June 30, 2020
By: Staff Report
TAMPA Fla. – After last weekend’s Hyde Park protest, turned into a second protest at the Orient Road Jail, the hashtag #dumpdugan has picked up steam on Twitter with more people calling on Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to force Chief Brian Dugan out of his position as the lead cop in Tampa.
During a press conference last week Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said, “How would you like to be a police officer that arrests somebody, that could end up spurring more riots in the city just by doing your job?” he said. “Whether you are right or wrong, it doesn’t matter right now. No one is listening and any justified action is getting twisted.”
Mayor Jane Castor organized a Citizens Review Board, that met on June 23rd and public comment was heated towards the Police Chief.
It’s time to #dumpdugan
— Charlene Joan (@CharleneJoanM) June 30, 2020
can’t wait until we can finally vote out Mayor @JaneCastor https://t.co/WKNRxpyupX
Petitions calling for the resignation of Chief Dugan are circulating the internet, as well as petitions for Mayor Castor to resign and step down.
June was a busy month for Tampa PD chief Dugan by the public he serves. His only response is to make a bigger show of force. Unfortunately, he didn’t do a good enough job with his community outreach on social media, we know the truth. #dumpdugan pic.twitter.com/IsXDx9NTfj
— tampa bay truths (@BayTruths) June 30, 2020
The flurry of petitions for both Mayor Castor and Chief Dugan are being approached from different angles, however. The petition organizer for Mayor Castor, Chris Ingram said, “Mayor Castor has proven herself to be inept and incompetent to serve and do the right thing.”
Ingram added, “She has lost the confidence of Democrats, Republicans, business owners, soccer moms, the police, and anyone except for the looters and thugs she has pandered to, by not enforcing the law or even the concept of the rule of law.”
On the other side of the argument, Mayor Jane Castor was speaking with protesters, one protester asked of Mayor Castor, “Tell me why you won’t fire Police Chief Dugan?”
The Mayor Castor responded, “I’m not firing Police Chief Dugan.”
Hey @TMZ Tampa Mayor #JaneCastor is a disaster who ignores the community and only shows up for photo ops. Here is a video of someone calling her out asking her if she will comply with the communities demands to #DumpDugan (spoiler she says she won’t) pic.twitter.com/SCnBSZJv1t
— Justice for Breonna Taylor (@abolishpolicern) June 29, 2020
On social media, @baytruths said to The Free Press, “As a female who always felt inspired by Mayor Jane Castor, I now feel as if she had been lying to my face this entire time but my white privilege let me focus on what I wanted to see, like pretty unity murals. I do have one thing to say to Jane Castor, who did the people elect to lead this city, you or Brian Dugan? Fire you’re hypocritical police chief, you waited too long and are losing the community’s respect. You’ve already lost our trust, this new police chief better have the Citizen Review Board members included in the vetting process.”