And the “he” is a pretty important he, since Héctor Pesquera is
the head of the police department, which in turn is the second largest force in
the United States (New York City is number 1).
Well, the question on everybody’s lips is, “why?”
Granted, the job couldn’t have been much fun, since morale is low, public
confidence in the police is virtually nil, the politicians are busy fighting
each other—sometimes to the point of fisticuffs—and, to top it all off, the
United States Department of Justice is suing
the police department for violations of civil rights.
And was that the problem? Because yesterday, federal
judge Gustavo Gelpí
appointed
Juan Mattos to be the federal monitor to assure that an 18-year reform of
the Police Department was going according to plan.
Pesquera denied that the appointment of Mattos has
anything to do with his decision. However, Pesquera also refused to say why he
was retiring and returning to his home in Florida.
And Mattos was presented to the public two days ago at
the governor’s mansion, at which everybody and his brother showed up,
except….right, you know who….
"Pesquera se cansó de
las determinaciones apresuradas y el ridículo ayer, donde el Gobierno anunció
un alegado monitor sin estar el Jefe de la Policía y sin dar detalles sobre la
contratación, es el mejor ejemplo", dijo González.
Roughly, “Perquera got
tired of political pressure, and the best example was the ridiculousness
yesterday, when the government announced an alleged monitor without the chief
being there and without giving details about how he was contracted,” said
González.
“He works very hard—Saturday and Sunday, included—and
he has the respect of the force,” said my friend Tony, who is the kind of guy
who knows the inside story. What he didn’t do, apparently, was play the
political game terribly well. And that’s crucial, because the reform won’t come
cheap—it’s guesstimated that it will cost 300 million bucks over the course of
a decade. Which means that any police chief is going to have to go to the
capitol and press the flesh.
Pesquera made over a quarter of a million bucks annually,
but guess what?
…wasn’t worth it.
