A commenter or two on our Web site has revealed that Gilbert Police Officer Chad Wright was the officer who arrested former Tribune columnist Slim Smith for DUI.
“Revealed” is the operative word because we had never reported in any of our stories on Smith and his DUI problems who the arresting officer was from Gilbert or the one before that from Mesa or the one before that from Apache Junction.
It wasn’t relevant to our story. Smith tested positive for DUI. He pleaded guilty to DUI and served four months in prison for his third DUI. He also lost his job at the Tribune.
I don’t know who in the general public would have known that Wright was the arresting officer. So I assume the commenter is another police officer or a friend of Wright’s.
I only learned Wright was the arresting officer after reading the comment and then pulling Smith’s Gilbert arrest record.
So, why is this important?
A traffic arrest made by Officer Wright has prompted an inquiry from Mesa Police Chief George Gascon and an internal investigation by the Gilbert Police Department.
The arrest involved a family from Hermosillo, Mexico, who had come to Mesa for the wedding of their son to a Mesa woman.
Officer Wright, working on a regional DUI task force team, stopped the car in Mesa for an illegal backing violation. He impounded the car and confiscated the driver’s license, and left the family of four and their luggage standing on the sidewalk. (I don’t know exactly what illegal backing is, but I guess I better find out fast to avoid a similar fate. Oh, wait, I’m not Hispanic. It probably doesn’t matter.)
The Mesa family they were visiting is well-connected in the LDS church in Mesa as is the family in Mexico. That means the Mesa family was not afraid to speak up and knew how to go about doing so.
As it turns out Officer Wright has quite a history of citizen complaints. Indeed, his arrest rate for Hispanics is twice the Gilbert Department’s average.
We have done stories on the incident and Officer Wright’s history of complaints. And one or more online commenters have suggested that we are doing the stories to get even with Officer Wright.
These commenters, who make their allegations from the dark corners of anonymity, suggest we are reporting on this incident to get even with Officer Wright. They also have asserted that one of the reporter’s on the story is a buddy of Slim Smith’s.
Neither is true. We don’t blame Wright for arresting Smith. Wright didn’t force Smith to take one or more drinks and get in a car. Smith is responsible for his actions. End of story.
Likewise, we didn’t pull the Mexican family over. We didn’t impound their car and confiscate their driver’s license. We didn’t ghost-write Gascon’s letter and we didn’t launch the Gilbert Police Department’s inquiry into the matter.
I suspect the commenter(s) lives in a world where blame is the game and facts only matter if they help you establish blame. Self-responsibility is not on this person’s vocabulary list.
I asked the reporter on the story, David Biscobing, if he knew Slim Smith. Biscobing said he started his new career at the Tribune as a student intern last January, about the same time that Smith was making his exit.
Biscobing knew where Smith’s desk was and he knew what Smith looked like and that’s as far as it went.
WOW! People have a lot of time on their hands if they are making a big deal over petty things like this. I have an idea, instead of responding on rediculous allegations, get a job and contribute to society -other then your comments!