"He was wearing his gun . . . going off on a screaming tirade, throwing his arms everywhere".

October 8, 2009 11:38 PM

When Northern Illinois University entered the national spotlight it was for tragic reasons. One of the university's public faces during the tragedy was University Police Department Chief Donald Grady. Now, the university is conducting a performance review of the chief after he spent three hours berating, yelling at, and trying to bribe a student journalist with a job at the university in exchange for favorable coverage.

Grady is no stranger to controversy. Always seen as tough, he's been to Iraq, he even has a small Facebook fan club. He's always had a tenuous relationship with the local media and other local police departments. He's a life-long police officer who has left other jobs in controversy. Even while first responders were praised for their reaction to the NIU shooting some of Grady's decisions were criticized. This summer, NIU hired former Chicago police officer and Colorado State University police chief Dexter Yarbrough. Yarbrough resigned the CSU position after making controversial comments about the nature of the Chicago PD and under the cloud of a sexual harassment scandal. in March 2009. After he came to NIU, questions were raised about his hiring. In July, just days after he was hired, Yarbrough resigned his new patrol position at NIU.

The Northern Star, NIU's student newspaper called for Grady's resignation in a strongly worded editorial October 8, which suggested the Yarbrough scandal pierced Grady's "seemingly impenetrable armor" and was "the fatal blow to Grady’s psyche".

posted by IvoShandor (14 comments total)

No child dreams of being a police officer who has to deal with drunk college kids and meth-heads stealing bikes as 95% of their job. I have dealt with campus police (not security) at 4 schools as a staff member, crime victim and criminal. My experiences tell me that campus cops wish they were somewhere else but this was all they could get.
posted by nestor_makhno at 12:30 AM on October 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

College kids and bike thieves? Heavens, how can a man cope?
posted by ryanrs at 1:07 AM on October 9, 2009

They beat Purdue, though. Fuck Purdue.
posted by basicchannel at 1:34 AM on October 9, 2009

College kids and bike thieves? Heavens, how can a man cope?

Apparently being an asshole and drunk with power helps a lot.
posted by nestor_makhno at 1:53 AM on October 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

But trying to bribe the editor of the student paper, not so much.

This man will fail because he does not understand the motives of his enemies.
posted by ryanrs at 1:58 AM on October 9, 2009

I had forgotten all about this shooting and only vaguely remember it happening. What a sad indictment of the state of this country.
posted by Daddy-O at 4:39 AM on October 9, 2009

My experiences tell me that campus cops wish they were somewhere else but this was all they could get.

Really? My experience is that campus cops are retired city cops who wanted a paycheck without having to deal with the really heavy and dangerous stuff.
posted by craichead at 5:20 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My experiences tell me that campus cops wish they were somewhere else but this was all they could get.

That may be your experience, but not a universal. I teach at a small midwestern regional public university, and our University Police department is excellent. Our chief of campus safety is an alumnus of the university, and he is professional, compassionate, and proactive. Our campus police force is capable and just as professional, compassionate, and proactive. The campus police have to deal with an amazing variety of incidents, from investigating shots fired near campus to protecting the annual Drag Show participants from homophobic attacks to investigating the drunk driver who nearly ran down several Homecoming Parade participants. Their crisis response plan is a model for the state. Of course, there's the routine -- streakers on the football field, faculty locked out of their offices, parking tickets, crowd control, teaching rape aggression defense classes to college students -- but I am impressed with the quality of our University Police and would hope that any city or college had police the caliber of our campus force.
posted by lleachie at 6:46 AM on October 9, 2009

So are we saying he's the real life Seth Rogan in Observe and Report? God that movie was awful.
posted by stormpooper at 6:50 AM on October 9, 2009

My experience is that police management sucks.

NIU is a great little school, though.
posted by Ironmouth at 7:44 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Apologies in advance for the derail...

I had forgotten all about this shooting and only vaguely remember it happening.

I remember it well. My now-maiden name is the same as the last name of the shooter, although we are not related. (Now you know where my nick comes from.) It was incredibly strange coming home from work that day to half a dozen messages on my answering machine from various media. The weirdest part, though, was when my downstairs neighbor handed me this note, saying someone had dropped it off at the house earlier that day.

What pissed me off the most about the whole thing was that not a single message or note that I (or various family members in other parts of the country) received started out asking if we were related to the gunman. They all just acted as if they knew that we were. Now, since we weren't related, it wasn't such a big deal to say bug off. But imagine if something like this happens and you are related to the perpetrator. You get a note from Good Morning America asking you to spill your guts, and you have no way of knowing that they're just taking a stab in the dark - they don't actually know what they are pretending to know. Sneaky bastards.
posted by misskaz at 8:10 AM on October 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

"My experiences tell me that campus cops wish they were somewhere else but this was all they could get."

Depends on the situation. My college was in Florida, and most of the campus cops were retired NYPD supplementing their pensions.

They were awesome. Nothing fazed them. "Has he got a gun? Is he breaking anything? The hell you bothering me for then? He's a dumbass kid, he'll get over it."

The one exception was the younger one that came out of a community college law enforcement program, and stood about 5'6". That guy was trouble, and all the other cops hated him as much as we did.
posted by Naberius at 9:11 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My experience with college newspapers (Ann Arbor) is that the 'journalist' is probably about as reliable as the cop is judicious. Which is to say, I wouldn't stake my reputation on either party.
posted by spicynuts at 10:42 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My experience with college newspapers . . . is that the 'journalist' is probably about as reliable as the cop is judicious.

FTFY.
posted by IvoShandor at 5:15 AM on October 10, 2009