BROWNSVILLE GETS POLICE CHIEF IT DESERVES

By Juan Montoya

The selection of Orlando Rodriguez as the new City of Brownsville Police Chief after months-long hoopla turned out to be kind of a letdown of sorts.

After months of "vetting" and "screening" by the city administration, we ended up getting more of the same.

We opted to keep the same kind of administration at the PD that allowed for Commander William Ingram, a 35-year veteran of the department, to retire after his nude picture burst on the Internet.

Rodriguez at the time said that since Ingram was in the process of retiring anyway the retirement makes the issue moot and no charges are contemplated.

Apparently, the use of a city-issued cell phone, the taking of nude photos inside the Police Department gymnasium, and the continued sexual harassment of a local woman who he says was a former PD employee are not prosecutable acts now that he will be conveniently gone.

“He is leaving on Friday,” Rodriguez said. “We have no employee to deal with."

You've got to admit, that was a "neat" way to deal with the non-problem.

Then there was the incident at Cummings Middle School still under investigation and the subject of several multimillion dollar lawsuits where a teenager was shot by two officers using heavy-caliber assault rifles. Remember that it turned out the kid had a pellet gun and had not even fired at the cops before they took him down?
If you remember, also, it wasn't until six or severn hours after they took down the kid that Rodriguez revealed that the gun wasn't real, as online blogs and social media had already informed its viewers.

City of Brownsville Commissioner Ricardo Longoria said he knew Rodriguez would be the right person for the job when he saw his handling of the fatal shooting of Javier Gonzales.

“That was Orlando’s trial by fire,” Longoria said. “He was the voice of Brownsville. He explained it to the community; he put the community at ease. By that simple gesture … I said there’s our guy.”

Rodriguez's sterling performance under fire was illustrated when we learned that he was dealing courageously with so much stress that he had to be treated at a local hospital. But perhaps there was something behind Longoria's praise of the chief. After all, it was his brother Everardo who was one of the trigger-happy cops who shot the kid.
Of course, that had nothing to do with it, did it?
Like we said, we got the police chief we want and deserve.