Five before Midnight

This site is dedicated to the continuous oversight of the Riverside(CA)Police Department, which was formerly overseen by the state attorney general. This blog will hopefully play that role being free of City Hall's micromanagement.
"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget." "You will though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it." --Lewis Carroll

Contact: fivebeforemidnight@yahoo.com

My Photo
Name:
Location: RiverCity, Inland Empire

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Riverside City Hall: Off for turkey day

The recount of ballots in Ward One's election begins Monday after Councilman Dom Betro plunked down the $1,600 needed to pay for it.



(excerpt)



Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said the recount will start Monday morning.

"I've been told no recount in Riverside County history has overturned an election result," Dunmore said. "There's always a first time."

Story continues below

In a statement sent via e-mail, Betro said many voters had asked him to request a recount.

"The numerous delays (11 days to certification), inconsistencies (changing vote counts), and other questions about the ballots cast (finding ballots in unauthorized places), have created concerns about the reliability and credibility of the results in this election," he said.

"It is important in a democracy and to our local government that our citizens be assured of the integrity of the electoral process," Betro wrote. "A full manual examination and recount of all ballots cast is the only way to accomplish this."

Gardner said he had expected a recount.

"I don't anticipate any significant change in the numbers," he said.





Candidate Terry Frizzel in Ward Seven is also interested in getting a recount for that ward but whether that will be carried out remains to be seen.







The city's general plan has been approved, according to the Press Enterprise. The most interesting part of the upbeat article is the bottom where the city states that it's not going to address the traffic problem because the fixes would only be "temporary".


Also, the high-density villages and the thought process behind them is flawed because it's assuming that those who reside in the housing are going to be working down the street and thus walk to their jobs. Yet, the only move the city appears to be taking to encourage pedestrian traffic is to deny people adequate parking venues for the vehicles they still will be bringing either as residents or tourists. As a pedestrian myself, I can say Riverside is very unfriendly to pedestrian traffic, including the downtown area which is having more streets added to it including one parallel to City Hall where the walkway is now and traffic lights that turn green about once every five minutes all through the pedestrian mall.



(excerpt)




"We want to get them out of their cars," Gutierrez said. "This plan encourages walking and bicycling. ... It will improve traffic and make people healthier."

It would be up to the developers to make these projects happen. The city itself won't build them.

Mary Humboldt, who lives in the city's agricultural greenbelt, said she worries the high-density living will take away Riverside's small-town feel. She accused the plan of "packing people in like sardines."

"This is not the Riverside we know and love," Humboldt told the council. "We still have neighborhoods where people know each other. This is taking away our neighborhoods."

Resident Ann Alfaro also spoke in opposition of the new plan.

"This overbuilding is ridiculous," she said.

Councilman Frank Schiavone emphasized that the plan provides a roadmap.

"We are preparing for the inevitable and that's what this is about," he said.





As for the Magnolia Center quagmire, it's probably not going to be helped much by the closure of Merrill Street, which is an important thoroughfare for emergency vehicles especially fire trucks when the Magnolia and Brockton intersections are blocked by freight trains.

Which raises the issue of how the traffic situation on this area will not improve unless a grade separation is placed in several key thoroughfares to accommodate the increased train traffic through this area of the city.





Riverside has a mystery on its hands. Columnist Dan Bernstein of the Press Enterprise is the latest to try to solve it.


Is Mayor Ron Loveridge going to run for a fifth term?



(excerpt)



Two heartbeats and one election away. That's how close Riverside's MayorLuv has come to achieving his dream: president of the National League!

Well, the National League of Cities. MayorLuv has just been elected second veep, putting him a heartbeat away from first veep. In 2010, he'll become commander-in-chief of every American city!

He alone will have the power to declare Detroit, "America's Next Great Dangerous City." He could proclaim that Boise is "on the brink of greatness." Or not. The Big Apple could become the nation's "No. 2 City of the Arts," right behind you know who.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. MayorLuv must hold elective office in order assume the National League presidency. This means he must either:

Take the fifth. Yes, he'd have to be re-elected to a fifth term. Why not? He's already mayor-for-life and this month's council elections appear to have wiped out the competition.

Get elected to something else -- school board, water board, bridge club secretary.

Declare a state of emergency, place the city manager under house arrest and postpone Riverside elections until the price of gasoline tumbles to $2 per gallon.




Most people think he'll nix the latter two and will simply run again for the mayor's seat he's held since 1994.

But if not, Bernstein's picked out a couple of the hot spots where politicians-in-training have been grooming themselves.




Representatives from the Riverside Police Department ventured to City Hall to give an update on the police department's mental health training program. Asst. Police Chief John De La Rosa, Capt. Mike Blakely, Lt. Mike Perea, Sgt. John Capen and Officer Eric Detmer joined Asst. City Attorney Jim Brown, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis and two council members along with members of the public in the Mayor's Ceremonial Room.

Also attending was Marie Marquez from the Riverside County Department of Mental Health who serves on an advisory committee with other county mental and medical health experts as well as representatives from the police department.



Over 130 police officers in the department have taken the 30 hour course on mental health issues and the training is expected to have reach the entire force by December 2008.


The department spent most of the time discussing its proposed training component on what's been called, "excited delirium" including its decision to send Sgt. Pat McCarthy out to a conference addressing this controversial issue that has both supporters and detractors not to mention a lot of people in the middle scratching their heads.

It was a very interesting update on a very serious issue. The county is struggling to find mental health experts to staff up with police officers with only one volunteer so far.




Councilman Frank Schiavone has this interest in auras. To find out if yours is positive or negative, check in with him. I'm not sure where this newer interest is coming from but it's interesting. His ethereal clash with Frizzel at the Government Affairs Committee extended afterward with him chanting "negative" over and over again like a mantra, was as always, one for the ages. Him wanting to shield himself from the heaviness and downer aspects of the housing crisis in this region and country is understandable but it's also a luxury many people don't have. Frizzel was bringing her vast experience in real estate and laying it out on the table. It's not nice, it's not pretty, it can't be wrapped up in a bow but these are not pretty times for the housing industry.


In other words, the housing industry has an aura that's a bit peaked right now.


The bottom line for dealing with this issue isn't yet another code enforcement ordinance. It's to sell these houses and many banks aren't really good realtors as it turns out.



If you can get to City Hall, all Governmental Affairs Committee meetings are recorded and someone from the city council office can get you a CD copy for a nominal fee. This one's a keeper.


Speaking of committee meetings, after the new city council convenes, there will be selections made as to which ones will serve on which committees. In 2004, the mayor's office tried to push a measure through to assign the power of appointing committee chair to the mayor, but voters nixed that in large numbers.






The Chicago Sun-Times published this article about the tasing of an 82-year-old mentally ill Black woman by officers from the scandal plagued Chicago Police Department.


Columnist Mary Mitchell was responding a poll which yielded results showing that about two-thirds of those questioned felt the tasing was not warranted and about one-third of those questioned did.


(excerpt)


After the Tasering, Fletcher, who suffers from dementia and schizophrenia, was hospitalized for five days and may have to undergo surgery for fluid on the brain.

Instead of condemning the police action, many of the people who shot me an e-mail blamed the elderly woman's family for the fiasco.

"What about the family that left their mother home alone knowing she had all these issues," said Dave M. "Put the blame where it really belongs: on the family. Why don't you stop by and visit good old granny and when she starts swinging a hammer at you just take your beating and give her a hug."

Well, Dave M., I did visit Fletcher at her home on Monday night, and she didn't pull out a hammer. You know why? I didn't push my way into her home. I rang the doorbell. When she ushered me into her kitchen and invited me to sit, I sat. And when our chat was over, I put on my coat, said "Good night" and made sure she locked her door behind me.

In other words, I respected her space -- something police didn't do.

As for her family, they aren't the triflin' people some of you are depicting. In fact, if anyone is to blame for what's happened, it would be the city's Department of Aging.

Fletcher, who can be belligerent, told a caseworker to go away. But instead of leaving, the worker called the police, and officers treated Fletcher like she was a criminal.





In Bolingbrook, the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners said it can't action on Sgt. Drew Peterson because he submitted his resignation last week , according to the Chicago Sun-Times.


(excerpt)


The letter also stated that because he was no longer a member of the Bolingbrook Police Department he would not appear at the internal affairs investigative interview scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 13, a release from the village Tuesday night said.

Last Wednesday, Police Chief Raymond J. McGury filed a written complaint with the Board seeking disciplinary action against Drew Peterson. The Chief presented this complaint at the Board's meeting earlier Tuesday night, the release said.

"The Board recognizes the seriousness of the charges presented by the Chief; unfortunately the Board is without jurisdiction to proceed further on these charges as Drew Peterson's resignation was effective when tendered, and therefore he is no longer a member of the Police Department and no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the Board," according to the release.




Peterson's mother spoke out and said that she was ashamed of Stacey Peterson who has been missing since Oct. 28.

(excerpt)

Drew Peterson's mom, Betty Morphey, had strong words Monday for Stacy Peterson, who she believes left Peterson and their two children and ran off with another man, as her son contends.

"I would tell her I'm ashamed of her for putting the family through this," Morphey said. "She knows where she is."

In a lengthy interview, Morphey, 79, spoke about how heartbreaking she finds the insinuation that her son would harm anyone. Stacy's family believes the young mother would never have left her two children and fear she is dead.

"I could swear on a Bible that he would never hurt anyone at any time," Morphey said. "I'm proud he's my son and I feel so bad he's got to go through all this because of her. She was just too young." There is a 30-year age difference between Drew and Stacy Peterson.





Khiel Coppin, 18, who was shot to death by New York City Police Department officers was buried, as over 2000 of his family and supporters looked on, according to the New York Daily News.

Among those who spoke at his funeral was the Rev. Al Sharpton.



(excerpt)


"If you create a climate of recklessness you're going to continue to get reckless behavior," Sharpton said in a speech that brought the 200 mourners to their feet.

"What is this city ... when a mother's cry for help is answered with 20 rounds of ammunition?"




Coppin's family said that they want reforms implemented in the police department.


(excerpt, New York Daily News)


"Can we solve these problems for those who are mentally ill, distraught and angry?" said Reginald Owens, the stepfather of 18-year-old Khiel Coppin, who was fatally shot last Monday.

Coppin was killed after he claimed to have a gun, drew what appeared to be a weapon from underneath his shirt and lunged at cops, despite their repeated orders to stop, police said.

The object in Coppin's hand turned out to be a hairbrush.

"Khiel's life should not be in vain," Owens said Friday.




One issue that arose was that Coppin who had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medications was at the house when his mother called the mental health crisis team at about noon but had left by the time the team arrived at 6:30 p.m. There were no available team members onduty to come to the house before that time, a problem which impacts mental health crisis intervention programs across the country. Many of them are also difficult to staff outside of the day shifts during Monday through Friday.



Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the family and the city that an investigation will be conducted into the shooting but it's clear that Commissioner Raymond Kelly has already made up his mind about the shooting with his preliminary comments.


(excerpt)


Bloomberg called the shooting a "tragedy" and promised the family a full investigation.

"I just said that my prayers were with her and with her son and that she can rest assured that we will do an appropriate investigation," Bloomberg said.

The mayor said he offered his condolences to the mother of Khiel Coppin, a mentally ill teen fatally shot by police Monday.



The City Room blog at the New York Times wrote this commentary on a study done by the Rand Corporation which showed, surprise, surprise that Black and Latino individuals are more likely to be stopped by police officers.



(excerpt)



Mr. Robak of Rand said that researchers made some recommendations for policy changes based on the racial disparities they found. “The report finds different patterns in different parts of the city, a couple parts of the city where the patterns are different than in the entire city, patterns of some concern,” he said.

But, he also said, the report did not simply examine the issue of who was stopped, but what happened after the stop.

“Were blacks more likely to be frisked?” he said, adding that the analysis tried to explain and account for the raw numbers of stops.




The Riverside Police Department is preparing its own traffic stop survey report to release early next year. Under its stipulated judgment with the state, it released reports annually between 2002-2005. It produced a similar study in 2006 which was never released to the public, because the department said that its numbers were the same as found in previous studies.

After community members asked for the studies to be continued, the police department several months ago decided to produce a March 2008 study using data from 2006 and 2007. The money to pay for the study was allocated to the department in 2006 by the city manager's office from the city's general fund.


The Community Police Review Commission has finalized its majority report and its minority report, submitted by Commissioner Jim Ward and is currently discussing policy recommendations stemming from the shooting of Lee Deante Brown.

Possible policy recommendations included marking the department's tasers so they are more visible to officers arriving on scene and employing tactics where the officer disengages if a person grabs a taser. The former appears to have little to do with what's been related about the shooting and as for the latter, it might be interesting to consult with other law enforcement agencies about how their officers have handled similar situations as that which allegedly arose with Brown and were able to apprehend the person.

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Newer›  ‹Older