J. Bracken Lee - Controversial Firing of Police Chief Cleon Skousen

Controversial Firing of Police Chief Cleon Skousen

Cleon Skousen had served as Salt Lake City, Utah, police chief for four years before being fired. Salt Lake City had a weak-mayor system The mayor was a member of the five member commission. In 1960 Lee offered a motion to fire Skousen and the majority of the commission voted yes. This happened shortly after Skousen raided an illegal poker club, where J. Bracken Lee was in attendance. Lee characterized Skousen's strict enforcement of anti-gambling laws as "like a Gestapo."

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