Law N Disorder Archives - Page 21 of 41 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

August 9, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Sharon Quirk’s Problem With The Ladies

The Voice of OC(EA) is reporting here about the protest held in front of the Old Courthouse by NOW, the OCEA and others demanding that the State’s Attorney General look into the sexual mistreatment of female County workers at the hands of Carlos Bustamante and his superiors.

You’ll notice that one of the “others” was our own Mayor Sharon Quirk. Well, okay.

AlRincon2-163x300 — GOD MODE ACTIVATED. Lookin’ out for the ladies, oh yeah!

But wait! Almost immediately the name Albert Rincon sprung to mind. Who is Albert Rincon? He is the stand-up Fullerton cop that none of the FPD apologists ever want to talk about; the creep who was accused of serially molesting women in the backseat of his patrol car and who cost the taxpayers of Fullerton $350,000 to settle two of the cases.

Remember that these assaults took place during Quirk’s tenure on the council; and that Rincon, in response to numerous complaints from abused women, was merely required by his superiors to take patdown training classes; and that after the settlement was announced, Rincon was quietly permitted to walk away from the FPD – for entirely different reasons.

And what did the outraged Quirk do to investigate an institution that not only permitted, but virtually encouraged this predator? What did she do to bring justice to all the victims?

What’s that Sharon? We can’t hear you?

Next time she goes looking for female victims to stand up for, I humbly submit Quirk doesn’t have to look quite so far afield.

August 7, 2012Boohooism

Flightless Bird Attempts Take Off

by admin50 Comments

FloryBird — By 8:00 AM the celebration was in full swing…

Well, here ya go: the last gasp of Fullerton’s Yellowing Observers? Could be. As my old friend Don Carlos Marx once said: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

August 3, 2012August 3, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Stop Bushala From Establishing His Own Police Force!

by Joe Sipowicz160 Comments

Imagine a world where you could establish your own police force. A force that doesn’t kill innocent human beings and pretend it never happened; one whose members don’t falsify evidence, or beat people up, or steal from the evidence room, or from TSA checkpoints.

Imagine a police department where male members don’t sexually assault women in their police cruisers, and in which evidence in a jail suicide is not destroyed; where the official spokeshole doesn’t peddle bullshit to non-inquisitive media with impunity. Imagine a department where no lazy or crooked cops ID the wrong man and send him to jail. Imagine a force where the chief doesn’t deny the undeniable; or where the chief can’t get a disability retirement for high blood pressure and an achy tummy.

Can you imagine such a world?

The folks who put to gather this website can’t.

They also can’t spell the name of their antagonist.

By the way, do feel that you have had one iota of control over the Culture of Corruption?

August 3, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Keep The FPD!

by The Fullerton Harpoon280 Comments

The natives are getting restless. Well, some of them, anyhow. It appears that a campaign to keep the Fullerton Police Department is underway. Here’s the Facebook site.

Obviously the cop union has decided to start promoting its own perpetuation since the union would cease to exist if, say, the OC Sheriff Department assumed a police services contract with Fullerton – as Yorba Linda just did. And the residents of Fullerton are paying over 30% more, per capita, for municipal policing than the good folks in the City of Gracious Living.

The union’s intention is no doubt to try to make “local control” a fall 2012 campaign issue – and that’s good. Given the behavior of the FPOA brethren and sistren the past couple of years, and budget-busting cost of the FPD to the taxpayers, reasonable people may well be wondering about alternatives.

A lot of people will be asking where was the “local control” when Veth Mam was framed? Where was it when Albert Rincon was molesting women in his patrol car? Where was it when Kelly Thomas was murdered?

August 1, 2012August 1, 2012Home Town Hero

Justice and Peace, That’s All We Want!

by admin436 Comments

378344_4076394262335_1158048034_n — Teresa Smith (middle), Marlena Carrillo (left), Shelly Kearney (right with hat)

On Sunday I had the opportunity to witness an amazing display of principle and courage. As many of you know, our neighbors to the south in Anaheim had the misfortune of yet another police killing of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz who was unarmed. Diaz is the 7th person killed by Anaheim cops this year. The killing sparked neighborhood protests, one of which I attended outside the Anaheim police station.

A group of anarchist protesters armed with short sticks approached police on horses in front of the police station where Anaheim Crusader Teresa Smith was standing and protesting. Teressa’s son, Cesar Cruz, was another victim who died at the hands of the APD in 2009. She’s been protesting and advocating for peace and justice every Sunday outside the Anaheim police station for the past two years.

The anarchists were carrying short broom sticks and had their faces covered with bandannas. As they approached, Teressa told the angry group of anarchist to put down the sticks and protest peacefully. Marlena Carrillo and Shelly Kearney with Kelly’s Army showed up to support Teressa and also encouraged the angry protesters to stand down.

The angry group calmed down and the rest of the protest went peacefully from that point on. No broken windows, no rocks or bottles, although the police did arrest several people for no apparent reason.

Sunday’s protest ended peacefully despite the ARMY of cops there prepared to maim and kill. That’s a direct result of the courage of a group of principled women who were driven by peace to advocate for peace.

July 31, 2012July 31, 2012Behind Closed Doors

The Revolution Was Televised. But You Were Watching Dancing With the Stars.

by Joe Sipowicz476 Comments

Check this out:

The streets of Bagdad or Kabul? No, this occupying force is all dressed up with no place to go – except the mean streets of Anaheim, where the police department has done just about everything possible to take a bad situation and make it worse.

But what’s with all the paramilitary bullshit? Camouflage? Really? What the Hell have we let out country become? Why did we let a bunch of neo-conservative chickenhawks and cowardly statist liberals turn our nation into a place where the local street cops are parading around with all the latest military hardware Homeland Security could buy for them?

Anaheimistan Lalo Cop Block OCW-thumb-504x505 — Courtesy of the OC Weekly

I don’t know about you, but the thought of a Cicinelli, a Wolfe, a Ramos, or a Hampton decked out like GI Joe, gives me nothing but apprehension. In Fullerton our new council needs to start scrutinizing this militarization of the flatfoots, and PDQ.

July 30, 2012July 31, 2012Chronic Failure

Go Home Or Go To Jail. Fullerton’s Latest Export: Riot Cops

by Joe Sipowicz118 Comments

The recent Time of Troubles in the Magic Kingdom has caused an influx of outside cops into Anaheim. A sharp-eyed bystander noticed some Fullerton police persons giving some mutual aid in Anaheim. This sleek fellow is one of them:

SoBig — Hey but you’re, but you’re looking good, baby
I believe that you’re feeling fine…

Photo courtesy of Greg Silva Photography

No word about if Anaheim appreciated the gesture.

July 27, 2012July 27, 2012Law N Disorder

What can a police chief do?

by The Fullertonista64 Comments

Throughout the entire ongoing Fullerton police brutality-fest/fiasco, we’ve been led to believe that a big part of the problem is that officers are protected and shielded and there is nothing anybody can do about it. It is said that they are shielded by their own, and by a set of laws and court cases which protect them: the Police Officer’s Bill of Rights and associated court decisions

What hasn’t been discussed much is what is actually possible to do. Let’s say a citizen filed a complaint against the police because of the brutality of an arresting officer: a Tong or a Thayer or a Hampton or a Ramos or a Cicinelli or… you get the idea, plenty to choose from.

What happens to that complaint? In Fullerton it gets buried in an officer’s personnel file unless Internal Affairs made the determination that it was grounds for criminal prosecution. Just think how often that must happen.

But what, if anything, can anybody in a supervisory position do when faced with misconduct by their officers? Apparently you can fire them. At least according to Anaheim Chief of Police John Welter.

See, reportedly under Welter when officers get out of line, by say not being very respectful to the citizenry, they are disciplined. “Every time they lose their cool and insult somebody or don’t act professional, we’ll hold them accountable. We discipline them. I’ve terminated probably 12 to 15 officers since I’ve been here.”

Trying to set aside my skepticism for a minute let’s take Chief Welter at his word. If Welter can do it, why couldn’t Sellers, Hamilton, or Hughes fire every rogue cop in the Fullerton police department? Every cop guilty of abusing and harassing innocent members of the public? Every cop who roughed up a prisoner just for fun? Every officer who has harassed a female, been guilty of racism, beaten up someone they perceived as a “bum” or a “gang banger”, given someone a “screen test”? Every one of the cops who beat Kelly Thomas to death? And maybe even a few cop blog commenters who do little besides insult the public and are about as professional as a troop of stoned baboons?

I guess any of our chiefs could have. They just didn’t want to.

Now, I don’t actually believe that Chief Welter means a word he says. But let’s go ahead and hold him to the standard he claims to have. Better start doing some more firing Chiefs. And yes, that goes for Anaheim AND Fullerton.

July 15, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Rats Jumping Off Sinking County Ship. Fingering Each Other

by The Fullerton Shadow45 Comments

The Voice of OC(EA) on Friday posted a story about yet another high-level crony of County CEO Tom Mauk bailing out of the creaky tub that is taking on water fast in the wake of the Carlos Bustamante sex-assault case. This person’s name is Alisa Drakodidas, and she was in immediate charge of the patsy who just got canned last week, and about whom I wrote about, here.

Drakodidas was a Deputy CEO of Infrastructure (whatever that means) and apparently a close confidant of Mauk. She has taken a medical leave until the end of August, and of course is still being paid. She has got herself a lawyer, too, and according to Voice has sent the County a nasty letter blasting various individuals, including Supervisors, most specifically Pat Bates. According to the Voice’s source, the letter accuses Bates of getting one of her office flunkies a high paying job and generally botching things up. Other Supervisors, collectively, are blamed for interfering with contracts (I think this is probably code for doing favors for fund-raising lobbyists). It’s obvious that Ms. Drakodidas is not planning on coming back to work.

Apparently the County is not releasing any details of the letter via the Public Records Act, but it’s clear somebody at the County has leaked the general outline of this document. It must provide some interesting reading. Hopefully all of this finger pointing will result in a clear picture of why Bustamante was employed at all, and who let him get away with his twisted pervy sex attacks.

July 15, 2012July 15, 2012Behind Closed Doors

It’s Broken. Fix It.

by Joe Sipowicz199 Comments

And let’s start with someone named Dana Fox who supposedly is an attorney for the City of Fullerton – a holdover from the Old Regime of Incompetence and Denial.

Here is a story by the never helpful Lou Ponsi of the OC Register that includes an interview with said Mr. Fox. It’s all about the the lawsuit filed by Ron Thomas against the City of Fullerton for the murder of his son by the Fullerton cops July 5th, 2011.

First Fox pops off about the irrelevance of previous bad behavior by some of Fullerton’s Finest:

Responding to the lawsuit Thomas filed last week, alleging officers’ misconduct in multiple incidents apart from the July 5, 2011 incident involving his son, attorney Dana Fox said many of the allegations deal with “extemporaneous” and “irrelevant” matters.

“All of those other matters have nothing to do with the events of July 5, 2011, and are irrelevant to determine if there is liability, and if so, if there are reasonable compensatory damages that Mr. Thomas is entitled to recover,” Fox said.

I think the history of malfeasance and cover-ups is very much germane to the Culture of Corruption that permeated the FPD. Of course I’m not a lawyer. But Garo Mardirossian is. I do know one thing: I want the history of FPD abuses addressed, admitted to, and corrected, and through a court proceeding, if necessary.

Later on Fox dangles the tasty carrot of an easy settlement:

“As the city and Cathy Thomas were able to do, which is put aside their differences … the city is more than willing to sit down with Mr. Thomas and his attorney,” Fox said. “Otherwise, it will be a lengthy case.”

Differences? Hell, we all saw the video. Who in the hell gave this assclown permission to speak to the media on behalf of the City. Bankhead, Jones, and McPension have been fired by the people of Fullerton. Who is giving this bozo direction in dealing with Ron Thomas, or any other of the long line of plaintiffs against the Fullerton Police Department? Again, I only want a settlement after a court trial, in public, details the facts of the Kelly Thomas murder on top of those the DA will not touch.

Finally, I would like to know who gave Lawyer Fox permission to open his yap to the media in the first place. Was it Old Regime City Manager Joe Felz? Was it Old Regime City Attorney Richard Jones? Was it Mayor Sharon Quirk? Whoever it was, one thing should be made abundantly clear – nobody speaks for the City of Fullerton except the city council; this means no more happy press releases issued by staff, no more government self-promotion, and no more obfuscation meant to protect city employees and meant to sweep embarrassments under the rug.

And let’s hope the new council gets on with the business of clearing out the holdovers from the corrupt, stupid, incompetent, and negligent council majority that preceded them.