Cop Won't Work At Pride Parade Because He's Afraid Of Gay Cooties

My nomination for the wimpiest cop on the planet is the one in Salt Lake City who refused to work traffic and crowd control at a gay pride parade.   

A Salt Lake City cop is apparently terrified of these
absolutely "scary" bunch of people.  

About 30 cops were assigned to the parade. It sounds like a pretty routine assignment. Every parade in every city has police making sure everything runs smoothly.

I don't know that much about policing, but traffic control at a parade doesn't seem all that dangerous, at least compared to dealing with murderers and robbers and such.

The officer has not been identified, but he has been placed on leave pending a review.

It appears the cop's supervisors are not amused:

"We don't tolerate bias and bigotry in the department and assignments are assignments... To allow personal opinion to enter whether an officer will take a post is not something that can be tolerated in a police department," said Salt Lake City Police Department spokeswoman Lara Jones.

In other words, do your job, pal.

Oh, the small number of virulent anti gay ranters and bigots and wacked out extreme right wingers will hold up this guy as a martyr. They'll say how we can no longer live our lives in the Christian way we want. Or something like that.

That forgets the little detail that the cop was never asked to endorse the march, or gays in general. He's only supposed to do crowd control. In other words, be on the same street as a bunch of gay people and their supporters.

I'm sure he's been in the same room with murderers and thieves and such. Does that mean he endorses murder and thievery?

No, he's just afraid of gay cooties. Or something.

Can you imagine the chaos if all of us refused to work around people we don't like? Just ignore laws and rules to keep our sensitive little ignorant brains happy?

If the cop is this afraid of a bunch of gay people enjoying a parade, he must be absolutely terrified of more dangerous people, like rapists, muggers or even jay walkers. Is this the type of cop who should be trying to keep us safe?  

The other 29 cops who were assigned the gay parade in Salt Lake City don't seem to be complaining. I'm sure some of them aren't super enthusiastic about gay people. But they're doing what they're paid to do.

Salt Lake City Police are gay friendly enough anyway. The organizers of the Pride parade say they have a good working relationship with the city's police department.

It's just that our wimpy cop is an outlier. Happens to the best of organizations. Not every employee turns out to be competent.

Maybe the cop can find another line of work. Let's just hope he doesn't apply for a job as a bouncer at the wrong night club. Can you imagine what would happen if his first night turned out to be the Mr. Leather competition at some gay bar?

ALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Salt Lake City police officer has been placed on leave after refusing an assignment to work at a gay pride parade.

The officer was among about 30 officers assigned to provide traffic control and security for the annual Utah Pride Parade on Sunday in Salt Lake City, said department spokeswoman Lara Jones.

"We don't tolerate bias and bigotry in the department, and assignments are assignments ... To allow personal opinion to enter into whether an officer will take a post is not something that can be tolerated in a police department," Jones told KSL.

She declined comment on the officer's reason for refusing the assignment.

The officer, whose name was not released, is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

Utah Pride Center spokeswoman Deann Armes said her group is pleased with the department's stance and thinks officers should undergo sensitivity training before joining the force.

"Our goal is to make sure that police training and certification includes policies and oaths to ensure that all officers are committed to providing equal service and treatment of all citizens. Clearly, bigotry is alive and well," Armes said in a statement.

Police Chief Chris Burbank has marched in the parade in the past, and three deputy chiefs will march Sunday while he is out of town.

The department also will have a community outreach and recruitment booth at the pride festival, Jones said, and participates in a standing committee to address public safety issues relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

"We have gay men and women that serve in the police department," Jones told The Salt Lake Tribune. "One officer's situation does not reflect the vast majority of officers that work in the Salt Lake City Police Department and certainly not Chief B

Uintah: Worst Public School On The Planet Literally Snatches Food From Kids Because Parents Behind On Payments

Congratulations to Uintah Elementary School in Salt Lake City for being by far the worst public school on the planet.

Uintah Elementary School in Salt Lake City, where
the lunchroom bully is apparently the school's
so-called nutrition manager.  

I bestow this "honor" on Uintah because some food service managers there who were pissed off because some parents were behind on their kids' lunch payments, snatched the lunch trays away from the kids whose parents who hadn't paid, and threw them in the trash, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. 

This of course happened in front of the students' classmates, so the food managers bullied the kids, set the Worst. Possible. Example., wasted food, and are basically evil people.

I can't believe so far nobody has been brought up on child abuse charges over this. Nobody has been fired yet, either, which is amazing, though I'm sure that will happen. At least I hope so. A lot of heads need to roll here.

At first, the school offered a pretty weak apology.

"If students were humilated and upset...that's very unfortunate and not what we wanted to happen," said school district spokesman Jaosn Olsen said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Oh, come on!  That's EXACTLY what whoever was responsible for this wanted to happen!  The idiots, who put new meaning into the word "vindictive" WANTED to humiliate the kids, it seems to me,  because they wanted to take it out on somebody. They couldn't reach the parents to humiliate them, so let's pick on the kids!

So I guess there's school sanctioned bullying and child abuse.   It does make me wonder if the idiots in charge of Uintah Elementary School let bullying go on unimpeded.

Another sad thing there are probably a number of educators and food workers and administrators at Uintah Elementary School who have the students' best interests at heart.  The Tribune article noted some employees in the school cafeteria wept when they saw what was going on, but were powerless to do anything about it.

By bullying these kids over really what was a pittance in lunch money, the people who did this surely demoralized the educators who do give a damn about the kids and want them to thrive.  So those good educators are probably less effective now.

Way to create an environment where kids learn!

Since then, after the initially weak "apology" and no doubt because there was a huge, building and understandably torrentially angry outcry among parents, the school put out a Facebook message.

The Facebook message said in part:

"We understand the feelings of upset parents and students who say this was an embarrassing and humiliating situation. We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation to ensuring students are never treated in this manner again."

Notice the careful language here, avoiding responsibility. It refers to upset parents and students who say  this was an embarrassing situation. The word say suggests an attitude of "Well, they SAY they were embarrassed but they're just trying to draw attention to themselves."

The rest of the Facebook post is full of excuses. Well, we tried to get ahold of the parents, we did give the affected students some fruit and milk, yada yada yada.

The school did concede this should have been handled in a different manner.

Ya think?

What in the world was the school trying to gain? They weren't recouping any money from parents who didn't pay because they threw the food out. The school said they threw the food out because it couldn't be served to other kids who did pay once it was placed on a tray.

THEN LET THE DAMN KID EAT HIS FOOD AND DEAL WITH HIS OR HER PARENTS LATER!!!!  I can't believe anybody is that stupid so as to just throw their food away.

Of course, they're not that stupid  As I said, somebody in that school really wanted to humiliate those kids.  Certainly not the majority of people who work there, but one or two people. It only takes one bully to really make a mess of things.

Now this story has gone viral, and the decent people of the world are sending terribly angry messages to the school from all over the world. You should read the comments on their non apology apology Facebook post! 

Feel free to go there and post your own thoughts. (Though please, no threats or ugly language please.)