By Stephanie Ramage, The Sunday Paper

Photographs by Spark St. Jude, The Sunday Paper

June 12, 2009

No, sadly this is not my review.

Thursday night is when the Sunday Paper goes to press and it's rare that I'm able to attend anything then. Last night was especially difficult. Still jetlagged (when the hell does this finally end?) and apparently cursed by the goddess of return phone calls, I struggled to pull together this weekend's cover story, "Officer Down: How City Hall's neglect of officers disabled in the line of duty affects crimefighting in Atlanta's neighborhoods." And I did so with a feeling of being in the wrong place.

I wanted to be at the benefit for APD Sgt. Scott Kreher and everytime I interviewed a cop who said "Yeah, I'm on my way there now," I scowled at my laptap's empty screen, with all those words still coiled up in the keyboard, and at the clock steadily ticking on, and felt like Cinderella locked in the attic.

There were so many people I wanted to actually meet in person, but it just wasn't happening. The story had to be done. Deadline--which was pushed to as late an hour as my coworkers are ever likely to tolerate--had to be met.

Fortunately, Turner Knapp, a reader who has stepped in before to be somewhere I couldn't be, offered to cover the event in my stead. Here's his account of the evening. -- Steph

The other things an Atlanta Police sergeant told City Hall

May 31, 2009

By Stephanie Ramage, The Sunday Paper

By the time you read this, I will be out of the country on vacation, but I am leaving with a heavy heart. The story I worked on about the way Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration has treated disabled officers, “Badges, Bullets, and Broken Promises,” which The Sunday Paper published on May 17, has haunted me.

Fortunately, officers, disabled and working, have had a champion in Atlanta Police Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO). It was on their behalf that he lost his temper on May 20 and let slip a phrase about a baseball bat that at this point doesn’t even bear repeating.

He said a lot of other things that day, too, and since no one has reported them, I’ve decided to publish his talking points here.

May 29, 2009 

It’s a balmy 82 degrees as I write this. But wherever Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is by the time you’re reading it, I imagine she’s feeling a lot more heat than that.

A lot has happened since The Sunday Paper ran a cover story on May 17 about a group of seriously injured Atlanta police officers with complaints about the city’s handling of their medical care—a story that gained momentum as WSB-TV, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other media outlets reported on it in the days that followed.

Franklin asks feds to investigate ‘bat’ comment
Union leader says mayor is playing politics with injured officers

By MEGAN MATTEUCCI , ERIC STIRGUS, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s claims of being intimidated by a union leader are just a political ploy to cover up a broken workers’ compensation system, a national police union president said Thursday.

On Thursday, International Brotherhood of Police Officers’ President David Holway delivered a letter to Franklin, demanding a public hearing for all injured city employees who have filed workers’ compensation claims. Several officers, who were severely injured on duty, have complained of not getting proper medical care or payments from the city.

Police group’s president says Mayor Franklin is playing politics.He demands a public hearing for hurt officers.

By Megan Matteucci, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Friday, May 29, 2009

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s claims of being intimidated by a union leader are just a political ploy to cover up a broken workers’ compensation system, a national police union president said Thursday.

Thursday, International Brotherhood of Police Officers’ President David Holway delivered a letter to Franklin, demanding a public hearing for all injured city employees who have filed workers’ compensation claims.

“These heroes suffer again as victims of the city’s workers’ compensation program. They certainly deserve better than this,” Holway told three injured Atlanta police officers Thursday at a news conference. “These heroes answered their call of duty. Now it’s time for the city to do the same.”

Franklin declined to comment.

Everyone on the Atlanta City Council is up for reelection. Some of them should be voted out.

By Stephanie Ramage, The Sunday Paper 

Last week, the Atlanta City Council grilled Atlanta Police Department Sgt. Scott Kreher for nearly two hours. Near the end, he brought up the plight of five former police officers who were all seriously injured in the line of duty, mostly by bullets from criminals’ guns—four of them paralyzed, one of them brain-damaged—and how the city has withheld medical care from them (as detailed by The Sunday Paper on May 17), and he lost his temper.

 “And this latest fiasco with the disabled officers,” Kreher told the council, shaking his head, “these five officers were injured in the line of duty … I want to beat her [Mayor Franklin] in the head with a baseball bat sometimes when I think about it...I cannot believe Mayor Franklin’s administration would allow this to happen. This administration should be ashamed of itself.”

Prior to that remark, Kreher, who is president of the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, had given a presentation succinctly enumerating the problems with City Hall’s treatment of the police department and outlining some possible solutions.

And yet, when the City Council members, all of whom are up for reelection, were given time to ask questions, the vast majority chose to expend their breath on political grandstanding, as if they had not heard a single word Kreher said.

On May 26th a petition was started to reinstate Sgt. Kreher.

The petition is spearheaded by The Sunday Paper and Atlantans Together Against Crime.

Follow this link to read the petition.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/reinstatekreher/index.html 

The following is an excerpt from the petition:

 "The purpose of this petition is to signify the support of the undersigned for the acceptance by Mayor Shirley Franklin of the apology offered to her by Sgt. Scott Kreher for his ill-chosen words during the council meeting on May 20, and to demand that she allow Kreher, who has served the City of Atlanta with honor for 17 years, to return to his job in good standing so that he can protect the people of Atlanta during this time of need.  

The undersigned citizens of Atlanta want Sgt. Scott Kreher back on the job, with his pay and benefits fully restored and no adverse impact to his status and standing in the Atlanta Police Department. These citizens want Mayor Franklin to accept Sgt. Kreher's apology and to meet with the above-described injured officers, or to make sure their medical costs are covered in a timely and efficient fashion as described by the city's workers compensation policy.

Please sign and include address and phone number. You do not need to be a resident of Atlanta to sign. If you come into the city for work or play you are also encouraged to sign! "

Five Atlanta Police officers wounded in the line of duty say the city withholds the medical care they desperately need

http://ibpolocal623.com/webcontent/library/2009/Atlanta-2009.wmv 

Paul Harvey

What is a Policeman?