In the wake of today's homeless story revelations in the St. Petersburg Times (Mayor Rick Baker says he didn't know of the tent-slashing raid in advance; it was a police 
major who came up with the idea of using box cutters to destroy personal property), it is clear that St. Pete Police Chief Chuck Harmon should resign or be fired.
Harmon must shoulder the ultimate responsibility for the actions of his officers, who were only doing what they were told and — apparently — are pretty upset with it. His tin ear about the problems with department staffing and his disappearance from the public scene whenever a tough crime problem arises were bad enough and caused great consternation among St. Pete's neighborhood leaders.
But now, this. How can St. Petersburg residents live with a police chief quoted as saying:
"In hindsight we didn't discuss the actual property issue, and we
probably should have taken that into consideration. I think the perception was not good of how and what we did. I hope there's no need to ever do that again."
Perception?? He hopes his officers won't have to violate people's rights again??? Outrageous.
If Mayor Baker is accurate in saying he didn't approve such actions, then those who did must go. The Times story fingers Major Melanie Bevan as the originator of the idea. She should be fired today. Others present at the meeting who gave their OK to the slashing should be suspended without pay for a period of time.
Then Mayor Baker should commit to a Clearwater-style approach to the homeless problem in his city, bringing together teams of specialists with his police and fire departments to craft tentative solutions to the immediate need. A long-term plan is in place, but the city can't wait for that to arrive.
Let's take stock of where this homeless showdown — forced by the mayor himself — has brought us over the past few weeks. The emergence of tent cities. The murders of two homeless men after the most prominent tent city was taken down. The box-cutter slashing of personal property and eviction of the homeless from unsafe tents in another location, which has ended up on many blogs and YouTube. Fox 13 asks if St. Pete is the meanest city in the nation?
Finally, kudos to the St. Petersburg Times for finally giving this story the prominence it deserves. Special shout-outs to Troxler and Abhi Raghunathan. And here's a half-page of letters from readers who were outraged by the raid. Do you think the Mayor-Baker-lovin' Editorial Board will follow suit?
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2007.