From Acorn to Oaks: Forums and foresight
May 15 is the date that Inland Empire's teachers have to worry about if they've been given pink slips in response to the state's budget crisis.
About 14,000 teachers statewide will be laid off.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
School districts were required by state law to send out the reduction-in-force notices -- preliminary pink slips -- by March 15. They have until May 15 to send out the permanent notices.
The May 15 deadline comes before the state's June budget deadline, a process that is prone to delays.
Mike Myslinski, a spokesman with the California Teachers Association, said that in March 2003, districts sent out 20,000 preliminary layoff notices. By May of that year, all but 3,000 had been rescinded.
That year, the Riverside Unified School District issued 216 pink slips to teachers, but later rescinded all but four. Temecula Valley School District issued 211 layoff notices that year, then brought back all but 10 teachers.
Can air pollution cause brain cancer? That's one question researchers are asking even while early on in the latest round of studies.
Racial tension in Los Angeles between African-Americans and Latinos is being discussed by its police chief, William Bratton.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
In recent weeks, the chief has been bombarded by challenges on the issue after he asserted that racial violence between blacks and Latinos has been overblown by the media and the public.
His campaign met with skepticism last week over coffee and cookies at an invitation-only meeting with black journalists and commentators at the LAPD's 77th Street station. For more than an hour, Bratton smiled and nodded as some participants directed barbs his way, insisting that blacks were being targeted by Latino gang members.
"I'm looking for some help in how to frame this," the chief said, uncharacteristically meek. "I'm trying to find some common ground."
By the end, it appeared Bratton faced challenges reconciling the fears of black residents with the reality of his crime statistics.
"You say you are not ignorant of . . . our sensitivity to racial gang violence, but the first thing out of your mouth is that [these crimes] are not racially motivated," Betty Pleasant, a contributing editor at the Wave newspaper, told the chief.
"You need to expand your definition of what's racially motivated," she said.
Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times is asking if there's a downside to the Los Angeles Police Department's decision to equip its squad cars with video cameras.
(excerpt)
For some reason, though, I'm not getting that reaction from cops, who are about to have video cameras installed in their squad cars.
"I think it's great," Sgt. Art Mendoza says of the decision to install cameras in the LAPD's South Bureau squad cars at a cost of $5 million, with plans to eventually go citywide for another $20 million or so.
I hung out with Mendoza and other officers working the night shift Thursday in the 77th Street Division. Sgt. Rene Chavez and Sgt. Mike Castaneda agreed with Mendoza. The more transparency the better, they say, because it will mean greater public trust, which means it'll be easier for cops to do their jobs.
I don't doubt that they believe that, but I wonder if a little of what I'm hearing is an echo from on high. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton is a believer and, as Cmdr. Andy Smith puts it, cameras could deter lawsuits "where people say we did crazy things, which of course we didn't do." Even the Police Protective League is on board.
Hey, in a department that has the Rampart and Rodney King scandals in its history book, who isn't for greater accountability? But my instinct is to assume the folks at City Hall might be buying lousy camera equipment that will break down in six months, or that they got suckered on the price, or that the system will create as many problems as it solves.
So the LAPD is getting its cameras, in part to offset too much concern about the problems it has had implementing a required reform to create and implement a working early warning system. Riverside? The cars are still waiting to be equipped even though the city manager's office had assured the public and the city council that they would be so equipped this spring. However, they've been repeating the same mantra and excuses for several years now since the city council allocated that office $500,000 to get the job done. Maybe next year or the next city manager's administration whatever comes last.
However, the city has just installed new red-light traffic cameras at the "four corners" intersection.
At the time this department is struggling with the camera issues, it's also struggling with the reality that its SWAT Team has just received its first female trainee. Only time will tell if the department will survive the experience of having a woman training for a spot on an all-male team. Hopefully, whoever is providing the Los Angeles Times with this information that there is indeed a female trainee will provide regular updates on this woman's progress in the weeks to come.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 LAPD officers selected for spots in the department's 12-week training school, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, according to an internal LAPD email obtained by The Times.
Grasso and the rest of the hopefuls were chosen amid controversy over a newly devised regimen that did away with many grueling endurance tests and exacting simulation exercises that had been used to pre-qualify candidates for Special Weapons and Tactics Team training in the past. The new selection criteria angered many current SWAT officers, who accused Police Chief William J. Bratton and his command staff of watering down the process in order to make it easier for a woman to join the demanding unit, which specializes in resolving standoffs with barricaded suspects and other high-risk operations.
But it appears Grasso has avoided the uncomfortable prospect of coming into SWAT school under a cloud of suspicion. Several SWAT officers, who spoke on the condition that their names not be used because they are not authorized to discuss the matter, said they continue to harbor doubts about the new tests, but are impressed with Grasso and would welcome her onto the team.
"Physically, she's a dynamo and tactically she's very solid," said one SWAT veteran. "She'd be a good selection."
The Police Protective League which had been the target of accusations by Chief William Bratton that it favored the status quo over the rights of female officers who are its members was unusually subdued while issuing its support of Grasso's selection to the SWAT school.
The LAPD blog: SWAT: The next level discusses the changes implemented to the department's SWAT division.
As for Riverside, women are "not strong enough" to be SWAT officers, according to one former METRO sergeant when asked why there weren't any at a recruitment fair several years ago. Often it doesn't appear that police agencies are separated into male and female, it often seems that aspects of policing as well.
It's not like this never happened before but it was criticism about the veracity of officers' statements on complaints that led to a serious crisis for Salt Lake City's civilian review board. But after some months, it's back. The civilian review board, anyway at least for now. The mayor's preparing to pick five members who hopefully will last longer than the ones they will be replacing.
(excerpt, Salt Lake Tribune)
Former board members said a lack of information from the chiefs and
the department led them to believe discipline was applied unequally.
"In many cases we felt like the punishment did not fit the crimes," said former member Nafitalai Unga Kioa.
Former member Dan Levin acknowledged officers were disciplined. The problem, he said: "It's that some people are getting less disciplined than they should be."
Burbank and Dinse said Friday they agreed with the board most of the time and even punished some officers when the board did not recommend it. But they also said they overruled the board's recommendations in some cases because there was not enough evidence.
The review board "gave due consideration," Dinse said. "I don't say that they were lacking in doing their task, but I think they did not always perceive from the eyes of people out at the scene."
What happened in Salt Lake City, which lost many of its commissioners through resignations in the past year has happened in other cities as well. There's been a war of words between the mayor, the police chief and its civilian review mechanism in Seattle. There's been a war of words between the mayor, city auditor and police union in Portland. And then there's the ongoing saga taking place in Riverside.
But according to the Best of New Orleans Blog, that city might be receiving an independent police monitor. Residents have been pushing for some form of police oversight since 1996 and the previous mayor had assured them that discussion of some form was coming.
And in Humboldt County, a forum on police oversight is scheduled to be held on what's the best model of civilian review for that county. Discussions about implementing civilian oversight countywide as well as in Eureka have been ongoing this past year.
(excerpt, Times-Standard)
Chairman Richard Botzler said the commission is holding the series of forums with the goal of assessing the need for such a system of review, making a recommendation to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors as to whether such a system is necessary and, if so, what form it should take.
”In the end, we want law enforcement and the public, rather than somehow being in two different camps, to see we're all part of the same community and to work together,” Botzler said.
”We all depend on law enforcement, and they take risks and lay their lives on the line. What I'm looking at is trying to balance that, so there's good support for law enforcement and they can do their work, but there is adequate accountability.”
Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen and Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philp will both be panelists at Thursday's forum to provide a law enforcement perspective, and two independent police auditors will join the panel to offer insight as to what has worked in other areas.
Nielsen said Friday that he supports the concept of a citizen advisory board, but wouldn't support a board with the power to do more than advise.
”My position has always been that I think it is very important that citizens have input into their police department in terms of policies and procedures,” Nielsen said. “Where I draw the line is having an independent group making determinations about the conduct of my officers and taking those decisions out of my hands.”
Yes, Nielsen like most police chiefs wants a form of civilian oversight that is a conduit to improve relations between police departments and communities but like most department heads, he forgets or omits the part that it's improved police accountability that works to forge those bridges. Providing the oftquoted response that there are other law enforcement agencies who provide oversight over the actions of police officers even that for the most part those agencies conduct criminal and not administrative investigations. The task of civilian oversight on the other hand is to look at departments from an administrative perspective.
Community organizations like Redwood Curtain CopWatch have pushed for more independent and strong oversight that includes independent investigations and subpoena power. It looks like the same struggles which occur with civilian oversight in many cities and counties will be played out here as well.
A former ICE officer pleads guilty to rape.
(excerpt, Seattle Times)
Wilfredo Vazquez, 35, sexually assaulted a 39-year-old Jamaican mother of two on Sept. 21 at his home in Tamarac. He was fired from his position as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shortly after the initial complaint was lodged against him, ICE officials said.
"A law enforcement badge is a privilege; we will not tolerate its misuse as a key to assert power or unlawful force over those in one's custody," U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta said in a statement.
The 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care has alleged that the New York City Police Department screwed up the investigation of the sean Bell shooting to protect the officers involved, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
Calling the CSI investigation "nothing that is short of incompetent," retired NYPD Detective Graham Weatherspoon of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said a special prosecutor should have handled the controversial case.
"We cannot have the Police Department failing to secure evidence," Weatherspoon said outside the Queens courthouse where three detectives are on trial for killing Bell with a 50-bullet barrage.
Referring specifically to the Nissan Altima in which Bell was killed, Weatherspoon said, "the bumper was placed inside the vehicle, the wheel covers were placed inside the vehicle, thereby contaminating the crime scene."
"The interior of that car was part of the crime scene," he said. "No crime scene detective would allow these things to go on."
Berkeley's first Black police officer, Walter Gordon had a brother who was the first Black police officer in Riverside named Henry Gordon.
Visitors to this site include the following:
City of Riverside
County of Riverside
United States Department of Justice
University of California, Riverside
Parbin Limited (England)
Hamjudo Consulting
Temple University
Washington City Paper
Vanderbilt University
University of Pittsburgh
Netanya Academic College (Israel)
McGill University (Canada)
Tiscali UK Ltd (United Kingdom)
Tulane University
ADVANCED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
Panera LLC
Northwestern Wisconsin Technical College
JANET networking at ULCC (United Kingdom)
About 14,000 teachers statewide will be laid off.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
School districts were required by state law to send out the reduction-in-force notices -- preliminary pink slips -- by March 15. They have until May 15 to send out the permanent notices.
The May 15 deadline comes before the state's June budget deadline, a process that is prone to delays.
Mike Myslinski, a spokesman with the California Teachers Association, said that in March 2003, districts sent out 20,000 preliminary layoff notices. By May of that year, all but 3,000 had been rescinded.
That year, the Riverside Unified School District issued 216 pink slips to teachers, but later rescinded all but four. Temecula Valley School District issued 211 layoff notices that year, then brought back all but 10 teachers.
Can air pollution cause brain cancer? That's one question researchers are asking even while early on in the latest round of studies.
Racial tension in Los Angeles between African-Americans and Latinos is being discussed by its police chief, William Bratton.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
In recent weeks, the chief has been bombarded by challenges on the issue after he asserted that racial violence between blacks and Latinos has been overblown by the media and the public.
His campaign met with skepticism last week over coffee and cookies at an invitation-only meeting with black journalists and commentators at the LAPD's 77th Street station. For more than an hour, Bratton smiled and nodded as some participants directed barbs his way, insisting that blacks were being targeted by Latino gang members.
"I'm looking for some help in how to frame this," the chief said, uncharacteristically meek. "I'm trying to find some common ground."
By the end, it appeared Bratton faced challenges reconciling the fears of black residents with the reality of his crime statistics.
"You say you are not ignorant of . . . our sensitivity to racial gang violence, but the first thing out of your mouth is that [these crimes] are not racially motivated," Betty Pleasant, a contributing editor at the Wave newspaper, told the chief.
"You need to expand your definition of what's racially motivated," she said.
Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times is asking if there's a downside to the Los Angeles Police Department's decision to equip its squad cars with video cameras.
(excerpt)
For some reason, though, I'm not getting that reaction from cops, who are about to have video cameras installed in their squad cars.
"I think it's great," Sgt. Art Mendoza says of the decision to install cameras in the LAPD's South Bureau squad cars at a cost of $5 million, with plans to eventually go citywide for another $20 million or so.
I hung out with Mendoza and other officers working the night shift Thursday in the 77th Street Division. Sgt. Rene Chavez and Sgt. Mike Castaneda agreed with Mendoza. The more transparency the better, they say, because it will mean greater public trust, which means it'll be easier for cops to do their jobs.
I don't doubt that they believe that, but I wonder if a little of what I'm hearing is an echo from on high. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton is a believer and, as Cmdr. Andy Smith puts it, cameras could deter lawsuits "where people say we did crazy things, which of course we didn't do." Even the Police Protective League is on board.
Hey, in a department that has the Rampart and Rodney King scandals in its history book, who isn't for greater accountability? But my instinct is to assume the folks at City Hall might be buying lousy camera equipment that will break down in six months, or that they got suckered on the price, or that the system will create as many problems as it solves.
So the LAPD is getting its cameras, in part to offset too much concern about the problems it has had implementing a required reform to create and implement a working early warning system. Riverside? The cars are still waiting to be equipped even though the city manager's office had assured the public and the city council that they would be so equipped this spring. However, they've been repeating the same mantra and excuses for several years now since the city council allocated that office $500,000 to get the job done. Maybe next year or the next city manager's administration whatever comes last.
However, the city has just installed new red-light traffic cameras at the "four corners" intersection.
At the time this department is struggling with the camera issues, it's also struggling with the reality that its SWAT Team has just received its first female trainee. Only time will tell if the department will survive the experience of having a woman training for a spot on an all-male team. Hopefully, whoever is providing the Los Angeles Times with this information that there is indeed a female trainee will provide regular updates on this woman's progress in the weeks to come.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 LAPD officers selected for spots in the department's 12-week training school, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, according to an internal LAPD email obtained by The Times.
Grasso and the rest of the hopefuls were chosen amid controversy over a newly devised regimen that did away with many grueling endurance tests and exacting simulation exercises that had been used to pre-qualify candidates for Special Weapons and Tactics Team training in the past. The new selection criteria angered many current SWAT officers, who accused Police Chief William J. Bratton and his command staff of watering down the process in order to make it easier for a woman to join the demanding unit, which specializes in resolving standoffs with barricaded suspects and other high-risk operations.
But it appears Grasso has avoided the uncomfortable prospect of coming into SWAT school under a cloud of suspicion. Several SWAT officers, who spoke on the condition that their names not be used because they are not authorized to discuss the matter, said they continue to harbor doubts about the new tests, but are impressed with Grasso and would welcome her onto the team.
"Physically, she's a dynamo and tactically she's very solid," said one SWAT veteran. "She'd be a good selection."
The Police Protective League which had been the target of accusations by Chief William Bratton that it favored the status quo over the rights of female officers who are its members was unusually subdued while issuing its support of Grasso's selection to the SWAT school.
The LAPD blog: SWAT: The next level discusses the changes implemented to the department's SWAT division.
As for Riverside, women are "not strong enough" to be SWAT officers, according to one former METRO sergeant when asked why there weren't any at a recruitment fair several years ago. Often it doesn't appear that police agencies are separated into male and female, it often seems that aspects of policing as well.
It's not like this never happened before but it was criticism about the veracity of officers' statements on complaints that led to a serious crisis for Salt Lake City's civilian review board. But after some months, it's back. The civilian review board, anyway at least for now. The mayor's preparing to pick five members who hopefully will last longer than the ones they will be replacing.
(excerpt, Salt Lake Tribune)
Former board members said a lack of information from the chiefs and
the department led them to believe discipline was applied unequally.
"In many cases we felt like the punishment did not fit the crimes," said former member Nafitalai Unga Kioa.
Former member Dan Levin acknowledged officers were disciplined. The problem, he said: "It's that some people are getting less disciplined than they should be."
Burbank and Dinse said Friday they agreed with the board most of the time and even punished some officers when the board did not recommend it. But they also said they overruled the board's recommendations in some cases because there was not enough evidence.
The review board "gave due consideration," Dinse said. "I don't say that they were lacking in doing their task, but I think they did not always perceive from the eyes of people out at the scene."
What happened in Salt Lake City, which lost many of its commissioners through resignations in the past year has happened in other cities as well. There's been a war of words between the mayor, the police chief and its civilian review mechanism in Seattle. There's been a war of words between the mayor, city auditor and police union in Portland. And then there's the ongoing saga taking place in Riverside.
But according to the Best of New Orleans Blog, that city might be receiving an independent police monitor. Residents have been pushing for some form of police oversight since 1996 and the previous mayor had assured them that discussion of some form was coming.
And in Humboldt County, a forum on police oversight is scheduled to be held on what's the best model of civilian review for that county. Discussions about implementing civilian oversight countywide as well as in Eureka have been ongoing this past year.
(excerpt, Times-Standard)
Chairman Richard Botzler said the commission is holding the series of forums with the goal of assessing the need for such a system of review, making a recommendation to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors as to whether such a system is necessary and, if so, what form it should take.
”In the end, we want law enforcement and the public, rather than somehow being in two different camps, to see we're all part of the same community and to work together,” Botzler said.
”We all depend on law enforcement, and they take risks and lay their lives on the line. What I'm looking at is trying to balance that, so there's good support for law enforcement and they can do their work, but there is adequate accountability.”
Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen and Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philp will both be panelists at Thursday's forum to provide a law enforcement perspective, and two independent police auditors will join the panel to offer insight as to what has worked in other areas.
Nielsen said Friday that he supports the concept of a citizen advisory board, but wouldn't support a board with the power to do more than advise.
”My position has always been that I think it is very important that citizens have input into their police department in terms of policies and procedures,” Nielsen said. “Where I draw the line is having an independent group making determinations about the conduct of my officers and taking those decisions out of my hands.”
Yes, Nielsen like most police chiefs wants a form of civilian oversight that is a conduit to improve relations between police departments and communities but like most department heads, he forgets or omits the part that it's improved police accountability that works to forge those bridges. Providing the oftquoted response that there are other law enforcement agencies who provide oversight over the actions of police officers even that for the most part those agencies conduct criminal and not administrative investigations. The task of civilian oversight on the other hand is to look at departments from an administrative perspective.
Community organizations like Redwood Curtain CopWatch have pushed for more independent and strong oversight that includes independent investigations and subpoena power. It looks like the same struggles which occur with civilian oversight in many cities and counties will be played out here as well.
A former ICE officer pleads guilty to rape.
(excerpt, Seattle Times)
Wilfredo Vazquez, 35, sexually assaulted a 39-year-old Jamaican mother of two on Sept. 21 at his home in Tamarac. He was fired from his position as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shortly after the initial complaint was lodged against him, ICE officials said.
"A law enforcement badge is a privilege; we will not tolerate its misuse as a key to assert power or unlawful force over those in one's custody," U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta said in a statement.
The 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care has alleged that the New York City Police Department screwed up the investigation of the sean Bell shooting to protect the officers involved, according to the New York Daily News.
(excerpt)
Calling the CSI investigation "nothing that is short of incompetent," retired NYPD Detective Graham Weatherspoon of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said a special prosecutor should have handled the controversial case.
"We cannot have the Police Department failing to secure evidence," Weatherspoon said outside the Queens courthouse where three detectives are on trial for killing Bell with a 50-bullet barrage.
Referring specifically to the Nissan Altima in which Bell was killed, Weatherspoon said, "the bumper was placed inside the vehicle, the wheel covers were placed inside the vehicle, thereby contaminating the crime scene."
"The interior of that car was part of the crime scene," he said. "No crime scene detective would allow these things to go on."
Berkeley's first Black police officer, Walter Gordon had a brother who was the first Black police officer in Riverside named Henry Gordon.
Visitors to this site include the following:
City of Riverside
County of Riverside
United States Department of Justice
University of California, Riverside
Parbin Limited (England)
Hamjudo Consulting
Temple University
Washington City Paper
Vanderbilt University
University of Pittsburgh
Netanya Academic College (Israel)
McGill University (Canada)
Tiscali UK Ltd (United Kingdom)
Tulane University
ADVANCED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
Panera LLC
Northwestern Wisconsin Technical College
JANET networking at ULCC (United Kingdom)
Labels: Backlash against civilian oversight, civilian review spreads, officer-involved shootings, Video police review
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