The Orange County Association of Cities is an organization of repuglicans who just can’t stand the thought of big, authoritarian government unless they are milking it for all it’s worth. So it is fitting indeed that this operation should employ former Fullerton City Councilman and State legislator, Dick Ackerman, to teach its members how to “manage” a lynch-type mob (us). Such management presumably means deception, flattery, cajoling, bamboozlement, and ultimately doing nothing.
The choice of Ackerman cannot have been accidental, for he is one of the biggest enemies of government transparency in the State. You may remember some of our posts on Dickie Boy. We busted him cooking up a fake address in Fullerton so his old lady could carpetbag her way into the Assembly and perpetuate Dick’s cozy relationship with big lobbyists. Speaking of lobbyists we also uncovered the Ackermans’ scam non-profit, a gig run by lobbyists to pay for Hawaiian vacations for Dick and his slimy pals in the Legislature. And then of course there was the OC Fair scandal in which Ackerman illegally lobbied his former colleagues in Sacramento. Ackerman’s own billings did him in when exposed by our friends at the Voice of OC(EA). (Parenthetically, the latter incident was the subject of a DA whitewash – hmm).
Ironically, Ackerman has been on of the biggest supporters and promoters of the immensely incompetent and arrogant Three Blind Mice, who presumably, can be relied upon to trek down to the Tustin Ranch Golf Club and hobnob with their repuglican kinfolk and learn from the Dickster all about “shocking crises and what went wrong.”
Come to think about it, maybe Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley should be teaching this course; that is, if they are capable of learning anything at all.
Looks like lawyer Garo Mardirossian has the City of Fullerton squarely in his sights. He is representing the Thomas family in the beating death of their son Kelly. Here’s the CNN interview including a snippet from Michael Gennaco. Interestingly Mr. Mardirossian is now also representing the man who was thrown around by FPD officer Kenton Hampton and subsequently jailed and wrongly prosecuted by the DA based on fraudulent evidence from the Fullerton cops. We reported about that here and here. That prosecution was rejected by a jury because the cops demonstrably perjured themselves. Garo has no apprehensions about naming Kenton Hampton as being present at both incidents. The clip is a bit long but worth viewing in its entirety.
Although it’s going to end up costing everybody in Fullerton to resolve these cases, you can bet on one thing: none of our so-called “leaders” will take personal responsibility for this total failure of civilian oversight of a police department that is manifestly out of control.
A few days ago some stooge named David Whiting who writes articles on hiking and wildflowers for the OC Register, made the startling statement that although witnesses claimed Kelly Thomas was beaten with a flashlight, the lawyer for the FPD thugs who did the beating denied that flashlights were used. And that left the door open (in his pea-brain) to defend the idea that we members of the mob must patiently wait for the diligent investigation that will clear up these wild inconsistencies.
Our knucklehead city councilman and former police chief Pat McKinley, for one. He wants us to believe that it was physically impossible for six cops to simultaneously beat Kelly Thomas to death on that hot July 5, 2011 night at the Fullerton Transportation Center. Of course he has reason to want us to believe that since he is the one who hired the six thugs in question, one of whom failed an LAPD physical.
Is that what happened? I have no idea since McKinley, Goodrich & Co. refuse to release the city’s video for fear of “tainting” eyewitness testimony. But check out this sickening video of a guy named Craig Prescott and his seven friendly jailers going to town on him in an 8×8 cell:
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick and tired of the jackasses we have in charge of this city. They have become habitual and casual liars and still think they can get away with it.
If you want to get a glimpse of abject stoogery from an employee of a company that another employee has comically referred to as “one of the better news organizations,” take a gander at this drivel from some jackass named David Whiting that was posted yesterday. He’s “reporting” on the mob mentality of those protesting the brutal bludgeoning death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of the Fullerton Police Department. We have noted the bland acceptance of this crime by the Register that has used such gassy descriptions of the lethal attack as “scuffle,” “tussle” and this priceless gem: “the struggle continued until Thomas lost consciousness” (or maybe he just got bored and fell asleep).
First, from the Reg, a scary headline: “Mob Rule Rises After Thomas Death” This is so damned stupid I’ll treat it for what it is – brainless pro-police propaganda. Just like this typical unsubstantiated and utterly irrelevant assertion by Whiting: Sure, there are bad cops. But the vast majority serve with honor and courage.
Reading Whiting’s steaming pile of inaccuracies really makes you wonder whether this clown is actually in the pay of FPD. Let’s hold our collective noses and examine some of it.
Whiting takes exception to those of us who criticize our MIA Chief. According to Whiting, Sellers has been a regular Chatty Cathy, actually having his name mentioned in a two or three press releases issued by Goodrich. Of course we know he hasn’t said anything at all.
Whiting cites a July 11th statement by FPD spokeshole (and cop union official) Andrew Goodrich: a mush-mouth statement (he conveniently ignores all the lies and leaks peddled by this sphincter) indicating the department’s pro-active, hands-0n approach. Alluding to FPD’s immediate attention to this matter, he says the statement was made the day after the Thomas was taken off artificial life support by his dad. But Dave, Thomas was effectively killed on July 5th, six days before this alleged statement; and by July 11th Chief Mike Sellers had long since departed on his two-week vacation (another embarrassing fact omitted by Whiting).
Whiting notes with disdain the “allegations” that the DA’s investigator on the case, Stan Berry, is close personal pals with Sellers, but apparently failed to even make an effort to find out if the “allegations” were true. They must be. The DA didn’t deny it when directly asked.
Once again we are admonished that reasonableness requires that we patiently wait for the investigation to run its course, even though (here’s another inconvenient fact ignored by Whiting) the cops involved refuse to cooperate with the DA.
Protesters are chastised for using intemperate language!
But some of the placards were disturbing. “Who do you call when cops murder?” “Murderers go to jail, murders with badges go on vacation;” “FPD employs murderers.”
Last I checked, “murder” is a word used in a verdict from a jury in a court of law.
Smug bastard, isn’t he? Somehow when we see the picture of a helpless guy whose head has been bashed in by six well-armed, well-fed cops with obvious malice we arrive at the inescapable conclusion that a murder took place. Silly us.
Here’s Whiting’s crescendo of crap:
There are videos in which eyewitnesses state that Thomas died at the bus depot. That didn’t happen. There are statements that officers beat Thomas with a flashlight. The attorney for the officers denies that happened.
Huh? Nobody disputes Kelly was effectively killed at the bus depot – even if taken alive, but brain-dead to UCI, later. Of course the bus riding witnesses didn’t know if he was technically dead or alive. This is just the dirtiest and cheapest chickenshit hair-splitting trick I’ve seen yet from the Police Gang. If Whiting got up off his lazy ass and went to see the bloodstained concrete at the Fullerton bus depot he might not be so fucking glib.
And note also that Whiting is giving credence to statements from the cops’ lawyer. The same cops who refuse to talk to the DA? Did the cop’s lawyer helpfully suggest that a Taser butt might just look like a flashlight to the uninitiated? Wanna place a bet?
It is the duty of the investigators – regardless if they are D.A., FBI or Fullerton’s own – to find out what did happen.
Yes, of course it is their duty. It is also FPD’s duty to serve and protect the public, including Kelly Thomas, rather than bash his brains out in the gutter.
Until then, efforts spent speculating and accusing might be better directed at ensuring that law enforcement is adequately trained to deal with the mentally ill.
Ah, the old misdirection! If only the poor police had better training! No, you useless hack, the issue isn’t ignorance about how to deal with the mentally ill. The issue is that six Fullerton cops Tasered and bludgeoned a helpless human being to death.
You would think even a dim-witted Register employee would get that.
Yesterday KFIs John and Ken had an opportunity to interview our District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas on the subject of the Kelly Thomas death investigation. Normally I wouldn’t hold out any hope at all for a lucid explanation of what was going on from T-Rack. After all I’m one of the people who refer to Rackauckas as our “Do Nothing DA” for his historically lackadaisical approach to wrong-doers who also happen to be elected officials and cops.
Rackauckas actually did pretty well, for him. The keynote was his claim that “everything is open.” Again, normally I would take that to mean: everything is open – including, and most likely, no findings and the cops skate, as usual. This is different. Although T-Rack claimed he saw no evidence that there was a deliberate intent to kill, he also said that the video is “core evidence” which strongly suggests that he may actually do something.
Now this may be no more than lawyer speak but I am guardedly optimistic, especially since Rackaukas admitted that his investigators have not spoken to any of The Fullerton Six who have refused to speak to them. He also indicated that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to talk to them given the core evidence. Hmm. It seemed to me that the DA was tossing out backhanded signals that some of the cops may want to sing if they want to avoid a long state prison stay for second degree murder. Of course maybe I’m reading too much into this.
On the down side Rackauckas refused to take blame for appointing and not removing Stan Berry, a good friend of Fullerton Police Chief Sellers to the investigation. This looks bad to everybody in the free world, except Rackauckas. And he said nothing about the possibility of cops cooking up their reports in concert.
On national TV our illustrious mayor tells NBC what he thinks of his constituents.
Well, he can run his mouth but he can’t hide behind his cronies and speech writers. Now the entire country knows what kind of idiot we have for a mayor.
For some folks sexual fondling in the backseat of a car may evoke happy memories of teenage hormonal overload and good clean fun. But when you’re handcuffed by a police officer on trumped up charges only to be sexually groped by that cop, things take on a much more sinister character.
Night time is the right time...
Like sexual battery and federal civil rights violations, just for starters.
Here are the stories of two women who claim that Fullerton cop Albert Rincon, aided and abetted by Officer Christopher Wren essentially kidnapped them and sexually assaulted them in 2008 while they were in custody – in the backseat of Rincon’s patrol car, to be precise. Rather than rehash the story, I’ll let you read the complaint filed in federal court. Checkout pages 5 through 12 of 35 for the sordid details.
Three long years later the case is winding its way through the court system toward a November 2011 trial. The case found its way to the federal courtroom of Andrew Guilford, who knows all about pervy cops – having presided over the Michael Carona corruption trial. Check out the Joint Conference Scheduling Report:
Note #1: the City of Fullerton offered the victims $7,500 to settle; and the alleged victims assert that the City knew of Rincon’s prior history of sexual misconduct! I wonder what that history was.
Note #2: The DA never prosecuted the alleged victims for any crimes related to their arrests. Is Rincon a Brady cop?
Note #3: the City’s lawyer, Bruce Praet is the same charming individual who allegedly offered FPD beating-death victim Kelly Thomas’ dad a cash settlement before threatening to drag his mentally ill son’s name through the mud; and that before “all the facts were known,” an admonition the cops seem to think only applies to us citizens and taxpayers – not themselves.
Fullerton, this is your out of control police department; it is enabled and protected by majority of your city council. What the Hell are you going to do about it?
We have nothing to hide. Now it's off to the Caribbean...
We received the following correspondence from a long-time Friend.
The controversy surrounding the recent beating death of Kelly Thomas, a local mentally ill homeless man at the hands of the Fullerton Police has been marked by the absence of Chief Michael Sellers. The FPD has instead relied on its regular spokesman Sgt. Andrew Goodrich for information about the case. This might be thought an appropriate channel of communication if this were anything like standard police work. It is not. Six sworn peace officers beat a man to near death (he died days later) in the parking lot of the Fullerton Transportation Center, and no explanation has been offered other than that the man offered physical resistance and that a thorough investigation will follow.
The brutality of the beating has left many in this city asking how it was that six trained police officers could not subdue a single unarmed man without killing him. Chief Sellers, who is reportedly vacationing, neither returned to Fullerton to appear before the press and public or even offered a written statement about the tragedy. His complete absence does nothing to assure the people of Fullerton that there is responsible leadership being exercised over the officers in his department.
