Cop says he wants to 'beat' Atlanta mayor with bat, apologizes

As reported on 5/28/09 by Ashley Fantz, CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) --.It probably would have been just another ho-hum city council budget meeting. Except that the leader of Atlanta's police union, and second-highest ranking member of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said he wanted to beat Atlanta's mayor with a bat.

"I want to beat her [Mayor Shirley Franklin] in the head with a baseball bat sometimes when I think about it," Sgt. Scott Kreher said into a microphone earlier this month in an apparent off-hand remark during a presentation he was giving to the council. Within days, the 17-year department veteran was suspended.

Kreher said the "it" that made him want to club the mayor was that, despite repeated complaints, the police union contends the city is not honoring workers' compensation claims for cops whose careers ended when they were seriously injured on the job.

Franklin, one of the nation's high-profile mayors, told CNN on Tuesday that the officers' complaints are a "separate issue" from Kreher's comments. "Some people think I'll just shake it off," she said of the sergeant's threat. "I can't shake off an officer at City Hall -- not in his shower or in his front yard, but in official capacity -- threatening to hit me in the head with a bat. That is a severe act of violence. When you hit someone with a bat, you intend to kill them."…

A few days after the bat comment, Kreher apologized to Franklin in a letter, which was published on the union Web site. He called his remark "inexcusable," explaining that it sprung from "frustration and anger."


Editor Rozek’s Notes:…uh…don’t you think we are taking ourselves a little too seriously? Haven’t you ever been walking down the street and thought “Hey! You know what? I’d really like to poke that guy’s eyes out with sticks!”?? What exactly is the problem? He basically said that he is so frustrated that he’d like to “beat her in the head with a baseball bat.”…wait a minute…I guess that didn’t make it sound much better. Perhaps opening with a sentence that started with “I want to beat her” wasn’t going in the right direction…I would’ve eaten a twix and finished the sentence as… “a nice pan of brownies and serve it to her at a luncheon.” He must not have had a candy bar on him. The point is that no matter what he said, he wasn’t actually going to do it. I think that little Ms. Franklin was having a bad day and jumped on it a little too forcefully. What did she say about not being able to shake him off in the shower?” That may be the problem. I don’t know why she would’ve been in his shower to begin with… though a shower certainly seems like an unthreatening place to be if you need to fend someone off…I mean…where would he hide the baseball bat? Shower outfits never have good pockets! Why isn’t a heartfelt apology ever enough? He said he’s sorry…(and then his partner stuffed a candy bar in his mouth as they shuffled the Mayor out of the room…) Shake it off!