Ouch.

Yesterday, Kenneth Brooker, the police chief of Flower Mound Texas, filed a complaint against Mayor Jody Smith and and mayor pro tem Jean Levenick accusing them of sexual harassment. The police chief claims he saw the the two women approach a police officer and pinch him on the buttocks. In the complaint, the police chief says he witnessed the officer being pinched on the rear by the two women as he stood in the Town Hall lobby. The officer being pinched did not seem to mind. Indeed, after being pinched, he commented that he had gotten his Christmas goose early. Nevertheless, the police chief felt it was an act of sexual harassment that violated rules and regulations. He felt it was his duty to file the complaint. He was following procedure. Some suspect that Brooker is bearing a grudge against one of the women involved. Chief Brooker is currently under evaluation and his performance has been questioned by Mayor Smith.

Brooker may well have acted correctly. There might indeed be a regulation against what the mayor and mayor pro tem did. Had the officer been a woman and the officials men, no doubt their actions would be viewed very differently. But they are not men and the officer was not a woman. If a complaint was to be filed, it should be the officer that was pinched who should file it, not a witness to it.

The officer who was pinched took the women's action as most men would, as a compliment. Brooker would seem to have an axe to grind. Either that, or he is jealous.