Just Words

The proudly ignorant discount the value of words. To them, people who use words to convey important ideas are contemptible. Their brainless brayings are pitched as the voice of the common man, the voice of common sense over intellectualism. Think: Don Bankhead, Pat McKinley, and F. Dick Jones.

Others are more savvy. Slightly.

Following in the footsteps of Dr. Josef Goebbels they are well aware that words do convey meaning. Powerful meaning. These mouthpieces are not particularly articulate themselves, but they know what Fullerton’s Three Blind Mice won’t admit. Words convey meaning; propaganda is power.

It is particularly annoying when an institution that represents itself as an independent, Constitutionally protected entity breezily and contentedly goes along with the bullshit a government promulgates to mischaracterize its criminal malfeasance.

And so we come (finally) to the Orange County Register, a pathetic collection of  intellectual flotsam and jetsam, stranded on the beach as the tide of journalistic integrity and competence retreated forever. Composed of sad nitwits like Lou Ponsi, Jim Radcliffe, and David Whiting, this diminishing band of high school newspaper stringers bravely soldiers on, regurgitating the banal nonsense peddled to it by city hall press releases and chamber of commerce newsletters. That’s all they can do, and their paltry livelihoods depend on it.

Ever since the story broke about the homicide of the mentally ill homeless guy, Kelly Thomas, at the hands of the Fullerton PD, the dim bulbs at the Register have fallen all over themselves to pass along a vocabulary intended to diminish the story. First, of course, is the outright stoogery of the tool Whiting. More subtle is the way Ponsi and his ilk have used language to subtly portray as fact the utterly nonsensical.

First it was a “scuffle” and a “tussle;” a veritable pillow fight that went on until Thomas (somehow) “became unconscious.” As the the truth emerged and the hideous images and eyewitness testimony have been revealed, the Defenders of the Faith have decide that well, maybe, just maybe, it was an “altercation” or even, perhaps, an actual “fight.”

A fight. Yes it was a fight. As a Fullerton PD goon’s knee crashed into his windpipe Kelly Thomas fought for air. Then he fought for life itself as six animals beat the life out of him, or stood to the side and watched as it was done to him. Were they laughing as they smashed the Taser handles into Kelly’s face? Register readers will never know.

The animals that murdered Kelly have their own demons they will have to contend with, if, in fact, they are capable of feeling any sense of guilt or remorse at all. But I hope that a particularly low circle of Hell awaits those who, when they had an opportunity to disseminate the truth, decided to join the gang of killers; and did so under the perforated shield of “impartiality.” They are cowards and thieves. They have robbed the public of the truth.

 

Don’t These Clowns Have Any Shame?

Brand spanking new interim Police Chief Kevin Hamilton got his name in the paper today, but not in a good way. In an LA Times story Hamilton admits that the goon squad that killed Kelly Thomas on the night of July 5th watched the subsequently top-secret video as they cooked up their “official” reports. Rather than decry this methodology that permitted the killers to get their story straight, Hamilton claims the exercise helped them “refresh” their memories. Of course the Inspector General of the LAPD completely disagrees with this tactic.

The tenor of the tenure was established on Day One

Hey, say what?!

Have we not been told for weeks now by people like former police chief/current councilman Pat McKinley as well as our Do Nothing DA Tony Rackauckas that the video cannot be released because it might “taint” the memories of potential witnesses?

So let’s see if I’ve got this straight: video refreshes cop memory; video taints witness memory. Got it?

Hamilton, who admits to having watched the video, also characterizes the incident as a significant “struggle.” Hmm. Well, that’s an improvement on “tussle,” but it makes you wonder what kind of damage it would have taken to cause the new Chief to utter the words: “lethal gang ass kicking.”

And so it appears as if our newly minted chief’s first contact with the media was a load of horse manure.

There Is An Emergency in Fullerton!

Things never looked better for Fullerton.

Yep, there sure is.

The City Manager has called an emergency meeting of the City Council this morning at 9:00, a mighty odd time to hold a public hearing. The ostensible purpose of this emergency is to hire an outsider to evaluate the condition our FPD condition is in.

It’s pretty obvious that this decision could have waited until the next scheduled meeting. So what’s the emergency? Maybe City Manager Joe Felz and the Gang of Three are trying to look like they are finally, really and truly taking things seriously. And maybe they prefer dealing with Kelly Thomas related humiliations at nine o’clock in the morning to avoid hundreds of angry commenters.

Fail to the Chief...

The really pathetic aspect of the abject failure of leadership in Fullerton and this desperate and transparent effort to defuse a recall is that the real emergency existed on July 5, 2011 and was completely unknown to our oblivious City Council, including the supposed law enforce experts Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead. Or maybe they knew and just didn’t care. After all, McKinley was police chief from 1993-2009 and has admitted he hired all the cops who have made Fullerton famous lately; and Bankhead has been on the city council since 1888. Oops. I mean 1988.

Has it really been that long?

F. Dick Jones has been on the council for 15 years; will he not take responsibility for the state of affairs he created?

Hail no!

What about the ever-compassionate Sharon Quirk? She has been on the council for seven long years. How many police-related monetary settlements has she approved?

Knitting socks as fast as she can...

Well, there you have it. An emergency. But its an emergency created by world-wide attention to the Fullerton Police Department’s culture of corruption, not by the corruption itself.

Well, go ahead and have your emergency meeting, folks. You can run but you can’t hide.

McKinley Plays Doctor

Mom always wanted me to be a doctor…

Apparently our city councilman and former police chief, Pat McKinley believes he has the expertise to opine on the severity of Kelly Thomas’s “facial” injuries. You heard him on CNN discount the photo of Kelly’s face. So where did McKinley get his medical degree? Oh, that’s right; his “expertise” stems from having his eyes “bloused” in his career, and look at how handsome he is now!

Man, these cops just don’t get it.

 

Chief Sellers Takes a Powder?

I just heard from a reliable source that Fullerton Police Chief Mike Sellers has put in for a minimum 30 day medical leave for some undisclosed malady.

Yikes! Is this going to be a stress-related gig? Can it be preliminary to a pension tax-grab? Is it driven by the dismal McPension interview on CNN?

I don’t know, but when I do I’ll let the Friends know all about it.

More Bullshit From The Sinking Register

Is the FPOA check in the mail?

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.

Wait For The Investigation To Be Done!

Thus speaketh the knee-jerk supporters of cops, and of course the cops themselves, as they comment here, promoting the temporizing and stalling tactics that have worked so well in the past, and that give the Fullerton Six and the Three Blind Mice confidence that soon the whole Kelly Thomas bludgeoning murder by the police will just blow over.

Yet it occurred to me yesterday after contemplating the words of our erstwhile Do Nothing DA, Tony Rackauckas, that these same proponents of an idiotic two-six month time frame for toxicology and microscopic tests (microscopic tests!), etc., haven’t addressed the rather salient fact that their bad boys in blue refuse to talk to DA investigators, and that with respect to interviewing the closest witnesses to the murder, the investigation will probably never be complete. Now that seems pretty damn hypocritical to me.

 

Rackauckas Speaks! “Everything Is Open”

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.

 

 

Irony Meter Needle Jumps Into Red

Over at the big protest in front of the Fullerton Police Department, an arresting sight caught my eye. It was a banner hanging on the rail over the sunken court at department HQ.

Does this apply to the homeless?

And speaking of arresting, perhaps it should have read “Fullerton Police Alert: if approached by FPD assume a fetal position and hold your breath. Otherwise you will be targeted for resisting.”