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You should know Kevin Jackson’s name.
You should know it because his name, and his situation, should matter to you. It should inform the way you consider discrimination, the way you think about the upper machinations of government and power. It should help shape the way you view the world in Alabama in 2024.
Because Kevin Jackson is getting chewed up and spit out by a system that isn’t designed to protect him, because he dared to question the way the system works, the way the powerful made decisions and the way some of his fellow city employees behaved.
And, oh, yeah, also because he said he missed his friend.
Jackson is a 20-year veteran firefighter in Decatur. He’s a respected first responder. While I don’t know him personally, I have a number of old friends – some who work with firefighters and EMS – in my hometown who do, and they speak highly of him. And they all are rather irritated about what’s happening to Jackson. (The Decatur Daily, and reporter David Gambino, have an incredibly well reported and detailed story on Jackson’s demotion, including comparisons to other city disciplinary actions and situations.)
Until last month, Jackson was a fire lieutenant, and moving up. Today, he’s just a regular ol’ firefighter.
Jackson was demoted last month by Decatur sometime-Mayor Tad Bowling, who only takes on the responsibilities of the job when no one is around to critique him. In a letter to Jackson following an investigation, Bowling laid out the cause of the demotion, which essentially wiped away 20 years of heroic service to the city.
It seems Jackson made a “distasteful comment” while on the scene of an emergency. He also was critical of the city and city leadership on his Facebook page. And Bowling’s letter was critical of Jackson’s “slouchy, disinterested demeanor” and noted a handful of “emotional outbursts” during Jackson’s 20-year career, such as one time when he kicked a door and another when he was critical of training exercises he felt were pointless.
In other words, a veteran firefighter just lost two decades of work because he made city leaders mad by criticizing them.
The last straw, apparently, was Jackson’s Facebook posts concerning the murder of his friend, Stephen Perkins, last year. If you’re unaware, Perkins was murdered by Decatur Police, who, against protocol, hid outside of his home to aid a tow truck driver during an illegal attempt to repossess his truck. When Perkins exited his home with a gun, and was surprised by police officers who sprang from hiding behind his home, Perkins was shot and killed in his own front yard.
It was, to many objective eyeballs, an ambush of an innocent man. And protests continue in the city even today.
Bowling has been criticized heavily for his handling of the situation. As a result, he has been absent from several city council meetings and also leaves during the public comment portions of meetings, because people keep saying mean things about him. His office also attempted an unconstitutional ban on protesting, and he has complained openly about protestors making noise outside of his home.
Jackson hasn’t joined the protests, but he has made a few comments on Facebook that were critical of the city. He’s also talked about working out with Perkins and offered the definition of an “ambush.”
And so, it looks like the city leaders – at least some of them – ginned up a bogus investigation designed to find anything that might be used to teach Jackson to know his place.
If you doubt that, just consider the way this whole thing went down.
First of all, the investigation was started after an anonymous complaint was filed against Jackson through the city’s “compliance hotline.” It came weeks after the alleged incident occurred.
And what was this egregious behavior?
According to the complaint, Jackson was alleged to have made a crass comment at the scene of a medical emergency and in front of witnesses and other personnel. Small problem: the Decatur Daily interviewed the people present at the scene and none of them heard it, and they certainly didn’t file a complaint.
In the meantime, the Daily discovered that another fire lieutenant had been drunk at the scene of a call. He received a written warning.
Another fire lieutenant was found to have falsified overtime pay forms. He received a one-shift suspension and six months of probation.
One of the officers who was at the Perkins shooting – in violation of department policy – received a 10-day suspension. (Three others were fired for their active roles.)
I think you see what’s happening here.
A city that was prepared to cover up the murder of a citizen in his own yard – and yeah, that really happened – is now punishing a 20-year firefighter for “violations” that, according to City Councilman Billy Jackson (no relation), don’t actually violate any city personnel policies. In nine pages, Bowling apparently failed to cite a single policy that was violated by Kevin Jackson.
But then, maybe you don’t need facts or to follow protocols when it’s so obvious what your intentions were.
