Meet Eddie Wilson, Lieutenant of the Village of Wellsville, OH police department. He's a real sweetheart. Eddie and another policeman were recently caught on camera verbally abusing and threatening a car full of teenagers (UPDATE: confirmed, all teenagers). Those teenagers and their friends posted and re-posted this short video on Facebook in the last two days. It's been shared repeatedly with local news media who have done nothing with it so far. It's started an outbreak of "happened to me, too" from other locals.
Eddie Wilson is a Police Chief wannabe (FSM help us all!). He and his supporters lobbied hard for his promotion following the death of Chief Joe Scarabino, who passed away after battling cancer. The Mayor and council had other plans.
Eddie doesn't limit his unprofessional behavior to civilians. Eddie was also suspended for three days for threatening and getting physical with a Columbiana County Drug Task Force member, and intimidating the Mayor.
According to the letter, Haugh said she was greatly concerned by Wilson's behavior at 1:55 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, when Wellsville's representative on the Columbiana County Drug Task Force "did nothing more than to extend his hand to shake yours and said, 'How ya doing boss'?"
Haugh claims Wilson responded to the DTF agent by saying, "Put that hand down or I'll knock you to the floor." He then reportedly shoved the agent into the doorway with his forearm, pushed through Haugh's office door and approached her in an intimidating manner.
Eddie objected to the suspension and
sued the village.
I don't have any back story on why this car was stopped yet. (UPDATE: The car was apparently stopped for "chasing someone". I still don't find any evidence of an issued citation.) It's been difficult to determine just which teenagers were actually there. I'll update as information becomes available. Suffice it to say that they must not have really done anything serious as they were let go. They were let go with the threat to "go back to (East) Liverpool (Ohio)" and if they came back they would be arrested, apparently for the crime of just being in Wellsville.