RC Police Chief attempts damage control

It's very logical. After Chief Allender has found himself in the national news for his flip response to the press, he is changing his tune (RCJ):

Allender said previous news reports that the investigation was over were taken out of context.

According to Allender, the department's investigation into the allegation that officers deliberately outed Newsome was a two-phase investigation.

Allender described the first phase as "fact finding." That investigation was "pretty much wrapped up last weekend," Allender said.

But, the department still had a policy evaluation to complete. The policy review considers what was justified and what wasn't, he said.

"And, in the end, how do we determine the best way to move forward," Allender said.

I love this attempt by the RCJ to downplay this locally. I mean, everything is just fine in Rapid City, it's just a few meddling gays around the nation, that care about this, right??

The RCJ does a little editorializing by omission here:

Rapid City council members found several dozen e-mails from throughout the nation in their city e-mail accounts Thursday morning.

The e-mails call for an official apology from the Rapid City Police Department, a reprimand for the officers involved in Newsome's outing, a new department policy prohibiting the outing of lesbian and gay military members and compensation for Newsome for the loss of her military career.

The way this was written says: "Nope, no local people have talked to them at all; we have no LGBT or allies here in Rapid City. We're the good folks here." Just a few nasty emails from gay cranks in Californica, no one here sees an issue.

Please talk to your Council members about this. The RC police department need a better policy about 1) gays and lesbians and 2) our relationship with EAFB staff and officers. This is an opportunity for positive change.

My take: the officers were just doing their job but they need some better policy guidance on LGBT issues, and the police chief needs to learn to think before he speaks to the press about something that affects the LGBT community. Because again, here we are in the national press promoting our image as an ugly place that is proud of our flyover status. I just hope this is an opportunity to move forward.