Setting The Bar Low Archives - Page 67 of 114 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

October 22, 2011October 22, 2011Dead heads

Amateur Psychologist Strikes Again

What is it about some cops? They just feel compelled to act out roles for which they have no qualifications. It’s not enough just to chase ’em and catch ’em. Oh, no. We have to be regaled with legal mumbo jumbo and psychological drivel to explain our own moral inferiority.

Take the classic case of Mr. Pat McKinley, formerly of the LAPD Riot Squad, Fullerton’s police chief from 1993-2008, and now councilmember. We have heard about him sharing, oops, no selling, his in-depth knowledge of the criminal mind here.

But this is by no means recent behavior for McKinley, under whose “leadership” the FPD descended into an undeniable culture of corruption.

Here is an LA Times article from 1991, shared by a commenter. It’s about a lawsuit involving the use of martial arts nunchakus on anti-abortion protesters. From the article:

Nunchakus consist of two 12-inch lengths of hard plastic connected by four inches of nylon cord that officers clamp tightly around the limbs of demonstrators to force them to move.

The Operation Rescue lawsuit alleged that officers selectively “tortured” up to 500 protesters at demonstrations in 1989 and 1990 as the activists attempted to block the doors of clinics in Los Angeles.

In all, more than 30 people filed medical claims against the city for injuries allegedly suffered during arrests. Three of the protesters testified that they suffered nerve damage and broken limbs.

Our old friend Pat McKinley is quoted from a 1989 declaration to a judge urging him not to outlaw the use of the martial arts implement on pro-life protesters:

“Pain for many of the demonstrators is a catharsis for past failures to take action against abortion,” McKinley said. “Therefore, they have an unusual capacity to withstand pain. Some appear as a young child welcoming punishment for past transgressions. With this unique ability to withstand pain comes possibility of injury since a great degree of pain is required to induce compliance by arrest.”

Well, thanks for that in-depth analysis Pat, based on zero years psychological training. Notice how in one sentence he manages to psycho-analyze, demean, and then dehumanize the protesters, too. Just about like the cop apologists have tried to do with Kelly Thomas, the allegedly souped-up super tramp.

But really what this is all about is McKinley’s desire to justify torturing protesters. Why? Because it will make his job easier. And anyway, it’s for their own good, see?

As he blandly looks into a TV camera and tells his constituents that he has nothing to apologize for, consider this laundry list of offenses and incompetency only the most narcissistic, self-aware-less jackass could overlook:

Kelly Mejia iPad theft accusation

Todd Major ripping of Police Explorers and taxpayers to support his pill habit.

Kenton Hampton beating up, falsely arresting, and falsely testifying against Veth Mam. Civil suit on the way. Frank Nguyen lied on the stand, too.

Ditto Kenton Hampton and Edward Quinonez – at least no perjury. Yet.

Ditto allegations against Cary Tong against a college student.

Allegations that Vincent Mater encouraged a jail suicide and then smashed his DAR to try to conceal evidence.

The false identification of Emmanuel Martinez by Miguel Siliceo and his subsequent wrongful five-month imprisonment (with $30,000 bail – five grand higher than Jay Cicinelli’s).

Hiring sex criminal Albert Rincon and ignoring numerous complaints from women he abused. Habitually turned off his DAR against department policy. Several hundred thousand dollar settlement recently agreed to.

FPOA president John Cross detaining and beating up an innocent motorist. Slap on wrist.

Hiring a one-eyed cop, Jay Cicinelli, as a favor to an LAPD crony after that cop had been deemed unfit by the Chief of the LAPD.

Six FPD cops murdering, or aiding in the murder of a mentally ill homeless man Kelly Thomas. Cimimal charges, civil rights charges, civil suits on the way.

Cops he hired conspired to get their stories straight, were coached by supervisors, and were put back on the streets the next day.

Department spokeman and union officer Andrew Goodrich spinning false tales about the Thomas murder to mislead the public and the City Council.

Etc., etc.

Of course this is just some of the stuff we know about. As Michael Gennaco says, “there is more. There always is.”

Remember that these people and actions were foisted upon Fullerton by rudderless FPD that allowed Pat McKinley to spend his time “inventing” a police vest and slaving over his She Bear tome. And nothing for McKinley to apologize for.

Given his denial and inflated sense of self, it seems to me he is in serious need of some psycho-analysis himself. But the real kind, not the kind he dispenses to women who buy his book.

October 21, 2011October 21, 2011About Us

Wow! There’s No Bottom to This Well of Stoogery. Well, We Know Better!

by Joe Sipowicz91 Comments

A couple of months a go we related a pathetic pro-cop piece written by the OC Register’s David Whiting, who is used to writing about wild flowers and bike trails and who, if the Register weren’t sinking, would probably be forced to stick to those bucolic endeavors.

Here is this toady’s latest effort. He has coughed up just about the lamest propaganda for the Three Desiccated Dinosaurs imaginable. It’s all about their quiet, dignified “leadership.” He helpfully supplies thumbnail biographies of his new heroes: Jones Bankhead and McKinley.

For Whiting everything has to do with how these three handled the murder of Kelly Thomas. But he conveniently omits some shocking truths; thruths like the abandonment of civilian oversight of the FPD as it descended into criminal chaos under McKinley’s reign of error; of a conga line of law suits, criminal and civil rights accusations, arrests and convictions of cops for one crime after another, about false police reports and perjury. Theft. Sexual battery. Fraud. Assault. False arrest. You name it.

Shallow observers like Whiting want to think the recall is about Kelly Thomas as an isolated, unavoidable incident; it isn’t. It’s about a Culture of Corruption created and fostered by Jones, Bankhead, and McKinley and they essentially turned over the police department to their union supporters – going so far as to permit one of the union bosses to act as an official city spokesman, a position this individual has used, and grossly abused in trying to help his union brethren escape responsibility for their criminal behavior.

Then there are the other troubling issues that Whiting knows and cares nothing about: the use of Redevelopment by The Three Myopic Miscreants to reward their political supporters and campaign contributors; the serial boondoggles and wasted millions in pursuit of one cockeyed master plan after another. It’s about the cesspool these individuals have created in downtown Fullerton; it’s about creating a criminal praetorian guard to patrol the downtown sidewalks – those that haven’t yet been given away to campaign contributors.

And then there is the disgraceful 10% tax on the water users of Fullerton, a $2.5 million annual ripoff that goes to pay the massive pensions and perks enjoyed by Jones, Bankhead and McKinley. It’s been illegal to impose such a tax for years, but Bankhead and Jones have been cheerfully ripping us off for decades.

Enough is enough. Time to break out the municipal broom and sweep these malefactors out of City Hall. Lackeys like Whiting will never permit themselves to comprehend the truth we know, and that thanks to Kelly Thomas many more people now realize: Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley are not leaders, dignified or otherwise. Real leaders take responsibility for their actions and their inactions. They are accountable. These three are detached, self-serving, arrogant clowns pretending to be something thy are not. If they won’t leave voluntarily we will help them to the door.

October 20, 2011October 20, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Note To McKinley: Blaming the Victim Won’t Save Your Sorry Ass

by The Fullerton Shadow77 Comments

Just in case you ever to decide to scrape the moss off that Kevlar dome and decide to do some real thinking.

When the cop YOU hired handcuffs and gropes women in the backseat of his patrol car YOU are responsible. When numerous complaints are brushed aside by the FPD, YOU are responsible. When hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are paid out in damages to the victims, YOU are responsible.

So why not haul your sorry ass off the Fulleron City Council dais ASAP and make way for someone willing to be accountable for their actions, rather than blame everybody else. Hell, just make way for somebody with a miligram of integrity and humanity.

And be sure to take those other two wizened sphincters with you.

October 18, 2011October 18, 2011Setting The Bar Low

That Paid Leave Keeps Adding Up

by Travis130 Comments

Update: Added one “Officer N” who was accidentally left out of the FPD report, bringing the total to 9 officers.

These days there are quite a few Fullerton cops getting paid to surf the couch and watch CHiPs reruns while the rest of the crew are picking up extra overtime to cover their shifts. That pays out at time-and-a-half.

chipshousecouch — I could get used to this.

In the last two months, there were NINE Fullerton police officers chilling out on paid leave while their conduct is supposedly being investigated.

October 17, 2011October 17, 2011Dead heads

Florentine Floats To Surface of Bowl

by Joe Sipowicz103 Comments

Here’s a damn funny letter sent into the Fullerton Observer by clever wordsmith Anthony “Big Tony” Florentine, a local “family friendly” bar owner and notorious rules-dodger. He has hundreds of thousands of reasons to support his corrupt pals on the City Council since they turned a blind eye to his illegal night club operation and then actually subsidized a fire sprinkler main so he could keep liquoring up the cast of Doc HeeHaw’s Wild West Show.

You may also recall how Big Tony even managed to swipe a public sidewalk with the help of his pals on the city council – probably the most blatant swindle in the history of Fullerton.

Florentine has been giving the Three Dyspeptic Dinosaurs campaign contributions for years and years, so these profitable quid pro quos shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. But it sure makes it hard to believe this cut rate Tony Soprano’s sincerity when he says anybody else on the planet is “full of shit.”

The best part of his letter is how this cheap bastard bamboozles The Observer into giving him a free ad for his place of business. Anyway, here is Florentine’s letter:

I was at Smart & Final several weeks ago where Tony Bushala was sitting at a card table soliciting signatures for the recall. I greeted him, shook his hand, and told him I thought he was full of s**t, and that what he was doing to our City was BS.

I offered that his only interest in this tragedy is to get control of the City Council so he can foist development projects that may be of questionable value. Whereupon he lost it and went berserk, which he is wont to do when one disagrees with him.

My expletives were not meant to insult him (I’m sure that would be hard to do), I used language I knew he could understand and that described his condition and the content of his actions.

There was no one outside Joe Florentine’s restaurant soliciting signatures, and no one who came outside and spit on anyone. If that had been the case why wouldn’t they have called the Fullerton P.D., identified the person and had them arrested for assault?

The whole story is another Bushala-inspired fabrication meant to discredit someone he doesn’t like.

By the way Florentines’ has a delicious new value added menu with large portions and a family friendly atmosphere. Try it. You’ll like it.

Anthony J. “Tony” Florentine
Fullerton

Yo, T!

October 17, 2011October 17, 2011Patdown Pat McPension

The She-Bear Lumbers into Brea

by The Fullerton Shadow117 Comments

Oh look! The She-Bear, Pat McKinley, is bestowing his wisdom upon the women of north Orange County tonight at a Soroptimist gathering at Brea City Hall, Meeting Room A, tonight at 7 pm. Here’s the announcement:

For $5 the She-Bear will explain all about women using their inner ursine instincts to beat off assaults from felonious He-Bears, and McKinley delves into his subject with all the psychological depth and expertise bestowed by a 12th grade education. It’s all about instinct, where Pat’s alleged street savvy trumps any real intellectual understanding of anything.

mckinley-she-bear — Lookin' out for the ladies, oh yeah!

I wonder if any of the attendees will ask Ex-Chief McPension why he, as boss of the Fullerton Police Department, hired the sexual predator Albert Ricon, and then permitted him to remain on the streets preying upon female victims after already having been identified in numerous complaints. Rincon’s MO was to falsely arrest women and sexually assault them in the back seat of his patrol car.

And I wonder if Pat will explain why the City of Fullerton just handed over half a million bucks to two of Rincon’s victims to settle a civil rights law suit against Rincon and the City; or why Federal Judge Andrew Guilford dressed down McMillion’s department for its signal failure to protect the women of Fullerton from Rincon.

Perhaps the best advice McKinley can give us ladies is to stay out of FPD squad cars.

October 16, 2011October 16, 2011Behind Closed Doors

The Gift That Keeps Giving

by Mr. Peabody40 Comments

A Friend, Jim Cameron, writes in:

Here’s a riddle: Which OC Police Department met with a citizen who, after leaving police HQ, plowed into three parked cars?

Well, if you liked to bet and didn’t mind a scant payoff, you’d almost immediately say the Fullerton Police Department, of course.

It seems as if one Robert Ghanadian, was at the FPD station on Wednesday afternoon, meeting with a cop in the traffic division about some prior accident. While the details of this encounter remain something of a mystery, what is perfectly clear is that Mr. Ghanadian was impaired by some kind of intoxication when he sideswiped three vehicles on the south side of Commonwealth Avenue, one of which belongs to Ron Thomas, the father of FPD murder victim Kelly Thomas. An eye-witness claims Ghanadian came from the police station.

Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

What makes this story particularly ironic is the way one FPD apologist earlier in the day defended the illegal arrest of innocent citizens on unsubstantiated charges of public intoxication based on possible risk to the City. Did the FPD let an impaired Ghanadian get behind the wheel of his SUV and motor off ignoring risk to the public? If so, he didn’t get far.

Maybe it was a pro-FPOA decal that did the trick. Who knows? But one thing I do know is that we are all lucky Ghanadian didn’t kill anybody.

October 16, 2011October 16, 2011About Us

We Get (Hate) Mail

by The Fullerton Shadow73 Comments

confusion — Reading it again won't help!

Here’s an e-mail communication we received recently:

Subject: this webpage

your website is atrocious, biggoted and as a former Fullerton resident, who spent my entire childhood there, you have distroyed my once fond memories of that time. I will never go back there and sadly, I see only continued decline and chaos there, if the town leaders are all like you and your moronic followers. Get a life….you horrible biggots. I am a Republican and ashamed of YOU!

Apparently we have somehow shattered this poor communicant’s idyllic reveries of growing up in Fullerton. Ah! Childhood Lost.

But bigoted? Bigoted against incompetent buffoons? Well, then, guilty, as charged.

Newsflash: we are not the ones who used Redevelopment to reward campaign contributors and overbuild the city; nor did we permit the Fullerton Police Department to run amok, committing every sort of crime from theft to murder. We didn’t rip off water rate payers with an illegal 10% tax year after year to pay for our own bloated pensions. Continued chaos and decline is inevitable if the Three Blind Mice stay in office.

The pathetically ironic admonition to “get a life” is, of course de riguer. And it sort of spoils the otherwise kooky bathos of the note.

October 12, 2011October 12, 2011Dead heads

The Joyride from Hell: Another Victim of Fullerton Police Violence Comes Forward

by The Fullertonista189 Comments

bad cop — Obey me and you won't get hurt. Well, scratch that. You're gonna get hurt anyway...

The systemic pattern of abuse that defines the Fullerton Police Department is well-established. But the allegations detailed in this newly emerging case might give even hardened FFFF readers pause. There seems to be no end to accounts of thuggish, sadistic Fullerton cops getting their sick jollies by brutalizing innocent citizens.

Fullerton College student and Fullerton resident Christopher Spicer Janku, 23 at the time, was with 4 friends around 1:30 AM on the night of August 17, 2008 when the car one of them was driving was pulled over for purportedly running a stop sign on Wilshire Avenue, in Downtown Fullerton. Chris tells his story:

All rookie looking officers who were looking for fun, I’ve never heard so much rude language from any cop. They arrested me on false charges of being drunk in public, (even though they wouldn’t give me a sobriety test even after I asked them to give me one because they knew I wasn’t intoxicated). I was sitting on the curb with my hands behind my back, a cop came over to put hand cuffs on me, he told me to put my hands behind my back, but they already were. Before I could even say “officer my hands are already crossed behind my back” the officer grabbed my neck and slammed my face into the curb while yelling out “stop resisting!” Another officer grabbed me by the legs and dragged me by the knees, shredding my knee caps.

There were five officers at the scene. The gangleader and arresting office was one Officer Perry Thayer. Janku goes on to describe his torture at the hands of this dedicated public servant:

Another officer then TOOK HIS BOOT and slammed it on my head, pinning it between the curb and used it as leverage to squeeze pressure on my head. I HONESTLY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE, I WAS SCREAMING PLEASE STOP I’M NOT RESISTING, I THOUGHT MY HEAD WAS GOING TO CAVE IN. I still have migraines to this day. another cop came over and dropped kneed me in the back. Everybody watching was in awe, THEY KEPT YELLING OUT “PLEASE STOP, HE’S NOT RESISTING!”

He (Thayer) was the one who slammed me face first into a curb and then put my head in the gutter face first with his boot on my head. He purposely put my face into a gutter full of disgusting dirty gutter water to the point where I was almost choking on it, and pushed down on my head to the point where my head almost caved it and I was screaming for my life. If you look at my mug shot, there is nothing but dirty, muddy gutter water and blood all over my face.

Next, our helpful Bobbies – Officer Thayer and his partner Officer Anthony Diaz – took Janku on a joyride from hell. Chris explains:

They put me in the squad car without seatbelting me in and went on a joy ride while blaring satanic heavy metal music in my ear until my eardrums almost exploded. Around 6-7 times they would hit the gas and then slam on the brakes, so that I was forced to keep cracking my face on the cage.

FFFF readers will recall that although clearly unconstitutional, this is a common FPD procedure, informally known as a “screen test.” Spicer remembers seeing the car pass the Police station, and asked the cops where they were taking him. Their response: “Shut the F up.” After the brake-checks:

I came to the department and automatically filed a complaint about the brutality. They put me in a jail cell bleeding from my head down to my feet and bruised and battered WITHOUT EVEN GIVING ME MEDICAL AID.

Janku was unable to figure out what exactly had set Thayer off. Maybe when he asked Thayer to not thumb through the photos on his cell phone? Or perhaps this cretinous goon needs no excuse to assault, batter, and violate the civil rights of the taxpayers who pay his ample salary? Janku’s friend was arrested as well, for simply asking for his ID back from the cops who had taken and failed to return it.

As for the police brutality complaint? A complete and total stonewall. The detective in charge deliberately misinterpreted the clear audio recording of Janku’s friends yelling “he’s not resisting!” and asked him “why were you resisting?” He also had the temerity to ask Janku why he had blood and mud all over his face.

After checking regularly for months and getting no response, Janku was told recently that he had better contact an attorney. Of course, this is after the statute of limitations had run out and a lawsuit is impossible. What is Janku left with, besides the bruises and migraines? Just the awful memories:

I’ve been afraid to go outside my house ever since, I have nightmares and panic attacks from the injustice.

Janku adds that he is unwilling to go to downtown Fullerton since the incident, and one of his friends there that evening is so terrified he refuses to set foot in Fullerton, period. Way to help out our local economy, coppers!

Unlike the marginally more fortunate Veth Mam and Edward Quinonez, Janku is unable to sue the City and make them pay for their abuses. And Officer Thayer? Why, he went on to win the coveted Turkey Bowl police football championship along with his buds – the noted false arrest/perjury specialists Kenton Hampton and Frank Nguyen, of Veth Mam lawsuit fame.

Just another night of death-metal mayhem, beating, torture, false arrest, and random abuse of the public by Fullerton’s Finest. No pattern to see here, folks. Move along, now. No need for that department-wide Department of Justice investigation of police brutality and misconduct. Keep moving.

Oh, and yeah, let’s be careful out there.

October 12, 2011October 13, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Uh, Oh. More Bad News for FPD

by Grover Cleveland24 Comments

Pat-McKinley-Cops-300x206 — I stand by my record. And no, you 91 voters don't get to take your votes back.

For a while it was just us, the good folks at FFFF, who decried the Fullerton Police Department Culture of Corruption created by ex-Chief Pat McKinley, and fostered by council somnambulists Don Bankhead and Dick Jones.

Tracy Woods at The Voice of OC is reporting here, that the City’s outside investigator, Michael Gennaco, has revealed that his investigation will uncover more nasty revelations. Cue ominous background music in a minor key:

Asked if more disclosures are coming, he replied, “Oh, yeah. There’s more. There always is.”

Given the likelihood that Mr. Gennaco is trying to break it to us gently, I’d say things look grim for FPD defenders and its cover-up artists, and of course things look even worse for us taxpayers who will ultimately have to foot the bill for former Chief McKinley’s out of control goon squad.