Santa Anas and other gusts of wind

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute."


---Abraham Lincoln




"Man is by nature a political animal."


---Aristotle



"A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected."


---Carl Sandberg






Santa Ana winds are whipping through Southern California causing blazes to break out including several in the Inland Empire.

Fires have broken out in at least six counties and even shut down the Metrolink from Riverside to Los Angeles this morning. Power outages all over San Bernardino County as well.



I was catching up on Inland Craigslist and ran into my latest "fan" there who of course decided to keep himself or herself anonymous. Having decided to remove his or her last posting, he or she has posted this instead.


(excerpt)


Mary,

I loved the way a few lines from last post inspired all sorts of rants and raves from you. All it takes is a few words and you just keep typing and typing and typing. Histerical!![sic]

I'll look forward to your future writing about leadership and politics. Throw in a bit of mental instability and your book will be nearly complete.

And to think that you also like my hair as if that has anything to do with what i wrote.

I don't think it will ever be midnight and that is fine to. You're quite amusing.





Laughter is considered to be the best medicine out there, so it's heartening to play a role in that process for someone and there's a recurrent theme in this anonymous posting that is symbolic of this year's contentious election.

Politics and leadership.


Actually, this theme that this anonymous writer brings up in his or her latest posting runs through this latest election cycle in Riverside. Who or what defines what's a good political leader for determining the "future" of Riverside?

The voters of course. But following the campaigns in an election season that I don't know, seems a bit longer than usual has been fascinating. As you know, we now have what seems to be a much longer election season because of changes made to the process by the voters in a recent election. So it just hasn't appeared to have lasted for months, it actually has taken months so far just to get to the point where the final election still stands two weeks away.

Still making the rounds are the campaign mailers which begin flooding the mailboxes in the wards in which the candidates are running to represent. The purpose of these mailers is in part to define what is politics and what is leadership in this city. Do they work? Do they influence people on how to define these two intertwining issues? Sometimes, it's hard to tell because the mailers come so fast and furiously that it's all one can do just to keep up with each exciting installment that is part of a larger picture of an election race. That's certainly been true of Election 2007, so far.

A recent mailer circulating from the Dom Betro camp apparently has some folks complaining that the Ward One incumbent is alleging claiming to be the savior of Tequesquite Park. This is interesting considering the original intent of the city council through its Riverside Renaissance project was to carve up the parcel and sell off chunks of it to developers for the hefty sum of around $10 million to developers so that these funds could be put back into use for other park projects.

Dan Bernstein, columnist for the Press Enterprise covered this issue several times including in his infamous "Retro Betro" column earlier this year.

So another person questions this and mentions the active role of Ward One challenger, Mike Gardner in all this. In response, one of Betro's supporters who at least uses initials when he or she posts, said well, where was Mike when all this was going on, what with Betro saving the parks at the same time his direct employee proposed selling chunks of them off to developers for different projects. Actually, Mike was leading a fairly well executed campaign on how to put Tesquesquite in the right direction by making it a focus of Election 2007.

And the difference between Gardner and Betro is that Gardner is graceful enough to give some credit where credit is due, something that Betro appears loathe to do because after all, this is an election year, a fight to remain the current Ward One representative.

After all, I found out the hard way what happens when you challenge Betro on any of his truths or merely question them in front of a crowd of people in my case involving a contract he said was being "finalized" which at that point wasn't even being negotiated. I think that was the day I met the real Betro, the one that has even some of his strongest supporters questioning their involvement in his reelection campaign.

Someone else's response may have been that Gardner was either serving on the Community Police Review Commission or as Betro himself implied at a recent public forum, causing all of its "past problems". That flies in the face of yet another anonymous poster with a yen for Bingo who has blamed Councilman Art Gage for all of the CPRC's problems but had to go back three years to find an example.

The most likely reason why is of course, because certain political camps don't want to mention or even encourage people to ask questions not about the CPRC's past problems, but its more current ones. Why? Because then to find some of those answers, we would have to start looking at some of these "team players" currently sitting on the dais rather than the guy they kicked to the curb for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the CPRC. And these "team players" have endorsed both Betro and Ward Three challenger, William "Rusty" Bailey. Why? Because these two candidates are also viewed as "team players".

Gage and Bailey have slammed each other in campaign fliers, just as Ward Five leading candidate, Chris MacArthur did with his rivals including Donna Doty-Michalka who has conducted herself very well in this campaign despite a lot of mudslinging.


Then there's Councilman Steve Adams who although he spent most of last year running for greener pastures up in the seat of power in Sacramento claims to have saved Ward Seven from what one city resident called, "being a mess". These claims and statements greatly offended La Sierra residents, some of whom vocalized their opinions at a recent meeting. But then if you remember, when Adams first came into office at his first meeting, he called Arlanza a "snake pit" filled with "snakes".

So now Adams, like Betro, is a "savior" in this case of La Sierra. Well, except for the fact that Adams loves his role as a councilman so much he decided to essentially jump ship and run for the state assembly last year. Meaning, that finishing out his term as the elected representative of his ward wasn't that important when stacked up against furthering what he no doubt hoped would be his upward trajectory through the political ranks of this state.

In another controversial campaign letter, Adams also accused the Riverside Police Officers' Association not endorsing them because he was not beholden to anyone, which upset the RPOA, according to this article in the Press Enterprise.

Expect as the money in campaign coffers wind down to see even more political letters and mailers imploring voters in the odd-numbered wards to support these candidates.

Here's what to do with latest round of mailers. Don't read any of them, but place them in a pile in chronological order. Then after the election, bind or staple them together and read them, as you might an interesting book about the travails of life on the campaign trail.



Okay, back to the "rants and raves" of which this blog is known.




The Riverside City Teachers Association has decided for the fourth year in a row, to shake things up a little in the school board race. According to the Press Enterprise, the union is not backing any of the incumbents in the upcoming election to fill three slots on the board.


(excerpt)


This time around the union is backing a pair of first-time challengers, Riverside public relations consultant and lobbyist Tom Hunt and Riverside lawyer Luis Aguilar.

The union's political action committee gave $10,000 and $15,000 to their respective campaigns, according to candidates' disclosures filed with the county Registrar of Voters.

"The PAC decided these would be the best candidates to the shake up the board," said union head Mark Lawrence.

He cautioned that the union hasn't made it a policy or tradition to endorse challengers exclusively. The union is open to endorsing all candidates, even those that might disagree with the teachers on certain stances, Lawrence said.
But to win their backing, he said, candidates should "listen to us and not just take information from the district as gospel."

Lawrence suggested that the union would support board members who vote consistently for resolutions favored by teachers, and those who encourage input from teachers on issues affecting their classrooms, such as curricula and testing.

The other candidates for three board seats are incumbents Lewis Vanderzyl and Gayle Cloud and challenger Arthur Murray, a retired teacher. Murray was not endorsed.

The city council election has been getting the most attention but there's excitement building in the school board elections as well.



The Press Enterprise also did this article on the toll that the prosecution of cases involving police officers who have been shot take on all parties.


(excerpt)


The shooting of a policeman, especially when several other officers are present, can create some unavoidable challenges for investigators, said Tom Nolan, an associate professor in Boston University's Criminal Justice department.


Fellow officers turn their attention to rescuing their comrade, he said.

"The crime scene in a situation when you have an officer down -- it's pandemonium," Nolan said in a telephone interview. "There's a risk to the physical evidence ... the chaos can cause investigation hurdles later, after the scene is secure."

He also said interviewing witnesses can be difficult in neighborhoods where police are regarded with suspicion.

"For someone who sees police as an enemy or occupying army, that is going to stonewall things," Nolan said. "I don't think the investigators are going to get the cooperation they need."

Taking the information from investigating officers and deciding what to do with it is the job of prosecutors such as Ben Gonzales, a chief deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County.

Gonzales, who will not be handling the Carrera case and declined to discuss it specifically, said his job requires setting aside emotion.

"Yes, we recognize that it is a police officer, and yes, there is a lot of public awareness and a lot of media attention," Gonzales said in a phone interview. "But the law has the same rules of evidence and the same standards of proof," he said.




Kris Antonio Wiggins, who was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Rialto Police Department officer, Sergio Carrera, jr. may be arraigned today at 1:30pm. Murder charges will be filed against him.




The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board sharply criticized the Los Angeles Police Department's actions during the infamous May Day incident at MacArthur Park.


(excerpt)


So it can only be with a sense of weariness that any L.A. veteran pages through the LAPD's latest self-examination, this one of police actions during this year's May Day demonstration in MacArthur Park. Here again comes the LAPD to announce that it has looked hard at itself, identified its shortcomings and is, at last, prepared to improve.

In fairness, this latest effort is better than most, and ranks with some of the tough outside reviews over the years. It cites serious failings by command officers and breakdowns in leadership and communication, and it spares no feelings in skewering some of the top officials whose missteps helped create the chaosin MacArthur Park. The department should be commended for taking seriously its charge to examine itself.

Still, there are dispiriting revelations in the report that lead one to wonder how much the LAPD today is genuinely changed. Of the scores of officers on the scene that evening, not one appears to have attempted to intervene to stop the improper use of batons against protesters. Training in the department seems to have lapsed perilously -- the Metropolitan Division's basic training course was cut in 2005 and was inadequate even earlier than that, the result being that many officers did not understand proper crowd-control techniques. These findings suggest cultural and institutional defects that Chief William J. Bratton has had five years to address but that continue to bedevil Los Angeles' most important agency.


A rebuttal response was published later.


(excerpt)


By contrast, The Times never misses a chance to second-guess officers' use-of-force, criticism that often is not borne out after a full examination of the facts. In the 40 months since an officer struck suspected car thief Stanley Miller with a flashlight, The Times has lambasted the LAPD in repeated editorials regarding three incidents -- the Miller case, a few punches at William Cardenas, who was allegedly resisting arrest, and the shooting of alleged teenage car thief Devin Brown. These incidents resulted in one officer fired and no criminal prosecutions.

Just four days after the Brown incident, the first of three related editorials blasted LAPD's "Lingering Shoot-First Culture." Yet there was no quick-draw apology when Officer Steve Garcia, the policeman who killed Brown, was ultimately exonerated by the LAPD's Board of Rights, or when the district attorney decided not to press charges against him. The only formal review to find fault with Garcia was the politically charged Police Commission, and that vote was not unanimous.

The Times consistently gives activists broad latitude yet utterly fails -- in either its news pages or opinion pages -- to report their corrosive effects on the force. It praises the federal consent decree -- a tedious system of triplicate investigations, audits and paperwork procedures -- under which the LAPD now operates. Yet it has never reported that officer-involved shootings (as a percentage of arrests) have actually climbed to 125% of the three-year pre-decree average. This should raise questions about the decree's effectiveness or even whether it was originally necessary.


Both the Times' board and the author of the op-ed piece disagreed about the role that current LAPD Chief William Bratton plays in the latest round of what the editorial board called the LAPD's "cycle of disaster".

The board says Bratton plays the pivotal role to turn things around whereas in the op-ed piece, it states that Bratton discontinued crucial training done by the Metropolitan Police Team that was involved in the incident at MacArthur Park.





In Philadelphia, at least 10,000 Black men will patrol the city streets according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson voiced support for the program, saying that traditional policing isn't working in the city. The men will receive training but will not carry weapons or have the power to arrest.


(excerpt)


"Sign up here!" a volunteer shouted to the long line of men that circled Temple University's Liacouras Center. "Be a part of history!"

In addition to the 6,000 already registered online, more than 7,000 men showed up wearing suits, fraternity letters, job uniforms and T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and the words: "Stop the Violence."

Many waited more than an hour to register, though they did not know much about how they would be trained or deployed to curb violence. But all agreed they wanted to see an end to the killings and drug wars that have seized their neighborhoods.

More than 300 people have been killed here this year. Last year, there were 406 homicides, and most involved black males.

"It's the first step," said Ronald D. Morris Sr., 50, a middle school teacher who brought his 16-year-old son, who has lost two friends to violence. "I hope to try to awaken the spirit of these guys."