A Lot Of Smoke and Mirrors Being Employed

My favorite town in Michigan has been party to some very effective use of smoke and mirrors over the last few days. I would like to examine some of it. Before I do that, let me make it clear - this is my opinion and everything put forth here is coming from me and I do not pretend to be speaking for anyone else on the Lowell City Council.

First off, no City Council member has the ability to hire or fire anyone who works for the City of Lowell with the exception of the City Manager and City Attorney. We did not fire the police chief. No one fired him, he resigned.

Biggest Smoke: The Chief was fired because of the 2nd amendment. Not the case at all. 

First of all, the Chief resigned, he was not fired. Yes, he was given the option to resign or face termination, but HE CHOSE TO RESIGN. This is not word play - anyone who knows Steve Bukula knows that he has a very quick mind and is very familiar with the laws on the books. I have seen him address matters of City Codes and Ordinances during City Council meetings with lightning speed. He had the better part of a day to make up his mind. 

A wise person made this crystal clear to me yesterday, when he said, "No one knows more about what he wrote and what he meant than Steve Bukula when it comes to Steve Bukula. He was given the option, he thought about it and decided to resign." He could have called a lawyer, he could have refused and fought the firing. He did not. He resigned. 

As to the 2nd Amendment, the City Manager is a former deputy sheriff who has no problem with gun ownership or the 2nd amendment. Speaking for myself, I am not a gun owner personally, but I have no problem with gun ownership. In fact, my 10 year old grandson is saving his money for a rifle and he is pretty excited about it. I am confident his parents will train him properly about safety and use when the purchase is made. To my knowledge none of my fellow Council members has any quarrel with gun ownership or the 2nd Amendment. More on that in a moment.

The best way to learn about the resignation is looking at the stories and reporting done by TV8 and TV13. The used the Freedom of Information Act to get all the information behind what led to his resignation. Lowell's First Look has also covered the story:

Lowell's First Look Story: CLICK HERE

TV8 Coverage: CLICK HERE

TV13 Coverage: CLICK HERE

The posts encouraging four young men to patrol the streets of Lowell was the proverbial straw - not the single issue that caused him to resign. It is also important to remember that the Chief was found guilty, fined $1,000 and was suspended for 90 days for his illegal use of the LEIN system in 2016/17. That may sound like no big deal to you, but I have a relative who has been a court officer for over 30 years and he was dumbfounded that ANY police officer, much less a Chief, would use LEIN in such a manner. He told me then that he was surprised the City did not lose the ability to access LEIN for a year, because agencies or law offices found guilty of misuse are often penalized in such a manner.

Citizens in Lowell had the impression that these four guys with guns were somehow given the stamp of approval by our police department to help out. I know this because of an exchange my wife had with a lady on Facebook. To my knowledge, our PD is not in the habit of "rounding up a posse" if a danger presents itself in Lowell. 

Smoke Bomb 2 - the four gun carriers visit the streets of Lowell. These young men may in fact be well intentioned, but they put out a very mixed message. First they wanted to assert their right to protest in favor of the 2nd Amendment. My first reaction to that was, "I was not aware that the 2nd amendment was under any kind of attack." (Having watched some of the Floyd George video - could not watch all of it - I was VERY aware of why protests in that regard were being made all over our State, the Country and the entire world.) They also mixed in their intention of preventing the looting or destruction of property in Lowell by walking Main Street in the middle of the day.

My wife and I have owned a business in Lowell for 19 years and while we might appreciate protection, we were not at all happy with the thought of our store being "protected" by four armed people who we did not know and whom, to our knowledge had no training or proper equipment other than guns and absolutely no accountability for their actions. (Note: the business owners in Lowell are divided on this - some are happy to have four random young men on patrol.) My position is this: I pay taxes to support a Police Department with trained officers. I am not at all interested in being a part of some armed confrontation in or around my building brought about by four guys with no connection to me or the town/State we operate our business in.

Why do I call "smoke bomb" on the four? As mentioned, part of their intent was to protest in favor of the 2nd amendment. Where is any evidence of a recent or upcoming attempt to mess with that amendment? It sure as heck isn't on the agenda at the Lowell City Council - we have real issues to deal with. If that is happening somewhere else, then go there with your protest/demonstration.

Secondly, if they truly wanted to protect businesses and property in Lowell - what the hell were they doing out on the street in the middle of the day for one day? The overwhelming evidence shows that vandalism/looting takes place at night when things are closed and it is dark. I might ALMOST believe these gentlemen if they were guarding the streets from sunset to sunrise night after night. 

The pattern all over the country in cities where looting DID occur was that a peaceful protest happened during the day and then the shizzle hit the fan at night. Consider Grand Rapids - the BLM (Black Lives Matter) protest ended well before dark and several people I knew who participated were home way before the looting started. (Never mind that the overwhelming evidence is that BLM people had little to nothing to do with looting and destruction.) The Lowell Ledger had a reporter on the scene in Grand Rapids and his story follows this timeline. He knew it was time to clear out when obscenities were spray painted on the GRPD building and he saw young men with gas masks and bulging back packs.

There was a peaceful protest planned in Lowell for Sunday June 7th, so if the four were following the patterned sequence of events and were truly concerned that "what happened in GR would not happen in Lowell", then they should have been on patrol in the evening of Sunday June 7th after the peaceful demonstration and walk on Main Street.  6.15.20 EDIT: I was informed by the pastor who organized the peaceful event at the church was done on short notice and partially in a response to the concern raised in the area by the sight of 4 young men walking around with long guns.  She did not want my post to give the impression that the event at the church was planned way in advance. I apologize for any confusion. It does not change my opinion in any way that the chief's firing had anything to do with the 2nd Amendment.

I want to re-emphasize that it was a One and Done deal with these guys who supposedly were looking out for my business and the other businesses in Lowell. They walked the streets in the middle of the day one time.

To sum it up, in my opinion the Lowell Chief of Police was not fired because of his position regarding the 2nd amendment and the four gun carriers really had no deep concern for the safety and security of Lowell businesses.