Seattle Police Officer Cynthia Whitlatch was fired Tuesday for showing racial bias and a lack of remorse when she improperly arrested a 69-year-old black man who was using a golf club as a cane.
"I was disappointed by your failure during your Loudermill hearing to take any responsibility, or show any understanding that your conduct at issue here was inappropriate," Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole wrote in her decision to fire Whitlatch. "In particular, when I asked you what if anything you would do differently in retrospect, you stated that you would do nothingdifferently."
In July 2014, Whitlatch arrested William Wingate, then 69, claiming he had swung a golf club at her patrol car. He was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, under a plea deal in which the charge would be dismissed if Wingate had no other offenses for two years.
However, the Seattle Police Department released video of the incident in January 2015 that showed Whitlatch's claims to be false. The video indicates that Wingate was merely leaning on the club, which he claims to have used as a cane for years. The police department apologized to Wingate and worked with the city attorney's office to get the charges against him dismissed early.
Whitlatch was reassigned to desk duty and given counseling, and the department deemed the case resolved. Later in the year, though, O'Toole was made aware of troubling racial comments that Whitlatch made on her Facebook page in the aftermath of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri. She said she was tired of "black peoples paranoia" and wrote of "chronic black racism that far exceeds any white racism in this country."
In response, the Seattle Office of Professional Accountability launched a probe against Whitlatch, eventually finding that she had violated department policy in her arrest of Wingate. O'Toole signed off on that decision and filed the termination order Tuesday. more
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