City Elections 2007: Out with the old, in with the new?
The title of this column isn't so much talking about the infusion at City Hall with new blood, in terms of new elected officials during this anti-incumbent period of the city's recent history. Actually, it has to do with the fate of several lakes in the middle of a park which is in the center of at least one candidate race coming up in the what's expected to be the final installment of Election 2007.
Mark this one down on your calendar.
The day has come when the city will finally drudge the lakes at Fairmount Park, according to the Press Enterprise. Beginning in August, the task will be attempted to change the lake from being pea-green and having a strong algae stench to being both clear and a paradise for the hundreds of fish that people are convinced are actually swimming around in there. That makes many people happy. Even as the fate and future of Fairmount Park is being debated, discussed and grappled over by among other players, the Fairmount Park Task Force which incumbent Ward One Councilman Dom Betro chairs, most people would like to see the lake get some much needed attention.
A big machine will be put in two of the park’s three lakes and it will suck out all the muck sitting in their bottoms, including duck feces, silt and other assorted garbage. Those who fish are rejoicing at the news. Others with more morbid sentiments speculated at what might lie on the bottom of the lakes.
(excerpt)
Some are wondering what else might lurk beneath the surface.
"I heard a spaceship crashed in there," said Riverside resident Maria Mata, 17, as she took an afternoon walk around the lake with boyfriend David Ramirez.
Bodies, weapons and perhaps a car were Ramirez's guesses.
"It seems like it would be a good place to throw someone," said Ramirez, 18, of Riverside. "People probably figure since no one ever cleans it, they'll never find it."
The dredging will likely unearth some unusual finds, but human remains are doubtful, Middleton said.
Riverside police spokesman Steve Frasher said finding weapons at the bottom of the lakes is conceivable, but he did not want to speculate.
"There's virtually no place criminals haven't tried to stash a gun," he said. "I suppose anything is possible. There's a lot of guck at the bottom of the lake."
Middleton expects the cleanup will reveal bent bike frames, car stereos, fishing poles, trash cans, and maybe even messages in bottles.
"Sometimes you find break-up notes," he said. "It's like people are throwing away their angst."
Another possible guess is Nessie's cousin Tessie, a 100-year-old serpent with feet. The last sighting reported of this strange creature was in the 1950s beneath the bridge that connects Riverside and Rubidoux, which was during a period of when there were Bigfoot sightings as well. Of course, that is only a legend. You can read about the history of strange creatures(those that aren't human of course) in Riverside in the fascinating book, Weird California.
Fairmount Park also served as the location of the infamous Lake Evans incident when three Riverside Police Department officers assaulted a Latino man they had picked up off the street and tossed him in the lake in July 1997. Two of the officers were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault under the color of authority and all three either were fired or left the agency. It was one of several assaults on members of the public that took place involving police officers who were caught during that troubled summer.
The father of one other officer, Robert Mauger, who assaulted someone else while onduty was in the same jury panel I was in last January and despite his diatribe against the justice system which convicted his son of three misdemeanors at trial, he made the final cut.
His son was a former Riverside Police Department officer who didn't dunk a person in the lake. He assaulted a handcuffed teenager in 1997 who he said had spit on him. As his father called it during questioning by both parties during jury selection, his son had just slapped the guy around a little and the system was trying to make an example of him.
Except for the fact that three other Riverside Police Department officers had the same idea the same summer. Unlike those officers, Mauger was convicted by a jury at trial.
The project to clean up the lakes is expected to last about three months. The city said that after the cleaning, people would be able to see the lake's bottom for the first time in many years. I'm sure the politicians hope it will be all completed before this autumn's political version of the same process takes place at the polls.
Some incumbents have even lost their most loyal supporters including Betro who lost a core of his grassroots supporters who worked on getting him in when he was still grassroots and Ward Seven councilman, Steve Adams who lost the support of the Riverside Police Officers' Association even before he circulated letters where he blasted the union for reasons that the union felt were unfair.
So the first round of elections for this year and no doubt, the final round reflects quite a few changes in the political climate in this city. It could set the tone for several pivotal elections in the next two years as well.
Speaking of jurors and jury selection, it looks like what happened for one week in January is set to happen for the next three months. Hundreds of jurors are set to descend on the city in anticipation of lots and lots of trials in an effort to reduce the 1,000 or so case backlog generated during the past several years.
The jurors are coming! The Press Enterprise published an article about the huge influx of jurors expected when the Strike Force of a dozen judges comes to town and starts conducting trials next week.
Additional parking places for jurors’ cars and chairs in the jury assembly room have been added in anticipation of the crunch. Still, no one knows for sure how busy it’s going to get during the next four months.
(excerpt)
It's business as usual -- it's just a larger amount of business," said Assistant Court Executive Officer Marita Ford. Eleven of the judges will preside in downtown Riverside courtooms, bringing the bulk of jury candidates their way.
Also arriving may be more hot dog stands in anticipation of the extra crowd that no doubt will be lining all the way around the courthouse at least twice. Last January, that's exactly what happened. Hundreds of jurors wrapped up around the Hall of Justice in two separate lines. Presiding judges called down to the deputies to find out where their expected jurors were hiding.
Most of them were in line. Several of us had been in line with about 900 other jurors for about 90 minutes and weren't even close to an entrance when Judge J. Thompson Hanks called down. A deputy came out to get us to the front of the line and it was pretty chaotic. There were so many jury trials during a one-week period that the courts had to call in two weeks of jurors so they wouldn't run out of panels by mid-week.
Imagine that for three months. Hopefully, parking will be ample and if they bring in jurors on Fridays, they will have the trolleys which transport jurors from the parking lots to the courthouses running.
Still, it sounds like a bonanza for the food stands.
(excerpt)
"With that many more judges, it should increase the flow of customers," said Lawrence Sanders, the owner of Big Mama's mobile hot dog stands that he said has up to three locations downtown.
A former Anaheim Police Department officer is going to jail for committing sexual acts on a minor, according to the Associated Press.
Jason David Rosewarne plead guilty to several charges and had been a fugitive for several years in England until he was caught. In what can only be described as a sweet heart deal reserved for celebrities, politicians and police officers, Rosewarne will receive only a year in jail and won’t have to register as a sex offender.
His victim was a member of the Police Explorers program that he headed.
The analysis of police corruption is an interesting essay on the subject including the definitions of both internal and external corruption and of the frustrating attempts to address a behavior that's been called "endemic" by individuals both inside and outside the law enforcement agency in question.
In the Time magazine article, "How Cops Go Bad" details the process of how police officers become corrupt, highlighting the years of Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia Police Department in the 1970s.
One former police officer employed during that era described in the article how it all started.
(excerpt)
How you get him is to disregard the law. "Basically, the first thing you really learn as a cop is how to lie," says Blondie. For many officers, their first taste of shading the truth involves car stops. "Now, say you see some guy driving who you think is wrong," says Blondie ("wrong" in his lexicon invariably means a black youth in a late-model car). "You stop him on no basis that could stand up in court. So you lie if you have to. You say he ran a stop sign or didn't signal or had a broken taillight that you break after you've determined he's bad. That makes the initial stop legal."
Then, Blondie continues, "you search the car, which you generally have no probable cause to do." The cop who finds something--guns or drugs--has two alternatives: "Lie, and testify that the guy gave you permission to search." Or say the contraband wasn't in the trunk at all, but rather in plain view. "Why sweat it?" asks Blondie. "Sure, you've fabricated the probable cause and done an illegal search, but the guy is bad, right? We do what we have to do."
"There's far more of this type of thing than anyone could be comfortable with," says Robert McGuire, who was New York City's police commissioner for six years. "Do cops perjure themselves routinely on warrants and arrests, where the probable cause is made up after the fact so the arrest stands up in court? Sure they do."
Philadelphia was eventually sued by the U.S. Justice Department as were its county prosecutor and Rizzo, who had been mayor when a lot of the abuses took place.
The officer, "Blondie", who was interviewed in this article was indicted along with other officers in his unit and ultimately sentenced to prison.
Some experts were asked why these officers did it and tried to provide some explanations.
(excerpt)
McGuire believes the pressure inevitably forces cops to make up some of their own rules. "Most of the kind of stuff [Blondie and the others] did was in the vast gray area that represents the real nuances of police work," he says. "We've all faced these things; we all have our own personal lines."
And Blondie, now in the second year of his 13-year sentence? He remains a stranger to remorse: "We didn't invent the system, or the ways to scam it to do the job. We inherited it. We were its custodians. Now others are."
Coming soon:
The Examination of Riverside through Cinema or the Fine Arts
How does what happens in Riverside, both politically and socially, resemble what happens on the big screen? They say that cinema and theater are prisms in which the real world can be seen through. Is this true?
If Jimmy Stewart Came to River City: Politics and idealism in Riverside.
"I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too."
---Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939)
The Community Police Review Commission vs Riverside's own Mister Mister.
"The theatre when it's good is always dangerous."
---Cradle will Rock
This 1930s musical promoting unionism was the only theater production in history ever prohibited from being performed by the United States government. A film about this episode of history that many people don't know about was released several years ago.
Mark this one down on your calendar.
The day has come when the city will finally drudge the lakes at Fairmount Park, according to the Press Enterprise. Beginning in August, the task will be attempted to change the lake from being pea-green and having a strong algae stench to being both clear and a paradise for the hundreds of fish that people are convinced are actually swimming around in there. That makes many people happy. Even as the fate and future of Fairmount Park is being debated, discussed and grappled over by among other players, the Fairmount Park Task Force which incumbent Ward One Councilman Dom Betro chairs, most people would like to see the lake get some much needed attention.
A big machine will be put in two of the park’s three lakes and it will suck out all the muck sitting in their bottoms, including duck feces, silt and other assorted garbage. Those who fish are rejoicing at the news. Others with more morbid sentiments speculated at what might lie on the bottom of the lakes.
(excerpt)
Some are wondering what else might lurk beneath the surface.
"I heard a spaceship crashed in there," said Riverside resident Maria Mata, 17, as she took an afternoon walk around the lake with boyfriend David Ramirez.
Bodies, weapons and perhaps a car were Ramirez's guesses.
"It seems like it would be a good place to throw someone," said Ramirez, 18, of Riverside. "People probably figure since no one ever cleans it, they'll never find it."
The dredging will likely unearth some unusual finds, but human remains are doubtful, Middleton said.
Riverside police spokesman Steve Frasher said finding weapons at the bottom of the lakes is conceivable, but he did not want to speculate.
"There's virtually no place criminals haven't tried to stash a gun," he said. "I suppose anything is possible. There's a lot of guck at the bottom of the lake."
Middleton expects the cleanup will reveal bent bike frames, car stereos, fishing poles, trash cans, and maybe even messages in bottles.
"Sometimes you find break-up notes," he said. "It's like people are throwing away their angst."
Another possible guess is Nessie's cousin Tessie, a 100-year-old serpent with feet. The last sighting reported of this strange creature was in the 1950s beneath the bridge that connects Riverside and Rubidoux, which was during a period of when there were Bigfoot sightings as well. Of course, that is only a legend. You can read about the history of strange creatures(those that aren't human of course) in Riverside in the fascinating book, Weird California.
Fairmount Park also served as the location of the infamous Lake Evans incident when three Riverside Police Department officers assaulted a Latino man they had picked up off the street and tossed him in the lake in July 1997. Two of the officers were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault under the color of authority and all three either were fired or left the agency. It was one of several assaults on members of the public that took place involving police officers who were caught during that troubled summer.
The father of one other officer, Robert Mauger, who assaulted someone else while onduty was in the same jury panel I was in last January and despite his diatribe against the justice system which convicted his son of three misdemeanors at trial, he made the final cut.
His son was a former Riverside Police Department officer who didn't dunk a person in the lake. He assaulted a handcuffed teenager in 1997 who he said had spit on him. As his father called it during questioning by both parties during jury selection, his son had just slapped the guy around a little and the system was trying to make an example of him.
Except for the fact that three other Riverside Police Department officers had the same idea the same summer. Unlike those officers, Mauger was convicted by a jury at trial.
The project to clean up the lakes is expected to last about three months. The city said that after the cleaning, people would be able to see the lake's bottom for the first time in many years. I'm sure the politicians hope it will be all completed before this autumn's political version of the same process takes place at the polls.
Some incumbents have even lost their most loyal supporters including Betro who lost a core of his grassroots supporters who worked on getting him in when he was still grassroots and Ward Seven councilman, Steve Adams who lost the support of the Riverside Police Officers' Association even before he circulated letters where he blasted the union for reasons that the union felt were unfair.
So the first round of elections for this year and no doubt, the final round reflects quite a few changes in the political climate in this city. It could set the tone for several pivotal elections in the next two years as well.
Speaking of jurors and jury selection, it looks like what happened for one week in January is set to happen for the next three months. Hundreds of jurors are set to descend on the city in anticipation of lots and lots of trials in an effort to reduce the 1,000 or so case backlog generated during the past several years.
The jurors are coming! The Press Enterprise published an article about the huge influx of jurors expected when the Strike Force of a dozen judges comes to town and starts conducting trials next week.
Additional parking places for jurors’ cars and chairs in the jury assembly room have been added in anticipation of the crunch. Still, no one knows for sure how busy it’s going to get during the next four months.
(excerpt)
It's business as usual -- it's just a larger amount of business," said Assistant Court Executive Officer Marita Ford. Eleven of the judges will preside in downtown Riverside courtooms, bringing the bulk of jury candidates their way.
Also arriving may be more hot dog stands in anticipation of the extra crowd that no doubt will be lining all the way around the courthouse at least twice. Last January, that's exactly what happened. Hundreds of jurors wrapped up around the Hall of Justice in two separate lines. Presiding judges called down to the deputies to find out where their expected jurors were hiding.
Most of them were in line. Several of us had been in line with about 900 other jurors for about 90 minutes and weren't even close to an entrance when Judge J. Thompson Hanks called down. A deputy came out to get us to the front of the line and it was pretty chaotic. There were so many jury trials during a one-week period that the courts had to call in two weeks of jurors so they wouldn't run out of panels by mid-week.
Imagine that for three months. Hopefully, parking will be ample and if they bring in jurors on Fridays, they will have the trolleys which transport jurors from the parking lots to the courthouses running.
Still, it sounds like a bonanza for the food stands.
(excerpt)
"With that many more judges, it should increase the flow of customers," said Lawrence Sanders, the owner of Big Mama's mobile hot dog stands that he said has up to three locations downtown.
A former Anaheim Police Department officer is going to jail for committing sexual acts on a minor, according to the Associated Press.
Jason David Rosewarne plead guilty to several charges and had been a fugitive for several years in England until he was caught. In what can only be described as a sweet heart deal reserved for celebrities, politicians and police officers, Rosewarne will receive only a year in jail and won’t have to register as a sex offender.
His victim was a member of the Police Explorers program that he headed.
The analysis of police corruption is an interesting essay on the subject including the definitions of both internal and external corruption and of the frustrating attempts to address a behavior that's been called "endemic" by individuals both inside and outside the law enforcement agency in question.
In the Time magazine article, "How Cops Go Bad" details the process of how police officers become corrupt, highlighting the years of Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia Police Department in the 1970s.
One former police officer employed during that era described in the article how it all started.
(excerpt)
How you get him is to disregard the law. "Basically, the first thing you really learn as a cop is how to lie," says Blondie. For many officers, their first taste of shading the truth involves car stops. "Now, say you see some guy driving who you think is wrong," says Blondie ("wrong" in his lexicon invariably means a black youth in a late-model car). "You stop him on no basis that could stand up in court. So you lie if you have to. You say he ran a stop sign or didn't signal or had a broken taillight that you break after you've determined he's bad. That makes the initial stop legal."
Then, Blondie continues, "you search the car, which you generally have no probable cause to do." The cop who finds something--guns or drugs--has two alternatives: "Lie, and testify that the guy gave you permission to search." Or say the contraband wasn't in the trunk at all, but rather in plain view. "Why sweat it?" asks Blondie. "Sure, you've fabricated the probable cause and done an illegal search, but the guy is bad, right? We do what we have to do."
"There's far more of this type of thing than anyone could be comfortable with," says Robert McGuire, who was New York City's police commissioner for six years. "Do cops perjure themselves routinely on warrants and arrests, where the probable cause is made up after the fact so the arrest stands up in court? Sure they do."
Philadelphia was eventually sued by the U.S. Justice Department as were its county prosecutor and Rizzo, who had been mayor when a lot of the abuses took place.
The officer, "Blondie", who was interviewed in this article was indicted along with other officers in his unit and ultimately sentenced to prison.
Some experts were asked why these officers did it and tried to provide some explanations.
(excerpt)
McGuire believes the pressure inevitably forces cops to make up some of their own rules. "Most of the kind of stuff [Blondie and the others] did was in the vast gray area that represents the real nuances of police work," he says. "We've all faced these things; we all have our own personal lines."
And Blondie, now in the second year of his 13-year sentence? He remains a stranger to remorse: "We didn't invent the system, or the ways to scam it to do the job. We inherited it. We were its custodians. Now others are."
Coming soon:
The Examination of Riverside through Cinema or the Fine Arts
How does what happens in Riverside, both politically and socially, resemble what happens on the big screen? They say that cinema and theater are prisms in which the real world can be seen through. Is this true?
If Jimmy Stewart Came to River City: Politics and idealism in Riverside.
"I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too."
---Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939)
The Community Police Review Commission vs Riverside's own Mister Mister.
"The theatre when it's good is always dangerous."
---Cradle will Rock
This 1930s musical promoting unionism was the only theater production in history ever prohibited from being performed by the United States government. A film about this episode of history that many people don't know about was released several years ago.
Labels: business as usual, corruption 101, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 8:46 AM
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