Category: A Step in the Right Direction

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Revisiting The Seven Walls of Local Government

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What? We can't hear you. Please speak louder...
What? We can’t hear you. Please speak louder…

Over five years years ago this blog published an essay (broken into bite-sized pieces) on the subject of local government and how it exercises its ability to effectively marginalize and ultimately disenfranchise the very citizens it is supposed to be working for. It is called The Seven Walls of Local Government and it has both scholarly and entertainment value.

For the reawakening of the blog from its almost four-year snooze, I propose to re-schedule this masterpiece for the edification of the Friends. Stay tuned.

 

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We Get Mail

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FFFF has always been a drop box for mail from sources that prefer not to be identified. Some are obviously credible; others perhaps less so – sort of like like Sgt. Andrew Goodrich the FPD spokeshole who claimed that the cops who killed Kelly Thomas suffered broken bones, etc.

Yesterday, we received an e-mail from one of our readers identifying himself as “DTF” who passed along what was presented as information sent out by a disgusted cop who was hired, and departed the FPD for a different agency during former POChief Danny Hughes reign:

cop-letter

 

And there’s more, relating to the Joe Felz incident:

I have excellent sources at FPD who hate the Hughes clan because of the lies and double standards. 

Get a hold of those videos before they are  erased, hopefully that hasnt already happen. Admin is trying to make the officers sign a new policy to prevent them from talking about the incident.

When the first two officers arived on scene, Felz was still in his car trying to free it from the sidewalk and tree. The officers pull up behind Felz just as he dislodges his car and drives away. The officers purse him and actually perform a semi pit maneuver to stop his vehicle. (There is minor damage to one of the police cars if not both) 

This next part is sketchy. One version he was pulled out of his car at gunpoint and Felz identifies his self and  immediately says to call Hughes. The other version is he flees his car when it has been immobilized and there is a short foot pursuit.

But one thing I know is that the officers on scene said Felz was HAMMERED there was no doubt he was drunk. 

There is definitely video of the whole incident from the point the officers arrive on scene.

FYI no breathalyzer is necessary on scene. You can’t make a person take one at the scene. But the accident it self, coupled with his obvious impairment is plenty to have arrested him.

Put pressure on the PD to release the video. This is another huge cover-up by Hughes and his boys.

DTF

Friends, feel free to lend credence to this information in any degree that makes you feel comfortable.

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See? FFFF Can Do Puff pieces too!

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While the focus of this blog is rightly on the many problems and challenges faced by the City of Fullerton, I’d like to briefly mention a bit of a positive story, just this once.
Many of you know Thom Babcock, who was one of the members of the group behind the 1994 Recall, who most recently served as Fullerton’s representative on the Metropolitan Water District from 2012-2013 and is a friend of this blog and many of its contributors. This it Thom:
babcock
Since 2014, Thom and his granddaughter, Alyssa, have participated in Catarina’s Club’s pasta drive, which helps feed motel kids in the Anaheim area. Thom estimates that he and his granddaughter have collected 125 pounds of food for the drive and $300 in donations so far, but if any of our friends at FFFF would like to help add to the total, you can contact Thom by Sunday (Nov. 20) at tbabcock2609@gmail.com to drop off any additional donations of pasta or pasta sauce. There’s a lot to be cynical about in our political environment but there are good people and causes in our community and if you can help a lot of kids in need will appreciate it.
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Hail to the Chief!

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Fullerton has a new mayor, Bruce Whitaker.

Bruce is the obvious choice to lead Fullerton – he is calm, intelligent and principled. After a year of rambling, southern fried idiocy that was completely MIA, and then another year of pea-brained, pedagogic scolding we are now set for a strong, responsive, and responsible mayor.

We all know that during the past eighteen months Whitaker has stood up for accountability from an out-of-control FPD Culture of Corruption, and justice for Kelly Thomas, a homeless man murdered by members of a police department that subsequently tried to hide the whole mess. I also did a little background check on Bruce’s history of activism in Fullerton. It is impressive.

Whitaker became involved in Fullerton politics in 1993 when the newly minted City Manager, Jim Armstrong tried to strong arm an unnecessary utility tax. Naturally, the antiquated liberals, RINOs and former public employees on the City Council went for it. Bruce and a handful of compadres organized to recall Bankhead, Catlin and McClanahan, and, ultimately get the tax repealed. Fullerton did just fine without it.

After the County bankruptcy in 1994, Whitaker plated an important role in organizing resistance to the usual “break it and tax you” model of government. The big government crowd tried to get a new sales tax to pay for their own disaster. That too, failed.

Subsequently Bruce has had a distinguished record as a appointed office holder in Fullerton, a conservative watch dog, and a determined foe of abusive Redevelopment. He was elected to the Council in 2010.

From what I’ve seen Bruce is the real deal – a man for whom the concept of “freedom friendly” has nothing to do with the Curt Pringle-like crony capitalism that passes for conservatism in Republican Orange County.

Congratulations, Bruce. We’re counting on you to look out for the interests of the citizens and taxpayers over the interests of the public employee unions.

 

 

 

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Kiger’s Lead Shrinks To 56; About 1500 ballots Left to Count

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As of yesterday, November 13th, Travis Kiger’s lead over Jan Flory had been reduced to 56 votes. According to the ROV there remain about 1500 mail in ballots and provisional ballots left to count.

It’s gonna be close! Will Fullerton move ahead or will it retreat to the bad old days of denial and unaccountability? Will Jan Flory’s Dog become a major player in the OC blogosphere?

Stay tuned. We should know by the end of the day!

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Sunday Editorial – The Wrath of the Police Unions

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I’d say Steven Greenhut hit it out of the park with this piece in today’s OC Register:

Despite the revelations, police unions continue to behave as before, trying to intimidate council members who refuse to go along with their demands for ever-higher pay and benefits, and protections for their members from oversight and accountability.

Two councilmen in Fullerton, Bruce Whitaker and Travis Kiger, are experiencing treatment similar to the Righeimer episode in Costa Mesa. The Fullerton police union is angry at the role those men played in demanding reform in the wake of the death of Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man fatally beaten by Fullerton officers in July 2011.

Please read the rest of “Steven Greenhut: Others feel wrath of police unions”

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We Get Mail

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Dear Madam Mayor & Council Members,

We cannot pretend that Fullerton is serious about reform when those involved in the murder of Kelly Thomas, the illegal arrest and imprisonment of Veth Mam, and the many other documented cases of police misconduct, are still employed by FPD. We contend that you as our representatives at city hall, now being fully aware of the extent of misconduct by certain officers, that it is your duty above all else to protect the citizens of Fullerton, including those that may now feel targeted because of their public involvement in seeking justice for Kelly Thomas. There will be members of the community who will not comply to the orders of Officer Kenton Hampton, Sgt. Kevin Craig and Cpl. James Blatney, as they feel that these officers do not hold any moral authority over them. This reality puts all residents and peace officers in danger, and makes any contact by these men with the general public unwise. The adoption of the attached resolution by you, and the eventually firing of any officer who cannot live up to the ideals of a post Kelly Thomas Fullerton Police Department, will not only benefit all residents of Fullerton, but it shall restore public faith in the department itself. In doing so you will stimulate public trust to the benefit to those  other officers who have always conducted themselves professionally. Professional officers with good intentions deserve to work in an environment which is free of the stigma that the continued employment of these accomplices in a taped public execution places on the entire department.

Only by publically setting standards for peace officers which embody excellence in public service and respect for all Fullerton citizens, and by demanding the termination of all those who represent the worst of FPD’s past, can we move forward with confidently that reform and change has resulted from the tragic murder of Fullerton resident Kelly Thomas on July 5th, 2011. The city attorney, while perhaps well intentioned, has an established propensity to filter his advise through the fear that one of these subpar officers may litigate on grounds of wrongful termination. We advise this council to also consider what may result if any of the officers in question, who have now returned to active duty, are again involved the death or injury of one of our citizens.  Prudence dictates that they must be removed before they are given another opportunity to harm the public and burden the city with additional million dollar settlements.

Civility and healing will come to Fullerton when our leaders are responsive to the public and  we are not required to pry  every hint of justice that this case has brought forth over the last 14 month from the clinched fists of a stubborn leadership at city hall, the DA’s office or  FPD. Today we  present you with yet another opportunity to partner with us in seeking justice. We urge you to take advantage of this opportunity.

Respectfully submitted by

Stephan Baxter, Fullerton CA

www.ArtWithAnAgenda.org

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Sooner or Later, Social Justice For Kelly Thomas

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It’s funny, in a sick sort of way, but the very types who used to bray the loudest about the need for “social justice” have been virtually silent in Fullerton in the wake of the Kelly Thomas murder at the hands of members of an out-of-control police department.

The graying establishment Democrats had been hiding behind their drawn chintz curtains, curled up in an intellectual fetal position on their plastic slip-covered Naugahyde sofas. It was just too scary and, well, controversial to say anything, let alone actually do anything.

Fortunately, others, such as Stephan Baxter, Marlena Carrillo and Lauren Becker are willing to keep up the pressure.

Here is a link to Becker’s website that reminds us exactly what a Culture of Corruption can do, and try to get away with, when left to its own devices. It also reminds us what we can do to push back against an entrenched system.

The bars stayed open and the bands played on…

Democrats like Jan Flory, and Molly McClanahan and Pam Keller didn’t say a word in the aftermath of the murder. No, they only got outraged when people outside their cozy little circle took the reins of government out of the hands of three incompetent old fools.

These people are a lot more worried about the fate of the bureaucracy than they are about the people of Fullerton. All of them.

 

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