No News Is Bad News Archives - Page 11 of 14 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

February 5, 2012February 5, 2012Behind Closed Doors

She Bear About to Turn Violent?

MCKinley3 — Frustrated that the slow working of his mind could not process the new data, McKinley was about to flail about violently.

Here‘s an article in the Register about Fullerton Councilman Bruce Whitaker asking his fellow councilmembers to vote on whether to see the video of the Kelly Thomas killing at the hands of the FPD. He seems to be suffering from the delusion that Fullerton elected leaders should be intelligently informed.

It’s an interesting article for two reasons. First is the reaction of councilman Pat McKinley, former FPD Chief, and architect of the Culture of Corruption in the force. You would expect him to be opposed to letting anybody see the actions of goons he hired personally and let loose on the streets of Fullerton. But what’s that you say, Pat?:

Councilman Pat McKinley, Fullerton’s former police chief, said he is “violently opposed” to the release of the video.

“I think it’s completely off-base,” McKinley said. “It’s absolutely unprecedented, and it would be wrong to view that before the trial.”

Violently opposed? Now that doesn’t sound like a balanced man, does it? His reaction to a perfectly reasonable request says much about McPension the man. Is he about to go off the deep end?

Mcpension may not want the video released, but I assure you it has nothing to do with any trial, and everything to do with a recall election.

The other thing that struck me as odd is the City Attorney’s alleged request to the DA for permission to view the video and the imbecilic comments ascribed to DA spokesholetress Susan Kang Schroeder, who seems to be just making shit up. The council could watch this video as a closed session personnel issue and nobody else would have to see it. Also, the FPD is bound to have made copies so why ask the DA for permission at all – except to get that “no” answer you want? Acting Chief Hughes, who is neither investigating nor trying anybody, claims to have viewed the video 400 times! I’m starting to suspect everybody has seen this video – except some of the council and of course, the public.

And as a final thought, is there anybody in Fullerton who believed the serial prevaricator Pat McKinley when, after an awkward pause on CNN, he denied seeing the video himself?

January 29, 2012January 29, 2012Behind Closed Doors

It’s All About Image

by Joe Sipowicz115 Comments

UPDATE:

Sorry guys, I forgot to add this gem from the article:

In the weeks after the July incident, more trouble surfaced: an officer facing charges for stealing an iPad at a Miami airport; another facing termination after reports of sexual misconduct; police raiding the wrong house in search for a probationer.

This sentence sure makes it look like Ponsi is finally starting to lay the facts on the table, until you realize that we broke the Mejia story in June, before, the Thomas murder (Ponsi swiped that from FFFF without attribution); the raid on the wrong house occurred in 2010; Rincon’s debauchery started years and years ago and included the complicity of the entire department. And of course there is no mention at all of incidents that must have involved higher ups, like the Gochenour suicide and the beating, false arrest and phony prosecution of Veth Mam.

– Joe Sipowicz

When you’ve had some practice, it’s amazing how much you can write without saying anything. In fact, between the first sentence and the last, people adept at it can cram all sorts of empty stuff into their essays. The conclusion is always the same. Reading such drivel is like eating a bag of marshmallows.

Here is our old friend Lou Ponsi of the Register doing his usual gig. The story is all about Fullerton’s image in the wake of the Kelly Thomas murder by members of the Fullerton Police Department. To his credit Ponsi finally describes the DA’s version of the actions of Ramos and Cicinelli: a “rain of blows.” Everything else is fluffery designed to avoid the critical main crux of Fullerton’s present problems: that out of control rogue cops have been permitted to prey upon the citizens of and visitors to Fullerton, and the Kelly Thomas episode was not an isolated case at all.

Ponsi’s story includes the obligatory interview with a Chamber of Commerce booster-type – Davis Barber (who also pretends to be a real reporter, yet tips his hand rather badly) and some business owners defending the honor of Fullerton. Oh, and of course there’s the de riguer academic “expert,” who arrives upon the scene to compliment the City for bringing in Michael Gennaco.

As usual you can avoid getting the sort of responses you don’t want by asking all the wrong questions.

Did Ponsi ask Acting Chief Dan Hughes to explain the actions of Rincon, Mater, Power, Mejia, Tong, Hampton, Cross, Goodrich, et al? Has he yet asked anybody to explain the call that came in the night of July 5th; or why the cops involved were permitted to watch the video and coached to re-write their reports? Did he ask those interviewed if they knew about the serial transgressions of all these cops?

Bet not.

The strategy of the FPD and its apologistas now seems to be to make FPDs problems mostly about image and lack of communication with the public. The Kelly Thomas thing? Oh, yeah, mostly about two aliens who didn’t know how to deal with the mentally ill homeless.

Come on in and take the tour. Glad to see ya. Big hugs. Air kiss!

January 26, 2012March 14, 2012Behind Closed Doors

So How Many Brady Cops Does Fullerton Have?

by Joe Sipowicz188 Comments

Bad Cops — Which is worse, ignorance or apathy?

Yesterday we published a post about a Fullerton cop named Vince Mater who had been identified in court documents as a “Brady” cop, a policeman whose veracity is so doubtful that the DA doesn’t dare put him on the witness stand.

And that got me thinking: are there other Brady cops on our payroll, and if so, how many?

I don’t know, and I can’t even find out. For some reason it’s a real big secret that’s carefully guarded. Of course it takes legal action by a defense attorney to get anything more than a cop’s name, rank and serial number. That’s the police state we have permitted to be erected about us, and that’s a helluvan erection.

On the other hand, simply knowing the actual total wouldn’t violate the sanctity of our Heroes. But, could it be that there are so many Brady cops the entire cop-superstructure would be threatened if the true number were made public? (Now we wouldn’t want the cops to lose public confidence in the police, would we?). Why isn’t it fair to speculate if we won’t be told?

What are the costs of having Brady cops on a police force, both in terms of civil judgments and inability to convict dangerous criminals? Who knows? My guess is that somebody like Pat McKinley, Don Bankhead or Dick Jones doesn’t know. Or care. After all none of these “esteemed” councilmen seems to care that a serial sex predator was knowingly left on the FPD.

Anyway, it sure makes you stop and think about it in light of the recent revelations of bad behavior by Fullerton’s boys and girls in blue. Could any of these fine, upstanding citizens be Brady cops? Could any Brady cops currently be on paid administrative leave, or even charged with a capital crime?

January 20, 2012December 16, 2016Law N Disorder

The Lost Cause of Lou Ponsi

by Joe Sipowicz58 Comments

Reporting on the submission of signatures by Fullerton’s Recall proponents, OC Register employee Lou Ponsi demonstrates that despite numerous opportunities to actually start acting like a real reporter, he just hasn’t got it in him. Nope. Nada.

Almost inconceivably Ponsi is still regurgitating the same Andrew Goodrich garbage peddled in mid-July 2011:

“Thomas was suspected of burglarizing cars in the Fullerton Transportation Center on July 5 when approached by officers. A physical confrontation ensued, and Thomas died five days later.”

Suspected of burglarizing cars? Really? Say Lou, do you even understand that there has been no evidence of car burglaries?

A physical confrontation ensued? Damn, that’s got to be the understatement of the year! And there’s some sort of antiseptic connection between the massive bludgeoning by the cops and Kelly’s death.

Is Ponsi still acting like Goodrich’s water boy to curry favor with the FPD? Is he really that incurious about what happened on the night of July 5th, 2011? Does he believe his job is to post community events schedules and let it go at that?

Who knows? But I know one thing: if this assclown ever removes his head from his nether orifice it will be a modern-day miracle.

December 13, 2011December 13, 2011Fullerton City Council

The Definition of a Cover-Up

by Travis170 Comments

FFFF had a chance to sit down with councilmember Bruce Whitaker to let him explain how the police department and city management deliberately withheld critical information and misled elected decision makers in the immediate aftermath of the Kelly Thomas death.

As you listen, be sure to reflect on the atmosphere of fear and distrust that permeated Fullerton in the weeks immediately following the murder; remember that we were told to remain calm and patient, and that we were to trust our leaders who supposedly had access to all the information that we did not.

Later we found out that our leaders knew nothing, and the city let accused killers roam free with badges and guns while we were kept in the dark.

October 26, 2011October 26, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Yup, Don Bankhead Was At that Ritzy Hotel, Too!

by The Desert Rat39 Comments

They put a mint on my pillow! — They even put a little chocolate mint on my pillow!

Here’s a really fun post I did about 20 months ago making sure people knew that it wasn’t just a spendthrift Democrat who blew over a grand at a fancy hotel at a useless League of Cities meeting. Turns out the RINOs Bankhead and Jones did, too. The way they see it, it’s their money, not yours.

– The Desert Rat

Okay, like I said the other day, I’m a fair guy. Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead attended that fall of 2008 League of Cities Meeting in Long Beach right along side Pam Keller. Like Keller, Bankhead also put in for a double occupancy room for three nights. Here’s the smoking gun.

Over $1100 for a swank hotel room barely 25 miles from Bankhead’s house. And this during the vast economic melt-down of late 2008. Bad judgment? Sure, to you or me. But not to a guy who has likely spent twenty years going to these schmoozefests on our dime.

A juicy side-irony is the fact that this is the same piece o’ manpower that Doc Jones seems to think is the right guy to lead Fullerton through tough economic times. Which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the dimwit Jones. Hell, Jones was at the no-tell hotel, too!

Well, anyway, Don Bankhead, like Pam Keller, is up for re-election this year, if in fact he decides to run, which of course he will. So you can bet the desert acreage that both of them are going to be targets because of their willingness – no, eagerness – to waste, public money.

October 6, 2011October 6, 2011Boohooism

Another Fowl Observer Plop

by admin33 Comments

the-observer-ostrich4-300x225 — Where's China?

I really don’t know why I bother communicating with the feather-headed Sharon Kennedy and her wretchedly incompetent Fullerton Observer.

When she wrote an unsigned “article” last month alleging that I rent space from the City worth more than $12,000 a month for a mere $1300, I felt obliged to respond. So I sent in a letter to The Observer to add important facts that she casually omitted and also to question how in the world she came up with her crazy valuation. To my knowledge Ms. Kennedy has no experience of any kind in the commercial real estate business and knows nothing about the subleasing potential of the Santa Fe Depot or even its vacancy rates or square foot lease potential.

The deal looked pretty damn sweet for the City 20 years ago when I offered to make a large up front payment and finance the historic restoration myself – especially since the other responders wanted to be paid; and this ignoramus somehow thinks the City gave something away. I mentioned in my letter that if she had any complaint to take it up with the Good Folks at Redevelopment.

As usual, Ms. Kennedy appended her inevitable dingbat editorial comment to my correspondence that completely ignored my points and instead launched into a diatribe about all the good that Redevelopment does for poor people. She neglected to inform her readers that this so-called “affordable” housing costs twice as much as the regular kind, that it pays for high roller lobbyists, hustlers and bagmen, that it is principally just a mechanism to employ house-ocrats, and that, of course, it ends up displacing the poor for the less poor. She also mentioned to explain that Redevelopment giveaways are financed by robbing other local agencies that rely on property tax revenue.

For some reason Kennedy believes if you say something enough times it will become true: just like she claimed (again) that I am suing the Redevelopment Agency for $1,000,000. That of course is just bald-face lie made somewhat amusing by the weirdness of her fabrication; I am suing to stop Redevelopment expansion into areas of the City that are not “blighted,” the minimal legal requirement for Redevelopment spelled out in the State Health & Safety Code.

At the end of her little tantrum, in an hysterical twist, Kennedy chided me for not fighting the corporate abuse of Redevelopment – even though my friends and I on FFFF have been attacking Redevelopment and its history of abuse in Fullerton, for years when she was silent. This includes the City’s illegal planning review for the Hillcrest Park/Lion’s Field reconstruction on which she was utterly silent – until they had the temerity to install synthetic grass – a move that apparently injured her delicate aesthetic sensibilities.

Where O Where has Sharon Kennedy been these many decades as Fullerton Redevelopment lumbered along, including a ridiculous proposal to spend $6,000,000 to move a McDonald’s 200 feet? You guessed it. Happily cheerleading for Redevelopment with all of its corporate boondoggles, every sad step of the way.

October 1, 2011March 14, 2012Bruce Whitaker

A Double Dose of FPD Disgrace: Sex Assault Settlement and A Killer Goes Free

by Mr. Peabody157 Comments

A couple nights ago KTLA served up a two-course menu with back to back stories on FPD disgraces. First they dove into Officer Albert Rincon’s sex assault case, where David Begnaud discovered that the city was planning to settle the Federal rights case with two of the seven women who say Rincon sexually assaulted them during wrongful arrests; followed by the report that somehow accused FPD murderer Manny Ramos was out on bail. Yay! More good news for the people of Fullerton.

You would think the folks over in City Hall would be getting just a little bit tired of all the horrific news coverage they’ve been getting, and start to clean up the mess they’ve made.

However, if you thought that you would be wrong. That is because nobody is in charge in City Hall. The monkeys have been permitted to run the zoo.

September 16, 2011September 19, 2011Law N Disorder

What Are We Expecting?

by Travis472 Comments

Update 2: An FPD officer told a Friend last night that the police were in fact gearing up for potential protests in response to the DA’s announcement, which is expected in this coming week.

-Travis

Update: Travis, I can’t believe the FPD would be stoopid enough to start a riot at a benefit for the homeless (still, I’m wondering if their dumbness even has a bottom level). I truly believe the protesters in from of PD HQ are getting into their little heads. Everyone make as much noise as you want but PLEASE stay on the sidewalk!

– Mr. Peabody

Today a helpful Friend snapped these photos of Fullerton police officers dusting up on their riot control skills and baton swinging techniques inside the walls of the FPD compound.

The timing is curious. There is a rock concert for Kelly Thomas on Saturday. And the DA has hinted that he may make a big announcement about the cops who killed Kelly Thomas as early as Monday.

Nearby residents say that riot training is not a common occurrence in the FPD parking lot.

I wonder what’s going on?

August 31, 2011Behind Closed Doors

We Get Mail: Is It Just Me?

by admin124 Comments

Friends for Fullerton’s Future,

I am struck by the comparative silence of the knee-jerk pro-police crowd about the irony that none of the six Fullerton cops who were present on the hot night of July 5th (when Kelly Thomas mysteriously slipped into a coma), are willing to talk to the DA to help further the cause of the impartial “investigation” being conducted by the Useless Rackauckas.

It seems hilarious to me that before “rushing to judgment” we are admonished to wait for the mature fruits of this so-called investigation which apparently will be lacking information from all seven of the people most immediately present at the incident. Since number seven won’t be talking anymore at all, this seems to suggest that the investigation will never be competently completed.

So how ’bout it FPD? Let’s get these boys a talkin’ so our hard-working DA can wrap up a thorough investigation and we move ahead.

Besides. If they have done nothing wrong, as many of their defenders claim, they have nothing to fear from our fair and impartial legal system.

F. W. Farnsworth