News-Record.com

Imagine a competent young lady is hired by a company to create a brand-new job, essential to a new department. She does, and the new department is a big success.

She goes to her supervisors when she is faced with a situation that arouses her suspicion. They order her to follow procedures far outside the limits of her job, but she follows orders.

Later, when her supervisors and the company get into trouble because of the things she has done, they throw her to the wolves. She loses her job, her reputation is smeared and now her previous employers point fingers at her to save their own necks.

Impossible, you say? Not if the “company” is the Greensboro Police Department and the competent young lady is Cathleen Vance. I worked with Cathy while she was coordinator with the Violence Task Force. She did an outstanding job, much better than other coordinators I knew.

Cathy had no way of knowing she was in innocent party in the middle of a rising political explosion between the police department and the city manager. Neither side had any concern over who was hurt. Power was the goal. And they still refuse to undo the damage.

Chet Hodgin
Jamestown