Gerth: LMPD is broken beyond repair. Let’s get rid of it and start from scratch.

When I wrote a couple of weeks ago that Mayor Craig Greenberg isn’t the guy who can fix the Louisville Metro Police Department, I might have been wrong.

No. I haven’t done a 180, pulled a U-turn in the middle of traffic and decided that maybe Greenberg IS the right guy. My error here is maybe no one can fix it.

Perhaps LMPD is so screwed up, so full of bad actors, sexual predators and racists that it can’t be fixed. Perhaps it is broken beyond repair and will remain that way until we get rid of it and start from scratch.

The Republicans in Frankfort want to break up Jefferson County Public Schools — maybe, instead, we need to break up LMPD and, until we can build a new and better department, forego policing altogether.

If something really bad happens, we can call in the feds.

We obviously can’t use the suburban cities to police Louisville because those forces are filthy with former Louisville cops who grew up in the same culture that is causing the problems now.

This week, we learned that there is yet another lawsuit against the city alleging that two — count ‘em two — LMPD trainers sexually harassed a young female officer. One told her she should “whore herself out” for child care for her toddler.

Another allegedly sent her pictures of his penis.

This comes just days after currently-suspended-and-hopefully-soon-to-be-unemployed Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel promoted an officer just seconds after another member of her command staff accused the officer of sexually harassing and attacking her.

Holy moly.

What in the name of Anthony Wiener is going on here?

Mind you, this is just a few years after two of Louisville’s finest were hauled off in leg-irons after they were found to have been using the city’s Police Explorer unit as their personal escort services, preying on teenagers under their tutelage.

In 2019, a jury awarded a Louisville police lieutenant $1.2 million after another officer sent her a picture of his penis. And in 2018, former Chief Steve Conrad backed away from plans to fire Lt. Stephen Pond for sending female officers sexually explicit photos.

And then, there are the two officers who were convicted of tossing big gulps at people walking down streets — one of them, Brian Wilson, was also guilty of cyberstalking and using photos and videos to extort more than two dozen women.

It would be easy to blame this all on the officers who did these things and leave it at that, but like we saw in the Catholic Church sex scandal here, there was a culture that allowed the sexual assaults to persist and even be repeated.

People saw what was going on and they didn’t stop it.

And in the case of the woman who filed suit this week, we know that it went well beyond that.

According to the suit she filed, she was targeted by other police.

Her fellow officers joked about getting shirts that said “Free LeMon,” referring to officer Justin LeMon, who allegedly, among other things, sent her the photo of his penis.

More: Gerth: Here’s how much LMPD Chief Gwinn-Villaroel is being paid to do nothing

When she was temporarily reassigned after her involvement in a police shooting (which is normal procedure) she was rejected for many of the temporary assignments she asked for, which she believes was the result of her speaking up.

LeMon remains on the job.

So does Dale Cottongim, who among other things told the woman she needed to “whore yourself out.” He was found to have been guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and not showing the proper courtesy, but not sexual harassment.

He, too, remains on the force after being transferred from the department’s training unit. He wasn’t demoted, nor did the department cut his pay.

Meanwhile, the woman who made the accusations against both Cottongim and LeMon will likely see her path to advancement in the department stymied. That’s why she’ll likely see a big settlement from the city.

And then there’s the command staff officer who claimed another officer had sexually harassed and “attacked” her. She was essentially told that if she couldn’t work with the people Gwinn-Villaroel trusted, she needed to turn in her gun and badge.

More: Gerth: With LMPD Chief Gwinn-Villaroel, the answer is simple: Fire her, Mayor Greenberg

This is not the culture of a professional organization.

This is a culture in which men think they can sexually harass women and get away with it.

It’s a culture of arrogance and lawlessness — in a organization that is supposed to be all about service and protection.

It’s a department that can’t discipline its officers because city leaders consistently and without fail cave to the demands of the Fraternal Order of Police, and it’s a failure of chiefs like Conrad and Gwinn-Villaroel who back off and won’t fight the FOP when it comes to handing out tough penalties.

This all comes as no surprise to anyone who has read the federal Department of Justice report on the LMPD that found its policies disproportionately affect people of color, and the department has done a poor job investigating its own officers, particularly when allegations of sexual harassment are made.

According to that report, the feds saw cases in which the administration opened investigations into sexual harassment and domestic violence but never addressed claims that officers retaliated against women for making such claims.

The good news is that we’re going to find out what has been going on at LMPD, and we’re going to know the whole story.

If not because of the investigation being undertaken by former FBI agent David Beyer, then because of the lawsuit filed by the officer who accused LeMon and Cottongim of harassing her, and because of the lawsuit we’ll likely see from the police major who spoke up when Gwinn-Villaroel was preparing to make Brian Kuriger the second-highest ranking cop in the department.

It was a civil suit in the Explorers case that blew that case wide open, only because police and others were put under oath and lawyers outside city government began pressing for answers.

Gwinn-Villaroel has shown us that ignoring these problems so long as officers pledge their undying devotion to her is not the answer.

We need change. We need change at the top. We need change in the mid-level manager positions, and we need change in the rank and file who have witnessed this type of activity and decided that protecting their buddies is more important than protecting the women on the force.

The good-ole-boy, party atmosphere of the LMPD has got to end one way or another, and if the mayor and whoever is hired as the new chief after Gwinn-Villaroel is canned can’t see that and take actions needed to fix it, we'll be stuck with a department known for not arresting dangerous criminals but for sending penis pictures to women cops.

To protect (their buddies) and be pervs will be the department's motto. Unfortunately, it fits.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville police department is beyond repair. Why LMPD can't be fixed