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COLUMBUS, Ga. — This week saw one of the most incompetent and dishonorable public displays of leadership by a martial commander in our city’s recent memory.
Police chief Freddie Blackmon prepared his “strategic plan” for the department after being required by city council to present it within thirty days. Blackmon has had two years, three months, and twenty-two days to enact a plan to improve the department. He has failed.
The night before his presentation on March 14, 2023, Blackmon decided to not attend the funeral of one of his own fallen officers, opting to cram in his last-minute work for his presentation to city council due the following morning.
The sheer fact that Blackmon thought this was somehow acceptable is perhaps the single-most important indicator of his absolute lack of even the most basic ethics of leadership. When coupled with the incoherent nature of his non-culminating ‘plan’ — which was structured and prepared by a hired consultant — it truly begs the question of: what on earth was Mayor Henderson thinking when he made the recommendation to appoint Blackmon as our city’s chief of police?
Exploring the depths of this week’s stories will shed light on the severe levels of martial ineptitude at the highest levels of our city’s government, as the answer to our begged question above becomes more and more apparent: Henderson wasn’t thinking, and now we all continue to suffer the results.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHY CPD’S LEADERSHIP IS LARGEST FACTOR OF OUR CRIME RATE
COLUMBUS, Ga. — While many factors contribute to violent crime, they have been proven through a science known as systems dynamics to all be controlled by a single factor: the ability of law enforcement to keep up.
In a study of fifty years worth of crime data from New York City, a type of science known as systems dynamics was used to run computer simulations on the causes of violent crime in order to see if their effects could be replicated. By entering data sets into a computer system and specifying how those data all relate to each other, a simulation can then tell the user what the output of that system is over a designated period of time. By refining the inputs and iteratively adjusting their hypothesis, the output of the system can sometimes ultimately produce what actually historically happened in real life — and when that happens, the model of the system tends to be fairly spot-on.
Systems dynamics is a field of science that uses such systems to learn about the inputs and outputs of the world around us. It uses visual diagrams and computer simulations to help us visualize extremely complicated calculus that would have previously been expressed in a purely mathematical syntax (dx, anyone?)
One such study was conducted and published in 2014 on the dynamics of violent crime. Dynamics, as you may have guessed, is a term used to describe the relationships between many factors that are all linked together through cause and effect. The totality of those dynamics —within a specified boundary — are called a system.
What that 2014 study found was that the system they had modeled revealed an extremely accurate representation of the causes, effects, and relationships between the many factors surrounding violent crime.
If you stick with us and read along, we promise that we’ll explain what all the symbols, arrows, loops, and stocks mean along the way. It’s actually far simpler to understand than it might seem.
We’ve also hosted the diagram as a PDF on Scribd so you can view the full-size document, make it full screen, print it, or do whatever else so you can use it as a reference as you read along.
Explore the full story to see how a fifty-year study and computer simulation shows how our city’s violent crime is ultimately controlled by the effectiveness of CPD’s leadership.
HERE’S WHAT AN ACTUAL STRATEGIC PLAN & APPROACH FOR CPD LOOKS LIKE
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Police chief Freddie Blackmon prepared his “strategic plan” for the department after being required by city council to present it within thirty days. Blackmon has had two years, three months, and twenty-two days to enact a plan to improve the department. He has failed.
The slides of Blackmon’s “plan” can be viewed through the city council website within the agenda packet for the March 14, 2023 council meeting — though be forewarned that an actual strategic plan is nowhere to be found.
Unlike police chief Freddie Blackmon’s crayola crayon pile of disconnected and incohesive buzzwords arranged on a series of slides in a way that does not serve to communicate nor achieve any sort of desired end-state through lines of effort, we independently developed a proper strategic approach for CPD in literally a single afternoon.
Through our example below, you can immediately notice the differences between a proper Strategic Approach Diagram and Blackmon’s hooked-on-phonics alphabet soup.
A Strategic Plan and accompanied Strategic Approach Diagram uses a procedural methodology to identify a desired end-state, and then reverse-plan interconnected lines of effort consisting of interdependent tasks. These tasks are laid out chronologically from left to right, providing a timeframe for when these sequential objectives should be completed. Each line of effort serves to support the others, eventually culminating in the achievement of the desired end-state.
Explore the full story to see how four lines of effort can achieve overmatch and dominance over our city’s criminal adversaries.
BLACKMON’S LEADERSHIP IS SO GOOD HE’S BRIBING OFFICERS NOT TO QUIT
COLUMBUS, Ga. — As shown by the ‘strategic plan’ presented to city council on Tuesday, police chief Freddie Blackmon’s leadership couldn’t be described as anything other than extraordinary.
Through a 12-slide presentation that summarized a 45-page spiral-bound document developed by a hired consultant, Blackmon’s years of proactive leadership enabled him to speak with such deep insight that no one in the room could even comprehend.
Inspired by Blackmon’s true strategic genius as memorialized in the slides prepared for him by a hired consultant, we at the Muckraker took it upon ourselves to develop our own strategic approach for the department — though ours only took a single afternoon to conceptualize and articulate instead of requiring the demands of city council over the course of more than two years to produce.
Throughout his presentation, Blackmon’s esteemed leadership experience and technical knowledge remained on full display as he managed to convince audience members that the reason his talking points will achieve a desired end-state is actually because of their disconnected and incoherent state.
In a similar fashion, Blackmon’s true leadership ability enabled a hired consultant to identify that Blackmon’s proactive leadership has been so great that his strategic plan should rely solely upon having to bribe officers not to quit the department so they’ll remain under Blackmon’s outstanding command instead.
Explore the full story to see how needing to bribe your officers is obviously a sign of outstanding leadership, especially when it’s briefed from a plan that a hired consultant needed to build for you.
CHIEF BLACKMON DID NOT ATTEND FUNERAL OF FALLEN CPD OFFICER, SOURCES SAY
COLUMBUS, Ga. — According to numerous sources, police chief Freddie Blackmon did not attend the funeral of one of his own fallen CPD officers.
Officer John Marr, a seven-year veteran of the department’s patrol unit, served our city honorably and with distinction. Marr was found unresponsive on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 and was later pronounced deceased. Officer Marr’s funeral was held this Monday on March 13, 2023.
Police Chief Freddie Blackmon, our city’s head law enforcement officer and leader of the department, allegedly chose to skip the funeral. He was nowhere to be seen.
According to sources, Blackmon opted to make better use of his time by working on his presentation of his ‘strategic plan’ instead, which he was to deliver to city council the following morning on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.
Our hearts continue to weigh heavily for the family of Officer John C. Marr and the men and women of the Columbus Police Department who continue to give our city their absolute all each and every day.
We ask our readers to continue to support our city’s Finest in every way possible.
Explore the full story to see what our sources had to say, along with how Blackmon’s callous behavior is just another example of why he is unfit to lead.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — An Assistant Chief of the Columbus Police Department was wrongfully removed from the recent city council meeting on March 14, 2023.
The incident was recorded in the minutes of the CPD’s Command Staff Meeting on Wednesday, March 15.
The meeting hosted the long-awaited presentation of police chief Freddie Blackmon’s ‘strategic plan’ for the department, which was ordered of him by city council after his years of leadership failure.
Assistant Chief Debra Kennedy was ordered by Blackmon to attend the meeting. As such, Kennedy stood next to Blackmon along the back wall of the council chambers.
It was at that point that a deputy of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office told Kennedy she was not permitted to stand and that she must immediately leave the council chambers.
Kennedy informed the deputy that she was the Assistant Chief of CPD and was here under orders.
The MCSO deputy forced her to leave anyway, reiterating that she was not permitted to stand in the back of the council chambers. Blackmon, however, was not harassed and permitted to remain.
However, that rule would not be equally applied to all attendees and was allowed to be broken by a seemingly-favored political activist.
At the very same instant that Kennedy voluntarily exited the council chambers, NAACP President Wane Hailes entered the room, walked right by Kennedy as she exited, and quite literally took her place standing along the wall next to Chief Blackmon: the very same spot Kennedy was just wrongfully removed from.
Hailes remained standing in the back of the council chambers and was not at all harassed or questioned by the MCSO deputies.
Explore the full story to see what our sources had to say, along with how the rules were brazenly not equally enforced.
CPD SEARCHING FOR ELUSIVE SUSPECT IN FELONY THEFT; DESCRIPTION RELEASED
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A mythical suspect in a felony theft case remains at-large after a series of complaints of criminal mischief led to the discovery of a missing pot of gold from the front of a downtown apartment building.
After several local residents all reported to hear high-pitched laughter echoing from the bushes along Front Street from what they assumed to be rambunctious teenagers destroying property, officers of the Columbus Police Department were called in to investigate.
Officer O’Parody, a Corporal Detective of the department’s Mythological Investigations Unit (MIS) says he then witnessed a three-foot-tall figure spring from the bushes and race down front street behind what appeared to be a pot of gold floating along a rainbow in front of the creature’s path.
Explore the full story to see the mythical details and how you can help CPD catch this elusive suspect.
THE WEEK AHEAD
As the weather begins to warm, crime — particularly violent crime — is statistically bound to rise alongside it. In an article published by NewsNation in 2022, criminology professor Daniel Semenza of Rutgers University provided some very plainly-stated insight on the connection:
“It has less to do with the heat and it being really hot and bothering people and far more to do with the opportunities for disagreements to blow up into violence,” Semenza stated.
When the coming warmer weather is paired with the still-degraded leadership of our city’s police force, it creates a recipe for disaster as we approach springtime in the Fountain City. Our community has continued to suffer several violent shootings this weekend, despite the inclement weather.
While our city’s other senior law enforcement officials have put forth extra effort to find creative ways to combat our city’s current crime, the most senior leadership of the Columbus Police Department has not. Those smaller agencies are now functioning well outside of their designated scopes to cover-down on Blackmon’s continued ineptitude.
While their efforts are commendable, the reality is that their smaller size and designated roles make it objectively impossible for them to create any large impact on our city’s immediate rates of violent crime; they still have their own jobs to do and thus aren’t tooled nor provisioned to do Blackmon’s job for him.
These many agencies are all important, though only one is capable of actively combatting the violent crime on the streets of our city on a day-to-day basis — and that’s the Columbus Police Department. That is why they exist. That is what these incredible officers have years of experience doing.
And their hands are effectively being tied behind their backs.
Instead of trusting in his officers’ experience and actively communicating with them through direct leadership to find innovative ways to attack our city’s immediate crime threat, police chief Freddie Blackmon presented a plan requiring the bribing of his officers to even retain them, let alone harness their ingenuity to find creative ways to prevent and attack crime in the immediate future.
All-the-while, Mayor Skip Henderson — our city’s director of public safety — continues to praise the current status quo. Henderson fails to recognize and admit the years-long failures of Blackmon that have now culminated in a ‘strategic plan’ that simply throws money at the symptom of the problem without even bothering to treat the cause.
As a result, people continue to be shot in broad daylight throughout our city.
As the weather continues to warm, our rates of violent crime will continue to rise — and they will be amplified by the lack of leadership at the tippy-top of CPD every day until that problem is resolved.
Residents should take note.
A Look At Personal Safety
As violent crime continues to skyrocket even in what have previously been thought of as the “safer parts” of our city, we at the Muckraker want to encourage our readers and their loved ones to remain hyper-vigilant as they go about their daily lives.
Based on lifetimes of experience and the combined professional careers of us at the Muckraker and our associates, here are what we consider to be the most important ways Columbusites can make themselves “hard targets” to avoid becoming a crime victim:
Back Our Blue
In closing, we at the Muckraker would like to thank the outstanding men and women of the Columbus Police Department who continue to shell out for the safety and well-being of our city each and every day, despite the abhorrent temporary conditions they are currently forced to work within.
“All police officers are entitled to outstanding leadership.”
Our city cannot thank you enough for what you do for us.
If you’re out and about throughout the week and see one of our city’s brave and valiant police officers, be sure to thank them. We’d bet it would mean an awful lot to them.
Residents are strongly encouraged to express their concerns and condolences for the brave men and women of the Columbus Police Department by emailing Mayor Skip Henderson directly at SkipHenderson@columbusga.org, while cc’ing their respective city council members on the email.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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