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COLUMBUS, Ga. — “I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody's easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist, 2000.
During the recent city council meeting held on Feb. 28, 2023, a total of eighteen people were slated to speak during the public agenda.
Most were expected to speak in reference to the current issues surrounding the city’s extreme rise in violent crime, the devolution of the Columbus Police Department, and police chief Freddie Blackmon.
Of those 18 people scheduled to speak, only eight spoke to support Blackmon.
Many of those speakers were known friends and family members of city manager Isaiah Hugley.
Those who spoke in support of Blackmon did so by providing a slew of illogical, objectively-false, and race-baiting statements. Some of the claims made were outright laughable, though the passion through which they were delivered left us to assume those speakers had no idea how embarrassing their statements actually are when put up to scrutiny.
Here’s a list of of the entirely erroneous claims made, along with their fairly straight-forward refutations:
Note: The claims listed below are paraphrased from several speakers who have made the same claims. They are not the direct quotes of any one individual speaker. The direct quotes can be found in the meeting’s video recording hosted on CCG TV’s YouTube Channel.
CLAIM: “Ralph Dowe is just being vengeful because he wasn’t promoted, and therefore is a racist who convinced hundreds of officers to quit their jobs and move their families out of the city.”
Firstly, this is objectively false. Several speakers made grossly defamatory ad-hominem attacks against Lieutenant Ralph Dowe. Those claims falsely stated that Dowe somehow orchestrated hundreds of police officers to all quit their jobs to support his (non-existent) race-based revenge against Blackmon for not promoting him — which isn’t just insane, but is completely implausible. This stems from a false premise, does not follow any sort of logical matching of a premise to a conclusion, and therefore does not hold up to scrutiny whatsoever.
The claims also serves as a case-study example of a logical fallacy known as an ad hominem attack, whereas the speaker does not address the matter of the argument, but instead attacks an unrelated aspect of the person to avoid having to address their argument. In short: The speakers had no argument to offer, so they personally attacked Dowe and his character instead.
For the record: Lt. Ralph Dowe is an honorable police officer who serves with distinction. Though he was highly promotable and on the Captain list, he yielded that promotion twice to officers who had more time-in-service. When Dowe’s time finally came, police chief Freddie Blackmon promoted two other officers who were not promotable nor on the Captain list. In turn, Dowe filed a legitimate lawsuit of discrimination against the city. For that to have even been filed, Dowe needed to receive a ‘right to sue’ notice, and also likely a similar statement from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
CLAIM: “I know your dad, Mr. Mayor, so therefore you have to favor what I say even without evidence.”
Yes, that was actually a claim made by a speaker who attempted to appeal to Mayor Henderson through nepotism in an effort to add credibility to the speaker’s argument. This claim was made in an open meeting and serves as yet another example of how incestuous our city’s inner-workings really are.
We believe this goes without saying, but we are going to say it anyway: not only does having to appeal to nepotism demonstrate a lack of ability to formulate a logical argument, but it also makes you look like an idiot. It’s also unethical. We could go on, but we believe you get the point.
CLAIM: “No one in our city listens to the guy who just spoke, and since I don’t agree with what he just said, therefore you shouldn't either!”
This is another example of an ad hominem attack that avoids the person’s argument and attacks the person instead. Since the speaker did not have any logical argument through which to prove the person’s argument false, the speaker sought to discredit the source of the information by attacking their character instead. Not only is this not an argument, but it reveals the character of the person who does it while revealing them for the fool they are.
What is this? High school?
CLAIM: “You don’t ever survey the troops about their leadership.”
Not only is this objectively false, but is extremely dangerous not to do. For example: The United States Army conducts what is known as a Command Climate Survey on a regular schedule to ensure that the sort of leadership problems currently taking place at CPD don’t go unknown in the Army. You can google this stuff more yourself, but here’s an example of how the Army regularly surveys the troops about their leadership.
CLAIM: Officers should have unquestionable loyalty to their chief and never question anything, and they are insubordinate if they don’t.”
Again, this isn’t only objectively false, but is extremely dangerous. Officers are duty-bound to report wrongdoings, shortcomings, and dangerous activity perpetrated by their leadership. To not report such things actually places the officer themselves in legal liability. Depending on the severity of the situation, officers may be placed in dangerous situations that could have otherwise been prevented. Insisting that standards are maintained and that officer safety is prioritized is not insubordination. At all. We understand that the public generally does not think about or know these things, but perhaps they should google a bit before they arrogantly and angrily speak in a public meeting about things they know absolutely nothing about.
CLAIM: “Thirty days isn’t enough time to make a strategic plan, so therefore you are purposefully setting Blackmon up for failure because you are racist!”
Chief Blackmon was not given 30 days to formulate a strategic plan for his department. He was given two years, three months, and twenty-two days.
As is clearly evident by the lack of a published strategic plan for how Blackmon intends to run his department, he has never had a plan the entire time he has been chief. Had such a methodology existed, he could have simply emailed it to council on February 14 after council voted. Blackmon has no plan whatsoever, let alone an effective one, nor any that is available in writing for his subordinates to read and utilize so they know what Blackmon expects of them. This is the whole point, and is sort of the whole reason why council is requiring him to produce it: because he has already had two years, three months, and twenty-two days to do his damn job, but hasn’t.
But sure, please continue to wrongfully blame ‘racism.’
What’s the murder rate since January again? Food for thought, guys. Sheesh.
CLAIM: “Chief Blackmon hasn’t been given the funding he needs to do his job, therefore you’re racist!”
The first premise of that statement is objectively false. Contrary to popular opinion, Chief Blackmon is actually personally responsible for dictating his own budget for the department, as stated in Chapter 17, Sec. 17-4 of the Columbus Georgia Code of Ordinances. Perhaps these speakers could google some things before they scream at city council about how ‘racist’ they are for insisting an incompetent police chief must do his job?
Additionally, CPD’s budget has actually increased substantially the entire time Blackmon has been chief. In 2020, during his first year as chief, the department was budgeted just over $28 million. That number grew to $33.8 million in 2021, and again to $39.4 million in 2022. Even with an insane 40% increase in the department’s budget over two years, Blackmon still has not been able to do his job. He has eroded the department while having 40 cents more for every dollar he started with.
CLAIM: “Council didn’t address something else unrelated that I asked them to several years ago, therefore they must be racist and that’s why Blackmon should stay!”
We’re again going to assume we don’t have to explain this one, but apparently some people can’t seem to grasp how nothing in the premises of that claim have anything to do with the conclusions derived therefrom. Unless your claim had something to directly do with 70% of every single police officer in the city having no confidence in Blackmon’s ability to lead the department, your “thing” from years ago has nothing to do with the matter-at-hand. At all.
CLAIM: “The claims of bad leadership, low morale, and lack of communication are just buzzwords, and it’s not uncommon for employees to be disgruntled. Therefore, you’re a racist!”
Are you a cop? Is that how you know? You know this because you’re a cop, right? Oh, you're not a cop? Huh, weird.
We’re going to start by being rather blunt on this: If you’re a civilian, you really don’t have any frame of reference from which to even remotely have a right to speak on that. Period.
Nonetheless, we’re going to break this down in hopes of shedding some light on how false, arrogant, narcissistic, and rude that claim actually is.
Firstly, the officers of CPD aren’t merely “disgruntled.” They are cumulatively exhausted from working more shifts than you probably have in your entire life, back-to-back, from homicide case to homicide case as they process crime scenes with your loved one’s remains splattered across the wall. Again. And again. And again. Every day.
If you haven’t heard, there should be no less than about 50 officers on shift patrolling the city’s 26 beats at any given time. Currently, there might be 12, on a good day. When there are only half the officers, they each work twice as much.
Have we mentioned that the reason CPD has a 41% vacancy rate is because officers cannot stand to work under Blackmon’s sh*tty leadership? We don’t know how else to make this clear.
The officers of CPD aren’t “disgruntled” office workers somewhere in the civilian world. As members of a martial agency, they are entitled to outstanding leadership — because bad things happen in that world when it doesn't exist.
CLAIM: “No one has done a self-evaluation of CPD to see how everyone can just work together, so therefore you must be racist!”
This is objectively false. There were three studies performed on CPD prior to Jensen Hughes, and they all also found the same exact leadership issues that have continued to destroy the department from the inside out. Again, this is another example of someone arrogantly and angrily accusing everyone under the sun of ‘racism’ while the base premise of their presented argument is objectively false.
The first of those studies was a SWOT analysis performed by the department in partnership with Columbus State University in 2021. The second was an internal retention committee formed to examine why officers were resigning in droves. The third was the FOP’s survey of nearly the entire department.
All of these studies all independently show an extreme lack of leadership ability from Blackmon to be the root cause of the department’s current severe state of degradation. These things are published. You can read them yourself. Perhaps the public should do that before they arrogantly call everyone in the room a racist when they themselves are objectively incorrect in their own base premises.
CLAIM: “No other police chief was ever required to present council with a strategic plan, so therefore you guys are doing this on purpose because you are racist!”
Would it blow your mind to know that every other chief did their jobs and didn't cause the department to fall apart in two years?
The reason Blackmon is being required to produce a plan he should have already had in effect for the past two years is because he does not already have that plan nor has it been in effect for the past two years.
Seriously, this isn’t a difficult concept to grasp.
CLAIM: “You shouldn't force Blackmon to brief his strategic plan for the department in a public meeting, because criminals watch TV too!”
Again, this is another example of people not knowing what they are talking about, but screaming it arrogantly into a microphone anyway.
What Blackmon is being required to produce isn't an isolated tactical plan to go catch bad guys, but rather a grand strategic plan for how to run the department.
CLAIM: The Jensen Hughes Study wasn’t done correctly, purely because I say so, and therefore the study is invalid and you are a racist!”
This laughably-false claim was made by several speakers. We aren’t sure if the speakers knew that Jensen Hughes — the nation’s top law enforcement consulting agency — is the same firm that performed an assessment of the Minneapolis Police Department after the death of George Floyd.
Let’s say that again: The speakers were seeking to discredit the same firm that investigated the Minneapolis Police Department after the death of George Floyd.
Which way do you guys want your argument to go? Pick one, because it can’t be both.
Additionally, speakers claimed that there is no record of how the data in the report was collected, and therefore the entire study is somehow invalid. This is objectively false. The 135-page report describes in vivid detail exactly how Jensen Hughes collected its data and performed its analysis.
Perhaps these speakers should ask more questions themselves and collect their own data more often before they arrogantly call everyone a racist.
And last, but certainly not least:
CLAIM: “I’m the president of the NAACP and Jensen Hughes didn’t ask me anything in their report, therefore the entire report is invalid and you guys are clearly racist!”
We’re going to try to be polite about this one:
Maybe that's because you're not a cop? Perhaps Jensen Hughes did not interview you because you aren’t a member of the Columbus Police Department? Maybe? Just Maybe?
Imagine the arrogance, narcissism, and grandiose sense of entitlement required to believe that the leader of a heavily-biased political organization should have any input whatsoever on the professional world-class investigative work of the nation’s premiere law enforcement consulting agency.
Then, consider the stupidity and lack of critical thinking required to think that the aforementioned somehow invalidates the entire study.
Nonetheless, these are the claims that were made.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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