After a week of taking heat related to issues of diversity, a second promotion by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl of the intermittently controversial George Trosky now to Assistant Chief of Police generated predictable criticism:
“The message is that the mayor doesn’t care about women,” she [National Organization for Women President Jeanne Clark] said. “He doesn’t care about domestic violence. When we disagreed with this appointment for Commander Trosky to become a commander, he [the mayor] said he got it, he was zero tolerance policy and nothing like this would happen again.” (Lynne Hayes-Freeland, KDKA)
That was Tuesday. Allegedly on Wednesday, this happened:
Your public attack on me in the reception line at the Cookie Cruise – berating me for criticizing your promotion of George Trosky to assistant police chief, screaming that I was a “hypocrite,” and threatening to “go public” with what you perceive to be my failure to support all domestic violence survivors – was bizarre, to say the least. (Everyone’s Entitled to Jeanne’s Opinion)
More coverage of the epic fracases back in 2007 which attended Trosky and two other officers’ promotions are available
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here. These stories involved not only a lack of sensitivity at that time to domestic violence accusations, but also an oversensitivity to political relationships — 102 officers were then passed over.
Charges against Trosky for domestic violence were dropped long ago, and he was never convicted of anything. Recognizing that victims are frequently pressured to drop charges in cases against authorities, innocent-until-proven-guilty still has to mean something, and it’s difficult to justify a single accusation limiting somebody’s career for all time. However, after all the controversies in 2007 an agreement was reached regarding formal deliberative processes for handling these delicate cases, including advocacy group outreach. That agreement appears to have been retired.
*-UPDATE: This month saw the launch of a “Run, Jeanne, Run” (for City Council District 8) movement on
Facebook and
Twitter.
Mayor Ravenstahl's behavior surely befits a Banana-Republic-Burgh.
After Cookie Cruise Crackdown on ungrateful, recalcitrant subject, I wonder if Lou aspires to…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA4vDBdpcs
So I guess the Cookie Cruise wasn't as big a love fest as some local pols and media chumps would have us believe.
Anybody catch the photo in the PG sports section today of the golfing foursome of Luke, Huss, Morehouse (Pens owner) and Lemieux? Just a buncha buddies! I hear Corey can swing a club too.
Jeanne Clark is a rabid feminazi. @ Helen a couple weeks ago in the Greenfield Run you passed out t-Shirts touting your group to make it look like residents were advocates and then asked for $$ for the shirts afterwards.How Phony but typical!
@Anonymous August 29, 2012 9:44 AM Well, no, I didn't do that – I wasn't there and have never done such, but I'll find out who did.
@Anonymous August 29, 2012 9:44 AM – and you are welcome to voice your criticisms at my personal email: helengerhardt1@gmail.com. It's easy enough to sign up for a gmail under a pseudonym if you want to remain anonymous, but let's avoid clogging up Comet threads from this point on, please.
OMG, Where is the goofball's mouth piece when he needs her?
I apologize… u were named specifically by a resident
Wikipedia: “The term [feminazi] is used pejoratively by some U.S. conservatives to criticize feminists that they perceive as extreme.” “Rabid” surely suggests that as well. What are Clark's extreme positions or statements? Or is it simply that she is a feminist at all, because I am also one of those.
Helen – I don't think the anonymous commentator wants to register a grievance with you, I think he/she wants to embarrass or “slime” you. I hadn't realized your organizing was already that effective, kudos.
Femifascist would be used if lived in a world that appreciated alliterative insults.
@bram glad ur a feminist..Jeanne Clark is always gonna run .Jeannes's great. Run Jeanne run.Jeannes the head of NOW because she can't elected anywhere so she tries to stay relevant. party leaders think she's a kook.ie feminazi. as for Helen just repeated a story told to me. the person telling story said the woman in charge gave her the shirt then tried to make her pay. When I asked if the woman in charge was named Helen I was told yes. If I wanted to slime her I would have said she was part of the environmentally destructive (mellon park was destroyed) OWS!!
@August 30, 2012 8:41 AM
Unfortunately, I was in court at the time of the press conference regarding the flooding down in the Run – I did help our members who live in the Run organize the event, personally invited many other folks from the Run, and I was really bummed I couldn't be there in person.
As regards the whole t-shirt thing – that's way off-topic here and while I value feedback as regards the behavior of our organization and member volunteers and how we might affect communities we're hoping to advocate and organize with, please let me know about such concerns off of Bram's threads.
Thanks,
Helen
If I'm not mistaken, Jeanne is also communications director for PennFuture, 7th Ward chair and head of the city's Democratic committee. It's really difficult to get elected to public office for many reasons–relatively few opportunities and a good old boy club come immediately to mind. Jeanne is doing quite a bit to make the city, state and country a better place to live. We should all be so “relevant”.
Cookie crumbles and rumbles into mainstream media: http://triblive.com/news/2508836-74/clark-ravenstahl-mayor-trosky-cruise-cookie-didn-domestic-eric-heyl#axzz257Kib1Fo
Lots of things get into “the mainstream media”; I seriously doubt they're sweating this.
Well, I find myself sweating this incident, so I'm feeling motivated to spread new news of such displays of adolescent temper where they seem to be the least bit on-topic.
Isn't Doven quoted as saying, “she's crazy”? Nice Doven, keep it classy! What a bunch of knuckleheads down on Grant!
Bram, just had the time to watch the video link of Ravenstahl you posted earlier. Wow.
And then just when I thought that couldn't be topped – speaking of skipping school without an excuse slip – all yinz, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=IgJ7oaKDmHY
I really almost fell out of my chair laughing so hard – my lungs hurt. I may have lost a few aveoli.
Whatever they call it at Panera, it's just a fancy word for mayonnaise.
Helen – Postcardgate. That was nothing. Nothing! Look at what happens when he does make it to meetings.
None of the little dramatic incidents like the Cookie Cruise ever made a scratch, even when they got blown up all sensational in the news. Pittsburghers have demonstrated that they care about 1) how the City as a whole seems to be going and 2) how plans for the future sound. And they're not wrong. Everything else just comes off as political carping, he said / she said, throwing mud. That's why the blogs died. The way I figure it, if we can together finagle some green infrastructure, fiscal reforms and brisk, healthy development with the leadership Pittsburgh is happy with, why tilt at windmills just because it's not the West Wing up in here. I only posted it because it's August recess, it involved a blog, and accusations of “screaming” tend to get a bump in traffic.
Oh, my poor aveoli – smeared like fancy mayonnaise all across my computer screen. I might as well not have quit smoking.
Bram, I think you might be very right about this – the Mayor may express many Pittsburghers' true feelings without the rhetorical aeoli – the royal We most certainly can't keep a big limo in park with so much open Hill to roll down – or over.
And yeah, speaking of metaphorical traffic, limos do hafta bump a little when people throw themselves onto the road of Progress – gotta break a few eggs and all that jazz.
Another example of liberals eating their young. In supposed liberal world that Clark loves in you are guilty until proven innocent if associated with the Mayor and once a criminal then always a criminal. Why not throw every offender in jail forever Iunder Clark's logic