So says an anti-recall party flier about our own lovable Dick “HeeHaw” Jones. Well, close.
Howza ’bout: Instability. Indignity. Incivility.
Looks like the anti-recall sponges and parasites have decided to hold a party to raise money for the Three Blind Mice.
Well, good for them, say I. After all, we really need to see what kind of creeps will support the incompetents who created and tolerated the Culture of Corruption in the Fullerton Police Department.
Here’s the flier:
Of course they were going to trot out the Jurassic McClanahan and Catlin – who were both recalled alongside Bankhead in 1994 for imposing a tally unnecessary utility tax on Fullerton. Oh! And here’s Jan Flory who not only supported the utility tax, but even wished it were doubled. And all of them voted year after year to stick us with a 10% tax on our water bills for no damn good reason other than that they could get away with it. Oh, yeah, they also supported every single Redevelopment boondoggle, giveaway, disaster, and money pit.
And Dick Ackerman? Ho ho! We’re onto that slime ball’s influence peddling schemes. Just a few weeks ago the Three Desiccated Dinosaurs awarded the lobbyist Ackerman’s clint a multi-million dollar subsidy for an unnecessary housing project. Awarded for services rendered, no doubt.
Well, there’s your sad crew of anti-recall characters. Here’s a thought: let’s sweep the whole rotten Phalanx of Failure into the garbage can of Fullerton history – once and for all!
Can anybody say protest at the Villa del Sol?
Thus spake newly minted Fullerton police chief in an LA Times article, here, thoughtfully provided by a frequent commenter Jane H.
Pat McKinley was referring to the Rodney King beating at the hands of his colleagues in the LAPD that turned out to be the catalyst for the most destructive riots in American history.
Here’s the money quote from the egregious McKinley:
“Hey, we’ve got to do some training, we have to provide appropriate tools for officers on the streets and we need to go on.”
Uh, yeah, Pat. Good deduction. Let’s “go on.”
Speaking of training, McKinley style, flash forward to the fall of 2010 when McKinley-hire Kenton Hampton knocks the phone camera out of Veth Mam’s hands before throwing him to the pavement like a rag doll and dropping his 250 lbs of bulk on the helpless Mam. That’ll teach him to document the activities of McKinley’s downtown goon squad.
Then flash forward again to the sultry night of July 5th, 2011 when six McKinley hires (including Hampton, again) beat the mentally ill transient, Kelly Thomas, to death. In the aftermath of the killing we now know that digital and film records of the event were purloined by FPD cops at the scene.
If you ask me, what McKinley really learned from the Rodney King case, and what he meant by “training” was to make sure that witnesses who recorded the event were properly shaken down, intimidated and relieved of any incriminating visual evidence.
Oops! Too late. McKinley’s crew never dreamed that THEIR own camera would testify against them.
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.
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.
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.
In the last two months, there were NINE Fullerton police officers chilling out on paid leave while their conduct is supposedly being investigated.
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!
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.
For our incompetent spendthrifts on the Fullerton City Council, spending millions of dollars on grossly overpriced “affordable” housing is just like handing out candy to kids.
And even better when those “deserving” kids are your pals, cronies, and political bag men!
Mayor Dick is sho’ ’nuff pleased at the proposals all the Redevelopment parasites have brought forth (as he would say), gathering like hungry vultures around a roadkill remnant.
Naturally, one of the recipients of Mr. Big Shot’s free-and-easy largess with our money is none other than Dick Ackerman, who apart from inveterate influence peddling and carpetbagging, is also heading up the anti-recall effort on behalf of the Three Blind Dinosaurs.
And of course Jones is as untruthful as ever, claiming that someone else (SCAG!) is making him do something he really, really wanted to do anyway.