Democracy In Albany

I respect a man who speaks up knowing he's retiring, this DEC Lt. Heinke, takes the heat off someone under more pressure who wants to stay.

I also sense a lot of honesty in the Albany police union saying it's young cops who mostly reject Tuffey's leadership style.  (The man is RUDE.)

But why do we only hear complaints from cops when their contracts are being negotiated?

I think you highlighted the wrong sentance. Who cares if a law enforcement officer is committed to environmental principles.  The fact that this sentance was included in the list of grievences makes me question what the real motives were here.

Jim, would you be equally enthusiastic about a crusading Albany cop who used the full extent of the law while on patrol in the west hill?  

Probably not.

A long time ago I had to deal with the Adirondack Park Agency.  If you were not committed to complete nonsence of the New York City transplanted "environmentalists" they would simply rake you over the coals.  I was doing a soil survey and they tried to get me to file a foil request for every single parcel of land in a forty or fifty square mile section before they would give me a overlay for the whole thing.

Which would you rather see patrolling your neighborhood?

Yeah, I'd like to see the cops use the full extent of the law to get the bad guys wherever they are in the city, especially those crooks in their own dept. and in city hall!

Tuffey is a bully and he's proud of his rep. He's spent a lifetime developing that tough guy personna.

The only thing that's wrong about his tactics, whether dealing with the union or the public, is that that style of management went out with spats. (maybe the seventies in Albany)

I'd much rather see an educated and knowledgeable chief at the helm than a bully.

What example does he project to the younger rookies for them to aspire to?

I think that Albany's police union has showen that we are better off with a buffy then a push over.

The bottom line for me is this:

The Albany Police Department has been a mess for years. The conduct of many of the police officers is inexcuseable. The conduct of the union hasnt been much better.

If the chief is doing things to make the rank and file more accountable for their actions then I cant help but to see that as a good thing.

Can we have a better police chief? Sure.  Have we had a hell of a lot worse over the past several decades? Absolutely.

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AM: I hold a sportsman license and have a lot of respect for most of the ENCON officers that I have delt with. Most of them are nice guys- as long as you are following the law. Which is fine.  

There are a couple that I have come across who have been a little more rabid in their enforcement as are the people up in Raybrook.  My experience with the environmentalist has effected how I view them.  Many of them simply go to far.  

I do not have a problem with ENCON officers questioning the management style of their command. I do have a problem with an ENCON officer questioning the commitment of his command to environmental principles.  Frankly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the job. If I am correct Tuffy's job was law enforcement and not advocacy, right?

And Alfred: it doesnt really mean anything to me if a cadre of career whatevers disagree with what I say if they are taking a stand that is inconsistent with the jobs they are supposed to perform.

In this case the comment was that Tuffy was "lacking knowledge of and commitment to key environmental principles"

What does this have to do with what is effectively law enforcement? I take issue with the commitment to key...principles" bit, not when he says that Tuffy was a rotten manager.

Henke, a DEC officer for 30+ years, operated, unsupervised, out of his house in Warrensburg, some 70 miles north of Albany.  If he started his day 30 minutes late,  or cut his workday short, whose to know?  In other words, he had a nice "gig" going for himself, drawing down, say, $80K a year with bennies, doing his own thing.  Cost of living in upper Warren County is comparatively cheap. He, by the way, knows LeBrun, a canoer, long time.

 Tuffy, a city person, from birth, gets the "supervisory" job, and starts to put some pressure on the free wheeling officer corps to "perform" to higher, beaucratic standards.

Henke doesn't like having someone from Albany, at DEC, leaning on him, calling him down the Northway, for meetings, performance reports, etc..

Henke sees the hand writing on the wall..and, says, "F--k this!"  I am going to take my Tier I pension, bennies, and do other things, like go hunting!

On the way out, he takes his parting shots at Tuffy" (the bastard who leaned on him...all the way up to Warrensburg).  He's got his pension, what does he care?

LeBrunn doesn't like Tuffy.  He hasn't for years, going back to when Tuffy was union chief at the APD, and, later, chief of the Cohoes PD.