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"Peacock agreed. She spoke of how Willis “has really built the leadership of the whole department and you can see that leadership in the shared mission of all the work in the people below him.” She added, “I’m super bummed that he’s retiring.”"

I agree that Chief Willis has provided excellent service to Bar Harbor. I am not surprised at BH Town Council Chair Val Peacock's hypocritical assertions of support for Willis' work.

After all, Peacock chose to ignore Chief Willis' professional assessment and violate his official authority, when she and the BH Town Council gave former Town Manager Kevin Sutherland free rein to suppress First Amendment rights which Chief Willis was defending and to misrepresent the Maine Criminal Code which Chief Willis was upholding. Peacock and the council refused to take official action to stop Sutherland's abuse of office and waste of resources, and they still refuse to account for Sutherland's actions. Of course, unlike Peacock, Chief Willis did rein in staff who tried to suppress the google Leonard Leo = Corrupt Courts chalk messaging project. And resisted pressure from Leonard Leo, Kevin Sutherland, and other powerful people who wanted the police to bend the law to favor the private interests of powerful people.

I am very grateful to Chief Willis. I know there will be many testimonials to his good work. Although I must say, my project was inspired by Leonard Leo bending local police (without Chief Willis' knowledge) to arrest a neighbor under a highly unusual and possibly unique application of Disorderly Conduct law. And I think that I benefitted from Chief Willis and the police leadership then working to make sure that the department would do a better job protecting residents - from private individuals like Leonard Leo and his enablers in public office like Kevin Sutherland, Val Peacock et al.

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