San Francicso:
"The city's police chief did not go through the proper procedures before suspending an officer who produced a Christmas party video criticized as being racist, sexist and homophobic, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
In a 3-0 ruling, the Court of Appeal in San Francisco suggested that Chief Heather Fong was overly concerned with quelling bad publicity when she suspended Officer Andrew Cohen after the video surfaced in December 2005. Fong failed to show there was an emergency justifying the immediate suspension, the court said.
"Temporary suspensions may not be used as a shortcut method of taking punitive action against an officer or as a tool for conducting public relations damage control," Justice Sandra Margulies said. The city must reimburse Cohen the four days' pay he lost during the suspension.
"They overreacted and then scurried to find some way to make Officer Cohen the scapegoat," said Harry Stern, a lawyer for Cohen.
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