Voice of the People by Alderman Pat Pfeffer Dear Residents of Owen, I know over the past few weeks there has been a lot of gossip and hearsay around the area about the Phil Goerl (Lawnmower Phil) incident. I will say that initially I did not know what to think as I had not heard anything about the incident from anyone in the community until Linda Wyeth’s article was printed. When I read the story in that “newsletter”, I did not know what to think but I did know at that point as a council member I needed to speak with Chief Schade. I spoke with Chief Schade about the entire incident and allegations in the article and asked to see the video. Once I observed the video and had my questions answered, I was extremely confused about the validity of the article on this incident. I also asked about the audio issues and found out that technical issues involving video files at the police department were present initially but Schade spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what occurred and he fixed the problem and regained the audio. I requested and observed not only a copy of the video made for Linda Wyeth but also the original video, which based on my observation are exactly the same. During the viewing of this incident, I neither saw nor heard any indication that anyone was in pain, being mistreated or crying out for help. I also observed Phil walking under his own power to the front of the squad car looking no different than when he was walking down the sidewalk prior to police contact. Furthermore, I felt that Officer Stubbe and Chief Schade were rather pleasant in speaking with Phil and thoroughly explained the reasons for the contact repeatedly. I saw no indication that anyone was treated poorly as was alleged in the article written by Linda. In addition, a video examination was conducted by the City of Owen attorney’s William Thiel and James Ward at a meeting with Chief Schade on August 15, 2014 in Eau Claire at the law firm. The examination by the city attorney’s found there was no variance between the original and the copy (CD) and there was no evidence anything was tampered with or altered in the videos as has been alleged. Furthermore, I was told that the city attorney’s also found no inappropriate behavior by either officer. Now, I am all for factual reporting and the media getting the story out to the public but something just does not add up. I know for a fact that since the article(s), Chief Schade has on more than one occasion asked the mayor to view this video along with other council members. I find it strange that only Alderman Mark Hanson and I as council members have watched this video. I know that firefighters at the OWC Fire Department have viewed this video along with countless others around the area including current police officers, retired police officers and other local officials. I think I can speak for all of those that have viewed this and read the article and say there is a major difference from the reality of what we saw in the video and what was reported on in Linda’s article(s). Frankly, I am not sure what to think of the reporting efforts done on this incident. I find it extremely odd that no one else on our council has asked to see this video even when Chief Schade has asked the mayor several times requesting that we all see this. Either the message has been lost in transmission or possibly people do not want to see the truth. The truth is based on what the video shows, one would have a very hard time believing the hype and gossip circling the community after watching this. I cannot accuse anyone of intentionally misleading the public based on the reporting done but if the video does not fit the article(s) I guess you all can determine what has occurred for yourself. My feeling on this incident is this: the police took a report of a possible person with a gun based on the report(s) from some youths in the community. Let’s just separate that for a moment and take the youths out of the equation. There was an alleged report of a man with a gun. This is very serious and should be handled as such. Moving on, the officers regrouped and assessed the situation before moving in. They observed the person that youths alleged had this so-called weapon. A Clark County deputy was also heading to the scene to assist. Chief Schade was not about to allow his officer to take on such a call alone so he went to the scene to assist, which was probably a very smart move for officer safety, subject safety, community safety and the nature of the call. The officers did observe it was Phil but realized that all calls should be handle the same regardless of who the person is. The officers questioned, secured, searched, debriefed and released Phil all in a matter of several minutes. I am glad that two local officers were there rather than anyone else. I can only imagine what may have occurred if anyone else would have shown up and taken such a call; it could have turned out very bad. The job of a police officer is to handle each call objectively and without a predisposition. It is apparent the call was handled as such. While there are plenty of people in the community that think because someone is known in the community things should have been handled differently. I ask you one thing: do we really know anyone? Look at the horrible things that have happened in the area and across the nation from our neighbors, friends and relatives. Here are some facts, our local O-W community has had several gun calls in the last year, a person shot in their own house, officers having to secure loaded guns from inside of vehicles that were going to be used against someone, people being arrested and then threatening to shoot and kill our officers, community members that have told Chief Schade if certain officers come onto their property they will be shot, and now we are critiquing our officers because they acted based on training and a high risk call that thankfully did not result in a gun being found or anyone being hurt. Let’s just think about that for a while Owen-Withee community, and then decide what do we want: security officers or police officers? I thank you for taking the time to read my column and I will be in touch again soon. I greatly appreciate the opportunity you have all given me to serve as a city council member in Owen and I welcome you to speak with me at any time about your concerns.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:22:29 +0000
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