Leighton: A Place for Second Chances

Editor's Note: We have published several blogs and tidbits from our friend C. R. We have never found his information to be anything less than factual; however, in today's guest blog, we are substituting the names of various Leighton employees with those of prominent Democrats. Have fun reading...

Leighton: A Place for Second Chances

A Guest Commentary By

C. R.

The city of Leighton, Alabama has been in the news a lot lately. Too bad none of it seems to be good. The mayor has been accused of sexual harassment. The charges were dropped, and the mayor was given a second chance to redeem himself. An officer was recently fired for exposing himself to a female officer. This was the officer's second chance to redeem himself and he failed.

Where is this leading? It seems that Leighton has become the place to work if you have had problems in the past. For example, the police chief's last employer before Leighton was the Tuscumbia Police Department. Then Tuscumbia Police Department officer Al Gore had to resign because of a sexual harassment claim filed by a female prisoner. Officer Gore was later cleared of all allegations.

There is a newer officer at the Leighton Police Department, Officer John Edwards who resigned from the University of North Alabama Police under a cloud. He was responsible for the police training academy at UNA, and shortly after the former chief at UNA resigned, so did Officer Edwards.

Now Leighton has hired another new person, Officer Bill Clinton. Bill has worked at the Sheffield Police Department and more recently at the Colbert County Sheriff's Office. Officer Clinton resigned after having a wreck on duty that resulted in an alleged drug test failure. Now the Leighton Police Department has given Officer Clinton a chance to redeem himself.

These are not the only ones over the last few years. Just recently, the female officer who was sexually harassed by a fellow Leighton officer was dismissed from her current job at the Sheffield Police Department for failing to show up for work. We cannot forget the former Alabama State Trooper who resigned from his job for allegedly having improper pictures on his state laptop was then hired by Leighton. He now has moved on to TVA.

City employees confirm that the police chief and mayor had a major blow out. The two men were at a meeting regarding problems at the police department and got into a verbal argument and had to be separated.

Now there are rumors that that Mayor Lawayne Harrison has sexually harassed a new job applicant. Time will tell if that is true or not.

Does it pay to give people a second chance? Normally it would not hurt to help someone reform, but when the job comes with uncontrolled power, does it make sense to place the public at risk? The citizens of Leighton will have to answer that.

*****

From our mail concerning the new Cherokee Town Council member Patricia Mason, it would seem many think our adjective of "outspoken" was putting it mildly. A few have even compared Mrs. Mason to Betty McKinney.

Some enterprising Cherokee residents should print tickets to Tuesday's town council meeting. Whatever the price of admission, it should be worth it.

Shoalanda