River City: We never close not even on weekends

People say believe half of what you see, Son

and none of what you hear.



---Marvin Gaye, "I heard it Through the Grapevine"





Just when you think things couldn't be worse for the Community Police Review Commission, there's a development in the works potentially involving one commissioner that could really throw a monkey wrench in the process. The trouble is, that so many commissioners have either quit, are on the verge of quitting or are targeted by various city factions that it's like Survivor: Riverside at this point, you don't know who actually will be voted off the island next. A very White island at this point, given that most of the commissioners who are Latino have left the commission in the past year. Those were Bonavita Quinto-MacCullum, Frank Arreola, Ric Castro and Bob Garcia.

All but Garcia either resigned or declined to be reappointed to a second term. Garcia termed out but if he hadn't, it's not likely he would have remained on it much longer given the current climate.


And the story isn't just whose leaving, it's who wants to get on. It seems that for some reason, people with political ambitions are lining up to get seats on it and not resort to using other popular launch pads like the Planning Commission or the Board of Public Utilities. Of course, in order to be part of the machine, they'll have to follow the city's agenda. And the city rewards those that are already among the select few appointed on its boards and commissions by allowing them to jump onto another one when they've either termed out or simply have grown bored with their current assignment. It's like a video game where you successfully complete one level and move up to the next if you've accumulated enough points.

Witness, Peter Hubbard who terms out on the Board of Public Utilities and jumps onto the CPRC after having the city council in stitches while lamenting about how not serving on a board or commission for the first time in 10 years has left a hole in his life. His joking matter isn't nearly as funny at meetings where commissioners are discussing whether or not the taking of a man's life is within policy or not.

Or Brian Pearcy, who chairs the CPRC and actually served on a downtown parking committee. A bizarre rumor going around has him jumping ship to get a Ward One slot on the Board of Public Utilities but given the departures, anything is possible. Or Human Relations Commissioners John Brandriff and Chani Beeman who were asked to or wanted to jump ship to the CPRC. Brandriff made it in his first attempt, while Beeman is apparently in the midst on her second try at getting on the CPRC.

That either shows that elected officials don't know the constituents of their wards or they don't have faith in them to try someone who is new rather than recycle their prior commission appointments. Then they scratch their heads wondering why they failed to get even half of the ward vote in the past election.

What's interesting is that the city council recently changed the rules of its mid-term selection process for guess which boards and commissions, the Planning Commission, the Board of Public Utilities and the CPRC, to have the full council interview candidates and make the selections.

This type of defacto selection process of board and commission hopping favors of course, those who are White, affluent and who have ties to City Hall whether they admit it or not. A lot of people including those who built reputations on holding the city's feet to the fire appear not to have any problems with this process if it helps one of their own. But at the end of the day, it's all the same to the 99% of city residents who do not have a foot in the door of their local city government including and especially those from communities that several of the boards and commissions, the CPRC and the HRC, are geared towards either addressing the needs of or assisting in a process disproportionately used by their members.


In the meantime, the vast majority of city residents who apply to these boards and commissions don't even get picked to be interviewed. They represent all kinds of backgrounds and bring all kinds of perspectives to a commission that needs to include them. But having asked people that are smart, dedicated, passionate residents to apply not just for the CPRC but for other boards and commissions, the response is that the process is stacked, it's a Whites-only club and city council members just put their friends on it.

And it's interesting that even the city council members who ran on election platforms supporting the CPRC only talk about it in public when they're trying to get their own people on it, not through the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee which is part of that procedure, but through the back door. Several times, candidates have wound up on the interview list without their names being dropped at the committee meeting, which pretty much tells you that process is simply for show. Their applications and resumes if they include them, are not available to the public along with those that were submitted to be screened at the committee level.

That's not transparent and it's not honest as it makes the whole process appear as if the decisions are made on who to interview and ultimately who to select, as was the case with one recent appointment, behind closed doors. It just fosters the beliefs of those who think that there's everything wrong of it.

And serving on a board or commission is not easy if you are a person of color. Several years ago, CPRC Commissioner Jim Ward was recorded by the city answering questions about his commission.

Later, that recording resurfaced at a training session involving officers from the Riverside Police Department who were apparently supervised by then sergeant, John DeLaRosa. The tape was played and the police officers laughed and mocked Ward while the recording played. When DeLaRosa was asked about it by another commissioner who attended the training, he apparently said, don't look at me.

A crowd of individuals mocking a Black man is nothing new, certainly not in law enforcement as scandals involving the emails at Port of Seattle Police Department, the video tapes in San Francisco Police Department and the racist floats used by New York City police and fire employees have shown, but it's always a disappointing reminder that when it comes to race and racism, law enforcement agencies still have a ways to go. And that making fun of Black people apparently was at least several years ago an appropriate method of peer bonding.

The three most commonly asked questions I receive from community members about the makeup of the CPRC's membership is how many Black/Latino/White people are serving on it, how many current or retired police officers and how many people tied with the city are on the panel. Candidate X for example while inquiring about the commission that he had applied to oversee did say that the CPRC was unusual in how it did have a high percentage of commissioners with police backgrounds.

Another observer closer to home asked me yesterday, about the politicization of the selection process and whether or not candidates were being picked mostly in terms of how friendly they were with City Hall. That's a tough question to answer without a lot of exposition of the commission's history past and present.



Among the city leadership, there's three tiers of sentiment regarding the CPRC on the dais.

You have those like Councilman Art Gage, who just come out and say that they hate it. That it's trash or junk and if action is taken to undermine it, it's more overt, say pushing for it to be defunded at a budget hearing. Then you have city council members, the so-called mid-line who say they personally wouldn't want it but if it's what the voters wanted, then they would honor that through their actions. Oh and by the way, there's some amazing beachfront property for sale in Utah.

In the meantime, they're giving pay raises to a city manager who's pretty much hollowed the CPRC out and ran it aground in less than 12 months while telling people it's never been in better shape. Either they are out to lunch on the CPRC or they are trying to sell the public something that doesn't exist. They may blame the more overt council members in private for ensuring that the CPRC became part of the city's charter and blame them in public for undermining the will of the people by attacking the CPRC.

Then there are those who tell community members and leaders that yeah, they totally support it, but that only lasts until it flexes one independent muscle and then they say, well it's just advisory and it's there on paper, so don't come to me about it because there's developers breaking down my door again. You'll see me break my silence on it when I need to push for my peeps who got me elected to get seats on it but otherwise, I've got other things to do.

The only councilman who has provided any forum for the community to discuss the CPRC and the events surrounding it has been Andrew Melendrez but then he's still the most independent voice on the current city council.

Then again, I asked former executive director, Pedro Payne if he felt he had any supporters on the city council right after he was barred from attending community meetings by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis and he said, not a one.

Prophetic words if there ever were any, it may turn out.





The University Village, otherwise known as the University of California, Riverside's West Campus(as stated on the back of the building) is trying to diversify to better meet the needs of well, university students, according to the Press Enterprise.


(excerpt)



After years of frustration, some longtime tenants say they also sense a turning-of-the-corner for the center.

"I think things are getting better," said Avid Mazloom, a co-owner of New Image Salon and Day Spa, which has been at the center for about five years. He added that the newly completed building will help increase customer traffic.

Key challenges, say some tenants, include getting a wider variety of non-food tenants, and attracting visitors from beyond the university community.

"Right now most of the customers are students and other people who work at UC Riverside, and we'd like to see more people from other parts of town come here," said Mazloom. "But that's going to be up to the individual businesses to advertise and market themselves."

Khanh Nguyen, owner of the Vietnamese restaurant Pho Vinam, said the parking situation during the academic year is much better than it was five years ago. But during holidays and breaks between quarters at UC Riverside, the center's restaurants must share a dwindling number of dining patrons.

"Sometimes there's almost too much competition," said Nguyen, adding that more non-restaurant attractions would help during those periods.

Even some frequent visitors say they'd come more often if University Village could move beyond its longtime reputation for being a 10-screen movie theater with a large food court.

"They could use at least a small department store where the kids could get things like T-shirts," said Christine Brickel, a lifetime Riverside resident.

"They definitely need a bookstore," said UC Riverside student Julia Coleman.




The city's going to plug even more major bucks to the tune of $300,000-400,000 into the project which is just a drop in the bucket compared to how much the city's invested so far. For some, the Village is a place to hang out between or after classes at UCR. For others, it's all about broken promises including employment opportunities and businesses geared towards the residents of the Eastside neighborhood. None of the promises made to the residents when the city was using money geared to develop economically-depressed areas was actually kept. In fact, Eastside residents reported discrimination when they tried to frequent stores there. At least one restaurant that no longer resides there wouldn't allow young Latino men or women through its doors to attend special events there which were supposed to be open to the public.

The money used to alleviate some of the poverty in the Eastside through redevelopment instead made UCR students grumble a bit less than they usually do about there being nothing to do in Riverside but it didn't change the Eastside where the money was supposed to go and would have gone if the boundaries of that historic neighborhood hadn't been expanded east from Chicago Avenue to Canyoncrest Drive.




Twelve active and retired judges could be coming to Riverside County to help with the current backlog of criminal cases, according to the Press Enterprise. The order was issued by Chief Justice Ronald M. George.


A few people were very happy about that.


(excerpt)



"I think the public's right to justice has been impaired by the growth in caseloads," George said. "We're really focusing on Riverside County because the situation is worse there than in any other county."

The state's Judicial Council has requested 150 new judgeships statewide over three years. Riverside County was given seven of 50 new judgeships, but those positions have not yet been filled. Another six may be allocated if state legislators approve them.

"That will have a huge impact," said District Attorney Rod Pacheco, who said the county has seen a steep increase in the number of misdemeanor trials and a major shortage of jail beds. "It's a pretty significant situation down here."




Straight from the mouth of the real presiding judge of Riverside County Superior Court.






A judge has issued an order against 71 police officers in Deptford Police Department to stop harassing witnesses who are police officers in an upcoming trial of an officer facing assault charges, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.


(excerpt)



Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson summoned Police Chief John Marolt to her Gloucester County courtroom, saying she wanted no misunderstanding about her order. She said a "preponderance of evidence" presented during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday showed police brass had attempted to intimidate police officers who might testify on behalf of accused Patrolman John Gillespie.

The judge instructed the chief to notify his entire department that this must stop.

"Yes, Your Honor," Marolt replied nervously, as he stood before the judge with his attorney in a mostly empty courtroom. "When I go back, I'm going to issue a cover letter to all personnel."



About a dozen police officers had testified in a special hearing that they were intimidated by their supervisors in the department, which led to the judge issuing the order.








The News-Press in Fort. Myers Florida wrote a history of police and community relations in that city going back to the earliest years of the 20th century.


Black officers faced many obstacles in a mostly White police department both in terms of its numbers and very much so by its culture.


(excerpt)


There are 196 members of the Fort Myers Police Department, 17 are black, including three sergeants and a lieutenant, said Maureen Buice, a department spokeswoman. The department had a black chief, Larry Hart, from 1995 to 2001.

Acceptance came slowly for the first black officers. When Rayfield Newton became a police officer in 1962, it was understood his arrest authority was only for other blacks.
White suspects had to be arrested by white officers. It was a rule Newton didn’t follow.
“If a white came into Dunbar and caused trouble, I arrested him,” he said. But the role of a black officer was difficult back then, he said.

“I got paid $50 a week,” Newton said. “A white officer got $77. White officers got cars and radios. Black officers were told to walk or patrol in our own cars. The city gave us gas, but that was all. We didn’t have radios. They told us to call in every hour.”




The police department claims it's reexamining its use of force policy and investigating the feasibility of a crisis intervention training program, but several heads of local civil rights organizations say much more needs to be done.


(excerpt)


Alibaba Lumumba is the new president of the Black History Museum on Henderson Avenue. He is trying to make the museum an integral part of Dunbar. He admits he is new to the community, but he offered some observations on both the police and residents.

“I don’t want to be too critical,” he said. “But I’ve heard people make proposals to do a lot of things. Then I told them, ‘OK, we’re here, what can we do?’ No one had a specific plan.” He’s been working with the police department and community leaders to help energize the neighborhood watch programs in the Dunbar community.

Fort. Myers has been pushing for a civilian review board in the wake of several controversial shootings of city residents by police officers. However, the city council has blocked that goal from coming to fruition.


Howard L. Simon, from Florida's ACLU wrote the following opinion piece about the need for a civilian oversight mechanism in Fort Myers.




Working as a police officer is a hard and often dangerous job. They
deserve our respect, support and gratitude. But like other
professionals, police officers sometimes make mistakes, sometimes they
engage in misconduct, and sometimes they are sent out on the streets
to enforce bad policies.

Fort Myers would benefit from the creation of a sufficiently open
structure to review complaints of police misconduct and review law
enforcement policies. Public confidence cannot exist when reviews of
law enforcement policies and allegations of police misconduct are
conducted behind closed doors. Officers who are cleared of allegations
of misconduct in a secretive process may never be fully exonerated in
the eyes of the public, though they may deserve to be. Simply put, the
police shouldn't "police themselves."

From Miami to Portland, Ore., hundreds of cities have implemented
independent citizen review boards to investigate citizen complaints of
police misconduct and to review police department policies and
procedures. The investigations and review of policies and procedures
result in recommendations to law enforcement officials, mayors and
city managers.

These civilian oversight boards increase the confidence of community
members that complaints of police misconduct will be handled
thoroughly, independently and fairly. Increasing confidence in the
fairness of the process also improves police-community relations.

NO SILVER BULLET

Citizen oversight panels do not reflect a lack of confidence in law
enforcement management, nor are they an expression of hostility to
police as some (including a recent guest opinion by Thomas C. Chase,
"Police oversight panel a bad idea, inviting lawsuits," May 21, 2007)
would have you believe.

In 2001, Miami residents overwhelmingly amended the City Charter to
create an independent civilian investigative panel with the authority
to issue subpoenas. The result was an ordinance creating the Civilian
Investigative Panel. The ordinance provided the CIP with the power to
independently investigate and conduct inquiries and public hearings
regarding allegations of police misconduct; to subpoena witnesses and
documents under limited circumstances; and make recommendations to the
police chief concerning the policies and procedures of the Police
Department and the disposition of alleged incidents of police
misconduct. These recommendations must be considered by the police
chief in determining appropriate disciplinary action.

Citizen review boards are no silver bullet. They work only if they
receive cooperation from police and city administrators and are
provided the resources and authority to accomplish their mission - and
only if they are staffed by capable and unbiased citizens who undergo
required training.

Citizen review boards help the community gather information about the
concerns of the community including individual incidents, problem
officers, and departmental policies that need to be reviewed and
possibly revised.

LESSEN TENSIONS

At least 10 Florida communities have some form of civilian police
review board, including Naples, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Key West,
Stuart, Orlando and St. Petersburg, and the counties of Orange,
Miami-Dade and Seminole.

The focus of discussions in Fort Myers has been on the role of a
Citizen's Police Review Board to investigate and make recommendations
regarding individual allegations of police misconduct and complaints
regarding the use of excessive force. But the Board's policy review
function will be more effective in improving policing than
investigating individual complaints. Police departments benefit by
civilian input, understanding and support for policies involving the
use of force — both lethal as well as the use of chemical agents and
so-called less-than-lethal weapons such as Tasers — as well as
policies dealing with high-speed pursuits, use of canines, and
protocols for the arrest of the mentally ill.

There is a cost for a Civilian Oversight Board, but it is worth it to
address the tensions in our community and rebuild police-community
relations and confidence in the Fort Myers Police Department.

The residents of Fort Myers can continue to use tax dollars to pay
lawyers to defend the city in lawsuits against the police, high
insurance premiums and compensation and damages to the victims of
police misconduct, and we can continue to endure investigations by the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Or, we can design a structure that just might save money by improving
policing, lessening tensions and increasing respect and support for
our police.

We take steps to protect the public's health, in part to prevent the
need for more costly care later on.

Similar preventive strategies could be taken with regard to the Fort
Myers Police Department.



In the News-Press, letters were published in response to an article written about the fatal officer-involved shooting of Ernest Weston, who was mentally ill.

Weston's, 41, death last February created an outcry both to fire the police chief and to create civilian review in Fort Myers.


(excerpt)



As additional details about the fatal police shooting of Ernest Lamont Weston, 41, began to unfold Saturday people in the community began to criticize what they termed the police killing of a man whose family said suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Police responding to a shooting call at the Palmetto Grove apartments chased Weston who, according to witnesses, turned with his hands in the air, saying "whoa, whoa, whoa," seconds before the fatal shots were fired.

"Law enforcement is not the judge and executioner," said James Muwakkil, president of the Fort Myers Coalition for Justice, as he lead a small demonstration in front of police headquarters Saturday. "We challenge the mayor, the council and the city manager who denied us a police review board. Take responsibility for your police chief like you said you would. The man they killed had no weapon."


Protests and rallies took place in the neighborhood of Dunbar, where Weston was killed.


(excerpt)


Backdropped against a gray sky, 11 protesters, some carrying children, stood outside Fort Myers police headquarters carrying signs that read: "One Bullet Wrong Name," "Badge and deadly force is not a treatment for a mental handicap."

In the community itself, there is fear of speaking out, said Debra Font, a Dunbar resident.

"People are afraid to say much. They think if they do they'll be harassed by the police," she said.

"People are angry, frustrated and confused," said Sherry Battle, a resident and coalition member.

"All we want is for someone to step up and be accountable for what has happened. All we want is the truth."




That's nice when you can get it.




Speaking of access to the truth, in Seattle, the city attorney is working overtime to block the release of a controversial report by the city's police commission, according to the Seattle Times. It appears someone is willing to give Riverside's own city attorney's office a run for the money when it comes to being obstructionist.



(excerpt)



The review board's report deals with the police department's investigation into a controversial drug bust in January involving Seattle police officers Gregory Neubert and Michael Tietjen.

Holmes said the report "shows serious problems in the department" and that he believes politics may have played a role in the city attorney's opinion.

The report "is embarrassing," Holmes said. "I'm not surprised they don't want it made public." He characterized it as "very critical."

Holmes and City Attorney Tom Carr have clashed over the review board's role before. A spokeswoman in Carr's office said she could not discuss advice given to a client and that Carr would have no comment.

City Council President Nick Licata defended Carr, saying the city attorney gave the review board's report to others in the office to handle because of Carr's conflict with Holmes.




Here's some advice to the police commission. Get your own independent legal counsel so you don't have to rely on legal advice from the city's attorney who puts the interests of the city including its risk of civil liability first, the board a distant second.






Meanwhile, from the pulp fiction section of the virtual city bookstore in a parallel universe.




So the Boss sat in the bar ignoring the two men in blue, including the one that was scratching his arm. As he looked at his watch, that was when John Devil-Saint came rushing in as if on cue.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Devil-Saint said as he sat down in the corner booth with The Boss. "The traffic through La Crista was just terrible this time of night." Actually, it was about 3 A.M. and traffic was always bad in River Bottoms. Though high on the list of things to do alphabetically in the town's 20 year plan, infrastructure placed near the bottom of the list in terms of priorities.

The Boss drummed his fingers, because he had left his pen back in the office.

"Did you hear the news," The Boss said.

"About the little old lady," Devil-Saint said, "Nothing to worry about. We're sending off for those industrial strength lock clippers, that should do the trick."

A waitress brought The Boss his martini and took an order for a diet coke with a slice of lime on the side for Devil-Saint. Devil-Saint gulped it down as if he'd spent 40 days out in the desert, until The Boss threw him a look. Devil-Saint put his glass down, picked up a napkin and wiped his lips.

"Not that," Devil-Saint said, rubbing the fingers of both hands together, because he was tired of drumming his fingers and he had left his pen back in the office.

"Then what is it," The Boss said, his patience ebbing.

"Strange forces have come to our town."