When David meets Goliath meets community

Ken Stansbury, the David, who took on the city's legal machine to fight for the right for its residents to circulate petitions for ballot initiatives suffered a setback when the California State Supreme Court declined to hear his case.



The city quickly celebrated, not noting the irony of the ease that city councilmen can get an initiative on the agenda while city residents just might have to get SLAPP suited.




(excerpt)




It also said that filing a lawsuit seeking such a ruling does not constitute an attempt to squelch the First Amendment free-speech rights of the measure's proponents.

"There was no attempt to trample on anyone's rights," Councilman Frank Schiavone said. "Obviously the Supreme Court agreed with that or they would have weighed in."

Attorney Richard Reed, who represented Stansbury, said governments now will be able to stall or kill citizen ballot measure drives through lawsuits.

"That's what's really at stake here -- the initiative process in the state of California," Reed said.




The decision has yet to be made whether Stansbury will indeed be slapped with the city's attorney's fees. If they slap him with the full 100 grand, I will surrender to the City Attorney's office my share of exactly $.33 (in a city of 300,000) of those fees because I understand that Stansbury wasn't just fighting for himself or for Riversiders for Property Rights, he was fighting for you and me. If it's anything less, just let me know and I'll take out my calculator.

I'm currently researching how to draft a state ballot initiative, which is a very interesting education and this information is very important to know. Very fascinating literature on the subject.





Here's a hint, if it's a Constitutional issue, there's a venue for that and it's just a hop, skip and a jump away from the old courthouse.

But Stansbury is to be commended for what he's done so far. The race doesn't go to the strongest or the swiftest, it goes to that who can endure.





Stansbury is part of the community that is Riverside. I've spent the past day or so reading consultant Joe Brann's evaluation of the Community Police Review Commission and thus have been reflecting on "community", what it is and our role in the city's fabric.

After reading the "CPRC Commission Interviews" selection of the report, one is left with the strong feeling that the commissioners who are drawn from a cross-section of this city's residents haven't a single positive feeling about the community members who they interface with. But if "community" is represented in real life as it has been in the report under "key findings", then it's no wonder. We're a pretty ornary, misinformed bunch!

If that's indeed the case about the CPRC and the complaint process, then that's in large part because the public outreach by the CPRC and the city's been inadequate especially over time. Yes, the community may need to be "educated" but it's clear from the commissioners' comments that these individuals need an education too. Especially the unidentified commissioner who longed for either the "Long Beach" or "San Diego" models of civilian oversight, the part of the feedback from commissioners which provided unintentional humor and a certain amount of irony considering that the intelligence level of commissioners was placed somewhat above that of community at least by the commissioners.

The reality is, we're much more complex than what they labeled us and if the commissioners spent more time in our communities, they would have understood this. And I say spend time, because despite having nine members, not a single commissioner comes from either the Eastside or Casa Blanca. The Eastside has never had a member of that community on the CPRC and Casa Blanca has had only one. There also has never been a Latino from Arlanza either or an Asian-American commissioner. One commissioner said after the meeting that there had been more Latinos on the commission than were Gays and Lesbians and they didn't think there was any American Indian who would either apply or be qualified or something of that nature. Ironic, because this comment was made to a woman who was apparently identified by this other individual as Latina when she in fact, is an American Indian who by the way is probably overqualified to serve on the commission.

First of all, how do you know whether or not a commissioner would be gay or a lesbian unless they self-identify as one? With sexual orientation, the lines are drawn in a different way in part due to oppression than race and gender and they also intersect in different ways. Gays, lesbians and especially the unmentioned transgender population does have a history of distrust and abuse by the police, but even among their groups, those who do are disproportionately Black and Latino. And in other cities, there's been a lot of organizing to address police issues and how they impact straight women, gays, lesbians and transgenders of color including the Audre Lorde Project in New York City and Incite! which has produced an excellent brochure on how to address these issues.


Second, the CPRC has had a grand total of five Latinos as members since 2000 and at one point had four serving on it simultaneously. This was between the summer of 2005 and the autumn of 2006. However, four of those commissioners departed the commissioner during a nine month period, with one, Bob Garcia, terming out and three resigning in the wake of the turmoil between the CPRC's executive director Pedro Payne and the city manager's office. All four of them were replaced by White men or women. There were several Latino candidates who brought good qualifications to the process but they didn't pass the muster of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee which has especially since the passage of Measure GG turned the selection process into a political one.

Given that Latinos have been instrumental towards turning Riverside's population into a majority minority city, their numbers on the CPRC just aren't that impressive. But the reason we don't have more of them is apparently there's a dearth of qualified Latinos who apply. In other words, it's the "low numbers" excuse rearing its head here as it has in other venues.

The Mayor Nomination and Screening Committee meetings are recorded and you can pick up a copy of any one of them from the city council's office on the Seventh Floor of City Hall.

Third, the issues that Black and Latinos, whether straight, gay, lesbian or transgender, face with police are much different than a White middle class woman. Who are more likely to be handcuffed and placed in a back of a squad car? Who are most likely to be told to sit on the curb? Who are more likely to be searched by the police even though the seizure of contraband statistically matches or is less than the contraband seizures of White motorists? Who is more likely to be on the CPRC? A white person or a person of color? A man or a woman? A white woman or a woman of color? A White female gay, lesbian or trangender or a gay, lesbian, transgender of color? Which is more likely to have a higher presence of police officers, those neighborhoods that are predominantly White or those that are predominantly Black and/or Latino?

These are big issues in the community and if these commissioners were really out there, they would be a bit more understanding and not so quick to be take a defensive stance, which several did.


Christina Duran, an activist who's very well-known and respected by many people was told by one of the commissioners that because of her "style" she made it difficult to work with her and no one wanted to work with her. Which proved one thing, this commissioner didn't know Christina.

Christina is one of the most flexible people I know. She has her firm beliefs like all of us, but she also listens better and considers more thoroughly the opinions of others than almost anyone I know. She has to, because she gets out there and meets a wider variety of people than probably most or all of the people on the CPRC put together. She's on the front lines on many issues and in the trenches working with those that these issues impact directly, while many of the community leaders keep a comfortable distance from them.

Does she hang out with the *right* leaders? Maybe not. Does City Hall like her? You'll have to ask City Hall. But Christina's a community member at heart who does what she does to make a difference and not to get as a prong in some sort of long-range plan to get some place else.

Dressing someone down like that in front of a consultant hired by the city was also in very poor taste especially in front of her daughter. At least in my opinion. But her daughter quickly grasped the situation as it really was because she is her mother's daughter.



Another part of the report on the CPRC which struck me is the historic section on the model of civilian oversight used by Riverside. There will be further discussion of that and who exactly viewed it as the most "appealing".

Hint: It was the city government at the time and probably not the over 100 people who called me after the city council meeting in early 2000 to officially adopt this model.

But when it comes to the CPRC past, present and future, the lesson of its predecessor LEPAC comes to mind.






Mayor Ron Loveridge stumped for more grade separations to prevent traffic jams at many of Riverside's intersections that it shares with two freight train companies. Several weeks ago, Loveridge was stumping for quieter skies for people who live near or beneath the flight path of DHL's planes.





Dan Bernstein, the columnist of the Press Enterprise wrote this column about one of the cases winding its way through the cluttered criminal justice system called Riverside County.




A Colton Police Department officer shot and killed a naked man.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Police received several early morning calls about the attempted break-ins in the 800 block of East C Street.

When the first officer arrived, he was confronted by the naked man in an alley and shot him, said Lt. Chuck de Dianous of the Colton Police Department.

"The officer arrived, saw the guy, the guy saw him and charged the officer, basically attacked him," de Dianous said.

Details about the confrontation were being sorted out this morning, and police did not say whether the man had a weapon.

Other Colton officers arrived and called paramedics, but Antonio Cornejo, in his early 60s, died at the scene.




The acting Orange County sheriff will be removing deputies from jails and replacing them with correctional officers.




New York City Police Department Det. Steve Taylor insists he's innocent of charges that he pimped a teenaged girl.



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"I am 100% innocent of all the charges, and all that will come out in court," Wayne Taylor, 35, told the Daily News in an exclusive jailhouse interview.

"I guarantee you if I spoke my heart out and told you all the facts, you would walk out here with a totally different outlook."

"But I can't do that until court," said Taylor, who will appear before a judge today to answer charges of kidnapping, assault, promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child.





A man being prosecuted for a second time in connection with the fatal shootings of Officers Dennis Doty and Phil Trust in 1982 has a trial date set for May.


However, it's very unlikely the trial will start on that date, given that it can take up to a year to prepare for a capital case.



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With a courtroom filled with current and retired police officers looking on, Luebs questioned why the defense needed more than a year to prepare for trial, particularly since both attorneys were familiar with the case from handling the appeal.

"It is really a lot far out there," the judge said.


Cotsirilos said handling an appeal and trial are two different things, and pointed out the defense has not hired an investigator to work the case or looked into Daniels' mental status at the time of the killings.






Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officer and community activist Randal Simmons will be memorialized today. He left behind his families both at home and at the LAPD. He's also left behind a bunch of kids who participated in his ministry program who now need a new mentor to continue on the road that Simmons has started.




Racism is alive and well here with a disgusting and racist email being circulated by a supervisor of a police department in Canada.



Convicted! That was a former Canton Police Department officer who a jury decided killed his girlfriend and her unborn child.