Retaliation fears emerge after Lake Wales city manager reverses course on police chief

Community activists say they’re perplexed by the unexpected turn of events in Lake Wales this week.

Just days after City Manager James Slaton issued a memo saying he’d planned to replace the city’s police chief, citing nepotism and a lack of transparency, Slaton rescinded the letter and abruptly reversed course.

Now, that has raised concern about retaliation against the officers who first raised the issues stemming from a promotion process they said was unfair.

“It was just a shock,” said Pastor Clayton Cowart with the Poor Minority Justice Association, or PMJA, which brought the complaint to the city’s attention. “It was a great departure from what he had originally said.

"We had spoken. He made it clear that this was a thing that he would not tolerate."