Take a look at this article from the North Platte Bulletin. Pay particular attention to the last few paragraphs.
Transportation must have been arranged, because by 3:20 PM Friday afternoon, the subject was arrested here in Lincoln for trespassing. Union Pacific Railroad's employees reported that he had scaled a fence and was prowling around some of their buildings wearing nothing but a t-shirt and boxer shorts. He has no ties to Lincoln whatsoever.
I sent North Platte Police Chief Marty Gutschenritter a short thank note.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
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34 comments:
I am sure the Lancaster county tax dollars can give this guy a few trash bags.dont ya think?
Are you kidding me, it looks like North Platte's chief would not stand a chance to make it thru LPD FTO process and how does he have a job he sounds unprofessional. How would he react if this goof came to Lincoln and molested a schoolkid. Do your job North PLatte. And I love jails that refuse to take people.
September 21-23 North Platte is hosting "Rail Fest". Live entertainment, great food, exciting games. Maybe you should charter a bus and invite this character and all the panhandlers on 14th Street for a free ride to North Platte. Just don't let the Chief know they're coming. Kind of a nice surprise "thank-you" gift for the guys in blue.
So does the City of Lincoln send out mailers? "Send us your poor, your tired, your hungry naked masses." And then the people from outstate NE come to town and complain about the transients here? Apparently it's because they sent them to us? I mean, now that I'm reading in the comments section of the Journal-Star that the People's City Mission is attracting homeless from other areas... maybe the Tourism Department was responsible? :)
I hope that you sent a copy of your thank you letter to the North Platte Bulletin. I'd hate for the citizens of North Platte to believe that passing the buck makes for good police work. Maybe you could enclose some alternatives to better handle the situation so that they don't start a shuttle service.
How about pinning that 'thank you' note to Pollat's collar then sending it back to North Platte? Oh wait... that would be passing the buck rather than handling the problem. Maybe their Chief could use a lesson in that concept. What liability do you suppose North Platte's Chief would face if Pollat came to Lincoln and victimized or otherwise hurt someone here? Do you think the victim would be satisfied with the reasoning that Pollat was not in jail due to his mental condition, even though a crime had occurred in North Platte for which he could have been lodged? Of course that is not the long term solution to this guy's issues but sometimes we have to go with the quick fix in order to insure the public safety. I won't even get into the ridiculous practice of jails refusing to take violators! By all means, he has a mental issue so let's leave him on the street! Now THATS crazy!
Nice work North Platte boys....
http://simpsons.neoseeker.com/images/uploads/chief_wiggum_mini.png
I think a few busloads of transients sent to North Platte would be a great gesture on our part, a little "hands across the state". Since the State Pen is here, maybe we could also send a busload of freshly released parolees that had served their sentences for violent crimes to North Platte too.
I dont understand the idea of jails not accepting a criminal because they have a mental issue. I would wager that a huge population of the inmates could be diagnosed with some mental illness. Heck, we could all be diagnosed with something if wew spend enough time at the psychiatrists office. It seems to me the jail didnt want him because he was difficult, nothing more
I think I'll get a van and round up about ten of Lincoln's undesirables and take them to North Platte.
The one LARGE problem with the North Platte Jail is that it really is not safe to house prisoners especially ones who are not mentally stable. So instead of saying that they just refused to take him.
In recent years the jail has had multiple suicide attempts and a couple of those were successful due to the way the jail is set up. It was probably more of a safety issue than not wanting to keep him.
We have enough freak shows in our wonderful town of North Platte. I cant blame you for being ticked off. Dont send a van full. we only sent one so you can send one back and we can ship him the other direction.....LOL
I live in the North Platte area and quite frankly I'm embarrassed about this situation. Our Chief should have dealt with the issue rather than pawn him off on you folks in Lincoln. We have a mental ward in the local hospital here and I don't see why this man couldn't have went there. I'm glad that this man didn't hurt anyone in your fair city. So for now all I can say is I'm Sorry you got stuck with him and I'm embarrassed by it.
Donnie
Sad to say, you are all right. Our police department out here is a joke. Our sheriff's department is no better (they get lost if they get more than 3 miles of 1-80..
There is a stock trailer coming from Lincoln back to North Platte next week. As a way of making up for what these N.P. Dudes did, maybe we can help you out in your westward transport.
N.P. and area even hates N.P. We jokingly call satan's den..
You must follow the bulletin and their talk back to get an idea of how bad it is..
Once again, most of us are sorry for what a few idiots did..
I am from North Platte and what I don't understand is if they knew it was a mental health issue why didn't they just take him to the Behavioral Health Unit and do a 72 hour hold rather than waste all day trying to get him out of town. The problem wasn't solved it was just diverted to another jurisdiction.
What North platte did was wrong but i dont think that we should be loading these people and taking them anywhere. What is wrong with this country. Maybe the guy need some help instead of moving him around the state. i think that we are treeting him like an animal maybe we should see if peeda likes this. all in all i think the guy need help and he can get better help in lincoln then nothplatte.
Im Sorry Dear old Gutch Didn't keep him Cause he wasn't smoking in a car w/ Kids, ya we don't wanna live in North Platte our selves some times, sure send him and some freinds back for railfest,we can have a box car full of nuts to display, might make it a might more interesting than poking our selves in eye w/ sharp stick.
THE GUY NEEDS HELP SO GET IT FOR HIM. i think it is pretty sad that the people that we trust to protect us are acting like kids. thanks alot men in blue.
As a resident of NP I'm disgusted and embarrased by our PD. It all comes down to money, and put people in NP and Lincoln in danger. The county jail in North Platte wouldn't take him because they would have to pay for his meds, or send him for psych evaluation at the jails expense, the police wouldn't take him for evaluation when the jail refused him because they would have to pay for it.
I for one think its funny, I see ol Tom cant take a joke. N.P. has plenty more funny people we can dump off for ya Casady .
I live in NP and when I heard on our local news that he wasn't kept in jail because of his mental condition I couldn't believe it. I was not aware he was shipped to Lincoln and was very worried about the children in our community. So I can understand why Lincoln citizens are upset. We need to change our laws. "Crazy" should not come with a get out of jail free card. These types of crazy actions should be taken very seriously. If he hasn't already hurt someone in the past it is just a matter of time till he does. Keep him locked up away from the rest of us that are just trying to live a normal, safe life. If the courts don't start keeping the sickos away from us don't be surprised when the citizens take the law into their own hands. I will do what it takes to protect my family and not blink an eye.
I'm am very irritated with how imature alot of these people are acting in there comments. Lets grow up people. Theres a reason he's the chief if you think he's doing such a bad job get off your ass and do something about it dont just sit there and talk crab about him. All you people down in Lincoln who think your better then north platte you should have no problem handeling him if you have so many others there like that. Stop doing this were better then you crap were suppose to be able to work together on anything. I also would like to say that if you shipped him the other way we wouldve handled him and never once complined and whined about it cause thats our jobs. To think you people are suppose to be our childrens future and role models start acting like it,
Beem drinking?
Part of the problem is that Nebraska, in a decision made in Lincoln by the way, closed its state hospitals for mentally ill folks and dumped all those people onto local mental health organizations that did not have the resources to deal with them. This is true not only in NP but in places like Kearney, Grand Island, Fremont, Scottsbluff, etc. It is not just a problem for North Platte as these folks live all over the state. We need to study why this happened and see how we can help people in similar circumstances so this won't happen in the future. Maybe some of the complainers and those trying to bash North Platte should volunteer to help and make a difference. NP is a great place to live and has many positive things going for it. All communities, even Lincoln, has issues so enough of the complaining!
Just to clear up a thing or two. By Nebraska Law a person with a mental illness cannot be held in jail. This person should have been EPCed. that is a result of a former governors' plan to have community based mental health care. People like this this fall through the cracks and end up walking around Lincoln (State Capital). Change the law to help these kind of people.
I have been a resident of North Platte for ten years now. Guess what? Ten years is way too long. My house is up for sale and I am so ready to move, pretty much anywhere but here. I could tell you stories about raising taxes without so much as telling the tax payers. Politicians who are more crooked than most. A County Commissioner receiving the bid to work on the high school. A son of someone who works at the Chamber of Commerce, totaling two cars and nothing was said or done. It was all kept hush-hush. People who seem to kill "themselves" in the jail. Wife-beaters on the fire department. It goes on and on. Back in the day we were know as "Little Chicago". Seems to me it is not far from the truth today.
Actually Cheif Gutchenritter contacted Emergency Support Services in Lexington, NE and they came to North Platte and got him after they found a bed for him in Lincoln. You may want to re-read the story! And you may also want to get your van load of freaks and drop them off in Lexington!!! GO HUSKERS!
this is the best news i have had in a week. I live in Memphis and if Lincoln is going to keep him we could send you a lot more, maybe each state could send them to Lincoln it could be one great big inbreed crazy place lol.
Chief, I am from North Platte. Please take all the idiots posting on your blog who are bagging on my town. They are our problem, not the homeless or law enforcement.
I think the Lancaster Chief should sent a load of idiots from Lincoln to North Platte and let Chief G deal with them.!!!!
LOL
Oh, that would be SOOOOO funny.
Okay, enough already! I'm going to have to kill this post off. My blog seems to have become the venue for every complaint anyone has with North Platte. I like North Platte. I suspect our subject has gotten some pants and moved on now, because he got out of jail on Tuesday, we've had no further contact with him, and I know we didn't arrange any transportation.
Chief,
I am a North Platte Police officer and I happened to be working on the day that we dealt with Mr. Pollat. Although I did not deal with him directly I am familiar with the case and I would like to assure all of you that the Police Department did not pawn him off on anyone. It is not like we put him on a bus and just got rid of him. The jail would not take him, we did not have near enough to EPC him so we called the resources that were available to us. Emergency Services for Region two made all the arrangements to get this guy the help that he needed. The police department did not have a single thing to do with arranging transportation or setting up the destination. At the time we had Mr. Pollat he stated that he wanted help and would seek treatment so Region Two set it up. However, when he got to Lincoln he must have changed his mind and went on his merry way and got himself into trouble again. I read the blogs and want all out there to know that North Platte has one of the best departments in the state and we would never simply pawn our problems on anyone else or any other department. I do apologize that he caused problems in your fine city, but that was not our intent or what we wanted at all.
No one in the jail gets help.....I have a son there. Not proud of it but he is there and when he called home to tell me he was going to kill himself and I tried to get him help Ursala the female jailer told me they know what to do with the bodies when they take them out. So he is probally lucky they did not take him at the jail. Might have been another suicide that they deny all blame for. By the way my son never got help and still talks about killing himself in there. And all they do is strip him naked and put him in a cell alone. Great work N.P. men in blue. If mine dies in there someone will pay dearly......
And hey are you guys in Lincoln sending us child molestors? Cause we have more molestors than POLICE!!!!!!!!!
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