Not really sure what to make of this...Cops, weed warehouses, union meetings?

[amannamedtruth]

I really don't know how to react...

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-reg...95507-from-buffalo-police-department-20150508

<article id="article"> <header> By Lou Michel | News Staff Reporter on May 8, 2015 - 6:45 PM
, updated May 8, 2015 at 8:07 PM


</header>



Buffalo Police Officer Jorge I. Melendez got caught overseeing a major marijuana-growing operation four years ago.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda and other department officials were so offended by Melendez’s behavior that he was immediately fired in May 2012.
Now it is going to cost the city nearly $200,000 in back pay to Melendez because the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association succeeded in winning a grievance arguing that due process – a contractually required disciplinary hearing – was denied.
Melendez’s back pay represents the 26 months during which his case was pending before he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last August. At that point, he would have been automatically fired because of the guilty plea.
And while the city believes it will be successful in a planned appeal of the arbitrator’s ruling, the PBA says Melendez could have been quickly fired through an expedited arbitration process and the issue of back pay avoided, if only he had been left on the payroll for a short period of time to let due process play out.
“We don’t want this kind of person on the job; neither does the mayor nor the commissioner. Criminals and drug dealers cast a stain upon all the good police officers,” PBA President Kevin Kennedy said Friday, explaining that the union grievance was not about defending Melendez, but protecting contractual rights and heading off a possible lawsuit from the terminated officer, if the union had not filed the action.
But police sources say departmental charges are always put on hold until the criminal case against an officer is resolved because of issues regarding the Fifth Amendment and self-incrimination. So had Melendez not been fired, the sources explained, he would have been suspended with pay under the union contract and would have collected the same $200,000 that the arbitrator now says he is owed.
In defending Derenda, Mayor Byron W. Brown said, “Due to pending litigation we cannot comment at this time, but we expect that a court will rule in the city’s favor.”
Even arbitrator Jeffrey M. Selchick, in his ruling, noted Melendez’s criminal activities and said Derenda’s course of action was “reasonable and well founded,” though it violated the contract.
In citing the contractual obligation for an impartial hearing to determine the officer’s departmental fate, Selchick stated:
“As noted, the above language brooks no exception based on the commissioner’s perception, no matter how reasonable and well founded, that the evidence of an officer’s wrongdoing is overwhelming and termination fully justified. Hence the arbitrator finds … while the commissioner’s perception of the grievant’s wrongdoing was reasonable and well founded, the procedures which the parties agreed they would follow did not permit the commissioner, as he did, to summarily discharge the grievant.”
Selchick ordered the city to pay Melendez $195,507.24.
Derenda fired Melendez after he was arrested by federal agents and state police on May 31, 2012, for running an operation with more than 1,000 marijuana plants growing in a South Park Avenue warehouse he owned. With four harvests a year, the plants generated about $40,000 annually that allowed Melendez to live a lifestyle that he could otherwise not afford, the prosecution said, in citing apparent greed as his motivation.
Authorities said Melendez sometimes would visit the warehouse on duty and in uniform to check on the plants.
During the arbitration over the back pay, Buffalo Corporation Counsel Timothy A. Ball and Assistant Corporation Counsel Mary B. Scarpine argued that the city had a “compelling governmental interest to ensure that members of its police force do not engage in large-scale manufacturing of an illegal substance” and that Derenda had “no option but to immediately terminate Mr. Melendez’s employment.”
The city also argued that Melendez was “the epitome of a faithless servant” and under that doctrine not “entitled to recover compensation.”
In January, Melendez was sentenced to five years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, which he is serving at McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Lewis Run, Pa. His release date is June, 22, 2018.
email: [email protected]



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[MrBelvedere]

. Authorities said Melendez sometimes would visit the warehouse on duty and in uniform to check on the plants.

What the fuck was he thinking, not switching to a Tyvek suit, that's how you get spider mites!

 

[dddaver]

Wow. He was also in a unique position to bust his competition too. If not bust other growers himself, which he likely did, he was also in a position to inform on his competition, which he very likely did. At least steered his fellow piggies that way.

I personally think the whole thing is BS. PC run wild. I'm not usually in favor of anybody being hassled for growing a plant, but in his case, hang his ass, don't pay the fucker for being a scumbag. Ridiculous to even consider it. But again...that's just MY opinion dude.

 

[Lightweight]

Hmmm, so when a cop gets busted growing 1000 plants and gets four harvests a year the annual revenue is only $40,000, but when Joe Blow gets busted with 10lbs. the cops say the street value is $90,000 or something ridiculous like that.... odd. Also worth noting, he getting 5 years in federal prison for 1000 plants, it seems a little light compared to a lot of Joe Blows out there. Fortunately I'd only be disappointed if I actually expected the courts to be unbias in their rulings.

 

[Jhhnn]

The arbitrator is correct. Per contractual agreement, Melendez couldn't legally be fired w/o a disciplinary hearing & he didn't get one. His actions did not relieve his employer of their contractual obligations.

I worked a union job for decades & that's just the way it is. The boss can't break the rules to enforce the rules.

 

[Gry]

At a time when every other union in the country seems to be under attack, those representing the police seem to be getting stronger.

 

[Dr.King]

Hmmm, so when a cop gets busted growing 1000 plants and gets four harvests a year the annual revenue is only $40,000, but when Joe Blow gets busted with 10lbs. the cops say the street value is $90,000 or something ridiculous like that.... odd. Also worth noting, he getting 5 years in federal prison for 1000 plants, it seems a little light compared to a lot of Joe Blows out there. Fortunately I'd only be disappointed if I actually expected the courts to be unbias in their rulings.

You are damn right. The whole World is in a really bad place at the moment. IMO 70%+ of all the government is corrupt. DEA, police, judges, they are all doing and getting away with what they so swear to up hold. The soul reason that cop should have gotten a hard judgement is because he was still a cop. Why not save your money and move to grow your weed so you can be legal? It just goes to show how bad not only the cops are but the judges that are judging them are. Money is what the government makes it worth, they can just go print more like they always do every year since money making has began.

Now to another big point. The US government still has a law which states if one gets busted with over 1000 cannabis plants you can be punished by Death. That's right Death row. It hasn't happened yet but who knows what the Government will do at any moment.

When cops are kicking people in the face like their in the UFC it's fucking time to do SOMETHING. I swear if I was that other Cop I would have tasered that punk Cop right away and arrested him. If the Government doesn't change there will be another Civil War but this time it will be the People vs the Cops/Government. The rich only account for 1-2%, who do you think will win?

 

[rbt]

Hmmm, so when a cop gets busted growing 1000 plants and gets four harvests a year the annual revenue is only $40,000, but when Joe Blow gets busted with 10lbs. the cops say the street value is $90,000 or something ridiculous like that.... odd. Also worth noting, he getting 5 years in federal prison for 1000 plants, it seems a little light compared to a lot of Joe Blows out there. Fortunately I'd only be disappointed if I actually expected the courts to be unbias in their rulings.

I think the 1000 plants and $40,000 is correct. This figure should be set as the new base value of all plants $40.00. This now has federal precedence. So if it goes legal in your state and they make it a civil offence. The tax you didn't pay on growing should be figured on $40.00 a plant so 12 plants $360.00. I don't like it but the figure is more manageable.