Colleague Takes Burgreen to Task Over Scouts : Police: In a caustic letter, the veteran officer says chief’s decision to sever ties because of the group’s gay-discrimination policy was ‘a display of stupidity.’

A veteran San Diego police lieutenant has publicly chastised Police Chief Bob Burgreen for his decision last month to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America and its Explorer program because of the Scouts’ policy against homosexuals.

In a highly caustic letter printed in this month’s edition of The Informant, the in-house police union’s publication, Lt. Roy Blackledge suggested that Burgreen had engaged “in a display of stupidity” to appease City Councilman John Hartley and was sold the idea by Assistant Chief Norm Stamper, his second in command.

“Chief, you have enough plaques and awards on your wall to take to Arkansas when you retire,” Blackledge wrote. “Why do you need the scalp of the Explorer program too? Will it raise your stature with some group? Not with the groups that should count to you, it won’t; but you don’t care about them.”

Burgreen ordered the return of the Scouts’ charter to operate a police Explorer post after the organization told Chuck Merino, a gay El Cajon police officer, that he could no longer be an adviser to that city’s Explorer troop.

In making his announcement, Burgreen compared the Scouts’ anti-gay policy to the Jim Crow laws that once sanctioned racial discrimination in the South.

Councilman Hartley has suggested that the city remove the Boy Scouts from their local headquarters in Balboa Park, which they lease for $1 a year. Some have also suggested kicking the Scouts off Fiesta Island in Mission Bay Park, where they operate a $2.5-million aquatic center without any payment to the city.

Blackledge suggested to Burgreen that Hartley “has his fingerprints all over this decision of yours” and that the idea came from Stamper, who “will probably move into your chair while it’s still warm and quickly blame the furor on you . . . “

Burgreen is retiring in January and will continue to guide the Police Department under a separate contract with the city until April or May, when a new chief is named. Stamper, the department’s executive assistant chief, is considered one of the top candidates to replace Burgreen.

“With this pronouncement, Chief, you can now retire knowing your last act threw out the hopes of the many aspiring Explorer Scouts, not only in our program, but from every other department with a chief of police who disguises himself as a humanistic person with a ‘global perspective,’ ” Blackledge wrote.

An executive lieutenant with the department’s western division, the 54-year-old Blackledge has been with the department nearly 29 years. He is one of 32 ranking officers expected to take a city-offered buyout that will allow him to retire in January.

Contacted at his office Wednesday, Blackledge would say only that “I wrote a letter to the editor. The letter speaks for itself.”

Burgreen said Wednesday that he and Blackledge are longtime friends and that he hopes they can remain so, although he was surprised by the tone of the letter.

“This is the United States of America and we have a Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Burgreen said. “I assumed there would be those in the community and those in the Police Department who wouldn’t like my decision. I respect his right to say what he did.”

The decision to sever ties with the Boy Scouts was Burgreen’s alone, the chief said, but his top administrators agreed unanimously.

Burgreen said he never talked to Hartley about his decision, and besides, “I don’t take orders from the City Council.”

In coming to a decision, Burgreen said, it was clear that the Boy Scouts had discriminated against Merino.

“We protect everyone’s rights,” he said. “Whether it’s sexual orientation or lifestyle or whatever, we will not be a party to any organization that is discriminating, and this is a clear case of discrimination.”

Blackledge’s letter begins with the lamentation that “just when you think you’ve heard it all from the chief’s office, another flush of the toilet brings another brilliant decision from those hallowed (or is it Halloween) halls.”

Blackledge asked why Burgreen had to involve himself in a “political snake pit” instead of letting the El Cajon Police Department alone take issue with the Boy Scouts.

“It is presently fashionable for our liberals to attack all issues of family values we hold dear,” Blackledge wrote. “So why not jump on the political bandwagon, Chief, and get another plaque from some organization as ‘Man of the Year.’ ”

Burgreen rode in the July 18 Gay Pride Parade as its “Man of the Year” for strides he made in working with the gay and lesbian community.

The Boy Scouts of America, Blackledge wrote, “will still be here when you, (City Manager) Jack McGrory, Norm Stamper and John Hartley are all history. Why do you have to participate in this display of stupidity? Why must you make my department the laughingstock to other police departments and the community we serve?”

Blackledge apologized to the Explorer Scouts who were affiliated with the San Diego Police Department, the Explorers program of the El Cajon Police Department and the Boy Scouts of San Diego County “who will probably lose their camp on Fiesta Island to satisfy the cries of one vocal, liberal group.”

Although Blackledge said that telephone calls to Burgreen’s office criticizing his decision outnumbered those who agreed with him by about a 30-1 ratio, Burgreen said the calls were 52% to 48% against him and the letters were 2 to 1 in favor of his decision. His office received more than 1,000 calls and letters in all, he said.

“When you take the job of chief of police and say ‘I do’ and ‘I will” and they give you the badge with four stars on it, you better have a thick skin,” Burgreen said. “I can take this kind of criticism and hold no hard feelings.”