Speak of the devil: Parkersburg Mayor Calls the FBI

It wasn’t a week ago that I mentioned the newspaper article regarding the indictment of a Parkersburg Police officer.  Obviously I have some experience with Parkersburg.  I settled a case against the Parkersburg Police Department about a month ago, and I also have one other case pending there in federal court against the county.  In my last post I inquired as to when we would hear from the Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell.  Well we did hear from him.  According to the latest news reports, he has now called the FBI on his own police department.

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

Parkersburg Police Officer Charged with Battery

I’m not sure what the deal with Parkersburg is, but it is in the news again.  Parkersburg Police Officer Josh Densel is charged with battery for hitting one Jerry Seabolt while being booked at the holding center.  When I saw this headline, I said to myself, obviously it was videotaped.  According to the News and Sentinel article it was indeed caught on video.

I wonder when we are going to hear from the Parkersburg mayor.  I guess he isn’t grandstanding in the media this time because there are no lawyers involved as of yet who can be blamed.  The allegation has been made that the Parkersburg Mayor encourages his officers to beat individuals.  This may be a good case to further develop that allegation.

Parkersburg must be an odd place.  I once talked to a man who was from that area about police beatings in Parkersburg.  He was an older gentleman, very conservative, very successful in life.  You would think that he would place a high priority on liberty.  However, it was his opinion that the police should be free to beat anyone up whom they deem as a criminal.  This just blows my mind.  It may be something in the water up there.