Election 2009: Hearing from the Schiavone peanut gallery (Part II)

More rants at Craigslist from my "fans" who are now not only accusing me of harassing them but of flagging their beautiful prose from that Web site. Uh, no actually I wasn't up last night reading their rants and flagging them. I never flag any posts there just like I never deleted any of their comments posted on my site. After all, most of their lovely pieces of prose wind up getting posted including with links right here in my blog, so why then would I be flagging Craigslist?


Because I blog, I get harassed in an assortment of ways and threatened with people who will do this or that, as punishment for blogging. Political candidate Paul Davis was threatened with the same thing before he even filed his papers to run against Councilman Frank Schiavone so maybe it's the same individual. And it seems like every time I blog about an election that Schiavone participates in, I get comments of this ilk throughout the election cycle. And it's quite probable even likely that he hasn't a clue what some of his supporters are writing about first his opponent and now me on a Web site.

Do those who engage in this behavior think that doing this is going to help their candidate win his election? That's doubtful, as one would think it would be more productive to do what most campaign workers do and that's get out on the trail and talk to the many undecided voters in the ward that sends a higher percentage of voters to the polls than any other ward. Just like the majority of campaign workers for the council candidates are doing during this election cycle. That's how you win votes, not by hanging out in at Craigslist and writing anonymous posts. That tactic has yet to win a politician an election who it's been done in support of. In fact, history has proven that it's often the opposite that happens instead.


I'll start with the author that I know first. He usually shows up after the other author does which was his posting style when he was on my blog. It likely has something to do with his "reverence" for authority figures which of course changes from one authority figure to the next with the seasons or each time the wind blows in a slightly different direction. There's a reason that he's mentioning "cease and desist" at the end of his posting because he's been told to do just that. Twice.

This guy "thought" he was going to be a police officer but the door's been slammed on him on every front and for good reason. Both the Riverside Police Department (where he unsuccessfully applied for a part-time job) and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department (which wouldn't even take him on as a volunteer) have progressed to the point where they're weeding some problematic people out from their hiring process. Did they see some thing that others missed? Interestingly enough, one of my other commenters from several years back was apparently rejected from a law enforcement agency, but clearly not from one of them which did hire him.



FBM Mary aka Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, what can you expect from " Riverside's best and most prolific blogger " ?
FBM Mary is also an investigative detective, as well as an investigative reporter, she thinks.
FBM's thinking is that if you or I blog about anyone, we are cyberharassing, but when FBM blog's, about anyone, she is blogging.
A true doublefaced double-standard that she holds all her own.
Let the pot call the kettle black.

Cease and Desist that FBM!



Presumably the "cease and desist" isn't an actual threat but a way of throwing my requests for this individual to "cease and desist" from harassing me twice now, back in my face. Classy individual, this one.


But then again, in a way I don't know what's funnier. A harasser who's got 50 posts to his credit at least on my site and if you check out the archives for 2006, he's very easy to spot calling me a "harasser" which he helpfully did on my blog several times or that he's actually calling what he writes "blogging". One of his funniest posts (and few were actually funny) was this incoherent rant posted in late summer 2006 where somewhere in it, was a complaint that I claimed to know everything and never be wrong. Right up there with a posting where he said a woman was something you lied on and (he meant "fucked" but he used cute symbols instead).

So this person claims to have never communicated and to be simply...blogging?

Actually, no when you post violent pornography on a person's site, claim that a person has a criminal record (in this case "too many DUIs") that they don't have and threaten them if they don't posting, that's cyber harassment. That's quite a bit different than blogging in the majority of cases. And since you've already read links on my site explaining the difference between the two when you received your first of two cease and desists, your unwillingness to grasp that basic concept just proves that case further.

This guy worked on Ruben Rasso's campaign four years ago and maybe he's working with Schiavone's now. Hopefully, Rasso's gotten smart in four years and ejected this guy because it's hard to believe how someone who engages in this kind of conduct could possibly provide any useful service to a campaign. But then to each his own.


But perusual, this guy came first and yes, there's a word in that sentence that has two different meanings in this context. He claims that I tried to "out" something he wrote on Craigslist. The only problem is that the only time I did that was when someone using a bunch of Tor proxies sent me an email to one of my accounts, through my blog calling me the "bitter cunt" he knew from back when. If he's making reference to that particular comment, then I guess that's his way of saying that he's the author of that lovely email which incidentally was written in March 2008, about one year ago. Thanks for the notification, I guess.

But then again, the only thing that's certain about this anonymous commenter is that he's endorsing Schiavone and what's interesting is how amid the harassing posts (particularly those about Davis), much information has been posted anonymously about the inner workings of Schiavone's campaign which presumably most people in Riverside aren't exactly privy to, including the alleged endorsement process of the Riverside Police Officers' Association (which was detailed in one Craigslist posting but didn't appear to be a first-hand account), which as it turns out doesn't appear to have been that accurate a narrative of what took place in terms of how it reached its decision to endorse Schiavone this time around which appears to have been more complicated and certainly more nuanced.

And if half of what is coming out of there is true (and that's not clear at this point in my queries), then there are certainly things to be concerned about who exactly is being disrespectful to this city's police officers and what they are assigned to do. Because there's nothing more inherently disrespectful to law enforcement than misusing police resources and tying the hands of those that you're using to do so so they can't object. And if there are indeed any police employees in this situation, they definitely have my support against being treated in this fashion and they should have the support of the crowd which calls itself pro-police. After all, it wasn't that long ago that several of those who worked at the city council meetings were being used to expel city residents including elderly women on the order of several council members who at the time were serving as mayor pro tems.

One representative from the police union said at a community meeting that the city manager had tried to call various police detectives to file cases on these ejected individuals and the detectives nixed that. If that's the case, likely because they didn't believe that it was an appropriate request under their assigned duties and responsibilities which come with the position. Even the District Attorney's office allegedly didn't want to have anything to do with pursuing anything against the ejection of four individuals at a city council meeting in early 2007 including one against a 89-year-old woman.

But let's examine the most recent ranting of this individual, the one who's currently nameless.



Of all the posts to be flagged one has to wonder WHY THIS ONE?

It appears I hit a nerve and exposed FBM Mary on her "secret", why else would it be deleted?

Here it is - couple words changed to clarify my point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Just an FYI to those who read craigslist and also read Mary's Blog, Five Before Midnight.

Don't you dare read Mary's blog and then turn around and post on Craigslist. She will make assumptions as to who you are. She owns her blog. She sees who peeks at her blog (gets the service provider info).

Last year a post I made here was credited (on Mary's blog) to someone in an area I am not in because of the proximity of time of viewing her blog and the post. She thinks she's Sherlock but she's not.
Anyway, just to be sure, if you view her blog, wait to post for a while because if you view her blog and then post right away ...... well Sherlock will make assumptions and perhaps come to craigslist and tell everyone where you (the assumed poster) lives, she did that to me – fortunately she was wrong in her assumption.

I bet it pisses her off not to have access to Craigslist's pertinent info to really get the facts.





This latest wave of rants began after I started blogging about the Ward Four City Council election. The same crowd went after candidate, Paul Davis for a while until he won the right to call himself a former law enforcement officer in Riverside County Superior Court and then it got silent. I guess some might call all this campaigning.

But there's at least one forum taking place this week sponsored by the Group and Latino Network on Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. taking place at Stratton Center at Bordwell Park in the Eastside near the intersection of MLK and Kansas.





The Greater Chamber of Commerce in Riverside held its city council candidate forum and the eight candidates running for three council seats showed up to face the questions.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

In the Ward 2 race, Councilman Andy Melendrez is facing first-time candidate Ahmad Smith, a small business owner, and Ruben Rasso, a retired sheriff's deputy who sought the seat twice before.

Rasso said he would work to relax city fees that business owners pay. He promised strong communication between his office and business owners if elected, saying he would listen to their concerns and work with them on solutions.

Smith said he's "a kindred spirit" as a businessman himself and would push for new jobs. As the city works to encourage new development on University Avenue, he wants the wishes of nearby residents to be heard, he said.

Melendrez said the city has made considerable progress in cleaning up University Avenue in the three years he's been on the council. He's worked closely with community groups, UC Riverside, the business sector and the Police Department to improve the ward's various neighborhoods, he said.

The Press Enterprise Editorial Board chastises Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco's cavalier attitude toward the budget crisis.



(excerpt)

But county supervisors should not fall for that threadbare scare tactic, as the county's own numbers say otherwise. Luna reported in January that county spending on public safety has far outstripped population growth and crime rates over the past five years. The DA's staff grew by 69 percent between 2002-03 and 2006-07, while the number of completed cases grew by 14 percent. Yet case dispositions in neighboring San Bernardino County grew at about the same rate during that time, with only a 17 percent increase in staffing.

Pacheco says his department needs more money because of slumping revenue and rising costs. But every other county department faces similar financial challenges, yet those agencies are not balking at making cuts. And protecting the DA's funding means steeper cutbacks in other county services.

Certainly prosecutors provide a crucial public service. But asking for more money while the county budget bleeds red ink is preposterous politics, not serious fiscal strategy.

The Riverside Unified School District began tightening its budgetary belt but not before giving its administrators raises.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

The increases, which were retroactive to July 1, came on top of salary increases of 5 percent for all management employees approved in May. That increase was on par with salary increases for other district employees.

District officials and board members said the additional increases in September were approved out of concern the district was in danger of losing administrators to districts offering higher salaries.

Kathy Allavie, who became board president after the changes to the contracts, said board members did not know how bad the state's finances would get at the time. Two months later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed midyear cuts to school funding to deal with the state's deficit.

"To be truthful, it was rotten timing," Allavie said.

The board voted 4-1 on the contract adjustments, with Lew Vanderzyl voting against them. Vanderzyl said he did not think enough information was made available to the public to justify the increases.

The agenda packet for the board meeting said only that employment agreements for cabinet-level employees had been reviewed and updated, and would be extended to June 30, 2011.

Perris considers establishing new policies for the retention of city records.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The state guidelines establish time limits for how long local agencies should keep different types of records, from budgets and receipts to lawsuit documents.

The goal of adopting the new rules is to reduce the amount of space being consumed by growing stacks of city documents.

Before hiring City Clerk Judy Haughney and Deputy City Clerk Vicki Kasad three years ago, clerks used their own discretion as far as which records were worth keeping.

"Some kept everything, some did not," city spokesman Joe Vargo said.

For the past three years "the policy has been to save pretty much everything," Vargo said.

The city clerk's office recently has been having difficulty finding some records requested by the public, he said.

"We were getting records requests and we couldn't find the records in question."





Banning's Redevelopment Agency gets involved in the renovation of another Fox Theater.



An interesting article on Political Action Committees, developers, labor unions and the money that flows through them at election time in the Inland Empire.




A former Los Angeles Police Department officer who lied about being attacked and torched his own car to get some insurance money was charged with felonies in relation to the incident.




(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




Anthony Razo, a 14-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, was charged with five felony counts of insurance fraud and arson for allegedly torching his BMW 745 on Jan. 4 and then filing an insurance claim.

He also faces a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report stemming from the harrowing tale he told investigators after he was shot outside of his City Terrace home on the morning of Jan.31. Razo said two Latinos with shaved heads who he did not know attacked him as he was leaving for an early morning golf game. During a struggle, Razo claimed, one of the men grabbed his department-issued handgun and shot him once in the shoulder.








The sheriff of Charles County has made the following announcement. That civilian oversight is not needed. Hardly shocking coming from the head of a law enforcement agency.


(excerpt, The Independent)

The Charles County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People spoke in support of creating a citizen panel at the meeting between the county commissioners and representatives of the sheriff's office. The citizen complaint oversight panel the NAACP requested wouldn't have power to impose sanctions on police, but it would have subpoena power and would make recommendations to the sheriff's office.

Coffey said his department isn't "citified" and doesn't need such a citizen board. However, Coffey added that sheriff's officers would be willing to sit down with NAACP members to review complaints of police misconduct on a case-by-case basis.

"If I thought we weren't manned and womanned by the most decent people out there, I'd say, ‘Let's do it,'" Coffey said. "We police our own, and until the time we don't, I don't see the need [for a citizen review board]."

Speaking of civilian oversight, is the newly created auditor's position in Fresno toast before it even gets started?



(excerpt, Fresno Bee)

Auditors in other cities say that whether the auditor's office succeeds in its main purpose of improving relations between police and the community will depend on a number of things, some of which are not under Swearengin's control.

They include:

Whether rank-and-file officers, whose union opposed the auditor plan, eventually make peace with the idea.

Whether community groups that wanted stronger oversight will come to accept an auditor who is empowered only to monitor and review police investigations, not conduct its own.

How City Hall responds to the auditor's findings and recommendations, and what happens if it disregards or rejects them.

How well the auditor's office keeps the public informed about its findings, and to what extent City Hall interferes with that process.

In short, said University of Nebraska professor Samuel Walker, the city's auditor will be as successful as the city and its top leaders -- namely Swearengin, City Manager Andy Souza and Police Chief Jerry Dyer -- allow it to be.

"It comes down to strong political leadership," said Walker, who heads the Police Professionalism Initiative.




A police officer in Dallas who pulled a gun on an NFL player has resigned.



(excerpt Yahoo News)




Officer Robert Powell had been placed on paid leave pending an investigation of the March 18 incident.

“I made this decision in the hope that my resignation will allow the Dallas Police Department, my fellow officers and the citizens of Dallas to better reflect on this experience, learn from the mistakes made, and move forward,” Powell said in a statement issued through his attorneys.

He had stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats’ SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center in suburban Plano after the vehicle rolled through a red light.

The officer pulled out his gun and threatened Moats with jail as the player and his family pleaded to be allowed to go inside the hospital. Powell continued writing Moats a ticket and lecturing him even after a fellow officer confirmed that Moats’ mother-in-law was dying.

Jonetta Collinsworth, 45, died of breast cancer before Powell allowed Moats to go inside the hospital.

Powell’s resignation was first reported by Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT. He later issued an apology, and Moats said he would accept it.

“I still hope to speak with the Moats family to personally express my deep regret, sympathy, and to apologize for my poor judgment and unprofessional conduct,” he said in the Wednesday statement.