Seaside Police Chief stepping down Oct. 18

UPDATE 9/19/2017 6:15 p.m.:

Seaside Police Chief Robert Jackson is stepping down after less than a year on the job. His resignation comes days after questionable posts were found on his personal Facebook page.

Seaside city leaders cannot specifically comment on whether those posts are playing a role in his decision to retire. They would not say if he would’ve been fired had he not left on his own.

“The chief stopped by my office and gave me two pieces of paper,” said Seaside City Manager Craig Malin. “One was a notice of his retirement, the other was returning a roughly $10,000 check for moving expenses.”

Jackson was put on administrative leave last Friday. It was one day after a Monterey County Weekly column published a story revealing Jackson shared racially and politically charged pieces on his personal Facebook page. One story was shared from the Southern Rebels Facebook page, which leads users to the website “America’s Freedom Fighters.” The story was “Barack Obama’s Accomplishments as the First Black President,” listing things like the first president to marry a man and the first president so smoke crack cocaine in the White House.

While Malin could not speak on personnel issues, we asked about the city’s stance on these posts.

“The city’s vision statement is that we are a proudly diverse community,” Malin said. “That vision hasn’t changed, that vision is not going to waver.”

Jackson’s last day is on October 18. Two commanders are now in charge on the department until a new chief is named. The city is already looking for a replacement. They say part of the search includes backgrounds reviews like looking at a person’s social media accounts and other private information.

Jason Hough is a communications studies instructor at Hartnell College. He teaches his students three key points about social media.

First, there is no such thing as “private.”

“If you have even one follower, one friend, anything that you put on social media you may as well be declaring publicly,” Hough said.

He also says there’s no such thing as a magic eraser.

“There isn’t that eraser and that once it’s out there, it’s out there,” Hough said. “And even if you regret it, once it’s been spoken, it can’t be taken back.”

And lastly, never post emotionally.

“What I mean by that is sometimes, particularly on social media, it’s really easy to get heated and have an emotional response to a post that you see or maybe a news article,” Hough said.

While time heals all wounds, for those in the spotlight, he says it can take much longer.

Nancy Minguela lives in Seaside. She said the posts don’t sit well with her. The mother of two said she tries to teach her sons to judge people on their character, not on their looks. Living in a diverse community like Seaside, she wants the next chief to be colorblind.

“It doesn’t matter to me as long as they have an open mind and they don’t see color and they’re very understanding of our community is about and that they understand there’s a lot of diversity here,” Minguela said.

ORIGINAL POST:

Just days after the Seaside Police Department placed it’s chief on administrative leave, the chief announced his resignation.

Chief Robert Jackson announced his retirement Monday evening. Jackson wrote a letter to City Manager, Craig Malin stating that he planned to retire on October 18 of this year.

Chief Jackson was first placed on administrative leave Friday. However, Malin would not discuss why Jackson was placed on leave, and said the department doesn’t discuss personnel matters.

The departments move happened just days after the Monterey County Weekly first broke a story alleging that Jackson shared a Facebook post containing “racist conspiracies.”

According to the Weekly, Jackson had reposted an article by America’s Freedom Fighters. The title of the article, “A list of Obama’s accomplishments as the first black President of the USA.” Jackson wrote “impressive!” before sharing the post.

*Picture courtesy Monterey County Weekly

Commander Judy Veloz took over the role of the acting police chief this week.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more at 5 and 6 p.m.