Election 2007: Where are my signs?

Here it is, not the article about the ethics complaint that has been filed against Riverside City Councilman Dom Betro but the Press Enterprise did publish the long anticipated article about the vandalism of signs during this year's contentious election season. However, although signs involving different candidates all over the city have either been stolen or vandalized, only those affecting one candidate in Ward One have warranted a news article.

People in all seven wards in this city have the right to political expression through posting signs on their properties. Those signs should remain where they are, undisturbed and free from removal or vandalism and they shouldn't be removed by city employees unless they are in violation of the city's municipal code.

While we're at it, newspapers should remain free from theft or vandalism when they're sitting in a news rack but that's a different story. Still theft and vandalism are common tools or actually weapons used to prevent public expression whatever form it is. And when theft and vandalism are not available as tools to use for certain formats of expression, harassment and threats are often the tools used instead.

My first experience with destroyed or stolen signs involved signs that were put out protesting Proposition 22 which promoted allowing marriage only between two members of the opposite gender. Signs opposing this proposition were destroyed in the downtown area, within hours of being staked in the grass. More signs opposing Proposition 22 disappeared in the University neighborhoods as well.

During the first months of the Iraq war in 2003, a peace banner that had been hung in front of the Universalist Unitarian Church was burnt by an unknown individual and a car of one peace activist had its windows smashed by an unknown person or persons while a meeting was taking place inside the same church. When the owner tried to call the police to send an officer out to take a report on a possible hate incident(because she had pro-gay and lesbian stickers on her car), the dispatcher told her that she had to report it over the phone the next day because she was told that it was only vandalism.

When the watch commander and his supervisor were notified of what had happened and the department's response to it, they sent someone out to take a report on it immediately, because they said it wasn't just an act of vandalism but a potential hate crime or incident.

Still, it was difficult to report any actions like this one involving peace activists to the police department given that one uniformed representative of the department had been spotted stopping his squad car in front of a demonstration and then joking about the bombs falling on the Iraqis before speeding off. That left quite an impression on those who gathered that day including the impression that the department probably wouldn't be interested in taking any of their calls if they were the victims of crimes as a result of their activism. And these peace activists had eggs thrown at them, flare guns shot at them, were assaulted and knifed, and had numerous drivers make the hand gesture of a gun at them while driving by.

The two worst incidents were when a driver passed by and fired a real gun at them, the bullet struck one of their signs. The other was when a young woman lost the vision in one of her eyes after a man driving by in a black jeep threw a bunch of 1-inch bolts into her face. It took several weeks for her to return to the demonstrations and she never stood close to the curb of the street again.

By the time the activists had been shot at, they decided to wait until several days before calling the police department. When they did, officers scolded them at waiting so long to do so but the activists told these police officers that at that point, they felt it was no longer worth the effort to notify them when something happened.

Every police officer in uniform is essentially an ambassador of sorts, representing the agency that they work for. It's the decision of each one how they choose to do so and what impression they want to give to the public both in terms of what they represent and how much they value the agency that they work for or themselves as police officers for that matter.

Then there was the Black Voice News which was not only vandalized during the months following the fatal officer-involved shooting of Tyisha Miller in 1998, but it was City Manager John Holmes who actually had issued an order to the Public Works Division to send employees out to remove the news racks, 26 in all, from where they were posted. The city employees just yanked them off the ground and threw them in the back of a truck. The city denied that these actions were related to criticism of its handling of the Miller shooting that was published in that newspaper.

The city was forced to return them after a law suit was filed against it in U.S. District Court. Not long after that, the enforcement of a policy governing news racks was determined to have been applied in a way by the city that it had violated the newspaper's publishers' 14th Amendment rights, according to a federal judge.

Still to this day, newspapers occasionally get stolen in bulk from the downtown news rack, within several days of being placed in there and the money that should have paid for them is nowhere to be found. Then phone calls or other conversations come in by readers who can't purchase their newspaper because there is none left in the downtown area. But then, other news racks had been subjected to vandalism including thefts of racks(with one turning up in a field in Fontana), firebombings and the insertion of White Supremacist literature from the White Aryan Resistance inside copies of the newspapers, to the extent where the newspaper was cautious when giving out the locations of the news racks in Riverside and other cities to individuals over the telephone.


So in Riverside, unfortunately, there's been a history of stifling free expression through acts of vandalism, theft and removal of either signs or newspaper racks by the city. Most of it is probably not censorship, which can only be practiced by the government but its impact is the same.

Expressing yourself online especially if you are female can attract people who usually don't use their real names that harass and/or threaten bloggers. This behavior has been noted in several news articles which addressed the topic of how many female bloggers face abuse, harassment and threats online. A more accurate point to address in these cases is how free are women to express themselves in a society that is clearly sexist and racist. And this society includes persons who are intent to keep them "in their place". After all, one poster who visited here posted that the purpose of women was for men to lie on and fuck.

Some of these cyber bullies or stalkers as they are called, ironically use the First Amendment to defend their cowardly behavior, apparently not knowing that the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution only applies as a means of telling the government what it can't do. They gnash their teeth over comment moderation because they apparently miss having an audience to read their filth. That includes individuals trying to post racist and sexist comments here during the past several months from three separate ISPs(each with multiple IP numbers) which are located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties.

Because of them, comments are off for the time being.

The elements of racism and sexism which appear to spearhead the harassment of women online with the ultimate goal being that they stop expressing themselves appear to be absent in the cases where signs in Riverside have been stolen and vandalized. But both actions really come from the same place as do the actions which the peace activists faced several years ago.


Stealing and vandalizing political signs is a serious offense and it should be roundly condemned by everyone, as a violation of the poster's right to express their political opinions. Vandalism and thefts of signs needs to stop, but it needs to stop across this city, not just in one area. Every political campaign should have the right to distribute signs that will be posted, not just those endorsed by the Press Enterprise's editorial board. And if the police department is going to dispatch its officers to patrol the neighborhoods in order to monitor the safety of political signs, then they should be driving all over the city because apparently, that's where it's been happening.

Signs posted in support of Ward One candidate Letitia Pepper have apparently been stolen or destroyed in the Wood Street area and other places in Ward One. Signs supporting Councilman Art Gage have been taken in the third ward. Betro's supporters took a whole bunch of signs that were on a display table at a forum and apparently those signs haven't been seen since then. And then there's been reports from Ward Seven as well involving missing signs.

So like a bad flu, sign theft and vandalism is going around the city. And it shouldn't matter if you agree with the person's political views or not or their vision for this city, the right to post political signs should be honored and respected by everyone.

Interestingly enough, even though the list of suspects for sign vandalism could be a long one given the size of this city, the Press Enterprise chose to focus on one activist group for a response. The response of that group and that of one of the candidates in Ward One are below.


(excerpt)


Mike Gardner, one of Betro's three opponents, issued a statement denouncing the tactic.

"I urge supporters and opponents of all candidates to refrain from this kind of nonsense," Gardner said. "It's not just illegal, it's wrong.

Paul Odekirk, a leader of "Save-Riverside," a group that opposes Betro, also issued a statement.

"These acts are a detriment to our cause and our reputation and we know for sure none of our members were involved with this blatant disregard for the democratic process," Odekirk said.

Riverside Police Department spokesman Steve Frasher said no arrests have been made and patrol officers have been instructed to keep an eye out for wrongdoers targeting signs.




Actually, the Press Enterprise did write a brief on the ethics complaint filed against Betro by Kevin Dawson. In the article, Betro's response to the allegations is that they involved an "insignificant campaign interaction".


I guess given Betro's history of venting at those who criticize him in public, one single incident would indeed be considered insignificant.



A resident of the proposed to be annexed University City wrote a letter published in the newspaper's Readers' Forum, stating that she would fight tooth and nail to keep her home in the wake of an unwanted annexation that was being done so that the city of Riverside could seize prime parcels at the foot of the Box Spring Mountains for development. The residents there prize their quiet lifestyle and want to hold onto it, and given that Riverside's city government is trying to outdo Orange County in developing every square inch of land within its boundaries with cement, it shouldn't be surprising that residents of University City might be concerned about that.

What can you say? Welcome to Pottersville.




An article by the Associated Press provides some perspective on what the writer called the "warrior culture" of the Los Angeles Police Department which is still reeling in the wake of the May Day incident.

Joe Frederick who authored a historic look at the LAPD titled, To Protect and To Serve, said that the reforms done on the department including those related to the federal consent decree between the city and the U.S. Justice Department still haven't done much to change the department's pervasive culture.


(excerpt)



"The LAPD is a big ocean liner and it will take a long time to turn around," said Joe Domanick, a senior fellow of criminal justice at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism. "(Bratton) has not focused on the paramilitary culture and us-against-them mentality that seems to still persist in the LAPD."

He said the culture originated during the reign of William H. Parker, hired as chief in 1950, who imagined the city's police force as an urban army.

Domanick said Parker's view was: "We're the only thing standing between chaos and anarchy. We are the professionals. We know better. No one tells us better."


Individuals who headed panels like the Christoper Commission and the blue ribbon committee to investigate the department's Rampart scandal wonder if that attitude still exists in the department and to an extent, discovered that little had change, after completing their inquiries.




In New York City, one of that city's police officers shot his fiancee in the face with his own department issued firearm, according to the New York Daily News. Officer Harry Rupnarine now faces second-degree murder charges for killing Giuatree Hardat after she decided not to set a wedding date.


(excerpt)


"I offered him to let us be a guide to his life," Hardat's father, Sukhdeo Hardat, told the Daily News yesterday.

"She didn't deserve this," he said of his daughter, 22, a student at Queens College. "She made me very proud. She was my baby. She would have always been my baby."

The father, who works for NYC Transit, said Rupnarine had been respectful to Giuatree Hardat when they began dating about 16 months ago. But the relationship slowly deteriorated.

"They had ups and downs," the 57-year-old father said. "He's very domineering. He always wanted his way. He was very dictatorial and that could tell you a lot."


After killing his girlfriend, Rupnarine didn't initially turn himself in, but instead apparently told officers to find two guys with a knife.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown(of the Sean Bell shooting case) said that this tragedy proved that police officers were not immune from the "social problems" impacting society but Brown is seriously underestimating the impact that domestic violence crimes including homicides have had on law enforcement.

Studies have stated that law enforcement officers engage in domestic violence at a rate that is at least four times higher than than occurs in society at large. About 55% of police agencies have inhouse policies which address the handling of domestic violence allegations involving their employees.


(excerpt, New York Daily News)



After blasting Giuatree Hardat in the face with his service weapon, authorities say, Harry Rupnarine told cops responding to Thursday's shooting that he accidentally shot her while fending off two muggers.

"Two guys with a knife robbed me," Rupnarine told cops who rushed to the shooting in Woodside, prosecutors said yesterday. "I turned toward them and I shot her."

"I'm on the job," pleaded Rupnarine, who is assigned to the NYPD Brooklyn transit bureau task force, but was off-duty at the time. "Please get those guys who robbed me."

Cops never found the phantom bandits, but they did find witnesses who heard Rupnarine arguing with Hardat, as well as one witness who saw the shooting, police said.





An elderly Black woman in the city of Atlanta alone in her house with only a gun as her door is being broken down by unknown parties.

And guess what, her name wasn't Kathryn Johnston, the victim of three narcotics officers who burst into her house, shot her to death and then tried to cover up their actions by lying on their reports and planting drugs in her basement.

Her name is Francis Thompson and she was 80-years-old and in her bedroom when officers did a drug raid on her house two months before Johnston's death according to an article in the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.


(excerpt)


"They had masks covering their face. I thought I was being robbed," she recalled. "They pointed those big guns at me."

Lead officer Gary Smith said repeatedly "Police! Drop the Gun!" from behind his raid shield, according to a police report. Thompson, who had pointed the gun at the intruders, put down the black revolver as officers searched her apartment for a drug dealer named "Hollywood."

No one else was home. No drugs were found. And her pistol was a toy cap gun.



Thompson survived her encounter with the three narcotics officers who were on a special team, part of the division which is now under the scrutiny of investigators including those from the U.S. Justice Department.


(excerpt)


"It was shocking enough for the officers to tell a superior, 'We've got to slow down or someone's going to get hurt,'" Garland said. "Everyone was shaken by it. They said, 'We down or someone's going to get hurt,'" Garland said. "Everyone was shaken by it. They said, 'We need to take our time, to watch our CIs,' " their confidential informants.

Yet two months later — acting on what he was told was information from a confidential informant — shield man Gary Smith was wounded in a drug raid about a mile away, at the home of Kathryn Johnston. This time, the revolver brandished by the elderly resident was real, and she squeezed off an errant shot. The entry team responded with a 39-shot fusillade, killing Johnston.

No drugs were found in that case, either, except for the ones police planted in the basement.

The two incidents share striking similarities: Two elderly women living alone with guns; police battering in a door; faulty reports from street-level dealers helping narcotics officers; and police parsing the truth, if not outright lying.



Actually, it's two elderly Black women, because it's not White women who are being shot in their homes in Atlanta. And when groups of people are seen congregating at the homes of White elderly women, certain negative assumptions aren't made about those people by police officers. In fact, for the most part, police officers don't pay much attention to what happens at the homes of elderly White women.

Thompson's son had just passed away so there were relatives and friends from church coming to her house to pay their respects. The police officers assumed that these individuals were at her house to buy drugs and decided to break her door down. They encountered her with her cap gun and realized quickly that they had made a horrible error. Fortunately, in Thompson's case it was before they killed her.

Several months later, Thompson watched the news on television about what had happened to Johnston in her house and may have thought if not for the grace of God, there go I.