Cringer
07-01-2006, 07:14 PM
I had hoped this stuff went out the window a long time ago. Stuff like this gets out it might make a few players look the other way come free agency time if they think it was because of racism.
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Tony Walter column: It’s time for city to be fair with Barnett
Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt was 100 percent correct but it took him to the end of Thursday afternoon’s press conference to say it.
“It’s not playing right,” he said. He was referring as much to the debacle that has become the Nick Barnett/ FiveSix liquor license case as he was to the opinion the public had to be developing about the city’s definition of fair play.
No, it isn’t playing right, and that was apparent on the faces of the city officials who met the media in the City Hall Council Chambers to try to answer something that has only been raising more questions with every misstep.
The fairness issue
Barnett, the Green Bay Packers linebacker who owns FiveSix, 405 W. Walnut St., Green Bay, was denied the renewal of his establishment’s liquor license June 6. There were numerous complaints about the behavior of some of his customers, and the bar was most certainly on the police radar screen.
This stirred up fairness issues because another bar, with an even longer police blotter, seemed to be traveling a friendlier route. And it kicked up racial implications, because Barnett is black. Then, as Barnett and his attorney were apparently working with city officials on a solution that could result in an abatement agreement, the linebacker gets slapped with — of all things — a written warning for jaywalking.
Onto this murky stage marched Schmitt, Barnett, Police Chief Craig Van Schyndle, a few council members and a couple attorneys.
Schmitt spoke first into the spate of microphones, with something short of a mea culpa (“This could have been handled better”) but with clear awareness of where the buck stops in matters such as this. He called for a rescinding of the council’s June 6 decision, said Barnett was taking the right steps to clean things up, and talked about the proposed abatement agreement.
‘We’re going to make it right’
But when someone asked about the jaywalking rap, Schmitt gladly gave up the podium to Van Schyndle. The chief said the jaywalking warning was “a mistake” and then told us that the police officer who issued it has been pulled from the coverage area that includes the FiveSix.
He said the officer is not a racist and when asked if he could see how it might appear that way since two men with Barnett at the time — both white — weren’t cited, Van Schyndle said tersely, “No.”
Barnett said the right things, good things about the mayor, but stepped around questions about any racial significance of the liquor license debate or the jaywalking. He clearly wasn’t anxious to choke the momentum that was his.
The ordeal over in 20 minutes, the principals exited into the mayor’s office, but not before Schmitt said, “We’re going to make it right, starting right now.”
It hasn’t looked right yet.
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Tony Walter column: It’s time for city to be fair with Barnett
Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt was 100 percent correct but it took him to the end of Thursday afternoon’s press conference to say it.
“It’s not playing right,” he said. He was referring as much to the debacle that has become the Nick Barnett/ FiveSix liquor license case as he was to the opinion the public had to be developing about the city’s definition of fair play.
No, it isn’t playing right, and that was apparent on the faces of the city officials who met the media in the City Hall Council Chambers to try to answer something that has only been raising more questions with every misstep.
The fairness issue
Barnett, the Green Bay Packers linebacker who owns FiveSix, 405 W. Walnut St., Green Bay, was denied the renewal of his establishment’s liquor license June 6. There were numerous complaints about the behavior of some of his customers, and the bar was most certainly on the police radar screen.
This stirred up fairness issues because another bar, with an even longer police blotter, seemed to be traveling a friendlier route. And it kicked up racial implications, because Barnett is black. Then, as Barnett and his attorney were apparently working with city officials on a solution that could result in an abatement agreement, the linebacker gets slapped with — of all things — a written warning for jaywalking.
Onto this murky stage marched Schmitt, Barnett, Police Chief Craig Van Schyndle, a few council members and a couple attorneys.
Schmitt spoke first into the spate of microphones, with something short of a mea culpa (“This could have been handled better”) but with clear awareness of where the buck stops in matters such as this. He called for a rescinding of the council’s June 6 decision, said Barnett was taking the right steps to clean things up, and talked about the proposed abatement agreement.
‘We’re going to make it right’
But when someone asked about the jaywalking rap, Schmitt gladly gave up the podium to Van Schyndle. The chief said the jaywalking warning was “a mistake” and then told us that the police officer who issued it has been pulled from the coverage area that includes the FiveSix.
He said the officer is not a racist and when asked if he could see how it might appear that way since two men with Barnett at the time — both white — weren’t cited, Van Schyndle said tersely, “No.”
Barnett said the right things, good things about the mayor, but stepped around questions about any racial significance of the liquor license debate or the jaywalking. He clearly wasn’t anxious to choke the momentum that was his.
The ordeal over in 20 minutes, the principals exited into the mayor’s office, but not before Schmitt said, “We’re going to make it right, starting right now.”
It hasn’t looked right yet.