Chief Rag Picker is at it again. I call SAPD Chief McManus “Rag picker” because every time I see him in uniform this thought occurs to me. The material used in his uniform could have been put to better use as a cleaning rag. This time he is suspending cops because they didn’t have the proper box checked in their resume. The outcome of the incident they were involved in apparently didn’t meet with his approval. So he suspended them.
According to the rag picker officer Cuellar was suspended for:
Officer Richard M. Cuellar, who has been with the department since 1992, took over as lead officer. Internal investigators said Cuellar “imprudently entered” the apartment against the advice of another officer, which resulted in multiple officers entering the apartment to provide cover.
“Officer Cuellar then, again imprudently, took on the role of negotiator, verbally engaging the armed suspect although (Cuellar) lacked the formal training for that role,” according to the suspension documents.
SAPD Chief Rag Picker
Compare the situation Cuellar found himself in with that of two other SAPD officers back in 2019. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I don’t know all the particulars behind either incident. All I have to go on is what comes out of Rag Picker’s office via the MSM. Neither source is credible and reliable. That’s another way of saying not worthy of belief. What I do know is that Rag Picker’s excuse that the officers are not trained negotiators is pure bullshit.
The fact is that every interaction between police and the community involves negotiation. Ever get a traffic ticket? Did you go out of your way to demand it? Probably not. Once the officer dropped the citation on you, did you thank him? Huh, thank him for giving you something you didn’t want? That’s negotiation.
The old saying goes, “It takes two to tango.” It also takes the cooperative efforts of both parties to conclude a successful negotiation. When one party refuses to participate that doesn’t necessarily mean the other party failed.
Here is an example of an atypical negotiation that was resolved successfully by the officer. The officer was attempting to conduct a traffic contact. The occupants of the vehicle changed the parameters of the negotiation by shooting the officer. The officer countered their argument by returning fire. The negotiation was concluded in the officer’s favor when the shooters accepted his input in the debate.
I have opined, in the past, that Joseph Heller wrote one of the great management texts of all time, CATCH-22. It is apparently being used by Chief Rag Picker as the policy manual by SAPD.
