Setting The Bar Low – Page 63 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

February 1, 2012February 1, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Bankhead, Jones and McKinley Are Proud of Their Supporters

The Anti-recall squad is boasting of its broad range of fundraising support, including developers, city contractors, and the police union. Naturally the Fullerton cops have given liberally to the defense of the Three Dithering Dinosaurs – a whopping $19,000 last fall. If you peruse the FPOA’s Form 460 you will certainly discover some familiar names. Names like Goodrich, Mater, Tong, Hampton, Nguyen, Mejia, Power, Siliceo, Coffman, Blatney, Craig, Thayer, Wren and other by now familiar characters who have a vested interest in supporting the sclerotic regime that has permitted a Culture of Corruption at the Fullerton Police Department.

But the names that really jump out at you are serial sex pervert Albert Rincon, and the two goons, Manny Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, who have been charged with the murder of Kelly Thomas. I don’t know about you, but I would just feel ashamed having those names on my list of supporters. But apparently shame is not an emotion experienced by Mssrs. Bankhead, Jones and McKinley . These fine gentlemen say they are proud to be supported by law enforcement.

Well, I predict that they are going to come to regret that pride.

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 23, 2012January 23, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Salutation From The Great Lakes State

by admin37 Comments

We get a lot of e-mails from folks all over the place. The following, from a guy named Howard, is not atypical. A familiar thread is the theme of municipal cultures of corruption and lack of leadership across the republic.

Name: Howard McLay
Privacy: You may publish this under my name

Subject: Fullerton Leadership Mess

Since the death of Kelly Thomas, I have read the FFFF blog weekly.
I’m amazed at the depth of coverage of this clowncil.

I am also amazed at the height of the corruption and spending within the city.
This leads to an amazement of “How did it get this bad” considering all the info published in the FFFF blog.

This is not a criticism by any means of the good people involved or the people of Fullerton. For I live in Wayne County Mich where there is a FBI investigation ongoing with our leader, and the world knows about the Detroit mayor.
So my amazement is really…how in the world did our government get so lax in oversight, in checks and balances, to have these messes all across America.

My hope is that your recall, and the investigation into the killing of Kelly, comes to a just ending. Keep up the pressure!

Howard, thanks for the kind words and well-wishes. We will indeed keep up the pressure!

January 22, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Don Bankhead The Perpetual Politician

by Jan Florys Dog46 Comments

Here’s a clip of the Channel 4 coverage of the Recall signatures submission.

It’s entertaining and sort of sad at the same time. The sad part is the sight of the lonely “no recall” sign in Don Bankhead’s front yard, and of course the interview with Bankhead who seems completely lost, as usual. His wishful thinking about bad signatures is really sort of pathetic, and you might even begin to feel a sort of pity for the old fool. But of course he loses potential sympathy by claiming to rely on the experience of those with more campaign experience that he. The inference is clear enough: Good Ol’ Don is just an amateur, citizen-type elected representative: an innocent octogenarian babe in the woods.

But wait a minute! Let’s back up that bus and check out Lunkhead’s electoral experience:

1988 – Fullerton City Council

1990 – County Sheriff

1992 – FCC

1994 – recall from FCC (June)

1994 – election to a different seat FCC (November)

1998 – FCC

2000 – California State Assembly Republican Primary

2002 – FCC

2006 – FCC

2010 – FCC

That’s ten elections in 23 years!

Jebus O’ Jebus. Bankhead is addicted to running for public office. He craves it like a cheap junkie craves black tar heroin. This June’s recall election will mark his eleventh election. Now it might be a bit unfair to count recall elections in the mix, but, nevertheless I humbly submit that there is no one in OC more with more political experience than Bankhead. And I don’t mean that in a good way.

January 21, 2012Dick Jones

Doc HeeHaw Ain’t Skeered Of No Change

by The Fullerton Harpoon56 Comments

Here’s everyone’s favorite Fullerton council yokel F. “Dick” Jones robbing folks who are forced to listen of three minutes of their lives – precious time they’ll never get back. True there are none of the usual vertiginous rants about make-believe central Asian countries, Hitler, syphilis, or Galveston’s Red Light District; but I challenge you to follow a single thread woven into this rhetorical demolition derby.

I especially liked the irony of the Angry Big Gummint swerve there in the middle of the speech from this biggest of all Big Gummint boobs. Being afraid of change? Was that supposed to be some kind of joke?

And he doesn’t know the difference between a storm drain and a sewer? Really?

We now know Dr. Heehaw won’t pay twelve bucks for a car wash; and of course we already know this jackass is utterly clueless about why over 17,500 of his fellow Fullerton voters signed up to recall him.

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.

January 19, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Bulls Eye! Charges of Illegal Lobbying Leveled Against Anti-Recall Team Leader

by Grover Cleveland44 Comments

Well, really, are you surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Political fixer, bag man, phony charity rip-off artist, carpetbagging spouse, lynch-type mob manager, lobbyist and, not coincidentally, head of the Fullerton anti-recall effort, Dick Ackerman, is about to be haunted by the Ghost of Crookedness Past.

Vern Nelson, the editor of the Orange Juice Blog, and staunch defender of the OC Fairgrounds against a swindle set up by Toad-in-Residence (and, not surprisingly, Anti-recall campaign manager) Dave Ellis, will be delivering a challenge to the DA’s whitewash of Dick Ackerman’s role as an illegal lobbyist in the slimy attempt to sell off the Fair to a group of insiders composed of Fair Board members themselves.

The dirty deal took place in the summer of ’09 when Ackerman started making calls to legislators on behalf of enabling legislation (that he only admits he “helped write”) even though he, himself had been out of office for less than a year – in direct violation of State law. Predictably, our honorable DA gave Ackerman a clean bill of health in the fall of 2010; but Lo and Behold!, in early 2011 Norberto Santana of the Voice of OC uncovered Ackerman’s actual billing records! You know, those embarrassing records the DA didn’t bother to look for. These records indicate illegal calls to legislators – which is exactly what Ackerman apparently told DA investigators he didn’t do. Uh, oh! Dick’s in a wringer!

When Santana published his discoveries, DA spoksholetress Susan Kang was quick with the smarmy defense: we reached the conclusion we did based on the evidence we had.

Wow. It’s amazing what you can’t find when you don’t look!

Well, Nelson is now calling Ms. Kang’s bluff and challenging on our do-nothing DA to do his job by re-opening the Ackerman case.

A year has passed, but the Statute of Limitations hasn’t.

January 12, 2012January 12, 2012I Aint a Swallerin That

Another Round of Anti-Recall Fabrications

by Chris Thompson72 Comments

After discovering that Fullerton was not biting on their “Bushala Buying Fullerton” fairy tale, the Anti-Recall committee moved on to their pathetic and even hysterical Plan B: maybe Fullerton will believe that both Tony and Chris Thompson were hooked up several times by the Fullerton PD, hauled and away and placed under investigation by the Orange County DA?

Since this story can be factually disproven, they might want to consider going back to their buying Fullerton strategy.

This week, Larry Bennett attached his name to this mailer which can be seen (here) and additionally attached it as a file to an email blast which can be seen (here).

This monolithic mailer must have cost a bundle to send out. Along with a giant pair of handcuffs and the header of “Busted”, it includes three more postage paid opportunities for voters to tell Bankhead, Jones and McKinley what horrific leaders they have actually been.

The Fullerton Recall has had an uninterrupted and remarkably cooperative relationship with now Interim Chief Dan Hughes and the Fullerton PD with regard to our signature gathering activities at retail locations. It is informally understood between our campaign and the FPD that they WILL NOT arrest our people for signature gathering activities. But in California it is legally incumbent upon any police officer to assist any citizen in executing a citizen’s arrest if the accuser claims to witness a crime.

The bottom line is that signature gathering in front of multi-tenant retail centers s is protected by the First Amendment and legal precedent.

But a number of times, supermarket managers upset by the unwillingness of the Fullerton PD to agree that a crime is occurring, have chosen to file a citizens arrest. The process takes 3 minutes. The police take your name, fill out some paperwork describing the citizen’s accusation, issue a “release” to the signature gatherer and submit a copy of the accusation to the DA to review. Chief Hughes has confirmed that in every case, the DA has quickly and formally disregarded the accusations for lack of evidence.

There are NO pending cases against Tony, myself or any of our signature gatherers. Note that we continue to gather signatures during the “arrests” and after the police leave.

Most notable with all of this continues to be the absolute unwillingness of the anti-recall campaign to address or debate the real issues of the recall:

An absence of management over out-of-control Fullerton cops.
The theft of $27 million of taxpayer’s money with an illegal franchise tax.
The planned doubling of our exorbitant water rates.
A multi-million dollar annual city budget deficit.
Bankhead and Jones’ effort to secretly and retroactively spike the pensions of their buddies who run city hall.
Putting every Fullerton voter $1,700 in debt with a $124 million unfunded city employee pension liability.
Absconding with $10 million per year of revenue for schools and public safety through an illegal and massive expansion of the corporate welfare known as Redevelopment.

January 12, 2012January 12, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Good News! Sellers Isn’t Dead Yet.

by Grover Cleveland58 Comments

Which is a lot more than we can say for Kelly Thomas.

August 10th, 2011. A day of bathos at the Fullerton Police Department: just five weeks after the murder of Kelly Thomas at the hands of his cops, Police Chief Michael Sellers, having perused his benefits package, packs it in. Sort of.

A shitstorm is blowing up and our old friend FPD PIO Andrew Goodrich wants to get a perspective on “hats.”

January 11, 2012January 11, 2012Dick Jones

FPD’s Tow Racketeers Keeping You Safe From AAA Roadside Assistance

by Travis110 Comments

Back in September, a AAA tow truck driver made a YouTube video accusing Fullerton police officers of running a coordinated effort to harass and cite any tow truck attempting to help stranded AAA members within city limits.

That video was removed shortly after it was posted. According to the original publisher, it was deleted from YouTube after the truck driver’s boss received threats from city employees.

Four months later, it appears that driver has had enough. Here’s a new video where he accuses the City of Fullerton and its police force of using Fullerton’s new truck route ordinance to cite AAA tow trucks attempting to respond to customer calls for service.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rk5uERx5cs

The assumption is that there are a few tow operators who operate with the FPDs’s blessing (thanks to generous donations towards a few jurassic city council members’ campaign funds and a revenue sharing contract with the FPD) and thus are able to miraculously avoid getting cited for driving their tow trucks on the very same roads.

So next time your wife or daughter is stranded by the side of the road for an hour waiting for one of the few AAA operators left willing to run the FPD gauntlet, make sure you ask the driver what it’s like trying to help motorists in the city of Fullerton.