FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Author: Mr. Peabody
Mr. Peabody is a Child of Aquarius, a former hard drug user, and a devotee of lawn bowling. He abandoned a profitable career as an curb address number painter to fulfill a lifetime dream of mastering the zither.
UPDATE: Stop the presses. It seems as if I were a tad premature in my post. According to the OC Register, the judge gave the DA the right to come after a specific request is made by the Fullerton City Council:
The judge said the D.A.’s motion is a tad premature because with the City Council meeting tonight, there’s no way to know what the panel is going to ask for. Prosecutors asked for, and the judge granted, permission to renew their request, based on what develops.
This one’s not over yet. Top Secret Tony will be back.
Apparently the OC District Attorney was rebuffed this morning in his attempt to keep secret the audio record of the call made to Fullerton cops the night of July 5th 2012, that led to the detainment and subsequent murder of the mentally ill homeless man, Kelly Thomas.
The judge hearing the request said no. This seems to indicate that the releasing the audio would not impair any cases the DA is pursuing. Why Rackauckas ever wanted to keep it under wraps remains a mystery. Maybe somebody in Fullerton asked him to.
More information with details as we get it. Meantime, this item has been agendized for discussion at tonight’s special council meeting, so there should be some interesting councilmanic conversation.
The OC Register is reporting that Jay Cicinelli, the man we watched smash Kelly Thomas’s head with the butt of his taser is no longer employed by the people of Fullerton.
According to his dear old stepdad, John Huelsman, he was fired for policy violations and excessive force, a charge Cicinelli will be fighting.
Of course for those who watched the snuff video, and later heard Cicinelli’s admission that he smashed Kelly’s face “to Hell,” this action was a no-brainer. Even though the DA charged this creep nine months ago with manslaughter, the Fullerton Police Department and the Three Bald Tires permitted the investigation sham drag out for over a year before cutting Cicinelli loose.
Tonight you can share your opinion with the Fullerton City Council on whether the Council should schedule a November 2012 referendum on legalizing “safe and sane” fireworks.
Of course we are not talking about cherry bombs, M-80s, skyrockets, or any of the other illegal stuff that may be acquired over the border, so please, let’s nobody have a cow, right off the bat.
Back in the late 80s the people of Fullerton said no to all fireworks after heavy lobbying by the Fire Department and other members of the crowd control clique.
The result is lost revenue that many non-profits would have received, and of course, the lost freedom of being able to enjoy a good old-fashioned 4th in you own backyard.
Something has been bothering me, and I have a question: What is a waistband?
I don’t really know. It sounds like something that held up those stretchy green rayon pants old grandad wore.
I do know that it is the handiest thing imaginable for cops who, for whatever reason, have just plugged somebody. How many times have we read in post-shooting news articles that Mr. Sinister was “reaching for his waistband” when Officer Galahad, fearing for his own life, felt compelled to shoot him four or five times? Apparently a “waistband” is the place that bad guys stick their pistols, or knives, boomerangs, or whatever; or that’s the plausible place he they would stick ’em if they had ’em in the first place.
And how many times has the DA, investigating the shootings, given a pass to Officer Galahad or one of his brethren, due to the claim, often unsubstantiated, that Mr. Sinister was “reaching for his waistband?”
Of course it’s a little embarrassing when it turns out that Mr. Sinister was completely unarmed. Then you would think that the “reaching for waistband” defense would come up a little short. After all why would a bad guy reach for a weapon that wasn’t there?
But no! It seems that for a successful Reaching For The Waistband defense, a policeperson merely needs to chant the mantra and that establishes the defense. After all, how was Officer Galahad to know that Mr. Sinister was merely trying to pull his pants up?
A guy named Matt Leslie has started a new blog in Fullerton, and it looks like a pretty good read. It’s called the Fullerton Rag and appears thoughtful and well-written. I am informed Mr. Leslie is the lesser half of recent council candidate, Jane Rands.
This blog will likely appeal to the less febrile and more intellectual Fullerton political aesthetic preference; and I say bravo! The more people who dial into what’s happening in Fullerton, the better.
Be sure to read the post about Leslie playing Monopoly with Don Bankhead. It’s pretty good.
Dear Friends, we received the following e-mail today:
The Fullerton Police Department needs a housecleaning; a big broom that will reach all the way back into the filthy corners that haven’t been cleaned for years. There are hairballs and dust bunnies back in there dating to Patdown Pat McPension’s first years on the job.
Except for those inside the department and the cowardly do-nothing types like Sharon Quirk who would have us believe that she and Dan Hughes are cleaning up the spills on Aisle One, nobody believes the department is capable of reforming itself. We need an objective outsider to do the job. Somebody who has experience as a municipal police chief, but who isn’t afraid to take on the establishment.
That person is Bill Hunt.
As a lieutenant in the OC Sheriff’s Department he was the Police Chief of San Clemente. He took on the corrupt Sheriff, Mike Carona when nobody else had the guts to. In doing so he earned the enmity of all the other crooked repuglicans in Orange County. It cost him his job.
Let’s get Fullerton back on track. Let’s get a strong, effective, honorable reformer running our police department!
Yesterday we received this pearl of a comment from Mr. or Ms. Anonymous:
“These paranoid pot smoking hippies put 3 good men outta a job just because they said they wanted to wait until an investigation was complete before commenting on the death of Kelly.
Now these smelly hippies are turning there paranoia on the sidebar which had nothing to do with anything. when will the madness stop?”
You know, I think this person meant to say “Three Bald Tires.” You see, there was simply no tread left. The steel was showing through what was left of the rubber. They were worse than worthless: they were dangerous.
But now they are in a better place – protecting against erosion along a bend in the Santa Ana River. And even though we are all just smelly hippies, we are all in a better place, too.
All this talk about Fullerton cop union boss Barry Coffman has resurrected fond memories of the hilarious video we shared last fall, after the notorious FPD Excessive Horning harassment episode. It seems that good ol’ Barry was one of the principle performers in Dan Hughes’ circus. Enjoy once more:
Echoing the sentiments of his boss and apparent mentor, Acting Police Chief Dan Hughes, Fullerton cop union leader Barry Coffman says those who characterize the FPD as having a corruption problem are misinformed. Here are his exact words from a Register article.
“I think they are misinformed,” Coffman said about anyone saying the department has had corruption. “They don’t know what corrupt is. … They take this Kelly Thomas incident and say there has been a cover-up. Just because they didn’t get information when they wanted it, they conclude there is corruption.”
Predictably, Coffman chooses to gloss over the long string of malfeasance perpetrated by members of the FPD, mostly card-carrying members of his own union. See, Barry is suddenly confronted with the very real possibility that Fullerton might consider outside offers to take over policing in Fullerton, offers that could save as much as $10,000,000, annually.
Well, Mr. Excessive Horning has a selective and self-serving memory. I don’t. Here’s what I remember from just the past year:
Albert Rincon – Accused of multiple sexual assaults. City styles two cases for $350,000.
Todd Major – Fraud. Ripped off Explorers.
Kelly Mejia – Grand theft.
Miguel Siliceo – misidentification of suspect. Wrong guy spends 5 moths in jail.
Vince Mater – Charged by DA with destruction of evidence in jail suicide case.
Manuel Ramos – Accused of assaulting disabled man in June, 2011.
Kenton Hampton – Accused of battery and false arrest against Veth Mam and Edward Quinonez. Cooked up story to attempt to convict Mam. Jury acquits Mam.
Frank Nguyen – bogus testimony in Mam case.
Robert “Go home or go to jail” Kirk – Threatens law abiding citizens with jail for watching the FPD at work. Later spotted in the “excessive horning” debacle.
Perry Thayer – accused of roughing up downtown visitor
Cary Tong – ditto
April Baughman – stole from the FPD property room for two years before getting caught. Hmm. No accomplices? No inventory?
Andrew Goodrich – peddled falsehoods about the Kelly Thomas killing that were never retracted.
Barry Coffman(!) – proud participant in Dan Hughes’ excessive horning scam.
Tom “Tango” Basham – allegedly the watch commander the night of the Thomas murder, and player #1 in the subsequent cover up.
Christopher Wren – off the hook in the Rincon assaults, but plead no contest to “false imprisonment” against some kid in the IE – bargaining down battery charges. Anger management took care of his legal problems. Ours are still pending.
Dan Hughes – boss of all the above
Etc., etc.
Of course the “incident” with Kelly Thomas stands in a class by itself for malicious, incompetence, and murderous thuggery. We will always remember the names Ramos, Wolfe, Cicinelli, Blatney, Craig. Oh and let’s not forget our old friend Hampton.
I discovered this hanging from my door knob this morning, courtesy of the Fullerton Recall team. Yowzer! Look down there at the bottom of the salary side: Thomas Basham – the alleged Watch Commander who watched his boys beat Kelly Thomas to death. And on the pension side get a load of #2: Former City Manager, and anti-recall contributor, Chris Meyer who pulled in $171K in pension last year. He sure has lots of reasons to back the Three Bald Tires.
Yesterday we received this pearl of a comment from Mr. or Ms. Anonymous:
