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a memo saying he’d planned to replace the city’s police chief, citing nepotism and a lack of transparency, Slaton rescinded the letter and abruptly reversed course.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." MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/polkcounty/lake-wales-police-chief-retaliation/67-021c59d2-9df7-43b1-9f06-39502a5ef2ab ►Subscribe: https://on.wtsp.com/youtube ►Website: https://www.wtsp.com/ ►Facebook: https://facebook.com/10TampaBay ►X: https://twitter.com/10TampaBay