Officer who arrested man using golf club as cane fired

Officer Cynthia Whitlatch has been dogged with public criticism and charges of racism since a July 9, 2014 incident came to light last fall in which she arrested William Wingate, a black man, after she spotted him carrying his golf club that he claimed to use as a cane.

Whitlatch, a White woman, accused Wingate of using the golf club as a weapon in July 2014.

Chief Kathleen O’Toole wrote in the termination notice that she considered a lengthy suspension and a disciplinary transfer to a unit that does not interact with the public, but Whitlatch’s lack of remorse expressed in interviews prompted O’Toole to opt for the firing.

O’Toole also said she asked Whitlatch what, if anything, she would do differently in retrospect, and “you stated that you would do nothing differently”.

It was Whitlatch’s failure to acknowledge any wrongdoing and learn from her mistakes, O’Toole writes, that obliged the chief to end her career with SPD.

The Seattle Police Department has now dismissed Whitlatch, 48, claiming her “deep seated” perceptions of race had impacted on the “authoritarian manner” in which she treated the man. The officer then contacted the man and ordered him to surrender his golf club.

And officials at the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild are expected to appeal her dismissal, The Seattle Times reported.

After Wingate’s arrest and during the hearings, Whitlatch denied any racial bias or misconduct.

But Whitlatch’s overall racial views led to an internal recommendation that she be fired over the encounter with Wingate.

The order says in part that Whitlatch’s, “Behavior towards him (Mr. Wingate) during the stop was inappropriately aggressive and unnecessarily escalated the interaction”.

An noted Whitlatch had been previously disciplined and counseled for “unprofessional conduct”, including a verbal reprimand in 2002 over a traffic stop and a written reprimand in 1998 stemming from a personal dispute over $1.04 at a retail store.

O’Toole wrote that she could not conclude that Whitlatch did not meet the “relatively modest threshold of reasonable suspicion” and in turn changed the use-of-force finding because it was sustained in step with the validity of the initial stop.

In a statement Tuesday, City Council President Tim Burgess said, “The chief of police has sent a strong and appropriate signal”. Police should have opened it in September 2014, when two commanders learned of the matter at a meeting with community members, not in January, according to Smith.

Wingate, a veteran and retired bus driver, sued Whitlatch and the city of Seattle in April, alleging race discrimination, false imprisonment and violation of his civil rights, the Times reports.

The Seattle Police Department declined to comment further, telling The Huffington Post that Tuesday’s termination order “speaks for itself”.