The vast majority of Maricopans appear to be impressed with the credentials of new police chief Mark Goodman and welcome him.
In our unscientific readers’ poll this week, 63.6 percent agreed that Goodman’s resume is solid and they’re excited to see him step in and take command of the department on Jan. 23.
About half of those who believe he sounds like a good lawman, however, also said they’d still prefer that someone in-house had been the choice.
Goodman is a commander with the Pasadena, Calif., Police Department, where he worked his way up the chain of command from a rookie police officer.
Therein lies the rub with the remainder of the poll respondents, 36.4 percent of them.
Our third choice – “California commie. I don’t know him and I don’t have the brains I was born with, if any, but he must be liberal slime if he’s from there” – was designed to lampoon those who blindly believe that anyone from California must be liberal and soft on law enforcement – if not outright un-American. Social-media responses to Goodman’s hiring were filled with this sentiment.
The choice was a social experiment, more about the people who hold that broad-brush belief than it was about the new chief.
Goodman and his wife sent their daughters to Grand Canyon University and years ago purchased a house in Phoenix to use while visiting the girls and as a getaway. They have intended for years to move to Arizona, he said.
The Goodmans now plan to move to Maricopa.
