The city of Charlotte has come to a settlement with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings over statements from a City Council member. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says it sets a troubling precedent.
Before we get to whether Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings deserves to be paid for his hurt feelings — he doesn’t — let’s stipulate something, as they say in court: Tariq Bokhari was a jerk.
Last year, as a Charlotte City Council member, Bokhari threatened to go after Jennings’ job. They had disagreed over whether police officers should wear what’s called outer-carrier protective vests. Bokhari thought the officers should, and Jennings thought they shouldn’t.
So Bokhari texted Jennings saying, “I’ll be hammering you from the press, the private sector, the foundations, the General Assembly, Congress and several high-profile national organizations.”
“I will not stop and it will cripple your legacy you’ve worked so hard for,” Bokhari said.
Tough talk. Jerk talk, you might say. But consider some details:
One, Bokhari had no direct power to fire Jennings. That’s up to the city manager.
Two, the city manager, Marcus Jones, expressed his disapproval of what Bokhari said. But the City Council didn’t act to censure Bokhari or punish him in any other way.
Three, interim City Attorney Anthony Fox dismissed an ethics complaint against Bokhari filed by Corine Mack of the Charlotte NAACP.
And four, Bokhari isn’t even on the City Council anymore — he left for a job in the Trump administration, which does seem to fit his personality.
Despite all that, Jennings still apparently threatened to sue the city over Bokhari’s comments. And on May 5, before the issue could ever come to court, the city agreed to a settlement–reportedly for $300,000. Although the city not only won’t release the details, it’s threatening to investigate whoever leaked them.
Cut away all the legalese and all the noise and you’re left with this: the police chief managed to leverage his hurt feelings into a $300,000 payout with minimal resistance from city officials.
Which means the next department head who gets chewed out by a council member might reasonably ask when the city is going to cut them a check.
There’s an old, old saying that politics ain’t beanbag. If Jennings really believes that Bokhari damaged him enough to be sued for it, let him sue Bokhari himself, and take it to a judge.
Otherwise, this smells like an unofficial and undeserved bonus check. And even if it’s all legal, that doesn’t make it right.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
