Who is She? Due to the arrest of an elderly African-American man, an 18-y ·
Sarah Smith
Because of her arrest of an elderly black man who refused to give up the golf club he was using as a cane to assist him walk, Cynthia Whitlatch, a Seattle police officer, had been fired.
According to a statement from the Seattle Police Department, officer Cynthia Whitlatch was terminated on July 9 for numerous policy infractions involving racism, abuse of police discretion, and escalation of a confrontation.
According to court documents, Whitlatch stopped William Wingate, 70, who was using the golf club as assistance, as he was walking down a sidewalk.
Wingate is seen standing on a sidewalk and idly leaning against the club in the incident’s dashboard video before the officer comes and orders him to surrender his weapon. He resisted for some time before being taken into custody.
She asserted that Wingate had swung the club at her prior to Whitlatch arresting Wingate. In the roughly seven-minute movie, he is never seen using the club.
Officer Cynthia Whitlatch: Who is She?
Cynthia Whitlatch, a police officer from Seattle, represented the “White Lives Matter” branch of the “Blue Lives Matter” movement. A 69-year-old man was detained by her for allegedly brandishing a weapon.
William Wingate, 69, was stopped by Officer Cynthia Whitlatch while making his routine trip from north Seattle to the Central District, where The Facts newspaper was housed, near 12th Avenue and Pike.
Whitlatch claims that Wingate used the golf club as a walking cane while swinging it. Officers Ben Archer and Christopher Coles assist Whitlatch as he places Wingate in jail. She was the first worker the SPD had fired for racial discrimination in a very long time.
Officer Cynthia Whitlatch was fired following the elder man’s arrest
In Seattle’s Capitol Hill on July 9, 2014, Cynthia Whitlatch was on the lookout when she spotted William Wingate wandering about with a golf club. Because William Wingate is black, Officer Whitlatch thought the golf club was a weapon.
Wingate, a 69-year-old man, was striding while carrying a golf club. Whitlatch yelled at the elderly Air Force veteran to put down his club as she jumped out of her car. She kept asking Wingate to listen to her, but he kept saying he couldn’t hear her.
Instead, he asked what was happening. The golf club, she claimed, is a weapon. He admitted to carrying it about for 20 years. Cynthia Whitlatch claims that Wingate hurled it at someone.
She said he also used it to run over a stop sign. She claimed to have recorded the incident on audio and video. The video doesn’t show Wingate using a club.
According to the Seattle Times, Wingate was awarded $1,278,479.85 by a federal jury following the filing of a case against the city of Seattle.
More than a year after she wrongfully detained Wingate, Whitlatch was fired by the Seattle Police Department for discriminatory and excessively aggressive policing.
Officer Cynthia Whitlatch: Where Is She Now?
On July 9, 2014, Officer Cynthia Whitlatch was given a notice of termination for persistent rule infractions, such as bias, abuse of police power, and escalation of encounter.
Whitlatch’s settlement entitles her to $105,000 in back pay and the ability to convert her termination to retirement. She will never again work for the police, according to the contract.
Despite the fact that his staff was prepared to contest Whitlatch’s dismissal, Holmes claimed in a press release that he was constrained by a provision in the police union contract that requires an officer to be informed of a disciplinary decision within 180 days of a supervisor learning the facts of a case.
Whitlatch continued to worry that her dismissal was due to her prejudice. Whitlatch fought against being fired, costing taxpayers more than the $1.3 million the city had already spent.
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