Red face, white flag and a thin blue line.

On the very same day that local media delighted in snapping 467 look-alike photos of citizens walking the just-now-walkable Big Four Bridge in Jeffersonville, the city of New Albany also made headlines, and like so often, they weren't flattering.

New Albany police chief Knight stepping down, by Grace Schneider (C-J)

New Albany police Chief Sherri Knight, the city’s first woman chief, is stepping down, Mayor Jeff Gahan announced in a brief statement Tuesday afternoon.

Knight has requested reassignment to her former position in the detective division, and a new chief will be named soon, Gahan’s administration said.

Assistant New Albany Police Chief Greg Pennell also requested reassignment Tuesday, according to city spokesman Michael Hall.

You can take a city out of medieval times, but ...

WDRB covered the story here: Top New Albany police officials request reassignment.

Naturally, during the course of crediting itself for breaking the story and promising vengeful wrath to come (between cigarette breaks), Freedom of Speech is jubilant.

As the various police department stories unfold during the coming weeks, it's going to be quite interesting to watch as the Gahan administration attempts to control the flow of information. If the past two and a half years have proven anything, it's that City Hall as currently populated is deeply (and perhaps pathologically) suspicious of transparency.

Of course, sunlight is the single best deterrent to scandal. Note this Fb comment by WDRB's Chris Turner.

That word, "contentious." We may be seeing more it it.

The New Albanist: "Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?"

(Late note: The Tribune's coverage can be found here)

Randy Smith offers a dispassionate and thoughtful analysis of the increasingly surreal case of Jack Messer and racist comments that were made, or not made.

The crux of the issue remains this, as phrased by Randy: "Without a formal complaint, how does this become a public issue? How does the Merit Commission even take up the matter?"

I like Jack Messer, and believe he's done a fine job on the council. I've no clue as to his job performance as police officer, and having heard nothing negative, I'm inclined to take it as a positive -- not unlike umpiring. If his words have violated the racial compact, there obviously must be discipline. But surely there is a procedure to determine this apart from the unfolding trial by press release and media circus?

Does such a procedure exist? Or, are we seeing it now? I'm neither rushing to defend not hurrying to distance, just inquiring ...

Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?

... Wednesday evening, the New Albany chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully summoned all 4 local TV stations, 2 local newspapers, and inadvertently 1 Internet journalist to a press conference on the steps of the New Albany Police Department.

The occasion was a hitherto unknown meeting of the Police Merit Commission, whose purpose was to conduct an inquiry into whether comments made by police officer Jack Messer in January constituted officially inappropriate conduct.