Election 2007: Waiting, waiting, waiting
The wait continues in Riverside for the final results of Election 2007, with the counting of provisional ballots expected to begin tomorrow. Currently, Councilman Dom Betro leads the Ward One race by a single vote over Mike Gardner and Councilman Steve Adams leads the Ward Seven race by 23 votes over Terry Frizzel.
The wait has been a rigorous one with the fate of the city left unclear, given that voters are divided within the wards and city-wide over exactly what it should be.
But put down your hats. The Press Enterprise Editorial Board has spoken!
The board urged the city council not to reconsider its development plans but simply to sell them better to what it called a skeptical public. In other words, the local publication, well as local as Dallas, Texas is, stated for the city council to continue onward in the same direction that essentially led to the voters’ splitting down the middle at the polls. One would think that this newspaper was an investor, rather than an observer of the city’s futures both economically and politically. But then speculation has surrounded the construction of its new headquarters on 14th Street for years now.
(excerpt)
The runoff saw incumbents struggle rather than coast to re-election, but the council should not read the wrong message from those results.
The returns were not a protest against the city's wide-ranging improvement plans.
The park projects, street improvements, upgrades to civic buildings and other public works projects are a welcome change from a halting, haphazard approach to civic renewal.
The City Council needs to keep momentum behind the revitalization, not view the vote tallies as a signal to stall further progress.
But how the council handled the improvement plans helps explain why the incumbents slumped at the ballot box.
The council quickly pushed the sweeping program through with little opportunity for the public to digest it.
Such behavior contributes to the perception of a council dismissive of public input, with a penchant for working outside public view.
Widespread complaints about a distant, high-handed city government better explain incumbents' showing than imagining that voters object to city renewal.
It’s true that the public didn’t like having Riverside Renaissance rammed down its throat with every attempt to provide input on it shunted aside as placing them in a “fringe” group of naysayers, but what bothered people was not the whole idea of city renewal but how it was being carried out. Not simply how it was being communicated but how it was being enacted. This isn’t a case of those ignorant folks who would know what’s good for them and how eager the city government is to give it to them, if the government just had done a better job spoon feeding it to them. The editorial board of course went out and polled individuals about Riverside Renaissance ahead of time before telling Riversiders how they feel about both it and the actions taken by the city council concerning it.
The threat of Eminent Domain, which bothered many people in this city when used to benefit private developers including campaign donors Mark Rubin and Doug Jacobs. The majority of people in this country disagreed with the recent Kelo decision and oppose Eminent Domain to allow the city to be the middle-man in property transactions which used to be between property owners and prospective property buyers. This includes the majority of people in Riverside.
The Press Enterprise might not know and understand that, but the city government clearly does. It shows how it does every time its law suit against Ken Stansbury and the Riversiders for Property Rights comes on a court docket or on a closed session agenda during a city council meeting. If the city wasn't so sure that voters would have passed Stansbury's ballot initiative which was in the signature gathering stage when he was sued, it wouldn't have filed the SLAPP suit against him and a community group in the first place. It wouldn't have tried and for the most part succeeded in breaking them by threatening to ask the judge to order them to pay the city's legal fees.
The construction of numerous high-density housing projects in the downtown area has more than a few residents in Ward One turned off, by the prospect of adding more traffic congestion downtown without enough parking to stem some of it. In fact, it's puzzling how much development, both commercial and residential, is going on downtown without much consideration let alone accommodation of the major parking needs or even operating a mass transit system past 8:30 p.m.
The fact that one park was nearly carved up into parcels and sold off to developers and likely would have been if this hadn’t been an election year. The editorial board must have been down south when Tequesquite Park was saved not by the incumbent, Betro but by a strong grass-roots effort by city residents. Far from being an advocate for this park, the city government had to once again be reminded through this campaign how much parks mattered to people.
The fear of a failing and fading infrastructure in the wake of over $2 billion, much of it borrowed, to finance developments amidst the civic improvements. The fact that the bill collector will be knocking on the doors of the children and grandchildren to pay off Riverside Renaissance, possibly through public services which are not only not improved but may be worse than they are today. Concerns that the money that could be spent on public services will instead go towards ensuring that the city's Redevelopment Agency remains in debt which it needs to be in order to collect on property tax increases.
The fear of the city's continued efforts to circumvent voter-passed growth control laws. Has the city taken its responsibility to enforce these laws? No, it's been a community organization which files law suits, paying for its attorneys' fees from holding yard sales.
And the city council has been dismissive of public comment including the incumbents backed by the editorial board. It's hard to miss that when the city council voted 6-1 to ban city residents from removing items from the consent calendar and the ejection of elderly women from the podium or even the city council chambers two city council meetings.
Though again, it's nice for the editorial board to state that Riversiders aren't anti-renewel, because many have been labeled exactly that simply for questioning the Riverside Renaissance. What people are concerned about is how the city's cramming 20 years of projects into five years, borrowing money from the next generation and seemingly operating on a wing and a prayer. Meaning that they are gambling not with their futures which are set but with those of children and grandchildren.
Several labor unions representing city employees invested heavily in this election as well.
The SEIU Local which represents a large chunk of its employees has endorsed both of these candidates that are remaining to be elected. The only political race in which one of its endorsed candidates lost was in Ward Five when Chris MacArthur defeated its candidate, Donna Doty Michalka.
Not performing as well, were candidates endorsed by the Riverside Police Officers’ Association which only has one left in the running, which is Betro. Its candidates which have been defeated include Ward Three Councilman Art Gage and Michalka. The union sat out the race in Ward Seven, but had broken off the strong support it had showed Adams in 2003, after he circulated letters berating the union.
Two items on the consent calendar of this week's city council agenda are already attracting attention from city residents. Items 14 and 15 address proposed changes made to code compliance's operations.
Often, controversial agenda items get placed on agendas right after three-day weekends. It happened in 2003 when after promising community leaders and residents that it would appeal the reinstatement of former Riverside Police Department officer, Wayne Stewart at the State Court of Appeals, the city council changed its mind the Tuesday after Labor Day when it voted in closed session to reinstate Stewart and eventually pay him off with $100,000 plus a disability retirement. It took three weeks for anyone to find out what had happened. So it's not paranoia , which is a term that gets tossed around quite loosely, at work to understand that these scheduling arrangements happen, it's called strategy.
These twin agenda items will be heard at the evening session of the city council meeting held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Since they like many other important items were placed on the consent calendar, only a city council member or city staff person can pull either. This means that you have three-minutes during the public comment period or some time beforehand to ask, beg, plead yours and other elected officials to pull the item off the calendar for independent discussion. If you're an average person and not connected in any way, good luck.
Interestingly enough for the second item, the agenda report discusses the impact of the massive foreclosure rate in Riverside County rose 34% which as you know placed it fourth in the state's rankings. Over 1,000 houses were seized through foreclosures this September which is five times more than seized in July and 20 times more than the seizure rate in September 2006. In its rush to label all things that don't fit with the Riverside Renaissance game plan public nuisances, foreclosed houses are now included on that growing list.
Ironically, this is going on as the city is rushing out trying to pack as much higher-cost housing and condos into different areas of the city, even threatening eminent domain to clear the space for developers to build these homes in a market which has tanked, particularly in these two categories of housing. Construction has halted on different large-scale housing projects in Riverside County. Others which are near completion or have been completed have high vacancy rates which make it appear as if ghost towns are popping up on the canvas.
One former councilman, Ameal Moore, when he heard of Riverside Renaissance said he wouldn't have voted for it, because it doesn't take into account the ebbs and flows of the economy, both locally and nationally.
In New York City, a veteran police officer was a major drug dealer, according to the New York Daily News. Officer Glen Smokler sold marijuana and was caught after police busted a million-dollar marijuana smuggling ring.
(excerpt)
The lure of more money led this corrupt cop to mastermind a burglary that netted a significant amount of money," Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota said. "It was a falling-out among thieves that led to our investigation."
Officials did not say how Smokler, 37, of Coram, L.I., got involved in drug dealing. A 13-year NYPD veteran assigned to the 30th Precinct in Harlem, he was charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy - and suspended without pay.
The Borrell brothers, Aldrin, 34, of Coram, and Maikel, 38, of Farmingville, also were charged with conspiracy and drug possession.
A fourth man, Gianmichael Spaccarotella, 22, of Holbrook, was charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon after he fired two rounds at cops breaking down his door. The officers were not hurt.
Altogether, 30 people were arrested in Suffolk and Nassau counties. Cops seized more than $3 million in cash, 23 luxury cars, a 44-foot yacht, 10 assault rifles and more than 100 pounds of pot.
Drugs of a different sort factored heavily in a situation involving three NYPD officers. This time, steroids were the drug of choice according to the New York Daily News. Three out of six officers busted were suspended after testing positive for steroids while two other very high ranking officers admitted to purchasing steroids but tested negative.
Why do officers in many different law enforcement agencies take steroids? Because they feel they need that physical and mental edge that they believe it gives them to be better able to handle guys bigger than they are out in the field. But what they are really doing is endangering their health by putting themselves at higher risk for many health conditions including the following.
(excerpt, East Carolina University)
Other consequences for men may include:
frequent, sustained and painful erections (priapism)
impotence
painful urination
enlargement of the prostate gland
severe acne (especially on back and upper arms)
changes in hair growth patterns (facial hair growth is increased and balding on the head is accelerated)
Other Health Risks:
Increased risk of liver tumors
The research is unclear about the potential for increased risk of high blood
pressure, high cholesterol and heart abnormalities.
"Roid rage" or increased aggressiveness is commonly reported.
If needles are shared, there is a significant risk of contracting Hepatitis or HIV.
Now, this just sounds like reasons enough for men to not partake in anabolic steroids, yet they do anyway including many who work in law enforcement. And most often even if their colleagues know they are on them, they don't report this to supervisors. There are scandals of steroid dealing and abuse but several studies have shown that steroid use in law enforcement may be more prevalent than the scandals indicate and that the publicization of steroid abuse in police departments might just be the tip of the iceberg.
Still, the temptation to indulge in steroid use is not uncommon in law enforcement as recent busts in the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies including the Boston Police Department and Memphis show.
Other cities like Albuquerque, New Mexico announced plans to test officers suspected of steroid use.
Dopers in uniform: Cops on steroids is a thorough position paper on what its author, John Hoberman, Ph.D calls a serious problem in a world where police officers who abuse steroids are treated much different than athletes who do.
(excerpt)
"The thinking is that big is better than small, tough is better than weak," says Gene Sanders, a former police officer and a longtime police psychologist in California. "There is sort of an underground, unspoken tradition among several departments that I've worked with that if you really want to bulk up, this is the best way to do it."
A website maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports the same attitude toward functional steroid use by police officers: "Law enforcement personnel have used steroids for both physical and psychological reasons. The idea of enhanced physical strength and endurance provides one with 'the invincible mentality' when performing law enforcement duties."
In his paper, Hoberman includes comments from representatives of different law enforcement agencies who seem to think it's a problem involving an individual officer, similar to the "bad apple" or "rogue officer" scenario rather than a problem which might have more systemic roots.
(excerpt)
In 1987, for example, Dr. Philip Greenberg, the psychiatrist for the Miami Beach Police Department, put it as follows: "Any policeman taking something … to build up muscle tissue would have to be a very confused specimen to begin with." (16) When the police chief of Boca Raton, Florida, was asked in 2003 what could cause an officer to use steroids, he replied: "Stupidity and self-absorption and an egocentric mentality."
But how does that explain clusters or cliques of officers including those in similar divisions whether they be SWAT or the traffic division in some of these agencies where scandals have broken out regarding steroid use?
How does the Riverside Police Department stack up? Does it have issues with steroid use or officers who use steroids? Does it test for them during the hiring phase, during times when there's suspicion of use or after fatal onduty incidents or serious incidents where excessive force has been alleged? Does it just figure instead that whether police officers use steroids or not is their own personal business? Hopefully, this is not the case given the long-documented physical and psychological effects that steroids have on those who abuse them.
If you are an officer who knows your partner, a member of your squad or even yourself are abusing steroids, you are doing no one any favors by doing so. Not you, not your department, not the other men and women you work alongside and certainly not the community. Short term benefits, perhaps, paid off by long-term penalties.
In Portland Oregon, the city paid about $500,000 out on an incident involving a fatal onduty shooting by an officer but there appeared to be misstatements made about this officer's prior shooting history
(excerpt)
Portland Police Association, said in an interview that Besner had "never been involved in a shooting before, and shot because he believed it was necessary to defend his life."
Besner shot Raymond Gwerder in the back during an armed standoff. The City Council must still approve the settlement.
On Friday, a member of Portland Cop Watch, a grass-roots group of citizens who promote police accountability, took note of the quote and contacted King to point out that Besner had been involved in an August 1999 shooting.
"I have an unfortunate memory for these kind of things," Dan Handelman said.
King said Friday that he had been specifically referring to Besner's eight years on the bureau's Special Emergency Reaction Team.
"He's been on the SERT team and in all of the call-ups on SERT he has not used any force," King said. He said he knew of another shooting Besner had been involved in as an officer, but "I don't even know the details."
Now, he does.
The wait has been a rigorous one with the fate of the city left unclear, given that voters are divided within the wards and city-wide over exactly what it should be.
But put down your hats. The Press Enterprise Editorial Board has spoken!
The board urged the city council not to reconsider its development plans but simply to sell them better to what it called a skeptical public. In other words, the local publication, well as local as Dallas, Texas is, stated for the city council to continue onward in the same direction that essentially led to the voters’ splitting down the middle at the polls. One would think that this newspaper was an investor, rather than an observer of the city’s futures both economically and politically. But then speculation has surrounded the construction of its new headquarters on 14th Street for years now.
(excerpt)
The runoff saw incumbents struggle rather than coast to re-election, but the council should not read the wrong message from those results.
The returns were not a protest against the city's wide-ranging improvement plans.
The park projects, street improvements, upgrades to civic buildings and other public works projects are a welcome change from a halting, haphazard approach to civic renewal.
The City Council needs to keep momentum behind the revitalization, not view the vote tallies as a signal to stall further progress.
But how the council handled the improvement plans helps explain why the incumbents slumped at the ballot box.
The council quickly pushed the sweeping program through with little opportunity for the public to digest it.
Such behavior contributes to the perception of a council dismissive of public input, with a penchant for working outside public view.
Widespread complaints about a distant, high-handed city government better explain incumbents' showing than imagining that voters object to city renewal.
It’s true that the public didn’t like having Riverside Renaissance rammed down its throat with every attempt to provide input on it shunted aside as placing them in a “fringe” group of naysayers, but what bothered people was not the whole idea of city renewal but how it was being carried out. Not simply how it was being communicated but how it was being enacted. This isn’t a case of those ignorant folks who would know what’s good for them and how eager the city government is to give it to them, if the government just had done a better job spoon feeding it to them. The editorial board of course went out and polled individuals about Riverside Renaissance ahead of time before telling Riversiders how they feel about both it and the actions taken by the city council concerning it.
The threat of Eminent Domain, which bothered many people in this city when used to benefit private developers including campaign donors Mark Rubin and Doug Jacobs. The majority of people in this country disagreed with the recent Kelo decision and oppose Eminent Domain to allow the city to be the middle-man in property transactions which used to be between property owners and prospective property buyers. This includes the majority of people in Riverside.
The Press Enterprise might not know and understand that, but the city government clearly does. It shows how it does every time its law suit against Ken Stansbury and the Riversiders for Property Rights comes on a court docket or on a closed session agenda during a city council meeting. If the city wasn't so sure that voters would have passed Stansbury's ballot initiative which was in the signature gathering stage when he was sued, it wouldn't have filed the SLAPP suit against him and a community group in the first place. It wouldn't have tried and for the most part succeeded in breaking them by threatening to ask the judge to order them to pay the city's legal fees.
The construction of numerous high-density housing projects in the downtown area has more than a few residents in Ward One turned off, by the prospect of adding more traffic congestion downtown without enough parking to stem some of it. In fact, it's puzzling how much development, both commercial and residential, is going on downtown without much consideration let alone accommodation of the major parking needs or even operating a mass transit system past 8:30 p.m.
The fact that one park was nearly carved up into parcels and sold off to developers and likely would have been if this hadn’t been an election year. The editorial board must have been down south when Tequesquite Park was saved not by the incumbent, Betro but by a strong grass-roots effort by city residents. Far from being an advocate for this park, the city government had to once again be reminded through this campaign how much parks mattered to people.
The fear of a failing and fading infrastructure in the wake of over $2 billion, much of it borrowed, to finance developments amidst the civic improvements. The fact that the bill collector will be knocking on the doors of the children and grandchildren to pay off Riverside Renaissance, possibly through public services which are not only not improved but may be worse than they are today. Concerns that the money that could be spent on public services will instead go towards ensuring that the city's Redevelopment Agency remains in debt which it needs to be in order to collect on property tax increases.
The fear of the city's continued efforts to circumvent voter-passed growth control laws. Has the city taken its responsibility to enforce these laws? No, it's been a community organization which files law suits, paying for its attorneys' fees from holding yard sales.
And the city council has been dismissive of public comment including the incumbents backed by the editorial board. It's hard to miss that when the city council voted 6-1 to ban city residents from removing items from the consent calendar and the ejection of elderly women from the podium or even the city council chambers two city council meetings.
Though again, it's nice for the editorial board to state that Riversiders aren't anti-renewel, because many have been labeled exactly that simply for questioning the Riverside Renaissance. What people are concerned about is how the city's cramming 20 years of projects into five years, borrowing money from the next generation and seemingly operating on a wing and a prayer. Meaning that they are gambling not with their futures which are set but with those of children and grandchildren.
Several labor unions representing city employees invested heavily in this election as well.
The SEIU Local which represents a large chunk of its employees has endorsed both of these candidates that are remaining to be elected. The only political race in which one of its endorsed candidates lost was in Ward Five when Chris MacArthur defeated its candidate, Donna Doty Michalka.
Not performing as well, were candidates endorsed by the Riverside Police Officers’ Association which only has one left in the running, which is Betro. Its candidates which have been defeated include Ward Three Councilman Art Gage and Michalka. The union sat out the race in Ward Seven, but had broken off the strong support it had showed Adams in 2003, after he circulated letters berating the union.
Two items on the consent calendar of this week's city council agenda are already attracting attention from city residents. Items 14 and 15 address proposed changes made to code compliance's operations.
Often, controversial agenda items get placed on agendas right after three-day weekends. It happened in 2003 when after promising community leaders and residents that it would appeal the reinstatement of former Riverside Police Department officer, Wayne Stewart at the State Court of Appeals, the city council changed its mind the Tuesday after Labor Day when it voted in closed session to reinstate Stewart and eventually pay him off with $100,000 plus a disability retirement. It took three weeks for anyone to find out what had happened. So it's not paranoia , which is a term that gets tossed around quite loosely, at work to understand that these scheduling arrangements happen, it's called strategy.
These twin agenda items will be heard at the evening session of the city council meeting held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Since they like many other important items were placed on the consent calendar, only a city council member or city staff person can pull either. This means that you have three-minutes during the public comment period or some time beforehand to ask, beg, plead yours and other elected officials to pull the item off the calendar for independent discussion. If you're an average person and not connected in any way, good luck.
Interestingly enough for the second item, the agenda report discusses the impact of the massive foreclosure rate in Riverside County rose 34% which as you know placed it fourth in the state's rankings. Over 1,000 houses were seized through foreclosures this September which is five times more than seized in July and 20 times more than the seizure rate in September 2006. In its rush to label all things that don't fit with the Riverside Renaissance game plan public nuisances, foreclosed houses are now included on that growing list.
Ironically, this is going on as the city is rushing out trying to pack as much higher-cost housing and condos into different areas of the city, even threatening eminent domain to clear the space for developers to build these homes in a market which has tanked, particularly in these two categories of housing. Construction has halted on different large-scale housing projects in Riverside County. Others which are near completion or have been completed have high vacancy rates which make it appear as if ghost towns are popping up on the canvas.
One former councilman, Ameal Moore, when he heard of Riverside Renaissance said he wouldn't have voted for it, because it doesn't take into account the ebbs and flows of the economy, both locally and nationally.
In New York City, a veteran police officer was a major drug dealer, according to the New York Daily News. Officer Glen Smokler sold marijuana and was caught after police busted a million-dollar marijuana smuggling ring.
(excerpt)
The lure of more money led this corrupt cop to mastermind a burglary that netted a significant amount of money," Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota said. "It was a falling-out among thieves that led to our investigation."
Officials did not say how Smokler, 37, of Coram, L.I., got involved in drug dealing. A 13-year NYPD veteran assigned to the 30th Precinct in Harlem, he was charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy - and suspended without pay.
The Borrell brothers, Aldrin, 34, of Coram, and Maikel, 38, of Farmingville, also were charged with conspiracy and drug possession.
A fourth man, Gianmichael Spaccarotella, 22, of Holbrook, was charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon after he fired two rounds at cops breaking down his door. The officers were not hurt.
Altogether, 30 people were arrested in Suffolk and Nassau counties. Cops seized more than $3 million in cash, 23 luxury cars, a 44-foot yacht, 10 assault rifles and more than 100 pounds of pot.
Drugs of a different sort factored heavily in a situation involving three NYPD officers. This time, steroids were the drug of choice according to the New York Daily News. Three out of six officers busted were suspended after testing positive for steroids while two other very high ranking officers admitted to purchasing steroids but tested negative.
Why do officers in many different law enforcement agencies take steroids? Because they feel they need that physical and mental edge that they believe it gives them to be better able to handle guys bigger than they are out in the field. But what they are really doing is endangering their health by putting themselves at higher risk for many health conditions including the following.
(excerpt, East Carolina University)
Other consequences for men may include:
frequent, sustained and painful erections (priapism)
impotence
painful urination
enlargement of the prostate gland
severe acne (especially on back and upper arms)
changes in hair growth patterns (facial hair growth is increased and balding on the head is accelerated)
Other Health Risks:
Increased risk of liver tumors
The research is unclear about the potential for increased risk of high blood
pressure, high cholesterol and heart abnormalities.
"Roid rage" or increased aggressiveness is commonly reported.
If needles are shared, there is a significant risk of contracting Hepatitis or HIV.
Now, this just sounds like reasons enough for men to not partake in anabolic steroids, yet they do anyway including many who work in law enforcement. And most often even if their colleagues know they are on them, they don't report this to supervisors. There are scandals of steroid dealing and abuse but several studies have shown that steroid use in law enforcement may be more prevalent than the scandals indicate and that the publicization of steroid abuse in police departments might just be the tip of the iceberg.
Still, the temptation to indulge in steroid use is not uncommon in law enforcement as recent busts in the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies including the Boston Police Department and Memphis show.
Other cities like Albuquerque, New Mexico announced plans to test officers suspected of steroid use.
Dopers in uniform: Cops on steroids is a thorough position paper on what its author, John Hoberman, Ph.D calls a serious problem in a world where police officers who abuse steroids are treated much different than athletes who do.
(excerpt)
"The thinking is that big is better than small, tough is better than weak," says Gene Sanders, a former police officer and a longtime police psychologist in California. "There is sort of an underground, unspoken tradition among several departments that I've worked with that if you really want to bulk up, this is the best way to do it."
A website maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports the same attitude toward functional steroid use by police officers: "Law enforcement personnel have used steroids for both physical and psychological reasons. The idea of enhanced physical strength and endurance provides one with 'the invincible mentality' when performing law enforcement duties."
In his paper, Hoberman includes comments from representatives of different law enforcement agencies who seem to think it's a problem involving an individual officer, similar to the "bad apple" or "rogue officer" scenario rather than a problem which might have more systemic roots.
(excerpt)
In 1987, for example, Dr. Philip Greenberg, the psychiatrist for the Miami Beach Police Department, put it as follows: "Any policeman taking something … to build up muscle tissue would have to be a very confused specimen to begin with." (16) When the police chief of Boca Raton, Florida, was asked in 2003 what could cause an officer to use steroids, he replied: "Stupidity and self-absorption and an egocentric mentality."
But how does that explain clusters or cliques of officers including those in similar divisions whether they be SWAT or the traffic division in some of these agencies where scandals have broken out regarding steroid use?
How does the Riverside Police Department stack up? Does it have issues with steroid use or officers who use steroids? Does it test for them during the hiring phase, during times when there's suspicion of use or after fatal onduty incidents or serious incidents where excessive force has been alleged? Does it just figure instead that whether police officers use steroids or not is their own personal business? Hopefully, this is not the case given the long-documented physical and psychological effects that steroids have on those who abuse them.
If you are an officer who knows your partner, a member of your squad or even yourself are abusing steroids, you are doing no one any favors by doing so. Not you, not your department, not the other men and women you work alongside and certainly not the community. Short term benefits, perhaps, paid off by long-term penalties.
In Portland Oregon, the city paid about $500,000 out on an incident involving a fatal onduty shooting by an officer but there appeared to be misstatements made about this officer's prior shooting history
(excerpt)
Portland Police Association, said in an interview that Besner had "never been involved in a shooting before, and shot because he believed it was necessary to defend his life."
Besner shot Raymond Gwerder in the back during an armed standoff. The City Council must still approve the settlement.
On Friday, a member of Portland Cop Watch, a grass-roots group of citizens who promote police accountability, took note of the quote and contacted King to point out that Besner had been involved in an August 1999 shooting.
"I have an unfortunate memory for these kind of things," Dan Handelman said.
King said Friday that he had been specifically referring to Besner's eight years on the bureau's Special Emergency Reaction Team.
"He's been on the SERT team and in all of the call-ups on SERT he has not used any force," King said. He said he knew of another shooting Besner had been involved in as an officer, but "I don't even know the details."
Now, he does.
Labels: business as usual, City elections, corruption 101, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 11:52 PM
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