Year: 2011

Posted onAbout Us

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

by 268 Comments on R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Here are some wonderful thoughts by frequent commenter “Jt” who reacts to a typical threatening comment made by a self-professed law enforcement employee. This employee seems to think he is entitled to unconditional love and respect from his employer (us) and that lack of said respect may very well result in what can only be construed as the same sort of physical rebuke visited upon Kelly Thomas by the FPD.

Understanding this attitude is important to understanding the mentality of the bad cop, a world-view enabled by pliant politicians controlled by aggressive police unions.

Jt responds:

You’ve said a lot of stuff on this board, a lot of it true, some false, some thought-provoking, some reasonable, some not. I thank you because you have helped me understand the mindset of contemporary police officers in this region, and that has been truly valuable.

There is one thing in your post though I really want to address. This is for me the essential issue here. it is the issue of whether the police deserve or should feel as if they require citizens to be “respectful”, and what the consequences should be if they are not.

For me, this is what this case, and the Mam, Quinonez and other soon-to-be known cases of FPD abuse are all about.

Let me just put this out there. Disrespect of a LEO is not itself a crime. It is NEVER a valid excuse for any of the following: assault, false arrest, perjury, murder.

But that is what we are seeing in case after case. Officers who feel “disrespected” fly off the handle, lose it, manhandle the citizenry, arrest them on bogus charges, and commit perjury about these cases.

Look at the Quinonez case. Dude’s Dad was killed by police. Clearly he has issues with them because of that. Walks by Kenton Hampton, sees him busting somebody, says something about “cops killed my dad.” Hampton sees this as “disrespect”, smacks him into a wall and arrests him for being drunk in public despite Quinonez having 0.00 blood alcohol level.

No. This will not stand. We have the right to disrespect each other without being beaten or falsely arrested for it. You can disrespect me, and I can disrespect you. Being a cop doesn’t make you special, and it doesn’t entitle you to respectful treatment from every person at all times. If I am clearly threatening bodily harm to you during an encounter, by all means use force if necessary to subdue me and take me in (though kindly stop when I am subdued rather than just beating me for the fun of it, but that’s a separate issue). If I am rather just mouthy, disrespectful, and contempuous of your authority, you know what? Too bad. That is not a crime.

It is a new era. The citizenry is increasingly well-informed, well armed with cameras and ready to use them, and ready to disseminate information about bad policing at a moment’s notice. We will exchange information, we will show up at City council, we wil publicize you, and we will call for investigations of EACH AND EVERY incident of police brutality or misconduct we witness or hear about.

Being a cop is NOT like being in a gang where you are entitled to respect. Being a cop means you work for the citizenry. They have every right in the world to disrespect you. A lot more disrespect is coming your way soon. The cop mentality of “don’t you dare disrespect me” is a relic of the past which will only lead to lawsuits and citizen revolts ala Fullerton. And we’re not even close to being done with this department yet.

Cops – do not think that the public must fear and respect you. Do your job, do it politely and professionally, and understand that RESPECT IS EARNED. If you can maintain a calm and professional aspect even as I flip you off, you may actually earn that respect.

There will come a day when I can walk right up to a cop and politely tell him to fuck off and he will know that there is absolutely nothing he can or should do about it. That I am just expressing my first amendment rights, and those rights are far more important than his fragile ego or sense of self-worth related to his position of power and authority.

Any cop who does not understand this will be forced out of public service. The citizenry will no longer tolerate public servants who think they exist on some higher strata above the citizenry. If you cannot deal with this Reality, you must find a line of work in which you do not profess to “protect and serve.” “Protecting and serving” require humility and an ability to endure the disrespect of those for whom you serve.

 

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Mayor Jones Bemoans “A Tragedy for the Officers”

by 327 Comments on Mayor Jones Bemoans “A Tragedy for the Officers”

After learning that two of his police department’s employees were officially charged in the murder of a mentally-ill homeless man, Fullerton’s esteemed Mayor Dick Jones was finally a talkin.’ He cast out this pearl:

“We are delighted this has come forth,” Mayor F. Richard Jones said. “The DA has done an outstanding job of presenting this. … He was very succinct and clear. … It’s a tragedy for the officers, for the Thomas family and for the city.”

Did you just read that right? Mayor Jones exclaiming a tragedy for the officers?!! Yep, you did read that right.

Well, some may just say that he misspoke, even though he undoubtedly had been coached beforehand by his out-of-town handlers.

And I say that he said exactly what he meant: that the whole obscene episode, and his role in creating the corruption that led to it, and later his downplaying the murder is a tragedy – for himself and the gang of thugs he set loose on Downtown Fullerton.

Of course not a word of sympathy from the good doctor for the actual victim – a sick, law-abiding homeless man. To Jones who’s “doin’ all right” up on his hill, Kelly Thomas was just another filthy bum annoying his cherished booze hall-owning pals.

 

 

And Jonesie has seen many much worse injuries than those of Kelly Thomas that were survivable.

 

But of course none of the victims that Doc HeeHaw pulled out of flaming airplane wreckage in Veet Naam had a two hundred and fifty pound cop sitting on their chest electrocuting and pistol whipping them.

 

 

No more free ride for you,  Mr. Jones. People finally understand what an incompetent, loud-mouthed idiot you really are.

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Posted onLaw N Disorder

What About Those Other Four Cops, Their Bosses, and the FPD Code of Silence?

by 228 Comments on What About Those Other Four Cops, Their Bosses, and the FPD Code of Silence?

Watch as the DA explains how the other four officers involved in the Kelly Thomas murder did not mention excessive force when they wrote their reports of the incident.

Also recall that those reports were supposedly written (and even more importantly, rewritten) to the satisfaction of “The Management” who watched the tape.

Put it all together and you’ve got the makings of a full-fledged cover up.

Who were the FPD managers who orchestrated the collusion and the falsification of what they all knew to be true? We’d like to know Mssrs. Bankhead, Jones and McKinley, if it isn’t too much trouble!

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Posted onLaw N Disorder

Power to the People, their Courage, and their Cameras

by 166 Comments on Power to the People, their Courage, and their Cameras

The Killing of Kelly Thomas & The Power of New Media by Paul Detrick of Reason.com analyzes the effectiveness of amateur video, internet communication and the perseverance of ordinary citizens against the intransigence of institutional power.

Note CSUF Professor Jarrett Lovell’s assessment of the Fullerton Police Department’s Public Information Officer.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

McKinley Hired Jay Cicinelli.

by 209 Comments on McKinley Hired Jay Cicinelli.
Smile now, cry later...

Former Fullerton Police  Chief, and now city council recall target Pat McKinley hired Jay Cicinelli. Cicinelli was arraigned yesterday in Suprior Court in the homicide death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of six McKinley proteges.

But among all the pickpockets, thieves, sexual predators, kidnappers, thugs, and murderers hired by McKinley, Jay Cicinelli was special. The recipient of several gunshot wounds including the head shot that cost him an eye and probably useful brain matter, Cicinelli was placed on a permanent disability pension by LAPD who wisely concluded that Cicinelli was no longer fit to be a policeman.

Enter Mike Hillman, an LAPD honcho and old pal of then Fullerton Chief McKinley; Hillman was determined that Cicinelli fulfill his life’s calling as a cop, and public safety be damned. In McKinley, Hillman found his man, and Cicinelli was put to work with a badge and a gun on the streets of Fullerton. Need some corrobrating testamony? Here’s the money quote from article linked above from none other than Jay Cicinelli:

I think he had a lot to do with getting me this job, I know he was good friends with (Fullerton Police) Chief Pat McKinley. How many departments are going to hire an officer with one eye?

Let’s put this in perspective: doing a favor for an old LAPD crony, McKinley placed the citizens of Fullerton at pysical and financial risk by employing and deploying a cop rejected by LAPD. It was done knowingly, cavalierly, and utterly irresponsibly. Apart from recognizing the alarming potential for post traumatic stress disorder, even the average civilian will have wondered at the obvious depth-perception and peripheral vision issues connected to a one-eyed cop.

Still waiting for his "Authorities" to tell him what to do...

And now that it’s time to take accountability for his actions, his out-of-town handlers won’t let McKinley do at least one honorable thing in his life: resign.

So we’re going to help him.

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Posted onDead heads

SHOCKING! DISGUSTING! OUTSIDE AGITATORS STIR UP TROUBLE IN FULLERTON!

by 79 Comments on SHOCKING! DISGUSTING! OUTSIDE AGITATORS STIR UP TROUBLE IN FULLERTON!

We all know the story. The Old Guard is always squawking about them thar’ outside agitators who come to town with their evil commie agendas about civil rights and other suchlike newfangled eye-d-ers. We’ve already heard it about those protesting for transparency and justice in the brutal beating death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of the Fullerton Police Department.

Hilariously, the Three Blind Dinosaurs – Jones, McKinley and Bankhead – have decided to hire an entire gang of outsiders to defend the indefensible – them. So let’s take a quick look.

Yes. I have a price. And it's remarkably low.

First there’s the mastermind, Dick Ackerman, another Mesozoic castoff who operates a sleazy lobbying scam for the Nossaman law firm, and who was just handed a huge multi-million dollar low-income housing project by his three pals on the council, and who has millions of good reasons to keep these incompetent nitwits on the council. Ackerman is a real paragon of virtue who was busted for illegally lobbying the Legislature, who created a phony charity in order to vacation in Hawaii, and who tried to foist his dimwitted wife as an Assemblywoman on Fullerton by cooking up a fake address in our city; actually Ackerman lived, and still lives behind a guarded gate in Irvine, so of course that makes him a shameless liar.

We just found out that Ackerman is peddling his ass as a expert on how to “manage” angry citizens; oh, you know the sort. The kind who react badly when innocent men are murdered in their streets.

The metamorphosis into an oxygen breathing creature was slow and painful.

Then there’s Dick’s  hand-picked mud-slinging associate – a despicable toad named Dave Ellis. Rather than delve into this miscreant’s high crimes and misdemeanors we’ll just let Orange Juice Blogmeister Vern Nelson have at him in a brilliant expose. This creep is from Newport Beach.

Now, perhaps, the funniest bit of all – the anti-recall address: 603 E. Alton Ave. Ste. H . Santa Ana, CA! Santa Freaking Ana?! I guess they couldn’t find a convenient PO box in Fullerton.

It’s true that the superannuated drain clogs have engaged the services of a couple of local stooges to give the appearance of grassroots support, but really, outside of a few shopworn drunks at the boozy Chamber of Commerce mixers, who will support the Tumescent Trio?

It likes meal worms.

One of the boosters is a rather loathsome reptile named James Alexander, known in Fullerton City Hall as a small-time influence peddler and bag man for big developers. This guy is a main chance sort of lizard, and his chances are dwindling rapidly.

Then there’s some other guy named Larry Bennett, who not only backs the Dinosaurs with a weird myopia, but also defends the police union in its role in creating the Culture of Corruption in the FPD. I suppose he has to. His boys and the FPOA are inextricably joined at their collective hips, it would seem. And that’s why there’s a recall in the first place. I am also informed that Bennett sells life insurance to all these geezers, so the myopia is explained actuarially, and the circle conveniently closes.

As the recall signature gathering draws to a successful conclusion we will discover how much (and how little) support the Three Blind Dinosaurs actually have in Fullerton itself.

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Posted onFullerton City Council

A Lack of Trust, by Robyn Nordell

by 158 Comments on A Lack of Trust, by Robyn Nordell

As is evidenced from the comments tonight, the comments from the last few city council meetings, the FPD protests, and the current city council agenda which is full of lawsuits which will cost the city millions of dollars, it’s obvious that there is a great deal of anger and mistrust towards the Fullerton Police Dept and the City of Fullerton.

A large number of negative incidents involving Fullerton police officers continue to come to light, ranging from alleged sexual misconduct of officers towards women whom they have stopped, to officers allegedly committing theft, to charges of false arrest, and so on. Our family experienced a mistaken raid on our home by armed undercover vice cops who were looking for the home next door.

Clearly, it is in the best interest of everyone for the FPD and the city council to work hard to win back the trust of people. In doing so it seems obvious that it would be Wise to Avoid Doing Things That Unnecessarily Increase Distrust.

THE CURRENT UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION

There is a situation in the FPD that can be corrected. Making this correction should take away some of the distrust.

Your current FPD Spokesperson / Public Information Officer has had, and still has, a major role in the Fullerton Police Officers union. (FPOA)

Here are three examples of his significance to the union:

  • CURRENT—On behalf of the police union, Mr. Goodrich is on the small negotiating team for the current police union contract. As a member of that team he would be trying, of course, to get the highest salary and best benefits possible for the union members. To do so, you would assume that he would be trying to put the officers in the best light possible.
  • IN THE PAST— In 2003, Mr. Goodrich wrote a how-to article for union members entitled, “The Value of Political Involvement-Your Association’s Role in Local Politics.” This piece explained effective ways for the union to get their choice of candidates elected to the city council and WHY it is in the union’s best interest to do so. (Goodrich’s document is located within this article, “Peer into the Thought Process of the FPOA,” www.fullertonsfuture.org)

I think it is absurd for someone in a significant role in the police union to be the spokesperson for the Fullerton Police Department.  This situation obviously causes distrust by many in the community and it makes the leadership of the FPD, the city manager, and the city council look foolish.

In his “union role”—Mr. Goodrich’s union task would be to put police officers in as positive of a light as possible.

In his spokesperson role”—when he is speaking on behalf of the FPD—putting police officers in as positive of a light as possible should not be his concern. His concern should be honesty, accuracy, and transparency.

HERE’S MY SUGGESTION:

The current FPD Spokesperson/Public Information Officer (Mr. Goodrich) should be reassigned to a different position and he should be replaced by an officer who has not had a major role in the Fullerton Police Officers Union.

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Posted onDead heads

Don Bankhead, Champion of Ethics and Civil Rights!

by 240 Comments on Don Bankhead, Champion of Ethics and Civil Rights!

 

Laughing all the way to the Blank. Head.

But not recently.

Politicians should always be careful about what they say. The public has a nasty habit of remembering their pronouncements.

Back in 1990 during his failed bid for County Sheriff (remember, right before his “total disability” pension claim), Don Bankhead needed a hook to get folks interested in his bad comb-over, lackluster self. So he discovered that he was really a reformer who was interested in establishing an “ethics unit” at the OCSD, you know to clean up the mess over there. Read all about it in an LA Times article, here. Enjoy the rich irony as Bankhead pontificates:

“We’ll put the shine back on the badge and we’ll all have a good clean Sheriff’s Department,” Bankhead said. “If no one’s rights are violated, we won’t get sued.”

Now fast forward to Tuesday night’s Fullerton City Council Closed Session Agenda that is littered with lawsuits against Fullerton and its lawless police department. If ever there was a department in need of an ethics unit it would be the FPD – over which Bankhead has refused to provide civilian oversight since 1988.

In the past few months the media has learned of FPD personnel charged, convicted, or alleged to have participated in grand theft, credit card fraud, kidnapping and sexual battery, assault, false arrest, and perjury, all culminating in the brutal bludgeoning death of a mentally-ill homeless man. And Mr. Ethics? Silent as a graveyard.

A word of advice, Mr. Bankhead. Time to get going establishing that ethics unit where it will do the most good. In your own department.

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Posted onFullerton City Council

On The Agenda: September 20, 2011

by 72 Comments on On The Agenda: September 20, 2011

As FFFF’s Grover Cleveland has pointed out, the City of Fullerton has no fewer than 7 pending or likely law suits pending – and that’s just what’s on the Agenda!

After the shock wears off, let’s look at the rest of tonight’s Agenda.

There are the usual meeting minutes and funding transfers. There’s an agreement between the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency and the City of Fullerton so that the City/RDA can pay the State so that the City can keep the RDA.

The price tag is staggering: $54,701,015!!! And this is in addition to paying off tens of millions in bond debt incurred thanks to Bankhead, Jones, and even McKinley. And this is “under the radar” in the Consent Calendar where we usually see minor routine action items. More often then not, however, this is where staff places big ticket items (like the City Manager’s FAT raise or this RDA agreement to pay blood money to the State.)

Oh but wait! It gets better. In the same agreement there is a schedule of payments to the tune of $58,383,657 to cover RDA administrative costs!

And almost as an after thought, the agreement schedules “housing administration annual costs” which will total $16,234,607!

(more…)

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