Greeley: the good, the bad and the ugly.
I am thankful that Ed Clark is our Mayor! He is proof that there are a “few good men” in Northern Colorado. And now that the Larimer County District Attorney has completed his investigation, Mayor Clark can breathe a sigh of relief because no charges will be filed against him.
When a spoiled, foul-mouthed teenager named Remington Stitt wouldn’t stop committing an illegal act (riding a motorbike on a sidewalk without a license), Mayor Clark had had enough. He grabbed the kid and held him until police arrived. Some claim the Mayor “slammed” him to the ground. Most parents would be horrified that their kids were so disrespectful to another adult, but not the Stitt family. So the kid and his enabling parents, secured a restraining order against Clark. Really this family, should be thanking Clark for administering a miniscule amount of curbside justice. If he and his parents bother to learn the lesson that bad behavior comes back to bite you, Clark will have saved Stitt from having the crap kicked out of him later in life.
According to my sources, this kid has a history of using the most vile, foul behavior towards the Mayor’s wife, others in his neighborhood and kids at school. This kid is a bully, and someone role modeled this behavior for him. I don’t claim to know what the environment is in this kid’s home, but he learned this behavior somewhere.
The Greeley Tribune consistently recounted the story from the kid’s perspective and dismissed Clark’s, using the kid’s words “slammed to the ground” or thrown to the ground repeatedly and not Clark’s words of “detained.” Also on June 28 the paper published an article repeating Stitt family claims that Clark called the family after the restraining order was approved even though Clark denied having done so and provided the newspaper with proof. This is how the paper began the biased story:
“Greeley Mayor Ed Clark on Wednesday called relatives of a boy he’s accused of attacking, seeking the father’s phone number, according to the boy’s family.”
It went on to quote the boy’s father who said “I’m worried for the safety of my family.” The story made Clark look bad.
After the paper promoted the kid’s perspective over Clark’s explanation, then it went on to claim that Clark overreacted. Of course Clark overreacted from the Stitt and his family’s perspective. In my opinion those who overreacted include the following: the Stitt family, the Greeley Tribune, the Denver Post and now it appears Greeley businessman Tom Roche. News Talk 1310 KFKA reports that Tom Roche allegedly used a spoofing website to make the phone calls to the Stitt family look like they originated with Mayor Clark.
Full disclosure: I know Tom Roche and consider him a friend.
This is an ugly situation. Why would a very rich, very successful businessman who has done a great deal of good for the community want to set up Greeley Mayor Ed Clark especially since Tom Roche has been a friend and campaign supporter of Clark? My guess is Roche wanted to embarrass Clark, make public opinion turn against him. But again, why? Don’t know unless he wanted to get rid of Clark for some reason. Now, the Tribune reports that Roche was considering a mayorial run in 2010. Roche already lost a bid to be Mayor of Greeley to Tom Selders who was hammered by Clark in the last election. Doubt this will help Roche’s chances. Look out for robocalls.
Also, Roche is on the Board of Governors at University Schools, a charter school campus where Clark is the head of security. Wonder what this will do their working relationship? If Clark is fired and Roche remains…there will be problems.
Sadly, all this contributed to yet another story that put Greeley into the national headlines. News outlets from USAToday to MSNBC reported on this soap opera. Just another day in “Greality.”