Last week we talked about one Officer Andrew Ricks of the Sanford Police Department in Florida being fired due to getting up on stage with Vital Remains.
Initial reports and comments from Police Chief Cecil E. Smith led everyone to believe that that was indeed the situation, though in an interview with The Daily Beast, Smith clarifies that Ricks was likely going to be dismissed around this time anyway and that "[Smith] and his command staff arrived at the decision to essentially move the date of Ricks’s resignation up by two days."
“For folks to believe that he was terminated because of the circumstances isn’t true,” Chief Smith said. “What would have probably happened if Officer Ricks had remained on the job, is that we would have completed the internal investigation, for which he would have most likely received some form of discipline.”
Ricks had violated other policies as well, Smith said. Most importantly, he said, Ricks had disobeyed the requirement to have his body camera turned on while doing community contacts. Ricks had also placed a training officer in a situation that the latter was not equipped to handle, the chief claimed.
Smith also states that, basically, he doesn't really care if his officers listen to metal.
“There is absolutely no concern with us with anyone listening to heavy metal,” he told The Daily Beast. “That’s your prerogative and your choice of music that you want to listen to.”
Maybe this was just a case of the wrong thing happening at the wrong time? At least that's how it seems, according to Smith's account.
