In a moment of what I’d describe as a bureaucratic lapse into inexplicable, transient unconsciousness, the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training chose to allow former Bella Vista policeman Coleman “Duke” Brackney to remain certified as a police officer in Arkansas.
That decision is bound to have more than ruffled the feathers of many in that community, especially since Brackney was fired from the community’s police force after shooting a motorist to death in 2010.
Brackney’s dismissal came after an internal investigation found he’d violated department policy in that shooting.
Readers may recall that Brackney pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent homicide after he’d raced after citizen James Ahern in a highspeed chase and shot the man multiple times after Ahern had stopped his car in a ditch alongsidethe road.
Many in and around Bella Vista feel Brackney got off awfully light in court for that killing. He was sentenced to a month in the Benton County jail and fined $1,000. But-following a probationary period-his record was expunged. Like the whole thing never even happened, except to Ahern and his family and friends.
And there was more. After the smoke cleared in Brackney’s firing, Police Chief Ken Farmer, obviously for reasons of his own, didn’t immediately recommend that Brackney also be decertified as a policeman.
A news account says Chief Farmer ultimately wrote to the commission saying his department had “no recommendation” to the commission on whether Brackney should be decertified as a police officer.
Well, that certainly was most considerate on the chief’s part. After all, the crime to which Brackney pled was a misdemeanor rather than a felony, which almost certainly would have led to his decertification.
So, after one whole month of enduring what likely was very hard time in the county jail, paying that entire $1,000 fine, then having it all neatly expunged after a year, Brackney had to somehow face the fact that he also can remain a bona fide police officer in Arkansas.
Now that, my friends, is what I call some mighty gritty consequences for fatal behavior. Feel free to disagree, of course.
Parents’ lament
I honestly believe that being a parent can be the most challenging and thankless job a person can have, especially considering it costs so much just to be one.
Right now I’m thinking of 3rd District Rep. Steve Womack and his wife, Terri. The Associated Press carried the story last week saying their son James had been arrested and jailed without bail in Benton County for allegedly violating his parole following a drug conviction.
One television report said JamesWomack previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance after “an incident involving six grams of methamphetamine.” The prosecutor at the time recommended that James be sentenced to a prisonsponsored boot camp rather than 10 years in prison.
In other words, it appears they tried to give him a break.
I read stuff like this and feel for the families of all the youths who’ve chosen to become involved in the scourge of drugs and selling that garbage. In the case of a public figure like the congressman, the pain is only amplified.
And make no mistake here, I’m not speaking only of those from “bad” homes. It seems to me that when it comes to drugs, way too many young folks from even before their high school years wind up using and exchanging some form of illicit drug.
Anyway, I just noticed this sad new story and thought about how the Womack family must be feeling-the exasperation, heartache and sadness any of us would experience under similar circumstances.
Haas Hall renewed
Anyone else notice that Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville recently received an unprecedented 10-year charter renewal from the state Board of Education?
Not only that, but Dr. Martin Schoppmeyer, who founded and administrates this public high school of more than 300 students says 100 percent of its students graduate and 100 percent go on to college. Haas Hall students also routinely score at, or very near, the top in virtually every category of testing from math to science.
One board member in Little Rock asked Schoppmeyer during the process how many lower-income students were enrolled in his school. He obviously had an agenda to push by asking. Schoppmeyer said he didn’t know the income levels of his students’ families because he never asks. And that it didn’t matter to him or any of the faculty and staff.
Schoppmeyer didn’t know the answer because poverty levels in public schools routinely are determined by the number of students participating in subsidized feeding programs. But Haas Hall doesn’t serve food. Its students bring their own.
And, hey, for those who don’t, there’s always the Maggie Moo’s ice cream store attached to the same building. How cool is that?
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Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.
Editorial, Pages 73 on 04/22/2012