Friday, July 13, 2007

A Victory Over Local Discrimination

It was reported today by The Press of Atlantic City that Millville Police Chief Ron Harvey announced his retirement on Thursday. The 55 year old chief was among three Millville Police officers, Sgt. Michael Harvey, Chief Harvey's son, and lieutenants Edward Zadroga and Thomas Rominishin, currently under investigation for alleged discrimination against fellow officer Robert Colle, who is gay. Although the specific allegations have not yet been made public, Colle believes he has been mistreated simply for being gay. In June, the officers named in the discrimination allegations filed a petition in court to not be subject to disciplinary action because of the mistreatment of Colle. This hearing goes to court in the fall. Chief Harvey has been on medical leave and was scheduled to return to work July 30th. He has now said, in the midst of the discrimination investigation, that he will not be returning to the force.

Although I do not know Colle very well, I have had the opportunity to meet him. I want to applaud Bob for not allowing the Millville Police Department to treat him or any other gay individual, in a disrespectful manner. Millville is a small town that still has alot to learn about treating people fairly.

4 comments:

Pax Romano said...

That takes a lot of balls to be publicly gay in a place like Millville. Three cheers for Officer Colle!

As for Millville, well, it isn't very pretty, what a town without pity can do!

Zelda Parker said...

Millville is looking nice on the surface these days. The more things change...

Karl said...

I do not mean to bad mouth Millville. It is afterall where I came from, and my family still lives there. It is changing, somethings good and some not so good, but Millville too must come into the 21st century. And discrimination needs to be a thing of the past.

Anonymous said...

Well, Bobby Colle was married to a nice girl named Shelly at one time. It's sad that he wasn't honest with her about his orientation years ago. Many people suspected but I guess he's finally come out.