If Columbus Police Chief Joe St. John was struggling with any self-esteem issues, they were vanquished Tuesday evening at the city”s Municipal Complex.
I don”t think I”ve ever seen anything quite like it.
During a 45-minute-long citizen input portion of a regularly scheduled city council meeting, more than two dozen people rose to eulogize the embattled chief and urge the council to abandon plans revealed earlier that day to fire him.
Supporters, some wearing “Citizens for Chief St. John” T-shirts, stood in the aisles and an overflow crowd congregated in the hallway and lobby outside. Excepting a couple of public school meetings in the late 1980s, I can”t remember an audience more vocal or more passionate about a cause.
Men, women, young, old, black and white stood in front of the mayor, council and a packed house to recount their firsthand examples of the chief”s dedication, support and individual attention. You began to wonder if the chief ran a one-man police department or if he ever slept.
The devotion expressed for the larger-than-life chief is something rarely seen in a public”s relationship with its police department or, for that matter, any aspect of officialdom.
“I am a single woman — and I”m proud of it — and Joe St. John has made me feel more secure than I ever have since I”ve been here. Brenda Waldrop told the mayor and council. “You cannot take this man from this town.”
“All of you have got to come up for election,” another speaker threatened, drawing an enthusiastic affirmation from the crowd.
The event quickly assumed the tone of a pep rally.
“He”s the first person who makes me feel the way I do about this city,” another Friend of Joe said. “He makes a lot of people, like I do, feel good about this city.”
Joe does make you feel good about your hometown. And he makes you feel good about your police force, something that is rare. As more than one said, he has been a bridge builder. Someone called him a member of the Columbus family.
Randy Hood said he phoned St. John from Texas at 4 a.m. after his house was broken into. Within a week”s time the burglars were apprehended and eventually incarcerated.
“Don”t make it a black thing or white thing; make it a right thing,” Hood said.
“Mr. Mayor, you used to own a liquor store, right?” he added to the delight of the crowd.
“Bet I get a ticket before I leave here,” Hood mumbled as he returned to his seat.
Jo Shumake made a thoughtful and convincing closing argument for St. John.
“Before you dismiss this as a popularity contest please consider this,” Shumake said. “For the police department to really, really work — and we need a good, strong police department — it has to have the support of the community. I think what you have in an obviously popular police chief is something that is a tipping point for us where we can bring this community together … because the the popularity of the police chief filters down into the popularity and importance of the police force and we need that very much in Columbus.”
The council deliberated for two hours and did what it thought it had to do. It fired St. John. The council could hardly ignore the precedent it set when it fired firefighter Mitchell Banks — an incident that has been referenced countless times during this episode — for not being able to attend a seminar in Jackson because of the previous night”s drinking.
Like Banks, St. John was unable to appear for an equally important meeting for the same reasons. Unlike Banks, St. John has a devoted and outspoken following.
The council passed over Joe Johnson, naming Selvain McQueen as interim and announced plans to hire a search firm, thus putting to rest widespread fears Johnson might become permanent chief.
As much as I like Joe and as much goodwill as he”s engendered for the city, I believe the council did the right thing. Has the mayor and council always been consistent in the past? No. But that”s no reason they shouldn”t be now.
Giving the chief a pass would have set an indefensible precedent and would have rendered him ineffective within the department.
In the time he”s been here, Joe St. John has worked himself into the heart of this community. He”s become a local icon, another Mother Goose, if you will. He has demonstrated by his actions, by his enthusiasm for people and their causes, how to love your hometown. If we can embrace those lessons, all will have not been lost.
Still, it is time to face reality and turn the page, to be about the sad and tedious business of finding another chief.
We”re going to miss you, Joe.
Birney Imes is the publisher of The Commercial Dispatch. E-mail him at [email protected].
Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.
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