Frequent commenter, blessusall stopped by yesterday to share a thought about the formal “apology” on today’s City Council Agenda. As you all know the apology was from the City to the Nordell family because last year a bunch of heavily armed FPD cops broke into their house by mistake in some sort of botched drug raid.
blessusall opined about the irony of this insincere apology (got only by dodged persistence by the Nordells) vis-a-vis all the other FPD misbehaving’ going on lately and suggested the City might:
Who else, indeed. These pages are strewn with the miscreance, mayhem, and murder perpetrated by Pat McKinley’s hirees and trainees. At this point even the most die-hard cop apologist must be wondering about the stuff that hasn’t even emerged yet, and how much all this crap is going to cost the taxpayers of Fullerton.
Apology? Hell, yes! And why not demand that apology tonight!
In yesterday’s OC Register, Councilman Pat McKinley, the chief architect of the Fullerton Police Department’s profound culture of corruption, responded to the news that KFI’s John and Ken are coming to Fullerton to promote his recall.
“They are toxic people who create problems for a lot of folks. I wish they would stay away.”
More PR gold from the man who ran the FPD into a moral cesspool during his 16-year stint as Chief of Police.
Oddly, McKinley has offered no public opinion as to the comparative toxicity of:
1) police officer sentenced to jail for fraud to support his pill habit.
2) police officer arrested in Miami airport for iPad theft.
3) police officer who smashed recording device on jail wall to avoid complicity in jail suicide.
4) police officers beating up and falsely arresting Veth Mam.
5) police officers lying on the witness stand about Veth Mam.
6) police officer beating up and falsely arresting Edward Quinonez.
7) police officer sexually assaulting a dozen women in the backseat of his patrol car, with recording device turned off.
8 ) police officers issuing traffic citations to harass protesters.
9) police officers ambushing and murdering a helpless homeless man.
10) police officers turning off recording devices during murder.
11) police officers colluding to falsify reports about said murder.
12) superior officers coaching said falsification.
13) return to street of said miscreants.
14) police officer spokeshole deliberately issuing lies to the media to misdirect, temporize, stall and otherwise obscure said murder and cover up.
15) councilmembers insulting protesters as “lynch-type mob.”
16) councilmembers discounting injuries of murder victim.
17) police officer arrests Emmanuel Martinez by mistake (or on purpose) and he spends 5 months in jail.
Good God! What a litany of toxic behavior, and the really scary part is that this is only the stuff we know about. And the chowderhead McKinley has the nerve to call anybody else on the planet “toxic?” The level of denial of responsibility is remarkable. Of course being given a $215,000 a year pension may create an unavoidable attitude of arrogance and self-entitlement.
However, Mr. McPension has a generous streak, to be sure:
“Councilman Pat McKinley said he supports the radio hosts right to stage a rally, but the former Fullerton police chief certainly disagrees with the pair’s opinions…”
Well, thanks awfully, Pat. You support the First Amendment. Well, you support it when people are watching, obviously. No elaboration about what he specifically disagrees with John and Ken about.
At Saturday’s protest of the hapless Fullerton Police Department, some perceptive folks espied a character who immediately drew suspicion, sore thumb-like, as some sort of plant. Of course they challenged this individual, who, thoughtfully provided a business card.
FYI, an aardvark is a homely creature that roots through the dirt for bugs which seems aptly descriptive; the use of the name could also be a tactic just to get to the front of the phone book.
Our Friends discreetly followed Mr. Fury for several blocks down Commonwealth Avenue before he doubled back and wandered into – the FPD HQ! So what gives? Did the cops employ this clown to spy on peaceful protesters? If not why was he there?
Yes, we carry the full line of Pat McPension gear...
I note that on their website that Aardvark “featured partners” include Safariland, the company that McKinley worked with (on the taxpayers dime) developing his special vest that was later purchased by the Fullerton Police Department. Aardvark is an “authorized dealer” of Safariland equipment. Did McKinley and the anti-recall drones employ this guy to take pictures of scary members of Kelly’s Army? If not why was he there, and why the loop-de loop?
Aardvark explains himself
Aardvark pretends to leaveAardvark sneaks back into the station
I think somebody in authority (now who would that be?) needs to inform the police that the FPD facility is owned by the taxpayers (us) and that they had better stay out of politics on public time (ours) and in a publicly owned facility (ours).
The Fullerton School District had the summer off while our attention was diverted to more important matters. Under that cover and with the convenient assistance of closed session, the Board handed a ridiculous $35,000 cash settlement (our money, not theirs) to a previously fired six-figure employee who didn’t like getting terminated.
Lisa Reynoso is an ex-Director of Nutrition Services who presumably neglected her job duties so badly that the district took on the daunting task of actually terminating her employment and replacing her with someone better.
The board had been wanting to fire Ms. Reynoso for years, but the first attempt at some sort of action in 2007 was overturned by the Personnel Commission, a crazy union invention in which a dubious mix of unelected and unaccountable bad-employee sympathizers actually have power above and beyond the school board itself.
An unsettling agreement
So the lunch lady’s tenure was extended by a few years, which was more than enough for her to earn herself another termination by doing something else bad. We don’t know what she did this time, but anyone who’s tried the meatloaf knows that the bar is pretty low in a grade school cafeteria.
Did the board take charge and let her go this time? No. Our spineless representatives took the easy way out and gave her a parting settlement instead. At the taxpayers’ expense, of course.
It’s lost on these unprincipled, short-sighted administrators that handing cash to an ex-employee who doesn’t deserve it only encourages future bad apples to pursue the same jackpot. Shampoo, rinse, repeat, waste money, hope nobody notices.
What a mess.
The scam was ultimately abetted by the spineless “ayes” of board members Bev Berryman, Janny Meyer and Hilda Sugarman in closed session, with Chris Thompson dissenting.
One of the reasons F. Dick Jones is being recalled is his loyal support of an illegal 10% tax tagged on to Fullerton’s water users. We’ve written about this before. So here’s a fun replay post on the subject just to show you the befuddlement of our illustrious mayor.
– Mr. Peabody
A reasonable person might well be excused for wondering how a balanced individual would connect Adolf Hitler’s occupation of the Rhineland with a proposed water rate increase. Hell, we’ve been watching the cornpone brayings of Doc “Hee Haw” Jones for so long that no idiocy he spouts is surprising. Enjoy this erudition:
Okay forget the Hitler reference that might be more germane to a discussion on government economic policy such as Redevelopment. The real point of sharing this video is to show how Dick Hee Haw casually countenances the 10% in lieu “fee” rip-off because it isn’t “wasted,” i.e. is spent on things like cops. Forget the fact that Jones voted in the deplorable public safety 3 @ 50 that has buried Fullerton in retirement unfunded liability; forget that cops do nothing to provide water to the water rate payer; but, consider this: THE FRANCHISE FEE IS NOTHING BUT A TAX ON THE WATER USERS OF FULLERTON TO HELP PROP UP CITY HALL’S NON-WATER RELATED BUDGET.
A water rate increase automatically increases the lieu fee that is based on gross revenue, plain and simple. Well, not simple enough for Doc Phogbound to wrap his pea-sized brain around, apparently. Jones is all about funding big government by hook or by crook, and the phonier the scam, the better.
Yahoo News led off today with the doings in little Fullerton, California, here, related to the stories of police brutality against Veth Mam and of course, Kelly Thomas. Here’s somebody called Mike Ritto, President of the Downtown Business Association, moaning about the hurt put on local retailers:
“They’re telling people, ‘Don’t go to Fullerton.’ Nobody here did anything wrong. Why should the retailers suffer?” said Ritto, speaking of the protesters who have packed public forums and marched outside the police station every Saturday for a month.
Ahem. Nobody here did anything wrong? Why should the retailers suffer? Uh, dunno, Mike. Maybe it’s the bad karma associated with devil’s deal downtown Fullerton has made with an out of control police force.
I can mindread, and yes they thought they had the right man!
Naturally we hear from FPD spokeszit Andrew Goodrich, who, inexplicably, remains spokeszit despite a string of lies and half-truths that would have made a NAZI Ministry of Propaganda functionary’s heart sing:
Goodrich, the police spokesman, said allegations that the officers in the Mam case perjured themselves were false because they believed when they testified that they had arrested the right person.
Oh, really? False charges of perjury? Really, Andy? You really want to go there? Of course the charges are perfectly true; either that or your union pals are so f-ing incompetent that they belong in institutionalized care somewhere. Which is it?
See that guy over there? He didn't do it.
And here is Deputy DA Rebecca Reed, casually explaining that the whole Mam story told by the cops was pluasible:
“I thought it was reasonable that Veth Mam had been involved in this altercation before filming,” she said. “The video did not show the whole story.”
Say what? No, Becky, the laws of time and space were not suddenly suspended by the evil Mam. What she meant to say was: “we are told to go along with the cops story, no matter how ludicrous it might be; we have no compunction about charging and prosecuting an innocent man; we don’t give a damn about justice; my only concern is that this loss is going to hurt my record.”
Attorney Garo Mardirossian followed through with his promise yesterday, and now Fullerton is facing a new federal lawsuit from that guy who was wrongfully arrested for filming the police last year.
The suit alleges that Officer Kenton Hampton wrongfully assaulted Veth Mam and that officers Jonathan Miller, Frank Nguyen and Daniel Solario falsified police reports in an attempt to convict Mam for an assault against a police officer that he did not, in fact, commit.
The DA and the FPD had attempted prosecution of Mam earlier this year, despite viewing this video of the event which completely conflicts with what the officers wrote in their reports. A jury has already sided against the FPD and determined that Mam was innocent.
Chief Sellers is also named in the suit for willfully refusing to discipline or hold accountable any of his officers for felonies they allegedly committed against Veth Mam. He is also accused of allowing his department to “cover up acts of misconduct and abuse, “ that he “sanctioned a code of silence by and among officers,” and that the FPD “threatened, intimidated, demoted and fired officers who reported acts of abuse by other officers.”
Mardirossian says that if Chief Sellers had taken appropriate action against officer Kenton Hampton (one of the officers involved in the death of Kelly Thomas) at the time, Kelly Thomas might still be alive today.
The other day FFFF noted the eerie silence of the offspring of former Fullerton activist Ralph Kennedy when it came to the bludgeoning murder of the homeless man, Kelly Thomas at the hands of the Fullerton Police Department. We cynically noted that Rusty Kennedy’s OC Human Relations Commission relies upon the goodwill of police departments to lobby County government to continue funding this useless organization. Sharon Kennedy, who continues to publish the moribund and yellowing Fullerton Observer seems to have lost her moral compass, too.
The Kennedy siblings are not important themselves except that they are representative of Old Liberalism in Fullerton, and its total disregard for the killing of a completely helpless human being by the cops.
Here is Rusty expending three minutes of verbal gas saying absolutely nothing and trying as hard as he can to avoid speaking the truth: that the Fullerton Police deliberately killed a harmless, mentally ill man. Enjoy the end where Mr. Kennedy offers the services of his impotent operation, as if the cops who committed this crime against Kelly Thomas simply needed some sensitivity training courtesy of the Human Relations Commission.
Rusty, like his Collaboratin’ pals, obviously have been bought and paid for. But I promise one thing. When Kennedy comes hat in hand to the Board of Supervisors next spring I will be there to help pull the financial plug on this worthless hypocrite.
Unchained Melody…
