Gene Strickland In the News Again

I have written that Gene Strickland should have been fired from the Tampa Police Department. Strickland squad was disbanded after officer Martha Gearity came forward about sexual harrassment in the unit. Members of the unit were terminated. Strickland was demoted for knowingly letting the harrassment continue.

Strickland also manipulate traffic lights and did illegal searches of vechicles. Strickland has been suspended and reprimanded for shooting incidents. Now he has a restraining order issued against him.

A Lithia man has filed for a temporary restraining order against a Tampa police officer who the man says roughed up his 17-year-old son.

Donald Lunsford, 40, and Cpl. Gene Strickland, 51, live less than a quarter-mile from each other in Lithia. Court papers now order Strickland to stay 100 feet away from Lunsford and his son, Donnie, after Strickland put a Taser against the teenager's neck Oct. 2.

Strickland was off duty. He put on his gun belt on because outnumbered. The two teens were on a neighbor's property. The owner, Dorothy Link, did not ask Strickland to watch the property, his wife offered. She was surprised by Strickland's reaction.

"I didn't give him permission to arrest anyone," Link said.

It gets more bizarre. Strickland maintained to the teens and on the 911 tape that he wasn't making an arrest.

Donnie Lunsford can be heard yelling on the tape, "You take your job way too seriously."

Strickland replies, "I'm not doing my job. Right now I'm being a homeowner, brother."

Except it is not Strickland's home. His reasoning makes no sense.

How long are the Tampa Police Department tolerate this PR nightmare? He's trigger happy, disrespectful of women, violates the fourth amendment, been demoted and now has a restraining order. It is interesting how far the department will go to protect one of their own. This sad story reads like like Joseph Wambaugh novel.

Tampa Police Department Sexual Harassment

There is a thirteen page report on why Officer Martha Gearity transferred out of a TPD anti-crime street unit.

The behavior according to the investigation includes constant flagellation, belching and excessive sexual joking by male officers. It says quote "officer Gearity said that they talked about anal sex, they watched pornographic movies at work, talked about their sex lives in the open, made reference to her menstruation, joked about having homosexual relations with one another in graphic detail and took pictures of a penis with a camera phone."

Those involved include Officer Gregory Cotner, Officer David Duncan, Officer Ryan Sigler, and their superiors Corporal David Watt and Sergeant Gene Strickland.

Laura McElroy, Tampa Police Department said, "We immediately disbanded the members of this squad and then launched our own investigation and then we learned about the sexually charged and offensive environment of the squad." The St. Petersburg Times reports that the investigation proved the allegation to be true.

Here is an example of how stupid these officers were.

They "consistently" passed gas, burped and made sexual jokes, frequently over the police radio system. Officer Peter Charbonneau said it sometimes prevented other officers from speaking to each other, and he worried for officer safety "because of all the fooling around."

The three officers frequently talked about their sex lives and joked about having homosexual relations with each other.

In front of employees at a Race Trac on 50th Street, the officers likened Gearity's bowel movements to an atom bomb. They nicknamed her "Hiroshima." On one occasion, they laughed at her as she went to the restroom and asked her if she was menstruating.

I also wonder about guys who make homophobic to each other and then share a picture of a penis. These are sexually confused boys.