"I know it's racist, but it's so funny." part two

Provisional ballots for Riverside are ready to be counted to determine who will win the Ward One and Ward Seven city council races. While the ballots are being counted, the Press Enterprise contemplated the consequences of campaign signs remaining posted in different cities after the elections are over.


Press Enterprise Dan Bernstein discussed how negative political campaigns yielded different results for different candidates.


(excerpt)


Armchair pundits muse that ousted Riverside Councilman Art Gage hurt himself by attacking Ward 3 victor Rusty Bailey's military record. But victorious Chris MacArthur apparently didn't suffer (at least at the polls) by accusing rival Donna Doty Michalka of trying to capitalize on the name of her deceased ex-husband, a slain Riverside cop.

Ward 5 voters probably figured MacArthur would do a better job delivering basic services -- curbs, sidewalks and especially gutters.




The following myth is provided to you, courtesy of former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Michael W. Quinn in his book, Walking with the Devil.



Use of racial and other derogatory slurs is ok as long as it is not on the job.



This myth is one that's subscribed to a lot by police departments. Some agencies act as if racist, sexist or homophobic behavior by the agency's own employees can be confined to remaining and only being done off-duty and won't impact their work performances and how they treat people of color, women, gays, transgenders and lesbians on the job. They and others who believe this way treat racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia as traits that officers can put on and take off like a coat but it's not that easy. Officers who act racist and sexist off-duty can bring and have brought that behavior with them to work. Agencies that themselves are steeped in racism and sexism can encourage those forms of behavior often by doing nothing at all.

In Riverside, for example, racist comments made after the fatal officer-involved shooting of Tyisha Miller in 1998, led to investigations of the department's patterns and practices being conducted by the United States Department of Justice and the State Attorney General's office. These comments and jokes allegedly made by officers in the department over the years included the following. It took years and years and likely many offensive comments and jokes later until it received this kind of attention.

Here's part of that collection drawn from complaints and law suits that were filed to address allegations of racism by former officer, Rene Rodriguez and current officer, Roger Sutton. Both of them were men of color who alleged that they were ostracized, harassed and retaliated against by other officers when they filed claims of racial discrimination, harassment and a hostile work environment.

Several were deemed to be founded and resulted in suspensions for two officers, according to court documents. One officer was terminated by then-Chief Jerry Carroll in part because of racist comments he made. However, several years later, an arbitrator reinstated this officer and stated in his decision that he should have only received a 30-day suspension for his comments.

Other comments like that used by officers were determined to be unfounded in that they weren't racist, according to depositions given by officers in Sutton's law suit. Still others were revealed again, in depositions given in the Sutton case by various officers who had long stints in the police department.



"If it will make her family feel better, tell them we shot her with black bullets."

---Former sergeant, Gregory Preece to former officer, Dave Hackman on Dec. 28, 1998.




"Black Bitch"

---Preece, after Miller shooting on Dec. 28, 1998

There's the grandmother doing the "Watts death wails"

---Hackman, in the locker room at an RPD station, Dec. 28, 1998

"N.P.I.[No person involved] brother"

---Hackman to another officer, 1998

"Ty-i-shit"

---Former Sgt. Al Brown during roll call, 1999

"If she's[a Black woman stopped by officers] is going to the university, she must be on welfare."

---Brown during roll call, 1999

"In L.A. they treat you like a King; in Riverside, it's Miller time"


---Former Officer Bill Rhetts, 1999

"The only way they'll see police is from a jail cell."


---One officer to another before attending a career day event at Sherman Indians High School, 2000



"What's the difference between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn't scream when you put it into an oven."


---Officer to another, 1980s

Officers of all races testified in 2005 at Officer Roger Sutton's racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation trial that officers had engaged in racial and racist banter and jokes in the department. They didn't seem fazed by admitting this took place, particularly the White officers who testified that this joking had taken place, sometimes when they were talking in groups including in the canine unit where Sutton had been assigned. It's not clear how the department treated it, but because there was a spotlight on the department as a result of Miller's death, they were more seriously handled during that time period. These comments listed were all allegedly made by onduty law enforcement officers. Whether there are racist comments, slurs or jokes told off duty remains a mystery for most community members though unfortunately few law enforcement agencies are free of at least several officers who engage in this racist behavior.

Are there officers who use racist slurs off-duty? Are there officers who tell racist jokes, or engage in racist banter as a way to "unwind"? The only ones who can answer these questions are the officers and probably their friends, though if this behavior does take place, it's not likely that they are going to do so.

In the past, Riverside's police department hasn't been too kind to officers who reported either racist or sexist behavior including comments, jokes and other remarks. Both Rodriguez and Sutton stated in their complaints or testified on the witness stand that they felt they were experiencing retaliation including by the Internal Affairs Division after filing complaints about racism.

Riverside's police department is hardly unique in that it experiences these racist forms of expression, including surrounding a fatal officer-involved shooting of a Black woman. And it's hardly unique in that it led to investigations being conducted by outside agencies into its pattern and practices. Investigations which led to mandated reforms, after years and years of watching reform efforts spark but soon be extinguished by a pervasive police culture steeped in racism and sexism and a disinterested city government.

Other law enforcement agencies be they federal, state, county or local have experienced many of the same problems which manifest themselves in an assortment of bad and racist behavior. The responses to these serious problems appear to be to ignore them or to sweep them under a growing mound of dust beneath a carpet, at least until a spotlight is put on the agency and it's forced by public opinion and passionate community response to act.

Here's a list of incidents that is by no means all inclusive, but just a small sample of what's happened at several law enforcement agencies. And whether it's racist jokes, racist videos or racist parties, it's not pretty.

Tennessee, 1990s

In 1995, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency decided it had to tone down its "Good 'Ol Boys roundup" as it was called, according to the Washington Times.

Hundreds of law enforcement agencies used to gather not far from Chattanooga, Tennessee to do what is so often called in cases like these, "letting off steam". And as it turned out, these federal agents and others umbrellaed under the Treasury Department were relaxing and unwinding by trying to be as racist as possible in terms of this company party and its trappings.

Some wondered if the Ku Klux Klan had set up shop inside the agency. Others shook their heads and were again reminded why the "blue by day, white while night" is a common slogan about law enforcement officers in some circles. If law enforcement agencies are indeed trying to improve relations between them and communities which are predominantly Black and Latino then incidents like these don't help their case. And many people wonder if law enforcement agencies and their officers understand how bad they hurt it.

The decision to tone it all down came about the same time over a dozen Black officers with the ATF were filing a law suit with the U.S. District Court alleging wide-spread racial discrimination and harassment in the agency and complained about having to work in a Klan-like atmosphere.


(excerpt)


There was a lot to tone down. Gone, for example, are many of the crude signs that once greeted arriving officers, like this one: "Nigger check point."
The "Good O' Boys Roundup" is organized by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and it was held this year on May 18-20.

Also gone this year was the traditional Saturday-night skit highlighting the "Good O' Boys steak dinner." In one skit, an officer in fake Ku Klux Klan garb pulled a dildo from his robe and pretended to sodomize another officer, who was in blackface.

But according to law enforcement officers who attended this year's and other events, a whites-ony police remains in effect.

Still on sale were T-shirts with Martin Luther King Jr.'s face behind a target, O.J. Simpson in a hangman's noose and white D.C. police officers with a black man sprawled across the hood of their car under the words "Boyz on the Hood."

"Nigger hunting licenses" also were available throughout the compound, consisting of motor homes, trailers, tents and pickups gathered around a large beer truck.

At this year's event, some black officers -- including ATF agents -- attempted to crash the party and were turned away after having "bitter words" with some of the white officers in attendance, the officers said.

The head of the ATF issued a response to this racist fun fest which wasn't all that surprising in terms of its content. It stated that it was the work of a few disgruntled, atypical members of its "old guard".


(excerpt)


Earl Woodham, ATF spokesman in Charlotte, said he was aware of the annual roundup and had been invited on one occasion to attend but declined. He noted that the event was not sanctioned or authorized by the ATF.

"The ATF does not and will not tolerate any kind of discrimination," he said. "But what people do on their own time is their business; we cannot control internal morality."

Mr. Woodham said, however, that Mr. Rightmyer used "poor judgement" in using the ATF address and telephone number in his invitation. He said if Mr. Rightmyer were still employed by the agency, he would be subject to "a full review and possible sanctions."

He also suggested that ATF officials who attended the annual event were "a lot of the older agents, spinoffs from the days of the revenuers and moonshine chasers."

"The younger agents just don't have time for this kind of activity," he said.



The heads of the ATF issued statements assuming that racist behavior by its employees on their own time had nothing to do with how they behaved in the field. Was this type of behavior willful rebellion against the constraints of the jobs which forced these individuals to suppress their racist activities and views or was it simply an extension of onduty conduct?

At any rate, the message sent by the ATF management was that it only impacted a small number of individuals who were being rendered obsolete by new blood in the department. Which is definitely better than cases where officers engaging in bad behavior off-duty are held up as examples of the department's newest generation of officers. However, this stance by many law enforcement agencies including the ATF still ignored the larger problem by distancing itself both from it and its responsibility for addressing racism among its employees.

In 1996, the Treasury Department banned its own employees from attending and participating in these "Good 'Ol Boys" roundups saying that it reflected badly on its agency. The problem with the bannings is that it makes it seem like it's about how an agency looks, what its image is which is important but not nearly as much so as what's going on in other venues.


(excerpt)


Treasury officials said they were instituting rules to prohibit "off-duty manifestations of racial and other forms of bias." The gatherings for law-enforcement officers at a southeastern Tennessee campground, held for the last 16 years, turned in recent years into marathon drinking bouts where women feared for their safety and some participants engaged in racist conduct.


Reviews by inspectors general at the Treasury and the Justice Departments found that over the 16 years, 45 Justice employees and 120 to 200 Treasury workers attended the Roundups.

The reviews found no evidence that the Treasury or Justice employees engaged in overtly racist acts. But some agents witnessed such acts and should have acted to stop them, Treasury officials said.

"We cannot enforce the law, fairly and with repute, unless law-enforcement officials demonstrate, in perception and reality, that their behavior is as free from bias as the fair administration of justice requires them to be," Rubin said in a statement.

The new rules against racist behavior take effect immediately for all Treasury agents except for unionized employees in the U.S. Customs Service, for whom it will be an issue in contract negotiations, the officials said. Other Treasury agencies include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service.

The Department of Justice issued this release in 1995 about what was going on during its watch including an investigation conducted by the Office of the Inspector General.

The D.O.J. appeared to try to distance itself from the embarrassing scandal in its midst by stating that while the proportion of federal agents in attendance at the earlier "Good 'Ol Boys" rallies had been as high as 75% , in more recent years that proportion had dropped to only 10%.

The Office of the Inspector General said that the percentage of federal agents attending the annual events had been dropping as the attendance by city, county and state law enforcement officers had increased. Is this due to racism being exposed and addressed systematically, or is it an attempt from that office to further remove itself from the problem?




Broad Channel, Queens, 1998



On Labor Day, 1998, several employees from both the New York City Fire and Police Departments participated in a parade by building and riding on a racist float demeaning African-Americans. They including Officer Joseph Locurto wore black-face, held watermelons and even reenacted and ridiculed the racist killing of Joseph Byrd, III who was dragged to death by three White-Supremacists in a truck only two months before the parade.

One wonders why the trio of men didn't instead opt to reenact through what they called parody, the brutal torture of Abner Louima that was committed by several onduty NYPD officers in the bathroom of a station house one year earlier. After all, that's actually closer to home.

Locurto testified at his trial on how he and his friends had come up with the idea for the racist float, according to the New York Times.

(excerpt)


Officer Locurto, 30, testified that he had lived in Broad Channel all his life and had participated in the parade before, incorporating Asian stereotypes in a float in 1996 and mocking the television quiz show ''Family Feud'' with a float titled ''Dysfunctional Family Feud'' in 1997.

This year, he testified, he and his friends met the day before the parade to come up with an idea for a float. He said he thought they had agreed to mock Italians, mobsters and monster movies with a float titled ''Gotti-Zilla.''

But when he showed up on Labor Day, he said, the idea had been discarded in favor of a float titled ''Black to the Future.'' Officer Locurto testified that he painted his face black with lipstick, donned a black wig and a baseball cap -- which he tilted to the side -- and wore a fake gold medallion of the letter J. Then, he said, he climbed onto the roof of the pickup truck that was the basis of the float and sat next to two tubs of fried chicken.

So Locurto had considered different ethnic and racist stereotypes before settling on African-Americans. He had a history of creating floats with racist themes in the past and some of these floats and other racist floats had a history of doing fairly well in the competitions including "most original" and "most humorous".

Here's one blogger's examination of the court decision in Locurto v Giuliani which granted the summary judgment motion filed by Giuliani's attorneys. The courts had decided that the welfare interests of the city outweighed the plaintiffs' "not insubstantial right to be jackasses".

In 2003, another judge stated in his ruling that the city erred in firing the NYPD officers and FDNY fire fighters for their racist float.



(excerpt, Gotham Gazette)

Police Officer Joseph Locurto and the two firefighters were punished, wrote Sprizzo, "in retaliation for engaging in protected speech." This "protected speech" involved being part of a float with the banner "Black to the Future: Broad Channel 2098," which the defendants said was a parody of black racial integration into the mainly white Broad Channel neighborhood. They threw watermelon and fried chicken at parade goers and, as the parade was ending, a firefighter grabbed the back of the truck and dangled himself toward the ground, re-enacting the brutal dragging murder of a black man in Texas two months earlier.

This activity constituted protected speech "on a matter of public concern," wrote Sprizzo, because the float sought "to comment on the future racial integration of Broad Channel" and to win the prize for the funniest float, "a prize the group had won in the past with other ethnicity-parodying floats." The group's earlier efforts included "The Gooks of Hazzard," which parodied Asian Americans, and "Hasidic Park" about Jewish Americans.

Sprizzo rejected the city's claims about the management consequences of such public behavior going unpunished, writing that this "concern was unreasonable and, in any event, insufficient, as a matter of law, to outweigh plaintiff's constitutionally protected speech rights." The men are all seeking reinstatement in their jobs, back pay, and money damages. A hearing will be scheduled on remedies in the case. Corporation counsel says it will appeal.

Not exactly one of the NYPD's better days. Even Guiliani who had his issues with racist attitudes while mayor of New York City realized this guy on some level was bad news but whether or not the agency had larger problems and more Locurtos in its ranks wasn't addressed.

Even law enforcement agencies abroad in other countries have had their share of racist events hit the harsh spotlight of scrutiny. And reading about them is like a bad case of deja vu, the feeling that you've seen or heard it all before and rest assured, we have but that didn't stop law enforcement officers in different regions from doing it anyway.

United Kingdom, 2003

Racist videos involving law enforcement officers upset many people according to the BBC News. However, it wasn't officers that created them, but an undercover BBC News team who took the footage at a police training center then aired the documentary on television. Soon after, at least seven police officers representing multiple agencies received suspensions. Among incidents captured on video was one involving an officer running around wearing a white hood styled after those worn by the Ku Klux Klan. Other officers used racial slurs including "n----r" and "Paki".


(excerpt)



Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) described the BBC programme as "truly shocking".

Reporter Mark Daly recorded one officer, Pc Rob Pulling of North Wales police, apparently saying he would kill an Asian person "if I could get away with it" and a string of other racist comments. Pc Pulling also said Hitler had had the "right idea" but had gone about it in the wrong way.



One person had this to say.


(excerpt)


Mr Phillips said: "This is not just a matter of a few recruits who can be trained out of their behaviour.

"This shows a pattern of behaviour which is widespread, and though officially condemned, is tacitly condoned by their peers."

This person gets what the situation is and highlights the problems associated with just writing off these sort of antics as the actions of those tossed out phrases "bad apples" and "rogue officers" and ignoring the bigger picture. Often it's how law enforcement agencies handle or just as importantly don't handle these episodes that show how systemic the problem really is. Not just in terms of how the racist and sexist incidents that come to public light are handled, but the ones that do not.




San Francisco, 2005

Of course, along came another version of Videogate, closer to home.

San Francisco Police Department Officer Andrew Cohen and others produced racist, sexist and homophobic videos in 2005 which resulted in the suspension of Cohen and about 20 other officers in the department, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.


(excerpt)



Many of those ordered suspended are connected to Bayview Station, including its former captain, Rick Bruce, who went on leave three months ago for unrelated reasons. He appears in one of the videos, which was shot while he was still on duty.

The five videos shown at Wednesday's press conference with Fong and Mayor Gavin Newsom depict officers, some in uniform, responding to a variety of mock calls. One video shows a homeless black woman railing against white people after apparently being hit by a patrol car, followed by an officer grumbling about having to deal with her.

"They get us involved with their business,'' the officer said.

Another video depicts an officer ogling a woman he has stopped for a traffic violation. One shows two officers attempting tai chi to vaguely Asian music. The two later go into a massage parlor and radio dispatchers try unsuccessfully to reach them -- the suggestion being the two are having sex with masseuses.

One video, with the theme to the old TV show "Charlie's Angels" as the soundtrack, shows various officers saying, "Oh, captain," and flicking their tongues suggestively. The captain involved, Bruce, flicks his tongue in apparent response -- although the officer who produced the videos said Bruce had not known what the shot was to be used for.

One of those depicted in that sequence is the same homeless woman who was earlier shown yelling about white people. Another is a police officer dressed as a transgender person.

In another video, a female officer is shown putting on lipstick in the middle of a mock drug raid.

Newsom called the videos the tipping point that will lead to changing the culture of the Police Department.



Cohen defended his and his coworkers taste in videos here and it's not pretty.


(excerpt)



"We did it because there's very fun and interesting characters in the station and we thought it would be fun to showcase and laugh at some of their idiosyncrasies and personalities," Cohen said. "This was interspliced video that was taken earlier and creatively and artistically put together for a laugh."

Chief Heather Fong differed in her opinion.

(excerpt)

"I think that the captains, the sergeants, the lieutenants, the command staff of this department -- their responsibility is to guide and lead the men and women of the department and if they tolerate this type of behavior they should not be in those positions," Fong said.

Exactly, but was that the case?

After all, just when it looked like it couldn't get worse, along came one of Cohen's superiors, Captain Rick Bruce who defended his right to shoot racist and sexist videos while onduty, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.


(excerpt)


Former Bayview police Capt. Rick Bruce made a declaration in Cohen's case against the Police Officers Association that asserted Cohen had "blanket authorization" to use police vehicles and locations in his videos. Bruce also said Cohen was performing within the "scope of his employment when he filmed and produced the videos."


Bruce stated that he retired as captain of Bayview at the end of August 2005, but before that, he had twice approved Cohen's requests for video supplies that year. He added that the Bayview station had "morale issues, and Officer Cohen's videos, both documentary and comedic, were a benefit to the overall level of morale."



Thankfully, Bruce is no longer employed by the San Francisco Police Department. Thank goodness for small favors indeed. He is exactly how a supervisor should not behave in this situation. Hopefully, other supervisors will learn from his example so they won't be traveling down the same path. One can hope.

Baltimore, 2006


Two off-duty White police officers walked into a bar and started to assault two Black men after making racial remarks, according to the Baltimore Sun. Those two officers were later charged with assault.


(excerpt)


According to court records, there were at least six people who saw Bonaparte's encounter with the officers unfold the night of Oct. 22. The officers, while armed, never drew their guns, witnesses said.

[Akhenaton R.] Bonaparte, 39, said he was discussing a book called World's Great Men of Color with two young women he mentored, Grace Broadwater and Patrice Shelton, both 17.

The two officers walked into the popular eatery and ordered something to eat. While they were waiting, they intruded on Bonaparte's conversation. Brassell in particular, witnesses noted in court documents, was loud and aggressive. One witness confirmed hearing Brassell call Bonaparte a racist, according to the documents.

Two patrons told police that Bonaparte was passive during the exchange. One said she could see a gun and badge attached to the belt of one of the officers.

"And the gentleman sitting down with the badge and the gun was in the black guy's face," Holly Cummings, a witness inside the restaurant, said in her statement to internal affairs. "Like, I don't know what they were talking about, but he was in his face and would not leave him alone, while he was trying to just eat. I don't even know if [Bonaparte] was saying anything back to them."

Bonaparte said he asked a Maria D's manager to call police, but the man refused and told him to go outside, Bonaparte and other witnesses said in interviews with police internal affairs detectives. Bonaparte walked outside to flag down a passing patrol car. Brassell followed him, court papers show.

Brassell touched him, and Bonaparte said he repeated: "Please don't touch me. I don't know you. Keep your hands off me." But the officer kept poking his fingers in Bonaparte's chest, saying, "What are you going to do about it?" Bonaparte said.

Bonaparte said he struck first, punching the man in the face. Then Odom and Brassell, who was bleeding, tackled him onto the hood of a car, according to court documents.

Brian Cummings, husband of Holly Cummings, tried to break up the fight, unaware the two men were police officers, according to an internal affairs report.



Two supervisors working in Internal Affairs said that the officers appeared intoxicated but they were never tested. It doesn't sound like alcohol is responsible for most of their bad behavior but too often it serves as an excuse.






Columbus, Ohio, 2007


Officer Susan Purtee and her sister, Barbara Gordon-Bell made video tapes that demeaned African-Americans, Jews, Cubans and undocumented immigrants according to FOX News. I guess they didn't want the San Francisco Police Department's very own videographers to have all the fun.


(excerpt)


In the television interview, Purtee said she stood by her remarks, though maybe she could have softened them.

"You try to do something you think is good for America, and you try to warn people that you're taken advantage of by the media, and then someone turns around and they go to the lowest level and try to say you're a racist," Purtee said. "It was a shock, it never entered our minds."



Not long after being assigned to a desk job, Purtee resigned from the Columbia Police Department.

But Purtee and her sister have at least one White nationalist in their corner waving the pom poms, which isn't surprising in the least.





Washington, D.C., Halloween, 2007

They say that the costumes that people choose to wear at masquerade parties reveal something about them. What it revealed at a holiday party thrown by the ICE for its employees is that 'tis the season to be racist.


Julie Myers, who heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Insecurity apologized for some costume choices made by some employees at a Halloween party. Did she apologize because she meant it, or because there were pictures of her posing with individuals wearing some pretty racist costumes?

Myers and others in management in ICE first lauded the costumes then chastised those who wore them when the incident came to light outside their circle. One important reason why many people particularly people of color don't trust law enforcement agencies to be able to handle this type of behavior in their midst. After all, how can they handle it when it seems like in private so many of them like it?



(excerpt)



Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and host of the fundraising party, was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for "originality."

Myers later apologized for "a few of the costumes," calling them "inappropriate and offensive." She said she and other senior managers "deeply regret that this happened."

A department photographer photographed Myers with the man, but the images were deleted after the costume were deemed offensive, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.
Between 50 and 75 people attended the party, which was a fundraiser for the Combined Federal Campaign, a federal government collection of charities.

Nantel said one employee, whom she declined to identify, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and a skin "bronzer" intended "to make him look African-American." But, she said, it was not immediately apparent that he was wearing the make-up.

"Most people in the room didn't realize he was wearing make-up at all," she said.
"It was unintentioned. The employee did not mean to offend although there were some employees that were rightfully offended by it," Nantel said.

Myers and the other judges "noted his costume for originality."



That's something that often happens. How quickly attitudes and words can change when the costumes and jokes that are seen as "funny" or "original" by those working inside an agency are discovered by those outside of them. How can a racist costume or float be considered "original" or "funny"? And how can something be "original" or "funny" one moment and "offensive" and "inappropriate" the next? These are questions which are never answered, just talked around. Over and over and over again.







The only survivor of a shooting spree by Tyler Peterson,20, which left six dead and othes wounded said he did by playing dead according to CNN News.

Charlie Neitzel,. 21, had been friends with Peterson, who was working for two law enforcement agencies despite his young age when the shooting spree took place.


(excerpt)


Authorities have said 20-year-old Tyler Peterson went to an all-night pizza party in the northern Wisconsin town of Crandon on October 7 and killed six people, including his ex-girlfriend. Neitzel was wounded by three shots. Police tracked Peterson to a cabin later in the day, but he killed himself as they closed in, officials said.

Neitzel said he did not know why the off-duty Forest County Sheriff's Department deputy and part-time Crandon police officer attacked the group, the newspaper reported Monday.

"I guess nobody will really know why he did it," Neitzel told the newspaper. "The only person that can really know is him, I guess. He's a cold-blooded murderer. That's all there is to it."

He said Peterson showed up after the small party started at the home of Jordanne Murray and said he and Murray were supposed to hang out that night.

"She said, 'Well, plans have changed and now I have different people over and I want you to leave,"' he said.

Neitzel said Peterson did not want to leave and swore at Murray as some of the others yelled at him, "telling him to leave, telling him that he was being a psycho, a stalker boyfriend, because he pretty much was," Neitzel said.

Peterson "was a crazy psycho when he came flying in that door," Neitzel said.



Peterson died of three gunshot wounds to the head, all self-inflicted.


In New York City, a teenager was shot death by police officers after charging them with a hair brush.

The police were responding to a 9-11 phone call from the teenager's mother who said he was yelling at her and saying he had a gun. Police officers responded and by then the unnamed teenager was outside.


(excerpt, New York Daily News)


The son began screaming from the window at his mother and officers before climbing out of the window and beginning to cross a sidewalk toward the officers holding a black object in his hand, police said.

The officers backed up and ordered him to stop, Browne said. When the teen refused and kept approaching them, they opened fire, he said.

The son was struck by gunfire and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His identity wasn't immediately released.

Investigators later discovered the object the teen was holding was a hand brush, Browne said. It was not immediately clear how many shots were fired by officers, he said.






The Writers' Guild of America strike is still going on. Picketing is taking place at among other venues, NBC/Universal Studios in Universal City, Paramont Studios in Los Angeles and ABC/Prospect Studios in Los Feliz.

The Eastern branch of the Guild will be picketing in New York City's Battery Park/Financial District area.

Other picketing locations are here.

The strike is being discussed here.


Now, the Screen Actors' Guild is up in arms about layoffs imposed on them because so many television shows have shut down production. The contract its members are currently working under expires in June.