Saturday, May 23, 2009, 11:18 PM
Opinion
By Stephanie Ramage

HOW MAYOR FRANKLIN GETS REVENGE: COP SUSPENDED

Atlanta Police Department Sgt. Scott Kreher won’t be on the streets fighting the bad guys today because he stood up for a bunch of crippled cops that everyone could have just forgotten about—as Mayor Shirley Franklin has willfully forgotten about them—if  Kreher had just kept his mouth shut.

But, he wouldn’t. So as of today, Sgt. Kreher has been suspended with pay indefinitely for “conduct unbecoming a police officer.”

That conduct was simply this: In a City Council meeting on May 20, he informed the council of the harassment and medical neglect that has been foisted upon Detective J.J. Biello, Detective Bob Buffington, Detective Richard Williams, Sgt. Ryan Phinney, and Officer Patricia Cocciolone by Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration.

I wrote a story about those cops. We published it on May 17. It’s called “Badges, Bullets and Broken Promises,” and in it you can read for yourself how a cop paralyzed from the chest down, thanks to a drug dealer’s bullet, has to beg City Hall to please pay for his support stockings.

You can read about how a cop who saved the lives of every patron at a Buckhead restaurant was forced by Franklin’s administration to wait for five months for his wheelchair to be repaired. When did the city decide to pay for it to be fixed? The day its state of disrepair resulted in his leg being broken.

You can read how a cop paralyzed in a traffic accident while on duty was forced by the city to endure excruciating pain caused by kidney stones for four days while Mayor Franklin’s risk management officer wondered whether the officer’s pain justified a CT scan. He wound up in an emergency room.

You can read how a detective in the police department’s school resource program, who still works even though he’s been in a wheelchair for the past 22 years after being shot by a criminal, was finessed by the city into getting a jerry-rigged van without proper seals or ventilation and, as a result, developed pneumonia.

You can read about how a female police officer had her brains blown out by the lunatic who killed her partner, but somehow survived—only to have the City of Atlanta, under the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin, deny payment for the medication that she needed to stave off debilitating migraines caused by the injury.

(And now that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has finally published a story about them, as of today, you can read about them there, too, in a very fine story by the great Bill Torpy.)

The indignities that these cops, all of them injured in the line of duty, have suffered at the hands of Mayor Franklin’s administration are simply unconscionable.

And that is what Kreher told the City Council: “These five officers were injured in the line of duty…I want to beat her [Mayor Franklin] in the head with a baseball bat sometimes when I think about it...I cannot believe Mayor Franklin’s administration would allow this to happen. This administration should be ashamed of itself.”

Mayor Franklin was not present. Kreher was not visibly incensed. He did not say that he would beat her in the head with a baseball bat. Nor did he have a baseball bat with him.

Kreher said that he sometimes wanted to beat the mayor in the head with a baseball bat in precisely the same way that President Jimmy Carter said that he had lusted in his heart after women other than his wife Rosalyn. Did anyone think for a minute that by admitting his feelings Carter was letting us know that he was going to have an affair? Of course not. I’ve been very critical of President Carter about many things, but I have never said he is an adulterer because admitting publicly to having a desire to do something is a very different thing from intending to carry it out.

Yet, Franklin has said “I think it’s [Kreher’s remark] intended to intimidate me, my family and city officials. I think it’s very dangerous language and when someone says they want to take a bat and hit you in the head, from my experience, they want to kill you.”

Her family is intimidated? Franklin’s daughter is, even this minute, on probation for money laundering for her now-ex-husband, a kingpin in one of the most violent drug rings in the history of Atlanta. Mayor Franklin must have had at least a few dinners with the thug, yet she expects us to believe that she is afraid of a cop who says that her treatment of paralyzed and brain-damaged police officers makes him want to take a baseball bat to her head when he thinks about it sometimes?

Mayor Shirley Franklin’s use of her office to carry out her personal vendetta against the police should scare us all. She is dangerous. She has withheld medicine and wheelchair repair from disabled cops. And now she has used her office to lash out at the one man who had the courage to call her on it.

If she can retaliate, unimpeded, against those who publically expose her failures, where will it end? How much personal revenge do you think she can cram into the next seven months?

He is suspended pending a psychological evaluation. I wonder if they will delay the medical appointment for several months like they do with mine.

Ryan
Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 11:46 PM

Someone named Andrew posted this on the previous blog (which I just posted over with this one) and I didn't want it to get lost, so, here it is:

Show Sgt Kreher the support he deserves!! Yes he let his emotions get him, but those who know the entire story understand EXACTLY where he's coming from. You will not find a more noble LEADER. He has, and will always fight for the Police and citizens of Atlanta. Please help show him we have his back - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103064616284&ref=share

Stephanie Ramage
Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 11:57 PM

My earlier post only makes sense if someone has been following the other blog discussions, so perhaps I should be clearer:

My name is Sgt. Ryan Phinney. I am one of the catastrophically injured police officers that Mayor Franklin refuses to discuss.

Of course, she is still investigating my situation, and doing so without speaking with me. She has been doing so for over two years. It must be an exhaustive investigation. Oh wait, she is probably talking with my attorney... no, not him either. How does one investigate a complain without talking with the person making the complaint? Maybe I should complain to those Federal, State, and Local authorities Mayor Franklin made reference to...

As to the issue of privatization: My Hearing, scheduled for June 9, 2009, is Ryan Phinney V. City of Atlanta. Nova Pro Risk cannot be taken to court by myself or the other officers, because the City of Atlanta is the self-insurer. That's right, they are self-insured. They cannot delegate responsibility, only authority. So, while Mayor Franklin may be trying to use Nova Pro to insulate herself, she cannot avoid responsibility for every action or lack thereof taken in each of our cases.

Nova Pro just had their contract renewed for three years, without any public hearing or discussion, by the City Council. Why? We have registered complaints, and if they had held a public hearing, I certainly would have attended and spoken out on the issue.

Why is Mayor Franklin and the City Council avoiding us? Why are they hiding from us? What do they have to hide about their deal with Nova Pro Risk? Why are they afraid of a public discussion about us?

Ryan
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 9:16 AM

Good for Franklin for exercising her right as a public official and filing a complaint against this dude. You can't make a threat, serious or not, against your boss in corporate America and not get fired, why should you be able to do it in Govt?

Stephanie, you're personal attacks against the mayor are pitiful. And you wondering why you're still treading in the bush leagues.

Andre
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 11:15 AM

Shirley Frankliin has fraternized closely with at least one violent criminal, her son in law, for whom her daughter was laundering money. If she were a police officer, she would be fired for that.

Stephanie Ramage
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 11:45 AM

"this dude" is Sgt. Michael Scott Kreher who has served honorably and with distinction the Atlanta Police Department for 17 years. His is the Vice President of the Internation Brotherhood of Police Officers and the President of the local chapter of IBPO #623. He has EARNED the respect to be called Sgt., Officer or Union President.

Mayor Franklin "earned" her title on the backs of unsuspecting voters. Her Honor the Mayor? I've not seen one honorable action out of the woman since she took office. But nonetheless I still afford her the respect of her office by addressing her as Mayor.

Yet again you own the officers involved in this situation an apology.

April
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 12:27 PM

Typo - Yet again you OWE the officers involved in this situation an apology.

April
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Nobody has been able to prove that Shirley or her daughter new anything about her former son-in-law's activities. If they could, Shirley's daughter would be in jail, not on probation, and the mayor would have been forced to resign. Are they Feds protecting Shirley too? You claim to know so much about crime and miss this obvious point.

You make some interesting points about the mayor's record, but they're overshadowed and your credibility is questioned by your personal vendetta against her.

As bad as the AJC is, at least they try and report a balanced story. You don't do that. Its one personal attack after another. How can anybody take you serious when all you do is attack. Your paper's own readers like the Mayor, you don't and it shows.

April, you know where I stand with your malicious comments, so I won't bother to repeat my stance.

The cops I've talked to since the baseball bat incident are embarrassed by Kreher. Specifically, they call him a "radical".

First, the union doesn't have much authority in a right to work state, so his power is limited. Secondly, he makes himself the news and not the injured officers. Terrible.

Andre
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 3:21 PM

I'm always surprised by people who are willing to hide behind anonymity while accusing others of malfeasance, Andre.

We can all agree, obviously, that we wish Scott Kreher had not said what he said after months of fruitless advocating and hours of testifying about the sadistic, politicized neglect of Atlanta police officers who sacrificed their safety and health to protect our lives.

Kreher has already apologized for losing his temper: Chief Pennington and Mayor Franklin have not apologized for their role in the sadistic, politicized neglect of Atlanta police officers who sacrificed their safety and health to protect our lives. Their silence is unjust, in a very deep sense of the word. Why anybody would defend them is utterly beyond me.

Elsewhere in the country, tomorrow is Memorial Day, and people are thanking and honoring fallen officers. Franklin and Pennington have effectively blotted any such sentiments in Atlanta; even worse, they appear motivated by nothing more than the politics of petty contempt.

That, not Scott Kreher's momentary outburst, is what is truly terrifying. It also explains -- not justifies, but explains -- why he would say such a thing in the first place.

Tina
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 4:08 PM

I don't know why my full name did not appear in the previous comment -- Tina Trent

Tina
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 4:09 PM

If Andre was a newspaper he would be the AJC.

Ok Andre action has now been taken against this officer for his comments about the much lager and more reprehensible issue.

I'm sure that you will now be in FULL support of the disabled Officers right to get the healthcare they deserve and now that we all know the Mayor is fully aware of the situation I am sure you will also be backing our attempts to hold her accountable with Civil and or Criminal disputes.

As Sgt. Phinney has pointed out, many, many times the City is the insurer NOT Nova Pro. The City is libel and the longer Shirley ignores this issue, as you have, then the more libel we all become.

Do you understand this concept? Care to comment? You have said more than once if Shirley is aware and lets this continue then it's, 'unconscionable', I believe the term you used.

So I'll be looking for your support as we take the Mayor to task on it otherwise you are a hypocrite. Oh that's right you called yourself that too. So why do you speak at all when you only contradict yourself? What's the point?

Turner
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 4:47 PM

AMEN!! Turner & Tina.

Andre - Give it up you're only digging the hole you're in deeper.

April
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 4:56 PM

Andre - If you don't want to repeat your stance with regard to my comments allow me to paraphrase:

I know something you don't know and like a 5 year old you're going to pout until you get your way. Sound about right?

As for my comments being malicious ... Prove it!

April
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 5:13 PM

Please forgive me!

Andre - Read this.

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=108145

Stephanie - You still have my everlasting support!

Happy Memorial Day, ya'll, Remember what we're are celebrating.

April
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 8:13 PM

Andre, the mayors daughter got probation because she pled guilty. As in, she is guilty and admitted it! I am a cop and I will tell you that the Feds don't set a court date unless they have all the proof that they need. Just ask Mike Vick and Bill Campbell!!!

I would think that the Mayor of all people could understand getting emotional and making a spontaneous outburst after the fiasco at Firehouse 7 when she threatened to show the CITIZENS of Atlanta her "Philly side".

And is there one person out there that has never gotten so mad at someone else that they have said "I am so mad that I could just..."? I doubt it. Sgt Kreher's mistake was making it in the wrong place, at the wrong time. No one actually believes that a veteran police Sergeant, and President of the police union is going to beat up the Mayor; including the Mayor.

Just sit back and watch now as the vindictive machine that is Atlanta politics rolls out their big guns. They are going to do what they have done so many times in the past and try and make an example out of any and all critics of their administration.

Paul
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 10:14 AM

Andre,

You seem to log a lot of hours on what you have called a "minor league weekly" and a "b-team weekly." But so far, it looks like all you've accomplished is to make some folks wonder how it would feel to swat you upside the head with a baseball bat. ;)

Hodge

Hodge
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 11:43 AM

Is it me, or is it not surprising that the white women does not the black mayor?
Could a blond bitch like you ever be honest?
No, because honesty is against everything you represent.
I like reading articles by people like you because it reminds me of why it is necessary to keep fighting white hegemony, wherever it appears, whatever slutty white face is chosen to represent it.
I also love the people that agree with you. Perhaps they might awaken to being hit in the head with a baseball bat.
I particularly enjoyed how you repeated what the deranged police officer said, and then used the quote as a denial that he had said anything wrong.
Well, Stephanie, I like to think about knifing you, but not until you die. See how I just said that I like to think about knifing you, not that I was going to. And I like to imagine slamming your head against a brick wall, over and over again until your brains leak out. Didn't say I would do it, just like to imagine it. Then, I like to think about you being gang raped...not that I want it to happen or would do it. I just like to think about it.
Now, if that didn't make you fear for the life of you and your family, then maybe you really don't get why what that officer said was wrong. Because the insane rantings of a lunatic are wrong, especially when uttered in public against a pubic figure. Or maybe you thought that since the mayor was black, threats to her person do not count.
Well, whitey, I assure you that nobody cares about you either.

natalie
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 1:13 PM

Natalie,

Do you imagine for a minute that you are the first person to call me a bitch on this website, or the first to say that you'd like to knife me or beat me or see me gang raped?

You're way behind. There have been hundreds before you who have said those things. Go check out what the UAW folks said about me, what the anti-immigrant folks have had to say and what so many others have said.

Here is the thing: I may disagree with what you say, but I would fight to the death for your right to say it, just as I will fight with everything I've got to prevent a man's honest and harmless expression, an expression for which he has already apologized quite humbly, from being used to dishonor him and his fellow officers and to further endanger the people of Atlanta.

That's really what this is about, Natalie, not about whether you think I'm a bitch or not--there are times when I am a bitch and I am woman enough to own that--this is about a mayor who has so pathetically failed the city, who has for years now neglected officers wounded in the line of duty and robbed working police officers, black and white, of their rightful pay, and that mayor is now trying to blow a comment entirely out of proportion to cover her slimy tracks.

So bring it on, every awful comment you can think of, and I will take it. If words are all I have to endure to bring about justice then I'm only a wimp compared to people like John Lewis, and you're only a joke compared to the monsters who came down on him. -- Stephanie Ramage

Stephanie Ramage
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 2:27 PM

Natalie - This 'white woman' doesn't give a damn if the Mayor is black, white or purple with pink pokadots. All I care about is that the Mayor and her administration do what the law requires and gets the injured cops the medical care they are due UNDER THE LAW!!!

I am certain that if your rights were being violated, as these officer's are, you wouldn't give a damn what ethnic background the Mayor came from either. You'd be screaming from the roof tops.

Sgt. Kreher is backing every cop on the ADP, Black, White, Hispanic and so on. This isn't about race this is about doing the right thing.

And Mayor Franklin is not doing the right thing, hasn't been doing the right thing by these injured cops for YEARS. Been investigating it for YEARS and make no mistake, she's known about it. So, because she doesn't want to get caught with her pants down she is blowing the situation all out of proportion and trying to hide what she hasn't been doing by LAW!!!

There is not a soul on this site that hasn't agreed that Sgt. Kreher should not have said what he said, when he said it. But it was motivated by pure frustration and you should be glad that there is someone out there who does care about your rights.

Get off it and stop making this a race issue. It's not. And in case you haven't noticed one of those injured cop is black, Richard Williams. What about his rights from a black Mayor. I can assure you he's not happy with her right now either.

April
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 4:45 PM

The fact remains that the "News & Views" editor of this rag is not objective. Check out her comments above. She sounds like one of us crazy anonymous bloggers. I could understand that from a columnist, but not from a news editor. Acting like this diminishes her credibility.

The fact remains that Franklin is one of the best mayors in this nation. Recent reports show that Atlanta is fairing better financially than other major cities. She has a higher favorability rating than any other politician in the State and wins all of the Reader's Choice awards in the local papers. People like her for a reason; because she’s good.

I think we should all say job well done, Mayor Franklin.

She needs to shift her admin's policy on worker's comp and make sure the things happening with these officers and others doesn't happen again. I bet she will do it. Time and time again, she has proven that she is willing to make the tough decisions and I expect her to do the same this time.

Andre
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 7:24 PM

Stephanie -- Thanks for sticking with this issue. Being a cop is hard enough but to be treated this way by this administration is unconscionable. Of course I wish Sgt. Kreher hadn't let his frustration cause him to say something unfortunate, and I'm especially disappointed that he was suspended.

Natiaie -- where to begin? Maybe with unsolicited advice. It's a dead giveaway that someone's losing an argument when they resort to name-calling and race-baiting. Of course you're entitled to your opinion and I'm glad your comments were posted. However, if you want to influence someone, a good, logical train of reason and verifiable facts are much more effective than an emotional screed. Unless you're trying to whip up a mob or, you know, talk to those of a certain political persuasion not known for their reasoning acuity.

Hodge
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 8:28 PM

The moron-a-thon continues.

Andre you wouldn't know a fact if it hit you in the face.

But hey look whose new on the block. Miss Natalie. Whoa what a looker. I dunno, I think you two might get along. Maybe you guys could help deliver suspicious packages to the Mayor's daughter or go out on a date and harass some more handicap people. Maybe you can see about getting some better parking since you are both blind and retarded.

Or maybe you can meet me at the next public hearing and try saying some of your cute shit there.

Turner
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 12:34 AM

'She needs to shift her admin's policy on worker's comp and make sure the things happening with these officers and others doesn't happen again. I bet she will do it. Time and time again, she has proven that she is willing to make the tough decisions and I expect her to do the same this time.'

I wouldn't take that bet in a million years. How long must these injured officers wait before she "makes the tough decision and does the right thing"?

Now that all of her abuses are coming to light I would not be surprised if the City lost it's ability to be self insured. Do you have any idea what the ramiifications of that are? It means that the budget, which is already in trouble, would be strapped even further to get insurance for the employees of the City, which included Police and Fire. That means no public safety. You could be robbed at gunpoint and no one will be there to protect you.

Mayor Franklin is going to use any means to throw the spotlight off of what she has blatantly done to these injured cops because she knows that she was made aware of what her administration was doing for a very long time and she knows that they broke the law. As Sgt. Phinney has already pointed out - she is ultimately responsible for the actions of Mickey Walker and NovaPro.

No, Andre she will never do the right thing but she will do whatever she has to to save her own skin.

April
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 9:50 AM

And the name calling continues. Grow up.

Andre
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 11:36 AM

As does the ignorance.

For those of you familiar with our own Devil's Advocate web troll, Andre.

Hopefully this most recent exercise will help save some breath for those of us in short supply.

Copy and paste into your browser.

http://www.sundaypaper.com/More/Archives/tabid/98/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4090/THE-POLICE-AND-CITY-HALL.aspx

Turner
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 9:17 PM

I am sure the good people of Atlanta will not let Mayor Franklin get away with what she is doing. If she cannot be impeached then they sure can get rid of her come election time. Mayor Franklin says she felt intimidated. With her history and that of her daughter's; her statement of feeling threatened doesn't even pass the laugh or smell test.

In the meantime maybeMike Wallace or Morley Safer of 60 Minutes woud like to hear about this.

Gilbert
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 6:49 PM