Does CLEET Track Cops Fired or Pressured to Resign for Cause?

 Officer Lee Coel killed a 73 year old woman at a PR event staged by the Punta Gorda Florida Police Department last week.   Coel shot the woman in front of 35 people at an event that was supposed to show citizens how little time police have to make judgment calls.  Only a year earlier Coel was asked to resign from the Miramar P.D. after 14 months and allegedly for failing to pass a field training program.  However Coel admitted on his application for the Punta Gorda department that there were two excessive force complaints filed against him as a result.

  An area lawyer said Coel ought not to have been a cop at all and he had been asking for Coel to be fired months ago before he killed someone.  The lawyer,, Weinberg represented a 25 year old man that was mauled during a 2015 arrest for riding a bike without a headlight or taillight.  The video showed a non violent but uncooperative suspect, probably because he was drunk at the time of the arrest. 

Can we say we Told you So?

   Last week after we published our story on teacher pay and the lax requirements for achieving a teaching certificate we expected a crush of negative email and phone calls from irate teachers and the supporting public.  To our surprise we received just two emails, one agreeing on the lax requirements, and another pointing out that a recent paper agreed with our findings that teachers were well paid considering the cost of living rates in Oklahoma.

  The report found that teacher pay was ranked 30^th when adjusted for cost of living in each state and ranked 19^th for teacher starting pay.  We also rank considerably higher than the surrounding states.  Even a modest pay raise of $2000 per year would catapult Oklahoma above other states once the cost of living is considered.  Oregon as an example pays teachers $15,000 more  than Oklahoma, 34% higher,  but Oregon cost of living is 49% higher than the cost of living in Oklahoma.

In Support Of John Bennettt

A Letter From a Reader

  Thirty years ago (more?) there was a front-page article in the Norman Transcript about the incoming freshman class at OU; the point was that OU was quite pleased that the ACT scores were up around a half point to 23.5, an indication of improved recruiting, secondary school preparation, etc.

Late in the article they mentioned that the average for the school of education, still a flagship for women in those days, was 18.

The dumbest of the schools was education, and the Transcript missed that meaning of the data (and of course the 23.5 included that group).

I never saw those stats again in the Transcript.

B.P.  Norman Ok

The Education Mafia

Last year we ran the story about Oklahoma teachers making more money per year than Texas teachers and how the education mafia manipulates the statistics and the public in their never ending shrill demands for even more money from the state budget. The mantra is always the same "Oklahoma teachers are 49^th in the nation in pay and we are losing teachers."

Teachers salaries average $44,128 in Oklahoma according to the National Education Association and are alleged to be the lowest in the region and 49^thnationally.  That however is a complete and total lie.  Once you factor in the retirement payments another 300 million dollars a year comes into the equation, around $7,255.00 per teacher.  Oklahoma like most states has a defined benefit retirement plan with rather large but shrinking unfunded liabilities that the state contributes toward each year as part of the teacher payroll.  Some states like Arkansas and Texas run the entire retirement plan payment through the education payroll but Oklahoma runs far less through the payroll; 9.5% of salary versus Arkansas's 14% of salary.  Then Oklahoma kicks in an additional 5% from sales taxes, use taxes, corporate and individual income taxes, and lottery revenue.   In total Oklahoma kicks in over 17% of the salary but the NEA only counts the 9.5% that flows directly through the payroll system.

The Penalty for a Mental Disorder is Summary Execution?

 Friends and family members said that the victim was merely upset over not collecting some money he was owed and had no real mental disorder. Still, putting a knife to your own throat when police attempt to arrest you isn't the act of a normal person so let's assume the guy was temporarily insane or just confused or desperate to avoid arrest.

But first let's look at how a good cop handles a man with a knife.   

Not sure why this man was being questioned other than he was walking down a road and might or might not have been walking in the road.   Fact is that cops are trained to find reasons or make up reasons to get involved but one wonders if left alone would this homeless guy have caused anyone any trouble that day?  Still the officer used restraint and it was obvious he was both retreating and trying to de escalate the situation so he ought to get some credit for that.

August Tulsa County Republican Men's Club Wednesday August 10th

Tulsa County Republican Men's Club is honored to have Major General Myles Deering as our guest speaker for the month of August. Our meeting will be at Brookside Baptist Church fellowship Hall (3615 S. Peoria, Tulsa). Doors open at 11:30 and the meeting starts at 12 noon. Lunch is $12 and open to the public.  RSVP, Billie Bell 918-638-9977. 

Myles Lynn Deering (born 1953) is a retired Army National Guard major general who served as the Adjutant General of Oklahoma. General Deering was appointed by Governor of Oklahoma Brad Henry in 2009 following the promotion of Harry M. Wyatt III to the position of Director, Air National Guard. On December 10, 2010, Governor Mary Fallin announced that she would retain General Deering in his position as Adjutant General.