The News Journal published a remarkable story yesterday, detailing the escapades of a Wilmington Fire Marshal who was supposedly performing a residency investigation. Some quick background, new hires with the City of Wilmington are expected to establish residency in the city within six months of hire and then are expected to live in the city for 5 years. There’s a Residency Review Board that is supposed to review challenges of non-compliance. But here we find that somehow a WFD Fire Marshal is clumsily investigating WFD employees:
A Wilmington Fire Marshal inspector conducting residency investigations outside the city was questioned by two different police agencies last week, including one in Pennsylvania. In one instance, he pulled a gun on a man who said he photographed the inspector coming out of neighbors’ backyards.
No charges were brought against Thomas L. Ruger Jr., but the incidents raise questions about who is authorized to perform residency inquiries.
It is simply impossible to me that there are no charges against this guy, who was pretty clearly impersonating a police officer — an impersonator who decided to slap the cellphone out of the hands of a citizen doing nothing other than recording a suspicious incident and then pulled a gun on that citizen. This is simply and completely unacceptable. And certainly since it pretty clearly looks like someone was trying to catch out someone newly elected to the Firefighter’s union board — a union that the Fire Chief is publicly fighting with via Twitter (of all places).
Who among us would be able to trespass and impersonate a police officer and walk away without any charges?
I’m starting to think that the lawlessness in Wilmington is in part due to the fact that its leadership can’t bother to model better behavior. Why follow the law when the city’s leadership certainly doesn’t have to? And they get to try to terrorize their own employees with impunity. I would guess that the families subject to this bullshit will sue the city — even though this current administration learns no lessons from lawsuits.
In 2012, the WFD was all in for Williams for Mayor. Wonder what they think about that choice now?