Lest our esteemed friends from the esteemed law firm that represents our esteemed city officials think their little letter denying us the information we requested through the Arkansas FOIA regarding a city employee accessing porn while they were on city property and city time is sufficient to make the matter go away... the answer would be an esteemed "no".
The denial letter they sent back answered (or confirmed the answers we already had) about the situation. More about that later.
My Grandpa Robinett quit school in the fifth grade, but he was by far the wisest man I ever knew. As a child, I used to hang around his auto repair shop and ask endless questions.
He was patient, insightful, and understanding to a point but when I asked questions that he thought I should know the answers to based on my limited life-experiences to that point, he would cock his head, look at me with a grin and say "common sense dictates".
He never answered those questions. Just left me hanging like a wet quilt on the clothesline on washing day.
The bottom line? Common sense does dictate and by the city not telling me what I wanted to know, they told me pretty much everything I needed to know.
One, the incident or something akin to it must have happened. They didn't send me a letter and say it didn't happen. They sent me a letter that said "we're not going to send you the information you requested because unless the discipline of the employee results in termination, we don't have to release the information".
So there was an incident, and there was discipline but someone dictated the offense did not rise to the discipline level of termination, therefore, they have chosen to allow someone who was looking at pornography on city-owned electronics on the city's dime slide with a slap on the wrist.
Because, you know, privilege. And the clan of the hand. And a blatant disregard for the law. Which is nothing new.
Hey, Carl. Why did you not just call me up or send me and mail and say "it never happened"?
Common sense dictates.
The city claims they have sent our request to the office of the Attorney General to find out if they have to honor it. I too have sent a letter (and an FOIA request) to the Attorney General as well. The letter points out the same logic I just spelled out above and questions why someone within the city would be protecting someone for watching porn on city equipment and city time. MY FOIA request was merely to have them inform me if and the city did or does, in fact, seek an opinion.
Common sense dictates.
But there are more disturbing aspects. If, as I have been told, there was a police investigation into the incident how in the hell do we now just sweep it all under the rug?
That's another pending FOIA request to the FSPD asking if an investigation took place, but having dealt with one "investigation" into a matter that was rigged like a Japanese box kite, I've little faith in what that will reveal. And if there was a police investigation into the matter, then the result must have been sent to the county prosecutor.
So, common sense dictates sending an FOIA request to prosecutor Shue on Monday to find out if and or why his office decided no prosecution was necessary in a case involving one employee reporting internet porn-surfing of another employee.
There has even been some speculation that it was not just porn, but that it was "illegal porn". I'll leave it to the reader to discern what is and isn't "legal" porn (Google it!) but if that is the case, common sense dictates this is a worse deal than we thought and apparently someone in the city supports policy breaking, and unethical behavior of employees, but they are also willing to look the other way at criminal activity.
Because....you know.
I know for a fact there are people within the FSPD that are privy to the facts of this case, which tells me the case is being discussed within the circle of law enforcement for the city of Fort Smith. Some are disgusted, not just by this incident, but by others as well. Some, however, are standing on the left side of the thin blue line and protecting the totalitarianism of thought and agenda that is, ironically, the reason for much of the disgust of the rank and file majority in the first place. And their ranks are seemingly growing.
I hear stuff. I know stuff. My "little blog" and I are not merely a "minor nuisance" that will go away once the "plan" is in place. Eventually, I may be the only person standing that cares enough to care. But I'll be standing outside the fire.
Hell, I don't even care if you are all crooked as a snake. Just own it and quit trying to pass off who you are and what you are doing as anything but what it is.
I want someone to stand up like a man, look me in my good eye and explain to me how looking at porn on city time, slapping the perp on the wrist, derailing a police investigation, deflecting the issue on a "technicality" and justify blowing smoke up the hind end of the only guy with enough chutzpah to ask a simple question..is any of this conducive to serving the citizens of Fort Smith?
You know. Like you were elected (or hired) to do?
Grandpa Robinett used to tell me something else.
"Boy...don't go around wasting your time and everbody elses time asking questions if you don't already have an inkling to what the answer is because then you can tell if they are lying to you or not."
Common sense dicates.