Seattle officer who arrested black man for carrying golf club as a cane fired for racial bias

Remember when Seattle Police officer Cynthia Whitlatch arrested a 69-year-old black man for the crime of using a golf club as a cane last year? The department fired her for her racial bias and combative approach.

From NYDaily News:

Whitlatch, who had been disciplined twice before for “unprofessional conduct,” should have handled the “non-threatening situation” differently, [Police Chief Kathleen] O’Toole concluded.

“Your inability to understand, even in hindsight, that your behavior was unnecessarily aggressive, an abuse of discretion, and negatively impacted the community’s confidence in this police service, offers me no pathway to confidence that your behavior will improve or change,” the chief wrote. “Without this ability to learn from your mistakes, understand how you can improve and do better, and recognize your own errors, you are unable to effectively function as an officer.”

The Seattle Times reports that Whitlatch’s racist Facebook posts were taken into consideration as part of her “overall racial views”:

Whitlatch’s racial views subsequently emerged as an issue when it was disclosed that, within two months of the arrest, she posted a comment on her Facebook page in the aftermath of riots in Ferguson, Mo., over the fatal police shooting of an African-American man on Aug. 9, 2014. In her post, she criticized “black peoples (sic) paranoia” in assuming whites are “out to get them.”

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild is fighting Whitlatch’s dismissal because the department “blatantly violated” a requirement to complete the investigation within a required 180-day limit.