CHICANO RADIO NETWORK U.S.A. Blog

There was tremendous outcry from the public who had questions for Chief Daniel Garcia who oversees the operations of the Phoenix PD.  Unfortunately Zuercher fired Police Chief Garcia (for holding a public news conference) when Garcia should have been allowed to answer questions by the public regarding Rumain Brisbon.   Zuercher must now explain why Latinos and Chicanos are not properly represented under his management in the City of Phoenix after firing Garcia.

We believe Garcia should have been able to defend himself considering the horrible criticisms he received no thanks to columnist Laurie Roberts of Arizona Central who wrote a scathing story about  him when he decided to run a tight ship and fire law enforcement officer Craig Tiger (whose job was on the line when he committed a DUI).  We believe Garica made the right decision.   As a former member of the law enforcement community, I believe police officers should be held to higher standards and they must walk the straight and narrow considering they have the badge to charge someone with a DUI, too.  It is hypocritical for police officers to charge someone with a DUI after they themselves are guilty of one and they must not serve as public safety officers when they are guilty of a DUI.

Councilman Sal DiCiccio is another person well known for not agreeing with Chief Garcia, but DiCiccio has no leg to stand on considering it was DiCiccio who supported a repeal via Prop 487.  Prop 487 would have repealed the defined Public Safety Retirement System —  a defined retirement benefit program for Phoenix police.  It is hard to tell what side DiCiccio is on given his hypocrisy.   DiCiccio is considered an extreme Tea Party Republican, who holds many anti-immigrant views his colleagues do, and it does not surprise us to hear he has had it out for Garcia since Garcia stated his department would not tolerate racial profiling in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on SB 1070 (anti-immigrant / anti-brown) law.

We are demanding Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher to reinstate Chief Garcia to his position, and have more Latino directors promoted to management forthwith that reflects our demographics in the Phoenix metro area.  Garcia is on the right side of the law to call for “more power over internal disciplinary actions” that will could prevent wrongful deaths like Rumain Brisbon – an unarmed black man who was shot to death by a Phoenix Police Officer.   We believe Phoenix Police Department should have the utmost high standards and we cannot have rogue officers running amok.