Something Wicked This Way Comes Archives - Page 41 of 46

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Are All 6 On the Way Out?

Brandon Ferguson at the Weekly is citing KPCC that cites other media outlets in passing along the news that all six of the Fullerton cops who participated in the beating death of Kelly Thomas last July have been given notices of termination.

This means that Craig, Blatney and Hampton have now joined the list that previously included Ramos, Wolfe and Cicinelli.

Of course official announcements are not forthcoming from the City since we the lowly taxpayers are not to know which cops are fired (if ever) and what for.

Since the sources have been cantilevered out there pretty far, I’ll withhold saying anything else until I can touch base with my source inside the FPD.

In the meantime, reflect on this: after the killing these cops were not disciplined; they were left on the streets by a leaderless department and a chummy city council majority – Jones, Bankhead and McKinley. Wolfe, Blatney, Hampton and Craig have been on paid leave since August, costing us several hundred thousand dollars.

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Register’s David Whiting Up To Old Tricks

by Joe Sipowicz89 Comments

Whoring for the inept, sclerotic Establishment, that is.

Last fall Whiting was defending the cops that murdered Kelly Thomas and attacking the lynch-type mobs calling for justice.

Most recently he wrote a tribute to “both sides” that was nothing more than a wet love letter to the Three Bald Tires, defending their compassion and objecting to the use of the phrase “kingmaker” in reference to Tony “Bashula.” Brandon Ferguson of the OC Weekly writes about Whiting’s pabulum, here.

(Note: I refuse to link to the Register)

I find the then-and-now quotations remarkably self-serving. Maybe the Three Hollow Logs said something to Whiting in private, because I don’t remember those “before” statements at all. Whatever. What I do remember with crystal clarity these “before” comments:

Dr. HeeHaw (on local TV news): “…I’ve seen far worse injuries that were survivable. I don’t know what killed that man”

Patdown Pat McKinley: (on CNN): “I’ve had my eyes bloused a few times…facial injuries look terrible but they are not life threatening…they heal…”

Just to show you where Whiting’s true sympathies lay, here is Ferguson quoting Whiting’s cuddly description of killer cop Joe Wolfe:

Instead of referring to Officer Joe Wolfe as one of Kelly Thomas’s attackers, which the video clearly shows he is–he was first to strike Thomas with his baton–Whiting clumsily described him as “an uncharged officer and partner of one of those charged.”

Anybody who has ever owned a dog knows they have some nasty habits, including sniffing each other’s rear ends and ingesting their own vomit. But you have to give them credit for loyalty.

May 21, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Dave Ellis Visits FFFF; Leaves Slime Trail

by Joe Sipowicz67 Comments

The metamorphosis to an oxygen breathing life form was slow and painful...

We’ve just traced a string of obnoxious comments to an operation called Delta Partners. What is Delta Partners? It’s a front for the sleazoid repuglican bagman Dave “Dick” Ellis who tried to sell the OC Fair to himself, who hired Dick Ackerman as an illegal lobbyist to grease it, and who was later hired by Ackerman last fall to rip off the Three Dim Bulbs in a useless anti-recall campaign.

What a guy! Here are his comments, a pathetic amalgam of illiteracy and ignorance. Enjoy the wit and wisdom of Dave Ellis, intellectual voice of the anti-recall:

#33 by Cock A Doodle Do on May 21, 2012

Is that the street in front of Bushala’s house? The one where he’s got all the chickens running loose crapping in the street?

#94 by Recall Whitaker on May 12, 2012

Nice move Bruce. Nothing like convicting them before a jury does. Remember you work for all citizens of Fullerton. Your job is to represent ALL citizens. I want my Council Members to make decisions based on FACTS, not things you make up in your head. You still claim there is a cover up by the PD, yet you’ve done nothing to prove it. Why is that? I’ve heard you say the police reports were doctored, yet have you seen them? Can you prove they were?

Stop running your mouth unless you can back it up with FACTS! I want my Council Members to think before they speak. The problem is you can’t speak without Bushala or Thompson putting words in your mouth.

I say the citizens recall YOU.

#28 by Fidel Fullerton on March 10, 2012

I’m worth millions, I’ve had a successful medical career, I’ve served my country with honor, I’ve raised a wonderful family, and I to sit hear and listen to these FUCKING IDIOTS.

#30 by Freaky Fullerton on May 12, 2012

Whitacre you grandstanding fool. Had the video been released when you requested there would have been no audio. Just a grainy indecipherable mess that proved nothing. They audio was added in preparation for the preliminary hearing. When the DA tells you to refrain from stupid publicity stunts he does so for a reason. Let your Legislative buddies do the grandstanding, they’re much better at it.

#45 by Lucky Sperm Club on May 18, 2012

He was born with a Silver Schlong in his mouth.

May 21, 2012May 21, 2012Chronic Failure

“The city is in good financial shape.”

by admin61 Comments

Anti-recall front man Larry Bennett has been making all sorts of ridiculous claims in his efforts to save the dying political careers of the Three bald Tires – Don Bankhead, “Dick” Jones and Patdown Pat McKinley; and his latest claim is probably one of the most outrageously comical.

According to Bennett, City Hall is doing just fine on all fronts, thank you very much, and the residents of Fullerton have absolutely nothing to worry about.

But even a broken pair of pliers like Larry can drive around Fullerton and notice the broken water mains, leaking sewer lines and expanding potholes and crevasses in our streets, and realize that the residents, taxpayers and businesses of Fullerton have been sold down the river to cover the bloated paychecks, fat pensions and corpulent developer subsidies handed out over the last few decades by the Three Tired Tree Sloths. And then there’s that little matter of $27,000,000 his boys have illegally tacked on to our water bills for the past 15 years. Somebody’s got a refund coming!

Bennett obviously has no interest in relating the massive, multi-hundred million dollar pension liability that his pals have left the taxpayers. And of course we already know he thinks the thievery, sexual assaults, sadistic brutality and rampant corruption in the FPD is no big deal.

So there you have it, folks. The difference between the Recall and the forces of sclerotic self-interest, incompetence and malice.

May 16, 2012May 16, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Dan Hughes Has A Problem. So Do We.

by English Major141 Comments

During public comments at last night’s council meeting, at least two members of the public remarked that during the protests of the Kelly Thomas killing last fall, then captain, now Acting Chief Dan Hughes told them to wait until the video came out, and then they would see things differently.

Well, now that these people have seen the video, their reaction is not exactly what Mr. Hughes seemed to be waiting for. And this begs a very important question that goes to the heart of both Hughes’ character and the FPD Culture of Corruption.

First let us suppose and dispose the notion that Hughes’ admonition to the protesters was nothing more than a ploy to stall for time. Coming from a department in turmoil that hadn’t got a clue what to do or how to do it, temporizing may be seen as an understandable, if pathetic strategy.

But now let’s give the situation a little more thought. By his own remarkable admission, Hughes had seen the video 400 times. That’s ridiculous of course, but he obviously watched his boys kill an innocent man lots of times. Dozens? A hundred? Enough times perhaps, that he became inured to the unnecessary and inexcusable brutality. In a mental effort to defend the indefensible and picking apart the video like a defense lawyer in order to come up with plausible explanations that would get the killers off the hook, Hughes may well have lost sight of the murder of a human being played and replayed in front of his very eyes. And that’s bad.

But it might be even worse. It may very well be that in watching the video our Acting Chief saw nothing wrong going on, nothing outside of the policy and training that he espouses. After all, there is a reason that the cops went to work the very next day as if nothing untoward had happened. There is a reason that four of the aiders and abettors still remain on paid leave, a weird limbo in which they continue to be remunerated until the Gennaco report can be used to justify some action or other. It’s as if there is no procedural mechanism in place at all to deal with the sort of cops who stand around as the object of their brutality is dying, untended, a few away.

For those who mistakenly believe that Sharon Quirk and Hughes have ushered in some new period of reform in the FPD I suggest you think again. Apart from some alleged sensitivity training I assert that nothing has changed in the FPD’s culture at all, a culture that recently rewarded a loyal purveyor of disinformation with a promotion.

May 15, 2012May 15, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

The Culture of Corruption Has A Price Tag. And It’s Big

by The Fullerton Harpoon68 Comments

At tonight’s Fullerton City Council meeting the City Attorney announced that the council had unanimously voted to pay $1,000,000 to Cathy Thomas, the mother of Kelly, who was beaten to death by members of the FPD who bashed in his face, and ribs, tased him, sat on his chest, and then stood around while the homeless man died in the gutter.

A million bucks. It’s hard to begrudge the Thomas family of the settlements that are coming their way in this obscene killing. And yet for those of us who have criticized the obvious Culture of Corruption in the FPD it rankles to contemplate the fact that we are responsible for the bill; and that other enormous payouts are coming our way.

Pat McKinley created this unholy mess as police chief while Don Bankhead and Dick Jones sat on their fat behinds all these years as the department festered under the incompetent and indifferent leadership. We get the bill. And Acting Chief Hughes can only act like nothing is wrong, even as Joe Wolfe, the apparent instigator of the Thomas murder breathes the air of a free man on paid vacation.

First there was the sexual battery cases against Albert Rincon. Those cost $350,000. We now know the Thomas murder will probably cost us at least $3,000,000. And there’s no telling what the other violent and criminal episodes perpetrated by thugs like Kenton Hampton, et. al., will cost.

I also note that once again PatMcPension voted to approve a settlement to make on of his embarrassing problems go away.

Really folks, haven’t you seen enough of this rogue’s gallery? The answer is crystal clear. RECALL.

May 13, 2012May 13, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Time For Real Justice. At Long Last.

by English Major174 Comments

If you’ve watched the now infamous video of six overfed Fullerton cops beating the life out of Kelly Thomas and then standing around joking as he gasped for his last breaths in the street, a few feet away, you will have probably felt some pretty raw feelings. Disgust, anger, fear, pity, and sorrow are what we have all experienced.

Upon calmer reflection we can use the video to start piecing together what really happened and what motivated our “officers.” The behavior of Joe Wolfe stands out as the most egregious and makes me wonder how in the world he escaped charges by the District Attorney. Many have already stated the obvious: that DA Tony Rackaukas’ supposition that Wolfe could not know what was happening right in front of him, a mere 15 feet away is patently ridiculous. But even if we accept the unlikely plausibility of this convenient surmise, one unalterable fact remains: Joe Wolfe assaulted Kelly Thomas. We have all watched Wolfe emerge into the video frame when Kelly raises his arms, palms outward in a submissive gesture. At this point it would have still been possible for the bloated, oafish cops to de-escalate this situation. But instead Joe Wolfe for some as yet disclosed reason attacked Kelly with his baton, and Manuel Ramos joined in the fun. The murder had begun. And Kelly Thomas, accused of nothing, cited for nothing, guilty of nothing was entering his last ten minutes of his life.

I don’t know about you Friends, but the fact that Officer Joe Wolfe is not only walking free, but actually still getting a Fullerton paycheck makes me nauseous. The fact that my tax dollars are paying this thug’s salary makes me feel even sicker, and somewhat accountable, especially if I don’t do something about it. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Hell, if anyone were caught beating an animal in such manner as the way those goons treated a human being, they would be in prison.

So what do we do? Provide helpful suggestion in the comments thread.

May 11, 2012May 11, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

“Let The Wheels of Justice Turn” Sayeth Pat PcPension

by English Major101 Comments

Here’s an article from the tanking OC Register about the Kelly Thomas murder case, that includes a delicious quote from Mr. She Bear himself, the egregious former Fullerton Police Chief, Pat McKinley, who nonchalantly admitted he hired all the brutal thugs involved in the remorseless killing of the schizophrenic homeless man. “Let the wheels of justice turn!” says Pat.

The Wheels of Justice. Anybody who has reviewed the checkered career and sayings of McKinley, or the activities of the gang of thugs, pickpockets, perverts, con men, petty thieves, perjurers, and casual liars that he loosed upon Fullerton, may well question whether McKinley has any concept of justice at all.

O Patience! preaches McKinley, now a city councilman. Surely all the evidence is not in! The pathetic plea for more time to clear his thuggish hirelings is telling, as was his previous wink-wink comment about how good his goons’ lawyers are. But for McKinley time is the proverbial double-edged sword. For even as he admonishes us to wait out a protracted legal process that is designed in almost every way to avoid prosecuting criminal cops, his own political time is quickly running out.

Oh yes, it’s hard to avoid the gratuitous sharing of the irrelevant tidbit that McKinley is on vacation. Is this a sly reference to departed, disabled former Chief Mike Sellers who went on vacation in the days following Kelly Thomas’s murder? Naw, because that would be clever and insightful. Rather, we are left to wonder if, with a mere four weeks until the recall election, McKinley has all but given up fighting for his job; or maybe he is so confident that the somnolent folks of Fullerton will turn a blind eye to his own perverse incompetence, that he can afford to vacation – after all, nobody has ever cared what he did, or didn’t do before.

May 10, 2012May 10, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Fullerton Metal Jacket

by The Fullerton Harpoon110 Comments

At the OC Weekly Nick Schou has uncovered an old article about the militarization of the Fullerton Police Department under Pat McKinley. The seminal event of the story takes place in 1997 and describes a military-style invasion of the Latino Maple neighborhood in response to a drive-by shooting along Harbor Boulevard.

Pat-McKinley-Cops-300x206 — Me and my gang are gonna kick your ass. And you're gonna like it.

Since McKinley had cut his fangs on SWAT deployments up in Los Angeles it was just a matter of time before the bald badass brought his methods and manpower from the LAPD to Fullerton. The trouble with militarization, apart from the monetary cost of deployment, is the inevitable occupation mentality, and the concomitant “us versus them” mindset. When you watch the Veth Mam video this comes through loud and clear.

15 years later many of McKinley’s scrofulous chickens have now come home to roost. I have to wonder how many incidents in Fullerton over the years were escalated into confrontations by the cops themselves. And I have to wonder what all of this is going to cost us.

May 9, 2012May 9, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Judge Orders Trial in Kelly Thomas Killing

by admin279 Comments

Manny's Boo boo — The judge was not impressed.

This afternoon in Santa Ana, Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm declared that sufficient evidence exists to warrant a trial for the two Fullerton cops accused in the death of the mentally ill, homeless man, Kelly Thomas last July. Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli will stand trial for second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, respectively.

Although many critics have claimed that more serious charges should have been brought against all the officers charged, it should be noted that on-duty cops have never been prosecuted for a capital crime in the County’s history.