News

23634 readers

3677 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

132

Nearly half of police force resigns in one day (www.wave3.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From a different source ...

Weeks after an effort to disband the Big Bend Police Department failed and the village board signed a contract to keep the force, a mass exodus. Half the department has resigned. The head of Big Bend's Police and Fire Commission has also left.

"I am tired of the harassment of this village board and all the crap that I've been dealing with throughout the years," said Jamie Soneberg, former Big Bend police officer to the village board on Dec. 7, 2023.

"It's bound to happen with the way they've been treated over the years," said Josh Grover, Big Bend Village Trustee who has consistently sided with the police.

The large departure leaves Big Bend with a big hole to fill. Only five officers remain, and just one of them is full time.

"That was crazy and who's gonna be running our force and what police officers do we have left? It's just nuts," said Kristle Morin, Big Bend resident. Morin has lived in Big Bend her entire life and says it's never been like this.

Social media has been blowing up with comments, complimenting the officers and attacking the village board.

This fall, a majority of board members swiftly and silently pressed for a shared police services contract with neighboring Vernon, but the deal fell through because Vernon said no.

Signs first went up in September when the controversy began, and the community wanted to show support. Well, the board ultimately voted to keep its police force intact for another year, but the signs of support remain.

"The last few months have been nothing but attack on public safety, attack on public safety. They can't get the police force gone, so then they attack the police and fire commission," said Trustee Grover.

This month, the board took initial steps that could ultimately lead them to do away with their police and fire commission. This, after conflict about who should name a successor to former Big Bend Police Chief Don Gaglione who passed away suddenly in October.

"I said the village president does not have the authority to appoint anyone. It's the fire and police commission's duty and responsibility to appoint the next person in line." Mark Andersen runs All Occasions Catering and Bubbs Barbecue in Big Bend. He was also the head of the Big Bend Police and Fire Commission for two and a half years.

A week later, the head of the commission resigned.

"There is a reason why all these things are happening. There's so much distrust between the village board and the fire and police departments themselves," said Andersen.

The residents, caught in the middle, sadly losing that small town feel, where they could call out a friendly 'hello' to officers, like Chief Gaglione, who they knew by name.

"I was gonna do this and I stayed into this in remembrance of the chief. I was not going to allow this to happen and go forward and have his name taken in vain," said Andersen.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Ah. So just gross incompetence at all levels by everyone. Gotcha.