against Chief William Anderson, the 44 officers agreed,

“Asheville is not best served by its current police department leadership and request that these issues be addressed,”

They said they “fully stand behind Lt. Byrd”, and “Due to fear of reprisals and overall lack of confidence in leadership to handle the issues, many have not made their concerns known prior to the writing of this letter.”

The full statement made to the Chief and City Manager can be viewed here.

The City Manager, Gary Jackson, received the petition along with the chief. He had this to say:

“We value the views of all of our officers and Asheville citizens,” he said. “As we move forward with implementing the recently adopted strategic plan for the future of the Asheville Police Department, we intend to monitor closely the progress of the department. We will give the input of the petitioners thoughtful consideration within that process. Progress reports will be shared with citizens, police personnel, and media as they become available.”

After Lt. Mark Byrd took a firm stand against the chief, he was able to rally like minded officers around the cause and encourage them to rebel and be honest about the corruption.

Rick Tulis, an officer employed at the department for 23 years, said,

“The officers in this room that have chosen to be here with us today know that they’ve put their careers in jeopardy “, and ” My personal opinion is, I think it’s time for him to resign.”

In response to the accusations, the Chief had this to say,

“We are working and have been working hard at bringing about change within the organization, and I believe we have made some progress,”

One time, the chief was accused of asking Lt. Bill Wilke to lie about his son being in a car wreck, where his son and his friend abandoned a crashed car. His son ended up pleading guilty. Other specific allegations made against the chief can be viewed in the full statement made by the 44 officers above.

Even a Republican State Representative weighed in on the issue, saying “For far too long, elected officials and others have looked the other way while the cancer of corruption has clearly grown within the Asheville Police Department,” he said in a letter addressed to Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The Representative, Tim Moffitt, is asking the top North Carolina prosecutor to investigate the department as well.

This is such refreshingly good news in contrast to the endless stories of police killing innocent people and being corrupt that we report on daily. I applaud any officer who is willing to take a firm stand against corruption, and I hope you will all share this with as many people as you would an article about the police doing shocking things; this needs to be encouraged to the fullest.

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