Kerr Putney Runner Up for Winston Salem PD Chief Job

Winston-Salem, NC - Assistant Police Chief Barry D. Rountree will be Winston-Salem's next police chief, according to a Friday morning announcement from City Manager Lee Garrity.

 

Rountree has served on the Winston-Salem Police Department for the last 25 years, and is currently the assistant chief in the Investigative Services Bureau. 

 

Chief Scott Cunningham announced in December 2012 that he would retire at the end of June 2013. Rountree will start his new position June 30. 

 

"I am very pleased with the level of feedback that I have received from citizens and police employees regarding our candidates," Garrity said in a statement. "After careful deliberation of all aspects of the chief's job, I have determined that Assistant Chief Rountree is the best candidate to assume this major responsibility for our community.        

 

"He will provide the leadership to aggressively combat crime while working to enhance the relationships between the department and the community." 

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Friday Wrap Up - Would You Please Hold My Umbrella? Edition

Barry Can't Catch a Break - You've seen the photos, and heard all the spin right and left. Here's the real deal, US Presidents every once and a while end up standing in the rain talking to the gathered masses. and when they do someone in uniform normally holds the umbrella.

The reason is simple the uniform represents the nation and not one smuck singled out for some sub subservient duty.

While right wing crazies are aghast it is totally acceptable.

Airport Cash Cow - Jerry Orr has run CDIA like his own personal fiefdom but has done so on the backs of Charlotte area taxpayers. True or False?

Jerry will argue that the airport hasn't cost residents a dime and that we have a "world class airport" thanks to him.

But why? And what is the true cost? Beyond the local jobs what are the benefits?

It is clearly not a win/win for Charlotte. Property values far beyond the airport have suffered. Plans to build a 5th runway are in the works and the airport keeps getting larger.

US Airways is demanding a seat on the board of any airport authority. Why?

Isn't it time we take a serious look at the airport? As tax payers shouldn't Charlotte residents get to "cash out" if the airport is handed to a regional authority?

The idea that is was all free is horse play and Charlotte Area Taxayers have paid for this monitor and we should all get a piece of the action.

Charlotte Traffic - The long awaited Expansion of 485 from Johnston Road to I-77 in South Charlotte has begun. The current mess has been made worse by the recently added concrete walls that have driver brake taping like a bunch of nervous women at a church niño game.

When is a Tree Not a Tree - CP can't find the words to explain this, except it is just all kinds of wrong. Seriously this thing is worse than a flashing bill board and is visible for about four miles both east and west of its location at the Jay Robinson Middle School in South Charlotte along 485.

Elevation Church - Got to love these Elavation Church Cheerleaders especially those who like to hog two parking spaces in a busy shopping center.

Another reason to vote down the Elevation Church compound rezoning request for Ballentyne, they obviously need a supersized parking lt. 

CP Hiatius - I'm on a Boat! It's that time of year when tourists flock to Charleston and CP along with the "General" and our crews are running boats and hosting events for the Spolato Festival over the next few weeks. Back to a normal routine soon.

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Chase Sapphire Commercial

If you have seen the Chase commercial and thought the song felt familiar you were right. As in 50 years of music familiar yep that is indeed, Sir Paul McCarthy.

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Friday Wrap Up - Lunatics Running the Asylum Edition

News on all fronts this past week is disturbing and troubling. National news has President Obama's administration being compared to the Nixon White House and Watergate. Local news has the dysfunctional Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners throwing "Robert's Rules of Order" out the window.

Thankfully CP is on a boat and when the view out of the office is of South Carolina's Barrier Islands and the air is still cool it is easy to forget that our Commander in Chief is caught in a trifecta of lies as is our police chief and apparently the majority of GovCo staffers.

Who are these people and who put them in charge?

Rodney Monroe - WAFE calls out Chief Monroe with a in his face "you lie" but with little fanfare from the mainstream media.

WAFE's Julie Rose:

At first blush, there’s a lot about the power struggle over Charlotte’s airport that makes no sense. After all, both sides in the debate agree the airport has done extraordinarily well under the city’s control. So what’s happened?

A mysterious death, for one.

And WFAE has reviewed internal airport documents that cast doubt over much of what we thought we knew about that incident.

A lot about Delvonte Tisdale's death remains a mystery.

The Charlotte teenager's badly-damaged body was found in a Boston suburb in late 2010. Massachusetts police theorized he had stowed away in the wheel well of a plane in Charlotte and fell as it descended into Logan International Airport. They declared it a homeland security breach.

The ensuing investigation of Charlotte Douglas International sparked tension between airport managers and city leaders that is still playing out in the current airport authority debate.

While Massachusetts police found evidence on Tisdale's body to support their stowaway theory, it remains unknown how Tisdale got into that plane in the first place.

And yet, CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe did claim to know in an exchange with reporters in February 2011.

"Chief, correct me if I'm wrong," asked a reporter. "Kind of what I'm getting from the airport is you know how he likely got into the airport but for security reasons you can't say. Is that fair to say?"

"That's fair to say – yes," replied Monroe.

Now according to emails and documents related to that investigation, CMPD's findings – which implicated the Charlotte airport for lax security along its perimeter - were anything but certain.

First, some background about the report itself: Charlotte Aviation Director Jerry Orr asked CMPD to investigate how Tisdale got into the wheel well of a plane in Charlotte, because he says TSA refused to do it.  

So, in December 2010 – a month after Tisdale's mangled body was found in Massachusetts - CMPD convened an investigation task force that included TSA, the FBI, the FAA and one of Orr's top deputies at the airport, Herbert Judon.

The notes Judon compiled from those meetings say that by late January 2011, the investigation  "was literally at a dead end."

He continues: "The entire investigation team seemed frustrated and CMPD closed the investigation."

But, you wouldn't know that from CMPD's final report or from Chief Monroe's comments to the press.

"We conducted a very extensive investigation along several different lines," said Monroe in that February 2011 conversation with Charlotte reporters. "(We had) great cooperation from a number of our federal partners and, with that, we've come to some reasonable conclusions.  But more importantly, we've come up with some very sound and focused recommendations that take us light years into the future as it relates to airport security."

Those recommendations are "what we're most pleased about," added Monroe.

WFAE asked Chief Monroe why he said he knew how Tisdale accessed the airport when CMPD's investigation was unable to determine that. He did not reply directly, but sent a statement saying he had reviewed the documents WFAE obtained and found "no additional information that would change our findings or assessment of the Tisdale investigation."

Monroe continues, "CMPD's focus now is to continue working with Airport Operations in addressing all security related matters."

The complete WFAE story is here as well as links and audio of the on air broadcast.

Harry Jones - There is no doubt that Harry Jones was going to get the hook. In fact CP spent more than an hour talking to Harry Jones the week before his firing and while we talked about everything under the sun, he was already on a new mission. That mission and the story behind it for another day.

CP has along with the Charlotte Observer and other called for County Manager Jones' firing. CP must admit that I was wrong.

Harry is articulate, smart, funny and sincere. He is a dedicated public servant.

The business of running Mecklenburg County has been is sad shape for a number of years and while the reasons are far from simple when the nuclear fallout from a BOCC in transition settled it was Jones who took the fall. But I doubt that firing Jones will fix the problem.

The bottom line is Mecklenburg County Government is so over run with compliancy and status quo staffers that we may never see our way out of this mess.

Nevertheless the conduct of the Mecklenburg BOCC is far from honorable. The actions of the board chair, in forbidding Harry from addressing the board and his staff as well as removing his personal items from his office and delivering them to his home is simple beyond comprehension.

No employee, much less a life long civil servant should be treated in that manner.

The present Board of County Commissioners with few exceptions are a text book case of the "Lunatics Running the Asylum" and if you doubt me just watch the tape of this week's meeting which is here.

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Obama Is Shocked To Learn The IRS Is Targeting Tea Party Groups

POTUS held a press gaggle today to express his surprise that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting Tea Party groups.

The President's response to the "news" was reminiscent of this great scene from the classic film Casablanca.

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In Case You Missed It - Siers Takes a Shot at Jay Carney

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CMS Police Chief Bud Cesena Placed On Paid Leave

Cedar Posts has learned that CMS Police Chief Bud Cesena has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

CMS staff has confirmed the suspension but would not disclose the reasons.

Cesena was employed but the Charlotte Police Department for nearly 3 decades and took the position with CMS in 2006.

 

Cesena was employed by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department for nearly 3 decades, retired and took the position with CMS in 2006.

The Charlotte Observer has confirmed that CMS Police Chief Bud Cesena has retired. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/13/4039762/after-being-placed-on-administrative.html

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CMPD Deputy Chief Kerr Putney To Head To Winston Salem

Cedar Posts is hearing from sources that CMPD's most senior Deputy Chief Kerr Putney will leave his post to take command of the Winston Salem Police Department.

If the rumor is true Putney will be the 3rd Deputy Chief to leave the department in as many months.

The current Winston-Salem police Chief Scott Cunningham, is retiring June 30.

Cedar Posts Update: It's official Putney is now formally one of three finalists as reported by the Charlotte Observer on May 22, 2013.

Still hearing that the process is already completed and that the job is Putney's.

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Op-Ed By Francis C Brame - Nincompoops on City Council

Yeah!  Those nincompoops need to be run out of Charlotte on a slick greased pole. 

The Idiots ripped off taxpayers to hire a consultant to chart the fate of Douglas International Airport.  Now the Idiots are trying to understand why the consultant (for which we paid a King's Ransom) stated that Douglas International Airport has been "spectacularly successful" while city-run; but out of the other side of their mouth stated the Airport should be run by a new Regional Authority. 

You can't get more diabolically confused than that; but you know a Coon is easily spooked, especially when it has a stolen nut in it's jaw.

Well, an Idiot is an Idiot by any other name.  And these Idiots think the taxpayers are mere ATMs for their pleasures and wild spending attacks.  Well, Idiots, revenge is Sweet. 

The only sensible member of Charlotte City Council is Mr. Bill James and I thank God for you Mr.
James. Charlotte needs to vote those Coons off their perceived pedestals.

And on top of all this craziness the Idiots are raising real estate taxes to the tune of 7.75%.  How shameful the working poor are held hostage to upkeep those worthless Uptown Coons in Public Housing, Food Stamps, Free Medical care and Jail Upkeep.  Yeah! 80% to 90% of Jailbirds are worthless Coons. 

Couldn't we thin the herds??  

Francis C Brame - Charlotte, NC

Cedar Posts Says: Francis Brame as CP understands it, is a  woman in her 80's from Myers Park who happens to have a computer and is a passionate racist. Most of her ramblings are not fit for print or broadcast never to be seen except on sites like "Chimp-Out".

Never the less if we don't understand that some, many or even just a few troubled souls have this perspective we can't fully understand the issue of race relations.

So what do you think?

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Military Style Raid Leads To Homes Being Leveled In 24 Hours

Not far from the shadows of Charlotte's Uptown towers, a group of more than 50 heavily armed men swarmed a cluster of three small homes on North Pine Street late Friday afternoon.

By one witness account, a number of dark colored vans and black SUV's closed in on the homes from several different direction. Within seconds dozens of men wearing olive drab jumpsuits with no visible identification stormed into the three homes in a simultaneous attack.

Witnesses reported hearing automatic gun fire and loud explosions often associated with "flash bang" grenades.


2115 North Pine Street in 2011 Photo via Google Maps

During the raid the area was blocked off by unmarked police cars and the para-military style operation was over in less than an hour. At no time were any CMPD marked units visible, nor was Charlotte Fire or Medic involved.

Unmarked Car Blocking West 24th Street Friday May 3, 2013 Photo Credit: Agent X

It is interesting to note that the 4:45 p.m. raid took place without the normal local media gaggle, or Chief Rodney Monroe press conference, or post operation press release.

 

Then 24 hours later, two of the three homes that were targeted where leveled and the debris and contents hauled away, with not a trace remaining.

On Monday morning, only muddy Carolina red clay where the homes once stood remained along with a small Bobcat and a Komatsu (excavator) Track-Hoe.




2115 North Pine Street Monday May 6, 2013 Photo Credit: Agent X

2119 North Pine Street Monday May 6, 2013 Photo Credit: Agent X



This afternoon a lone unmarked car with blacked out windows stood guard in the area.

 

Unrelated side note: Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office has a request before the Mecklenburg County Commissioners tomorrow night, to purchase $130,000.00 worth of tactical body armor.

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Another CMPD Officer Arrested

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer was arrested Wednesday for allegedly falsifying time sheets for his second, off-duty job at the Arboretum Shopping Center.

Jeffrey T. Taylor, 46, faces a felony charge of obtaining property by false pretense, records show.

A criminal investigation shows Taylor falsified time sheets between October 2012 and January 2013, according to a CMPD news release.

Taylor has worked at the police department for 24 years. Department officials placed him on unpaid administrative leave after he turned himself in Wednesday night.

Most recently he had been working as a school resource officer at Phillip O. Berry High School in the Metro Division.

“The actions of this officer do not reflect the character of the dedicated men and women that wear the badge of CMPD with honor,” police Chief Rodney Monroe said in the release.

Taylor was in custody at the Mecklenburg County jail. His bond amount was unavailable.

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Wednesday Change Up - Radiohead 15 Step

Beyond the first riffs, the first track (15 Step) on Radiohead's 2007 album Rainbows explodes and from that moment on not one track is a let down. The album flows and never disappoints. Hard to believe we are five years down the road already.

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