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Brookline police chief placed on leave barely two months after he started

Gonzalez

Brookline Town Administrator Mel Kleckner announced Friday he has put Police Chief Ashley Gonzalez on paid administrative leave pending the outcome into an investigation of alleged discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation by the chief.

Gonzalez started as Brookline chief only in June, after five years as chief of the Austin, TX Independent School District Police Department and a career rising through the ranks of the Norwalk, CT police department, which he left for Austin after serving as a deputy chief.

In his statement, Kleckner said:

Last week, we were made aware of multiple allegations that Chief Gonzalez violated the Town’s Policy Against Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Retaliation. Town staff immediately began an initial review of the allegations and has subsequently retained Quincy-based Comprehensive Investigations and Consulting to conduct a comprehensive review of the facts and circumstances surrounding the allegations.

“The outside investigation is being conducted by the firm’s principal, former Secretary of Public Safety and Worcester County First Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett and former Massachusetts State Police Colonel Kerry Gilpin.

At the time he announced Gonzalez's hiring, Kleckner said:

He has a long track record of progressive, compassionate and effective police leadership in partnership with communities, and I am confident he will earn the respect of the Brookline community.

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Comments

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1. He is not white

2. He is an outsider

His days were numbered from the start. Now Brookline can put "one of their own" back in the position.

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no idea what you're talking about. There were plenty of qualified people in the BPD before the world-wide search that ended in a Texas school system. Progressive forces wanted a change in culture and got a cowboy carpetbagger with no manners. Nobody even knows who's in charge right now.

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The same people who appointed him are taking him out to instead put in "one of their own"? There's not a whole lot of townie culture in Brookline. There are many things to complain about in any town but backslapping, corruption, and nepotism aren't really existent there.

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Either that or you don't know Brookline at all.

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Apparently you're unaware that there used to be / still is a Russian guy who everyone consults on how to vote.

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Brookline is the capitol of "Driving while Black" traffic stops in Greater Boston so it seems you left out an -ism there @Plen-T-Pak.

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I'm 100% confident that Brookline can promote someone from within their ranks who is both white AND one of their own, whose past horrible conduct will also be discovered within three months of their appointment as police chief.

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I feel like the majority of cops tend to spend their entire careers at the same police department (or at most they may switch to one that's only a couple of towns over). This guy sure has done A LOT of interstate moving--Texas, Connecticut, now Mass...

He looks to be in his 50s or 60s, so I'll bet that something got dug up from the past and this isn't his first rodeo with the trifecta of "discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation."

Hope I'm wrong, but....

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In civil service jobs one can plug away doing a good job and wait for those who also plugged away before you doing a good job retire/die OR move to where the career ambition takes you and get ahead at a reasonably young age that way. No idea how this person's career trajectory played out but if you want someone from outside the white/old/male/townie model here-abouts you're often gonna have to import.

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