FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Had a fun e-mail sent in today from some guy named “ray.” Writes ray:
Subject: Boshala
You act like a member of Hamas trying to control the Gaza Strip. You want to control Fullerton for the benefit of your company
I realize a lot of folks check under their beds at night for Arab terrorists, but c’mon, ray. Really?
Unchained Melody…
And what they are saying is pretty pathetic.
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.
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?
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.”
From the very beginning of the Kelly Thomas beating death at the hands, Tasers, fist and feet of the Fullerton Police Department, that department’s spokeshole, Sergeant Andrew Goodrich told the public that the fateful incident was intiated with a phone call: a phone call to the dispatcher stating that somebody was breaking into cars in the vicinity of the Transportation Center.
From the get go, the story sounded absurd to people who knew Kelly Thomas and who averred that Thomas wasn’t violent or a thief. And of course to a public that has come to understand that Sergeant Goodrich seems incapable of telling the smallest bit of truth, the idea that there was a call at all became a matter of doubt.
Tellingly, the police have issued no information about this mysterious phone call and who made it, and so far they have given no indication that they have the slightest iota of evidence that anybody was breaking into cars at all.
This is important, because it lends credence to the idea that the phone call, if there was one, was made in collaboration with the police themselves. This could implicate both caller and cops in a conspiracy. A conspiracy to do what? Since the result of the incident was the bludgeoning death of a harmless man, that question is almost to horrible to contemplate. But at the very least the facts lead to the reasonable deduction that the conspiracy, if it existed, was meant to deprive Kelly Thomas of his civil rights – a violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment right, to be specific.
Of course making a false report to the police is some sort of crime (although Goodrich has yet to make an honest report to the public, which seems to be A-OK to his higher ups and the City Council). So somebody should be in big trouble for that alone.
Was there a call? If so, who made the call and why? I don’t know, but I admonish the Do-nothing DA and the Federal investigators to find out. You can bet Ron Kelly’s attorney Garo Mardirossian and his investigators will. Soon.
Time to come clean.
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.
We’ll be there from 9 am to 3 pm in front of the police station on Commonwealth Ave.
The crapola gets even deeper! Check out these sources:
OC Register: Fullerton PD: ‘We may have arrested the wrong guy’
KTLA: Video Ignites Another Controversy for Fullerton Police
LA Times: Fullerton police review video, acknowledge arresting wrong man
FPD spokeshole Andrew Goodrich is now peddling bull so fast it has crept up over his hip waders and into his britches.
His latest rasher of shit is the story that cop Kenton Hampton roughed up and mistakenly arrested the wrong guy last October. He and his buddies cooked up a story in their reports and had the DA prosecute Veth Mam for obstruction of justice. Of course the jury saw the same video we posted here and acquitted Mam.
Goodrich’s latest fib is that the cop accidentally nabbed the wrong guy – someone who didn’t jump on a cop’s back. But anybody viewing the video knows that’s just bull. Check it out. You can see Hampton roll up and confront the crowd. Hampton clearly had no knowledge of anything that happened previous to his arrival. He set his eyes on a guy he saw video recording the altercation and hit him in the face, then starts throwing him around like a rag doll.
Goodrich wants us to believe that in the chaos of the moment the brave boys in blue picked on the wrong guy. Well that’s just a bald-face lie.
Now Mam has a lawyer. The same lawyer as the dad of FPD fatal beating victim Kelly Thomas. FPD is looking at assault and false arrest; and Fullerton’s self-insurance fund looks to get even smaller.
For some reason the DA hasn’t prosecuted the FPD liars including an officer named Frank Nguyen, for perjury, but that charge may be coming soon, although the incompetence of DA spokesholetress Susan Schroeder does not inspire confidence. Let’s hope somebody impresses upon our do-nothing DA the importance of being honest on the witness stand. After all, isn’t he telling us we can’t see the Thomas murder video because it might taint witnesses. Hah!
P.S. The DA supposedly had the video in their possession a month before the June/July trial and decided to try this dog of a case, anyway. I don’t know who made this expensive decision, but here’s the roll call of DA personnel who worked on the case at one time or another:
Susan Lee
Rebecca Reed
Stephen Cornwell
Andrew Bugman
Elizabeth Zuber
Poor Doc HeeHaw. There’s been so much riled-up lynch-type mob fussin’ a goin’ on that there jes’ ain’t enough grits and Jack Daniels to wash down the bitter bile thass stuck in the ol’ man’s gizzard. This mornin’ we had us some infermation that Fullerton’s Southern fried Mayor was a steppin’ down. Land O’ Goshen!
From KFI’s Steve Gregory, from Ron Thomas who jes’ had a meetin’ with the mayor.
Later on the City’s spokesgal sed it jes t’weren’t so. Should’a figgered that out r’seffs. Heehaw ain’t never done nuthin’ graceful-like.
So is he a comin’ or a goin’?
Our sources tell us that Dr. Jones is soon a headin’ outta town – to San Fransisko so’s he kin git ona croos ship that’ll haul his carcass away from all the feudin’ n’ a fightin’ so’s he kin take a gander at them glassiers and eskimoskeeters.