A Stay of Bulldozing declared at Chinatown

In court, the lawyers involved in the ongoing case involving the future of the Chinatown site in Riverside have stipulated that no trash will be removed and no dirt moved on the property until the next hearing is conducted. If you recall, the city council denied an appeal filed by a local organization to stop the Jacobs Development company's peeps from potentially destroying artifacts lying beneath the soil on a portion of the site. Developer Doug Jacobs then began having workers bulldoze the site on Saturday, Sunday and Presidents' day which is a federal holiday. Alas, both the municipal code and his own permit stated that there's to be no noise generating work done on the latter two days but Jacobs went ahead and did it anyway. Complaints were made to the police department and Jacobs' workers were cited according to Lt. Mike Cook for violating the code.

Councilman Mike Gardner whose ward includes the Chinatown site called Jacobs' actions a conscious violation. Well, yeah. But is anyone really surprised that he went and did this and does anyone else on the city council care? Probably not, especially not when he continues contributing campaign contributions into their war chests for Election 2009.

If he'd waited until the date of the court hearing, he might had to postpone his bulldozing. Hence that's why he opted to do it over the weekend, city codes and permits be damned. Local residents would be chastised by the same city government which will no doubt give Jacobs and his firm a pass for his decision to violate those same codes.


But now he does have to park the bulldozers until next week at the earliest. Earlier, Jacobs had denied knowing that a temporary restraining order had been filed but now he admitted his intentions behind the bulldozing done over the weekend including that in violation of the city's municipal code and his own permit.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Jean Wong, treasurer of the Save Our Chinatown Committee, said the group will seek a permanent injunction halting the medical office project no matter what happens in court Tuesday. The group is suing to overturn the city's approvals of developer Doug Jacobs' project on environmental grounds.

Jacobs had crews excavating the Chinatown site at Brockton and Tequesquite avenues throughout the weekend and Monday under the supervision of archaeological teams.

Jacobs said it is important to him to excavate the site ahead of Tuesday's hearing to prove there is no archaeological "treasure trove" at the site, which has been excavated twice before.

"If they got a restraining order, then I couldn't prove there was nothing there," he said.



Some people have been curious to receive more information about businesses owned by men and women of color downtown.

Several Black-owned barber and beauty shops were casualties several years ago of the installation of a new administrative building by Riverside Community College District near the bus terminal. They were popular businesses and in the Black community, barber and beauty shops are places to socialize as well which is why they are popular targets for gentrification. Many prominent people had their hair cut there (though the more popular shop for men is located in the Eastside on Third Street).

And in one of the ultimate ironies of the downtown gentrification story is how the only business that survived in that area is the adult book store.



Some Latino owned businesses on Market Street including a liquor store were casualties. The liquor store was operated by a family who would spend afternoons at the cash register watching baseball or soccer games while waiting on customers. Some of the businesses in what's to be the Fox Theater including a shop that sold beautiful dresses for festive occasions.

Latino owned businesses on Market Street including several auto shops were casualties of the "new" downtown.


As for the Tamale Factory, the success story about its relocation was not "in the works" or if so, it was at an extremely slow pace. A few years ago, the women who run it found out the historic building which housed it was to be used for UC Riverside's new center of the arts. They were heartbroken and upset and Black Voice News editor, Cheryl Brown got wind of it and wrote their story. After that article was published, pressure was put on City Hall by loyal customers of the Tamale Factory to either not evict it at all or to relocate it to a nearby available lot so that it could continue to serve people in the downtown. And the restaurant had a huge breakfast and lunch crowd so there were lots of complaints about its fate and concerns about its future after people learned that it could be evicted from the historic building. Every time I went to have lunch at the Tamale Factory, one of the two women there would thank Brown and the publication for bringing their situation into the public eye. But a period of uncertainty followed concerning where the new home of the Tamale Factory would be. Moving any business is risky, a fact of life for those which face being ousted and relocated through threats of Eminent Domain but moving restaurants can be very difficult in terms of their long term survival. Fortunately, for the Tamale Factory, they were successful at the new location.

The women who run the restaurant love their new location which took nearly a year to build but is very successful today but they also really loved having their restaurant housed in a historic building. It's funny that anyone would use the trials and tribulation of the Tamale Factory as an example of the city actually helping a local minority-run business. The credit for its success goes to those who run it and those who eat there who supported it and continue to do so.


Other Latino and Black owned businesses in the downtown including the mall area complained that when they filed for assistance through the business loan programs, they were denied even small loans. In one case, $7,000 while White-owned businesses including Mario's Place, Simple Simon's and Toad in the Hole (which was relocated) were getting the bulk of the money from a separate restaurant loan supply. One restaurant, the Supper Club's owners had to hire a lawyer and threaten a 14th amendment lawsuit in order to receive a loan. Both that business and the Toad in the Hole went out of business within several years as the majority of most restaurants do particularly in areas of a city without anchor businesses. The downtown area lacks anchor businesses which restaurants need to survive and thrive.

Minority owned businesses and others downtown were upset several years ago when the Riverside Downtown Partnership (an organization of businesses which in reality, exists mainly to serve the interests of the Mission Inn Hotel) wanted to double the business tax (from 1 to 2%) among its members. The reason why business owners were upset was because they felt there was taxation without representation because the bulk of the tax dollars were being spent to improve the pedestrian mall and the money never seemed to be seen outside of Main Street. In actuality, the RDP is supposed to cover a fairly large area of downtown out to Brockton which serves as an outer perimeter.

There was a large meeting in the Riverside City Council chambers to address the doubling of taxes and people were dismayed when they discovered that the board for the RDP was all White with no diversity whatsoever among its membership. The irony is that many of the businesses which complained about not seeing any benefit in their own streets (and the taxes were spent on exterior improvements)from their own business tax dollars paid the price later on through threatened Eminent Domain by the Redevelopment Agency which used the lack of exterior improvements on their streets (especially in contrast to those spent on the pedestrian mall) to call their area "blighted" and thus push for the Eminent Domain using money from one of the city's favorite credit cards, the sewer fund. A couple businesses including a small Indian market received a stay due to the city running out of money as did a property owned by a prominent person in Riverside that housed the Sierra Club and the Quaker Center.

And what did the RDP do? It picked up its pom poms and supported publicly the city's decision to threaten some of its own members who paid business taxes into it with Eminent Domain. Why? Because remember, its main role is to advocate for the Mission Inn Hotel which goes back to its creation. For years, the biggest eyesore downtown was the shuttered up hotel, far removed from the days of Frank Miller. Until its day came when it reopened and the patience paid off.

Most of the so-called "old money" businesses are closer to the pedestrian mall. Someone said many of them were originally started by rich men who gave them to their wives to keep them busy so they could conduct their business deals without being hassled.

Yet some of those who do business or live downtown claim to speak on behalf of the area against those "tenant" (meaning they rent space which many businesses do) and "marginalized" businesses (which means they're not served by them) and accuse others of calling them "racists" when that's not been done. But the ultimate strawman argument that individuals who defend questionable practices which may be racist are to accuse others especially those experiencing racism of calling them "racists". As if that's much more important than racism and as if the practice of racism can't be challenged or questioned quite easily without using the term "racist"
against anyone.

I didn't live downtown. I worked in a building in the pedestrian mall area that was frequently broken into including having a glass door shattered and taken off of its hinges. The locks on the outer doors and business doors were vandalized, there was no electricity one day because the fuse box was vandalized and the plumbing overflowed because someone tried to flush potted plants (sometimes with pots) down the toilets. More than a few times, business owners or their employees would go into the building early in the morning to see naked men sleeping in the hallway.

Was this due to those "marginalized" businesses downtown? Of course not. And ironically, that building which leased office space had very high turnover (with year-leases hardly ever being renewed) not because of the "marginalized" businesses or even the crime but because the landlord had some rather strange practices in place including allowing people to park in the back and then calling up a man who some said was an acquaintance who owned a towing company who would send a truck over to tow away cars and then charge anywhere from $100 to $750 to get them released from a lot. Those practices don't tend to be very business friendly.





As far as the ongoing Chinatown situation, the Save Our Chinatown Committee faced off on court with the lawyers from the city of Riverside, Jacobs Development Company and the Riverside County of Education for the hearing on the temporary restraining order the committee sought to prevent destruction of the artifacts it believes lies beneath the soil.

Judge Cahraman denied the order without prejudice and sent it off to Judge Waters, according to a minute order. Both sides have to stipulate that no trash would be removed nor would any soil be moved until further hearing on the order.

One wonders if this is why Doug Jacobs violated his own permit restrictions against using noise making equipment on Sunday and Presidents Day (a federal holiday) in order to turn over as much dirt as possible before being restricted in this manner. As it turned out, even he admitted that was the case.




This comment asked if the situation would be blamed on former Ward One Councilman Dom Betro. Is there any reason why it should or would? This individual didn't volunteer any possible reason.



And what was found in Wildomar when construction began on an animal shelter there?




The Metropolitan Museum Board in Riverside voted at its meeting to go with the 30,000 expansion.

But rough waters remain ahead in the form of the S.S. Hudson and whoever is steering that ship in regards to plans for the expansion of several cultural institutions located in downtown Riverside. The museum board and the S.S. Hudson are now on a collision course.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The vote, a recommendation to the City Council, puts the museum board at odds with City Manager Brad Hudson, who has said an 18,000-square-foot expansion would be enough to host the national traveling exhibits that officials want to bring to Riverside.

The board and Hudson agree that the Riverside Metropolitan Museum's top priority is a seismic retrofit and renovation of the existing building, a Renaissance Revival-style structure completed in 1914 on Mission Inn Avenue.

The museum board's vote is in line with a recommendation by the Raincross Group, which is organizing a coalition of community groups in favor of a new 100,000-square-foot Main Library on the site of the existing library and a three-story, 30,000-square-foot museum expansion in the museum parking lot.

Doug Shackelton, chairman of Raincross' library and museum committee, said the figure of 30,000 square feet comes from two studies done for the museum by architectural firms.

The library board, the Committee to Renew the Library, the Riverside Downtown Partnership and the museum board now have all expressed support for the Raincross proposal, Shackelton said.









The Community Police Review Commission is in the middle of controversy involving its officer-involved death investigative protocol which led to the issue being referred to the Governmental Affairs Committee without a City Council discussion. That committee met earlier this month with Chair Frank Schiavone and Councilman Steve Adams with Councilman Andrew Melendrez substituting in for Rusty Bailey for this item. The direction of the S.S. Hudson in terms of being stirred to push for restrictions on the ability of the CPRC to effectively do an independent and timely investigation of incustody deaths wasn't turned but was allowed to stay in place while the process gets muddled around some more particularly by those who have been steering City Manager Brad Hudson through his course deviation all along.

Ward Four city council candidate Paul Davis lobbed the first challenge at incumbent Schiavone by telling those in attendance at the Friday Morning Club's meeting on Feb. 13 that it was Schiavone who ordered Hudson to take the CPRC's implementation of Charter Section 810(d) on this new course. Whether that's the case, that's what quite a few people suspect, in terms of why Hudson's doing this action now with his sidekick, City Attorney Greg Priamos when it wasn't done several years ago. There's a couple reasons why not and they're very important and so far haven't been mentioned by anyone and they won't be, certainly not by Hudson and Priamos.

But the troubles faced by the commission or the consequences of micromanagement as it's been called by many watchers is only part of the story involving the CPRC. City Hall has managed to undermine its operation in different ways which damage its ability to function as an entity addressing issues in the community and the police department let alone serve as any entity which could bridge the two.

The CPRC lacks a full-time manager even while the city's preliminary budget passed last June states that it has one. It hasn't engaged in meaningful community outreach in the past year or so. It's not really participated in any meaningful outreach to the police department either. Its commissioners are not receiving the training they need to be getting (involving both community and police issues) and it's not clear whether or not the newest commissioners (including just appointed Robert Slawsby) have ever received any orientation training before serving.

The annual reports are no longer annual even though that's one of the functions of the CPRC to provide to the city council, mayor and city residents.

In future postings, there will be an examination of the CPRC and its undermining by individuals at City Hall and elsewhere as well as the progress of the city in implementing two sets of recommendations, one provided in a five-year progress report by the Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability and the other provided by consultant Joe Brann who produced a report to the city council on his recommendations nearly one year ago.

Were any of those recommendations implemented at all from a study that cost at least $20,000? Upon rereading the list of recommendations in his report, it doesn't really look like it. What's happened in the wake of mishandling and micromanagment by City Hall is a police commission that can barely function and perform its charter-mandated responsibilities. Which appears to be how City Hall likes it.



The $200,000+ contract for former City Councilman Ed Adkison's company was approved by the city council at its meeting without undergoing a competitive bidding process. Anyone surprised?









A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge still won't release records in the case of former Assessor Bill Postmus' drug investigation.


(excerpt, Belo Blog)



This morning, Elwell said his position sealing all records was strengthened Feb. 9 after he met with prosecutors in chambers during a scheduled review.

Elwell announced that the investigation is expanding and protecting the safety of informants was more important than ever. He did not elaborate on those comments.

"The sources continue to provide additional information in respect to these investigations," Elwell said.

In court, newspaper attorney Al Wickers said he was hampered by being banned from the information discussed in the Feb. 9 private meeting. Such a broad sealing usually involves drug rings or organized crime, Wickers said.

"We don't believe a blanket sealing order is constitutional here," Wickers said outside court. "But we weren't in chambers."







The Press Enterprise Editorial Board did something a bunch of people wish they could do and that was to chastise the city of Rialto for contemplating the hiring of a public information officer even as its other departments face cuts.



(excerpt)



No matter. The new PR person would handle publicity for Rialto and polish the city's image. But while the city manager supervises other staffers, the new spokesman would answer directly to the council. And if the council disagrees on public relations, the mayor can dictate how the new officer should proceed.

That setup looks like a publicity machine for the council, paid for by taxpayers. Or, as Councilman Joe Baca Jr. put it: "I think sometimes items that we're working on get misconstrued with the public. It is important we have someone who can clarify it for the record, make sure the public knows what our priorities are."

Yes, there are few more crucial duties than making sure the public has a good opinion of the council. But Rialto residents might wonder: Just why should they pay for this service, given the city's many other public needs?






A man who was paralyzed after being tased has sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Blake Dupree filed the federal lawsuit for battery, assault and negligence against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, several deputies and two sheriff’s supervisors for the incident, much of which was captured on videotape. The two supervisors are the subject of an internal misconduct investigation for authorizing the use of a stun gun because Dupree refused to come out of his cell and submit to electronic fingerprinting.

According to the lawsuit, Dupree was standing from four to seven feet above the concrete jail floor on a bunk with his hands raised in a defensive posture Feb. 27, 2007, when he was stunned with a Taser gun, which delivers a 50,000-volt shock. The suit alleges Dupree fell and, instead of giving him medical treatment, sheriff’s supervisors ordered him to stand up and deputies carried him to the fingerprint area and dumped him on the floor.

“Defendants’ actions rendered Plaintiff paraplegic. Plaintiff has no use of his mid to lower torso or legs, and limited use of his arms,” wrote Dupree's attorney, Justin Sanders. "Deputies knew Dupree’s muscles would be incapacitated by the electro-muscular disruption of the Taser rendering him unable to break his fall."

Sheriff Lee Baca told The Times last year that "common sense" should have dictated that using the Taser on Dupree was inappropriate while he was on the bunk and likely to fall as a result of being shocked. The suit was filed after settlement negotiations broke down with the 22-year-old Dupree in Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey.




Another man died while being tased.

Quotas and Questions: The RPD and Riverside's Border Patrol

More allegations coming out of the Riverside office of the U.S. Border Patrol Agency in the wake of complaints last week that it's relying on a quota system for arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants in the Inland Empire. An investigation was launched into this situation to see if any federal policies, procedures or rules were violated by employees at this station.

Agents assigned to the local office said that the push for quotas actually began in 2007 and that they were called "slugs" if they didn't meet the quotas and punished with shift changes including being reassigned every 15 days including the placement on midnight shifts. Previously, allegations were raised that the supervisors of agents in Riverside had established quotas in January and if these agents didn't meet them, they faced discipline.

Those quotas imposed last month required that agents arrest at least 150 undocumented immigrants and create cases that could be prosecuted against at least two by Jan. 31. Some earlier alleged quotas involved a minimum of 100 arrests, according to complaints filed by these current and former agents.

However, by the time Border Patrol agents had raided a day laborer spot in Casa Blanca in Riverside on Jan. 29, there had been less than 130 arrests by agents in the Riverside office for the month about 20 below the alleged quota or what supervisors called, the "goals". Agents from Riverside also did raids at the San Bernardino Greyhound Bus Terminal and a location in Moreno Valley late last month. Between the three raids, a total of 39 undocumented immigrants were taken into custody by Border Patrol out of dozens of Latinos detained.

Many people thought it was unusual to see Border Patrol agents in Casa Blanca as one neighborhood resident witnessed at 6 a.m. on Jan. 29 on the way to her job, arresting and detaining day laborers at the day laborer site. There really hadn't been any precedent for this action in the neighborhood as the Casa Blanca residents and the city were trying to work out the creation of a day laborer center in that neighborhood. Some Casa Blanca residents who said they had worked hard on this issue said that the city refused to meet with them. They said that Latinos were the targets of the raids and that at least one of them was "clubbed" by an agent.



The national spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol Center said that the Riverside office was the only one in the country which raided day laborer centers. Most day laborer centers have populations with mixed immigration statuses which makes it more labor extensive to process people who are detained and to determine their immigration status. The agents in the Riverside office said that they had focused most of their energy and time on arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds especially those involved in the drug trade and/or belonging to gangs. That protocol apparently changed in January (and last autumn in other areas of Riverside County), at about the same time the alleged quota was installed.

The same day that Border Patrol did its raid, the Riverside Police Department said it had launched a POPs project which resulted in more arrests and detentions of people at the day laborer site for violations such as loitering and riding a bicycle on a sidewalk, according to Central Neighborhood Policing Center Commander Bruce Loftus. The fact that the two took place on the same day was a coincidence according to the department and Loftus said on Jan. 30 at a protest rally outside the Magnolia Policing Center that he didn't know about the dawn raid by the Border Patrol agents until 10 hours after it happened. Activists said that after detaining people, the police department personnel at one of its stations initially denied any such action had taken place involving its officers even when activists noted that this facility was where the squad cars transporting detainees brought them.


This site provides one account of the arrests and detentions done on Jan. 29 some hours after the Border Patrol raid by the Riverside Police Department's POPs and bicycle officers. Included is video footage including coverage of one Latino male on a bicycle with a red baseball cap being asked to present his identification card at least three times by different officers.

The department later admitted that it had contacted Border Patrol to check the identification of detained individuals and to provide translation in the Spanish language because no one in the department could do that as well as the agents could. The department also admitted that its representatives met with the U.S. Border Patrol in November for discussions but said that immigration enforcement was not a topic on the list of items to talk about. Why it took the department several days to either admit this or perhaps remember that these discussions had taken place wasn't clear.

About 12 out of 40 people detained in the Jan. 29 raids were turned over to Border Patrol. The rest were released and one of those was driven back home by a police officer, according to Loftus. At least 35 of those detained were Latino, the vast majority being Guatemalan. This raid and others led to numerous protests including one where over 500 people marched down University Avenue in the rain on Saturday from Riverside City Hall to the Border Patrol Station on Spruce Street. About 20 Minutemen appeared in a counter demonstration.


Mayor Ron Loveridge discussed the raids with UC Riverside students but didn't say much and intertwined his comments about the raids with those made about the fatal officer-involved shooting of Annette Garcia by Riverside County Sheriff Department deputies last month.



(excerpt, Highlander)



"We push almost all law enforcement down from the national to local level," Loveridge said. "We have a California Highway Patrol (CHP) which works the freeways but almost nothing else. The police department is hired by the city and we get almost no information in direct about what happens in county offices than from what I read in the paper. This specific incident you identify I can't oppose or defend......"



"That's one of the odd things about police departments. In most organizations, the big decisions are made at the top but in police, the guys with the least experience are out there making decisions," Loveridge said. "They do spend a lot of time in classes and probation. But there's a large number of sheriffs that would defend the choices they make."







If these allegations (which are being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security) are true, then federal regulations would have been violated and the agency and its labor practices should be investigated. The Riverside Police Department should do its own introspective examination and ask itself if it wants to be associated with a station which is the focus of allegations of labor violations to the point where federal policies and rules have been violated. After all, if a federal agency is assigned the task to enforcing federal laws, then shouldn't it be abiding by its federal rules? And if not, then why have no questions been asked about why it's apparently been operating outside of those federal rules since 2007? Why weren't they addressed until the agents enforcing the arrests came forward with allegations of quota systems tied in with discipline?

The Riverside Police Department should also ask itself what impact its participation with Border Patrol in these raids will have on the willingness of those who are undocumented to come forward to the police department and its officers as victims or witnesses of crimes. Undocumented immigrants disproportionately are crime victims include assaults and hate crimes. Unfortunately, reports of violence against this population often don't reach the police department for obvious reasons. The police department's actual or perceived participation in federal raids in Riverside being one of them. Unfortunate for a department which under the VAWA, has rendered aid to undocumented women reporting domestic violence in their households including one well-documented case last year.

The ability of these immigrant populations to come to the police department if they are victims or witnesses of crimes might have already been impacted by recorded statements given by members of the police department's management in support of Councilman Frank Schiavone when he ran for the District One representative position in the 2008 Riverside County Board of Supervisors election. Instead of actually campaigning on the issues, Schiavone and incumbent Bob Buster spent a lot of time and a lot of paper castigating each other on the issues pertaining to undocumented immigrants.

Allegations that the police department was accepting Mexican Consulate cards for identification purposes were made and that was what the police management representatives were allegedly responding to in audiotaped statements that were broadcast repeatedly over radio stations during the campaign period. The police department's need to clarify misstatements involving its policies and practices is not what was questioned as it has the responsibility to do so if the need arises. The issues arose when these representatives went further and endorsed one candidate over the other, that being Schiavone in part because of his allegedly harsher stance on undocumented immigrants. But on Schiavone's fliers, he included a thin outline of Mexico and photographs of unidentified brown-skinned individuals who were used by him to portray undocumented immigrants whether they really fell into this category or not. Because of course all undocumented immigrants or those who are stopped and detained are Latino except for the fact that they represent over 20 nationalities and there are large populations of European and Asian undocumented immigrants in the western part of the country.

That unfortunately amplified the message that if undocumented immigrants were crime victims or witnesses of crimes, that perhaps the police department was the last place, not the first, to go and report it.

Even earlier, allegations were made against a city council candidate, Donna Doty-Michalka by eventual Ward Five City Councilman Chris MacArthur about whether or not the Altura Credit Union she worked at as its vice-president issued accounts to undocumented immigrants. The controversy over his campaign fliers was aired out here. One of the fliers stated the following.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"If elected, she may require the Riverside Police Department to accept the Mexican ID card as valid identification from illegal immigrants," it says of Michalka.




The Riverside Police Officers' Association which endorsed Michalka expressed its anger at the fliers.


(excerpt)


The Riverside Police Officers Association, whose political action committee has endorsed Michalka, is angry about MacArthur's fliers, said Don Miskulin, a police helicopter pilot and the action committee's chairman.

Illegal immigration is a matter for the national government to handle, not city government, Miskulin said.

"It really has nothing to do with the issues" in Ward 5, he said.


The union's political action committee has put out a flier warning voters: "Don't be fooled by vicious lies!" and highlighting its support of Michalka.



Were the "lies" about the business with the Altura Union or about the relationship between city and federal government and their respective law enforcement agencies when it comes to relationships with undocumented immigrants? With all the discussion and even an entire Strategic Plan centered on the philosophy of community policing, what does the department do about a community that's out there in which to fight crime in this city it might be important to build a relationship with?

Not to mention that when a city devalues this population that keeps itself under the radar, this is the kind of law enforcement agency it gets. One that appoints this convicted criminal to lead it. And then this happens as a result, which means that Maywood joins Riverside as cities placed under consent decrees by the State Attorney General's office.


The Press Enterprise article outlines some of the allegations by these agents including the following in greater detail.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

Amaya and former Agent Tony Plattel -- who was fired last month for insubordination -- said the pressure led agents to focus more on increasing arrest numbers than apprehending illegal immigrants who are criminals.

Sweeps of day-labor sites in Riverside, San Bernardino and Moreno Valley in late January and other immigration arrests have spurred intense criticism by Latino and immigration-rights activists, leading to a march of hundreds of protesters through Riverside streets Saturday. At least 39 immigrants were arrested at the day-labor locations, according to the Mexican and Guatemalan consulates.

Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, an immigrant-assistance group, said efforts to round up large numbers of undocumented immigrants is making communities more dangerous because it takes resources away from catching criminals. Amaya is not related to Lombardo Amaya.

Plattel said that before pressure on agents began in December 2007, they would spend most of their time trying to find illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds.

For example, when they went to the San Bernardino Greyhound station, they would visually inspect as many people as possible getting on or off buses or milling about, looking for prison tattoos or other evidence of criminal activity.

As Chavez pushed agents to spike arrest numbers, they began to interrogate many more people, he said. That meant agents could not check the immigration status of as many potential criminals, he said.

"It wasn't quality," Plattel said. "It was just numbers."

Spokesman Velez has said that agents stop people of different races and ethnicities. He denied the Border Patrol engages in racial profiling, as some Inland Latino and immigration activists contend.

But Plattel said he's never seen an agent stop a non-Latino.

Half or more of those detained were either legal residents or citizens which isn't surprising if the locations of the raids include day laborer sites and bus stations like San Bernardino's Greyhound Bus Terminal because populations at those sites are mixed in terms of immigration status as stated earlier.

This month, the quota system was suddenly dropped most likely as a result of the complaints by the office's agencies and the resultant protests by activists. A grievance filed by Border Patrol agents through their union is working its way through the system and it remains to be seen where the chips will fall but if the complaints are valid, then that can have repercussions for a federal agency which imposed federal laws but held itself to a different standard of conduct.

These allegations are very serious and any federal agency that violates its own rules should be held accountable for doing so and any agency working with a station that is under investigation for violating these rules should examine its own relations with it or any joint operations that are being conducted with that agency.






Riverside Fire Chief Tedd Laycock announced his retirement. He had been at the helm for the city's fire department since 2005. No news yet on who will be stepping in his shoes on an interim or permanent basis. His last day is Feb. 20.




Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein wrote about how the Riverside Renaissance has gone off and smashed an ancient downtown clock. Oh don't tell me it's that really cute and quaint one that no longer knows what time it is. Councilman Mike Gardner apparently responded by saying the damage looks worse than it is and it's being paid for by the owners of the offending vehicle which collided with the historic structure.

He also took note of the unused Crown Victoria vehicles operated (or perhaps were once operated) by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department during a time its sheriff said, don't cut our budget.


(excerpt)



RivCo Sheriff Stan Sniff says he just can't slash his budget without jeopardizing public safety.

But stroll past the RivCo fleet lot in downtown Riverside and you may wonder about his budget priorities. I counted at least 60 -- the official number is 105 -- brand-new black-and-white Crown Victorias. Some have been just sitting there at least a month. Fleet value: $2.6 million. It'll take another $1.5 million to turn them into sheriff's vehicles. Waste? Fraud? Abuse?

County fleet folks who buy 'n' lease these babies to the sheriff say no. Purchasing's Doug Barcz: "We asked to have (delivery of) them spread out over a year's time, but they dumped them on us." Motor City meltdown has pushed demand for other vehicles so low that Ford's producing CV's "left and right... If we bought them in onesies and twosies, we'd spend a lot more money."





The Riverside City Council heard the appeal on the case of Chinatown at 3 p.m. and even after hearing testimony, predictably voted unanimously to deny the appeal. Those who filed the appeal have said that this is what they expected from the city council and they plan to continue the fight.

They had hoped to purchase a smaller portion of the parcel and plant grass over it and turn it into a place to reflect and to learn about the history until scientific equipment advanced to the point where a much less destructive excavation could be done to see what artifacts remain on the site.

It's interesting following all the lawsuits that are being filed against the city of Riverside by community organizations whether it's through the Chinatown issue or Friends of the Hills which has filed lawsuits trying to get Riverside's city government to not violate the growth control measures passed by the city's voters. In fact one of the most effective forms of activism in this city is through civil litigation.

Even if it's the city's residents that are being sued by the city government as in the case of Ken Stansbury and other members of an organization that tried to circulate a petition for signatures to put Eminent Domain on the ballot for the voters to decide how it would be used on private property in Riverside. The city council threatened these individuals with a SLAPP suit which was an effort at discouraging and intimidating them from their political activism.

These Davids have gone against the big Goliath and have made impact in trying to remind the city that it's accountable to the city's residents when it comes to honoring both the Constitution and its own voters-passed initiatives. If the city government has or has had such little respect for the Growth Control Measures C and R which were passed by a majority of the city's voters, then it's no wonder they don't have much respect for the similar passage of Measure II (which become City Charter Section 810) as shown by the recent round of behavior involving the beleaguered commission and most of the top tier of power at City Hall.




The head of the Riverside County Economic Development Agency steps down.




People in Moreno Valley are protesting against the Riverside Transit Agency's proposed elimination of line #17 which goes through that city.




Banning is trying to balance its budget deficit by getting some of its employees to retire early. A strategy used in other jurisdictions including Riverside County's work force.




The San Bernardino County District Attorney's office must continue its investigation of former Assessor Bill Postmus even now that he's resigned. So states the Press Enterprise Editorial Board.



(excerpt)



Nor can San Bernardino County government ignore the effect of the Postmus debacle on the county's reputation. Most of the supervisors had personal or political ties to Postmus. So did they really have no idea what Postmus was doing? And the search warrants prosecutors served last month in six Southern California cities apparently covered a wide range of people with ties to Postmus and the county, including the top staffer of another supervisor.

A county government with a history of scandals needs to ensure full transparency about Postmus and his actions. His departure alone is not enough to justify public trust in the county government; residents need a complete and honest accounting, as well.





The Los Angeles Police Department is moving to clear up its backlog in rape kits that are in storage.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)




The remainder of the investigations are open. In 118 cases, the attack occurred more than a decade ago, meaning that prosecutors likely cannot legally charge anyone even if DNA testing leads to a suspect. In 403 other cases, Beck said, detectives have no discernible suspects to pursue, raising the question why the potentially helpful DNA evidence has gone unexamined.

Beck said he would conduct further inquiries into what he said he expects to be "myriad reasons" for the untested evidence, including poor communication between detectives and the department's crime laboratory, insufficient staffing in the crime lab and shortcomings in the work of some detectives.

Unexamined evidence kits hold potentially crucial information. Through a complex scientific process, DNA analysts can extract a person's genetic code from the collected samples and compare it to those of known felons that are kept in federal and state databases.

When a DNA sample collected at a crime scene or from a victim's body is matched to a DNA profile of someone in the database, it can offer prosecutors nearly irrefutable proof of the person's guilt. The evidence can also be used to confirm that someone has not falsely confessed to a crime or link someone to other unsolved cases.

The LAPD's disclosures Monday follow those of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which announced late last month that it has more than 800 such cases -- far more than had been anticipated. Like the Sheriff's Department, the LAPD plans to test its entire backlog of evidence and has changed old protocols that required detectives to formally request DNA analysis in each case.






Still dealing with a similar backlog is the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



The number is far larger than officials had anticipated and revealed a breakdown in the way the Sheriff's Department went about testing genetic evidence until recent reforms were enacted. For months, sheriff's officials sought to downplay concerns over a massive backlog of untested DNA evidence by suggesting that the crimes had been resolved by other means.

Compounding the problem was the revelation that in 51 of the 815 cases tallied so far, the genetic evidence has sat untested in county storage freezers for more than a decade -- so long that state laws now prohibit officials from arresting anyone even if belated genetic testing were to definitively identify a suspect.

"You've got a bunch of evidence sitting there that is potentially a smoking gun," said L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to a contrite Cmdr. Earl M. Shields, who oversees the department's Technical Services division. "It could be the silver bullet to getting a suspect in a sexual assault case, and it's just sitting there."






Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchins is standing firm on the issue of issuing gun permits.


(excerpt, Orange County Register)

Hutchens, in the third public hearing on the issue in four months, told the crowd and county supervisors that her position had not changed since she first unveiled the new policy last fall -- despite some minor adjustments on how she plans to revoke more than 400 permits.

"I don't make the law. But I am required to enforce the law," said Hutchens, reiterating her view that California state law only allows certain exceptions to the ban on concealed guns in public.

"I realize this is a very passionate issue," Hutchens said. "I suppose the safe course of action would be to ignore the law and find a way around it."

While refusing to budge on the gun permits, Hutchens seemed to attempt a conciliatory tone, wearing a pants suit instead of her official uniform, and bringing a smaller entourage that did not include a top aide disciplined for exchanging disparaging text messages during a previous hearing.

The counties are lining up to sue the state controller over attempts to take their revenues to balance the budget. Riverside County has announced its intent to sue the state.






Former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson's move in girlfriend is now his ex and admitted the whole thing was a publicity stunt.


(excerpt, MSNBC)



Last week, word came down that Raines had moved out of the Peterson home, just a day after Peterson told Nightline's Martin Bashir, "She likes me. She likes me a lot."

On Monday, Raines spoke for herself, telling CBS that she thought she was in love with Peterson, but that the move into his home was just a publicity stunt to keep Peterson's name in the news.

"It was never an engagement, really ... it was a publicity stunt," she said.

Raines said Peterson openly asked her if she wanted to be part of his plan to spark some media attention and she declined.




A lot of people wondered what this woman was thinking by moving in with Peterson who's been married four times. His first wife left him because he cheated on her. His second wife left him and reported that he physically abused her. His third wife died in her own bathtub, the victim of an accidental drowning turned homicide. During the last two years of her marriage to Peterson, police were called out on domestic disturbance calls about 18 times. She eventually sought a restraining order against him two years before her death.

His fourth wife, Stacey has been missing since October 2007.

Since being the last person to see her before she vanished, Peterson never showed any sign of being upset and shocked John Walsh on America's Most Wanted which aired an episode on her case that if she returned, he wouldn't take her back. And now he's moving women into his home as a publicity stunt?






The Riverside County Transportation Commission is meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 9:30 a.m. at the Riverside County Administrative Center 4080 Lemon Street, Riverside, CA 92501. The meeting will be in the board room on the first floor. The topic will be the expansion of Metrolink service to Perris. Concern has been raised that this will greatly increase the train traffic going through portions of Riverside including the neighborhoods near UCR.




Rally Against State Budget Deal takes place statewide including Riverside on Friday, Feb. 13 at 12-1 p.m. at the downtown state building on Main near Mission Inn Avenue.





Hold down your hats! The next round of blood letting is set to begin at the Press Enterprise. This time up to 200 people might face layoffs in response the announcement by Belo Enterprises that it's laying off 500 employees. The downhill spiral of print journalism continues unabated and includes 300 more layoffs at the Los Angeles Times. The Times raised its single issue price to $0.75 while cutting back on copy space, most notably in its metro sections. As you know, the Inland Empire edition of the publication bit the dust some time ago and the office space once occupied by the short-lived bureau in Riverside is now up for rent.

Just like video killed the radio star, did the internet kill the print media?




Wi Fi comes to Riverside County Courthouses

The Empire Strikes Back: Lessons in tantrum throwing by City Hall

Citizens are wrong if they think this problem will self correct. They are even more wrong if they think the problem is sparse and of little consequence. Be wary of police administrators who tell you they can fix it - some are part of the problem. If self-policing worked, then society would not need the police would we? Law enforcement agencies (as miniature societies) are no different - they cannot police themselves."


----Former law enforcement officer, Karl Monsoor from Blue Must be True





"Retribution has no place in this process."


---Community Police Review Commissioner John Brandriff in reaction to the city manager's office's directive.





"From my standpoint, I am still conflicted."


---CPRC commissioner, Kenneth Rotker




This is certainly in retaliation for the Pablo incident."


---Retired police chief and founding commissioner, Bill Howe




"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."


---Mahatma Gandhi








Where's composer John Williams when you need him? One of his powerful scores is sorely needed as news come out of City Hall about the sequel with no equal, the Empire Strikes Back. No, in this version there's no revelations similar to when Darth Vadar told Luke Skywalker he was his father but there's some dramatics, saber rattling and special effects involved in this chapter of the saga of City Hall's arduous battle against the citizen-inspired police commission.

And it's not exactly the Empire, but the next best thing, the city manager's office with its pistol packing (alas, no light sabers in this rendition) duo, Brad Hudson and his sidekick, Tom DeSantis throwing a whopper of a temper tantrum that's been two years in the making and finally broke amidst news that the Community Police Review Commission had gone off and voted 5 to 3 to carry out its charter-mandated duties and actually initiate an independent investigation into an officer-involved death, that being the Martin Gaspar Pablo incident. Yes, you thought the temper tantrum that Hudson's office threw when he had received that pesky letter from the Human Relations Commission asking him about racial breakdowns in the employees who left City Hall positions was colorful. The Human Relations Commission never really ever received a response to that letter, at least not in writing but as former HRC member and current CPRC member John Brandriff recalled, they were kicked out of his division and lost their staffing soon after. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Not even all the hand ringing by the city manager's office in early 2007 when it tried to obstruct investigations from being initiated by the CPRC back then, equaled the tantrum they pulled by word processor.

As for HRC, the politics surrounding it did attract some attention.


Fortunately, the mayor's office swooped in and saved them from terminal micromanagement and piques of petulance.


There would be no similar save for the CPRC.



For Brandriff who gave a fiery speech about what he called the bad boy/ bad girl spankings they had received from dual corporate punishers Hudson and DeSantis, at least he said what needed to be said for a while now. In addition to being slapped, the commissioners were getting their allowance cut off due to their insubordination they showed by having the purse strings of their budget not in the hands of their executive manager or themselves but City Attorney Greogory Priamos. And if he gets called in by Chair Brian Pearcy upon the wishes of the Seventh Floor for "counseling sessions" to shape up, he won't have been the first commissioner in that situation.


Brandriff pulled no punches as he detailed the sordid history of the CPRC's handling by the city manager and his partner, the city attorney when both engaged in maneuvers to "obstruct and impede" the commission's ability to investigate. Clearly under the direction of other parties who sign their pay checks because it's difficult to believe they are acting alone.

Brandriff raised some obvious points especially to those of us who actually were within the city limits like, when the commission first formed and like, during the commission's first seven officer-involved death investigations. Not like those more recent hires from the county.



"No criminal investigation had ever been jeopardized by a CPRC investigation," Brandriff said.



And he's right. If that had ever happened, there would have been howls from the police department, the city attorney's office only there hasn't been. Instead, they heard Chief Russ Leach say at a 2002 meeting that it was the commission's decision when it should initiate an investigation of a death and since then, lamenting the lack of communication between his office and the commission. So now even though there's been no problems, the howls are coming in full chorus no doubt rattling through back room meetings at City Hall. But then over $1 million in money has been paid out in lawsuits since then. The litigative rate went from 16% for the first six deaths investigated but then leaped up to 80% for the last six.

If Hudson and DeSantis were really so concerned about the police department, they wouldn't be forcing the cutting and freezing of police positions including supervisors and then telling everyone the department is "fully staffed" when it no longer has a Community Services Division and apparently doesn't have POPs officers anymore either. That's the kind of love if I were an officer I could do with a little less of, still the weakening of the CPRC does make a nice consolation prize. But if it's true that an $800,000 settlement came out of a tax payer fund, that money could have been spent on five to six officers or a whole lot of training.

Brandriff called the actions of City Hall, a violation of the commission's policy and procedures, bylaws and the city's charter. He added that the city attorney can only get involved if directed to do so by the city council and that's one of the critical elements of this tale to keep in mind as it continues onward like the train wrecks which have preceded it.


The city attorney? According to the ordinance, he has no more right to legally advise the city's commissions than he does to decide whether or not the complaints will be heard by the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee. Still, he does both anyway and it's clear that he's getting his marching orders from someone or someones because he knows who signs his paychecks as well. For all this mentioning about how the executive manager and CRPC independent investigators knowing who signs their checks or in one case being told (see below), there wasn't much discussion about how that applied to the city council's more direct employees.

Priamos' response and then later that of the twin city managers to the ACLU's challenge of his legal position against the Community Police Review Commission was not surprising in the least if you've been following this saga since its beginning. That' s when the commission committed the cardinal sin of actually voting that one of Riverside's officers had violated departmental policy involving use of lethal force when he walked up Summer Marie Lane sitting in a car and fired three times killing her. At the time, Hudson claimed he was too new and didn't know what to do, so he did what one councilman called, "punked" the decision and left it to the police department which of course backed its own investigation. Doing what other people called the equivalent of a pocket veto and then when that was done, City Hall set its sights on that troublesome body.

Then the plot began to curtail the investigations of officer-involved deaths by the CPRC after the Lane finding which began with going after the commission's investigation firm, the Baker Street Group. Commissioner Jim Ward said he knew for a fact that the investigative firm based in San Diego had received a phone call from "city staff" who said that although the firm worked for the commission, the city signed the checks and if the firm wanted any more checks signed by the city, it would have to change its form of investigating. This change in style and focus became a bit hard to miss after the Baker Street Group suddenly redid its rather comprehensive investigation of that troublesome (and potentially expensive) fatal shooting of Lee Deante Brown and returned after an unplanned sabbatical with a work product somewhat watered down.

Baker Street Group clearly did know which side of the bread was buttered. Its summary report on its investigation into the death of Douglas Steven Cloud was slighter than Brown I and II and that thin wisp of a document that was presented to the commission several months ago was the summary report for the fatal shooting of Joseph Darnell Hill.

Former commission chair and retired police chief, Bill Howe laid out the history of the problems the commission faced from City Hall. He reminisced about the meetings he had attended with Hudson and DeSantis along with several other religious leaders after the forced resignation of former executive manager, Pedro Payne. He said that after the fuss, the city manager's office had placed its plans on ice for a little while. But not anymore.


"Now the old head is rearing again," Howe said.




Aint that the truth. Howe should know, he's got more experience on the commission than just about anyone else except for the council member who's quoted as trying to broker a conciliation when he should be redirecting his direct employees back to their respective corners for a timeout and allow the commission to do its job under the charter. But then there's been endless debates over freshly baked pies as to whether the city staff directs the city council rather than the other way around.

Howe added that there was a bottom line and that was civic liability faced by the city because of a police department whose wrongful deaths have led to nearly $1.5 million in settlements so far with more cases to go. Nothing would change that mattered until the "officers got better training and correct mind frames in shootings." One litigant, Theresa Cloud pushed hard on that training but the city attorney's office apparently pulled a bait and switch there which just showed that it's too busy paying out settlements than to listen to the families of those who file and improve police practices.


Commissioner Kenneth Rotker said that he had been waiting for the city attorney to respond to the "persuasive argument" on Charter Section 810(d) by ACLU attorney Peter Bibring. If that's what he's doing, he's in for a long wait if he's waiting for something in writing.




"I hope the reponse wasn't the memo," Rotker said, "I'm asking that in good faith."



He also said, again I have not seen that response.




"Here it is", said Howe waving his copy of the directive.



And why were commissioners speaking out? Why have some who had no problem with how the commission conducted over 10 independent investigations suddenly believe it's important to shut down that process now? Where did that 180 degree turn come from and did it begin before or after police officers started attending both open and closed sessions of the CPRC. Why the divide?


This following email was sent by Executive Manager Kevin Rogan to CPRC Chair Brian Pearcy and Vice-Chair Sheri Corral. Rogan clearly knows what side of the bread is buttered and after seeing Payne forced to resign because he refused to cave in on this same issue, it's clear that if you're interested in career longevity that this is the way to do it. It makes me admire Payne all the more to see how the ACLU's involvement in this situation forced City Hall to put its agenda out in public...finally. Now the only thing to do is sit back and watch the hole being dug get bigger. See how much farther City Hall is willing to go to shut the CPRC down and in which ways. Next week, next month it will be something else and they won't explain which weakness in the police department is sparking their next challenge or maneuver against the canary in the mine.

The only applicant who outperformed Rogan in his oral interviews with two panels was Ray Martinelli who knew the score even before he went to that interview. Now, he's one of the investigative firms given what accounts to a restraining order by City Hall unless he wants to work pro bono. So he can't investigate the latest fatality though apparently he has permission to investigate the Pablo incident probably because there's no criminal (or public) investigation connected with that death being done by the department.


So what's this directive? It's not quite as lengthy as some earlier prose that came out of the Hudson and DeSantis offices several years but it's pretty close.




Subject: Protocol Directive

Title: Investigative Protocols


Brian & Sheri,

I just came from a meeting with CM Brad Hudson and ACM Tom DeSantis, and was advised of the following protocol change.

To preclude any possibility that the CPRC review process could in any way jeopardize the criminal investigations undertaken by the police department and District Attorney's office, CPRC investigations will commence only after law enforcement investigations have concluded and the CPRC receives the criminal casebook. This will apply to any future cases involving or possibly involving officer actions (including the just-occurred Yarborough case). The (sic) will not apply to the Pablo case, since CPRC's review has already begun.

In addition, expenditure of city funds will not be authorized to undertake any activities which are deemed by the city attorney to be outside the CPRC's scope of authority.

Brad asked my opinion of the protocol and I believe it's a prudent cause of action. The research I recently conducted about use of investigations indicates this approach is consistent with practices followed by the majority of California community review panels. This also addresses the difficult issue of deciding when, and under what circumstances, an investigation is commenced. I realize this will likely not be your preference and will be a topic of considerable discussion, but I am obliged to give you prompt notice and to comply with the protocol.

Please know that Brad also advised that RPD will be expected to provide prompt public briefings to the CPRC after officer-involved events occur.

I wanted to give notification to you both first, and will advise the full CPRC later today. This bears directly on the Ad Hoc Committee but I will presume they will still convene unless I hear otherwise from you or Chani.

Brad further advised that he is available to discuss the matter with you, if you wish to contact him.

Kevin




It's interesting to watch this all play out because in the end, it's not going to change anything because what it definitely shows is that for whatever reason, the two words "accountability" and "transparency" strike fear in the hearts of employees at City Hall when placed in the same sentence as the Riverside Police Department. One would think that after spending over $22 million on reforms that were mandated by the state attorney general's office that City Hall would be more than willing to allow the CPRC to do its job that the citizenry entrusted it with, not once but twice. In 1999, when they fought to get it in the books and 2004 when they voted it in the city charter.

But City Hall can't do so, because something is stopping them. Is it the settlements being paid out perhaps out of taxpayer funds? Is it that they hold their collective breath whenever the Riverside Police Department is deliberating whether or not to hire an officer who boasted about using excessive force and lying over the fact to a Marine buddy who was setting him up? Does City Hall hold its collective breath whenever someone dies after having contact with the police? What is it so scared of about the police department? There's no problem that department could possibly have that the three partners of co-safety could not together address and remedy. But the city's too busy protecting its civil liability standing to do so just as it's always been, even before the $22 million promissary note that was issued to address decades worth of problems and neglect in about five years.


That's the message City Hall is sending out loud and clear. An officer-involved shooting involving a man allegedly brandishing a shot gun at officers has City Hall so petrified it had to cancel all future investigations of officer-involved deaths. One can only imagine how much the three fatal shootings of three unarmed or initially unarmed individuals must be making them feel. Actually, no all anyone has to do is just watch how they've been acting lately and take notes.


The situation with wrongful deaths in the police department has City Hall's players so terrified of civic liability and more settlements that they have to sit behind closed doors and come up with ways to shut down a voter-sanctioned body trying to fulfill its charter-sanctioned responsibility.

It really doesn't get more pitiful than that, but wait five minutes and City Hall will take the level it has sunk to on this issue and lower it another notch.

In other exciting news, a copy of the CPRC's operational budget has finally been released, before Administrative Analyst Mario Lara's had said it would be scheduled to make its online debut!






Is it the beginning of the end of DHL Express's ill-fated foray into Riverside's airspace. The air freight company announced the cancellation of its long-haul flight from Riverside to Hong Kong.





(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




The German shipping company told the March Joint Powers Authority this week that DHL's flight between Riverside and Anchorage, a route flown by contractor ABX Air and soon to be flown by contractor Polar Air, will fly into and out of Los Angeles International Airport instead, the group's executive director, Lori Stone, said.

The route was considered an international flight, DHL's only foreign-bound flight from March, because it concluded in Hong Kong after connecting in Alaska.

"It was a business decision that we made and in the best long-term interests of the company," said DHL spokesman Jonathan Baker.






The office wars are still ongoing in downtown Riverside as the city laments the loss of prime office space to the Riverside County District Attorney's office.



The current and former elected official representing the downtown area both agree this isn't a good thing for this part of their district.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The Riverside Redevelopment Agency made the construction of Regency Tower possible and wanted it to fill a need for high-quality office space downtown to bring jobs to the area, which in turn would boost downtown restaurants and shops and generate sales-tax revenue, and to yield more property-tax revenue, said former Councilman Dom Betro. Downtown Riverside is in the ward he represented, and he had pushed for the project.

Betro said if the county buys the building to house the district attorney's office, which is already downtown, some of the project's key goals won't be met.

"This doesn't add a net gain of creating the new jobs and adding new people downtown," he said.

Betro's successor on the City Council, Mike Gardner, agrees that a sale to the county would not be as advantageous to the city as keeping the building in the private sector.

"The downtown is going to lose some benefit," he said.






Also a burgeoning nightmare for business owners in Riverside are those inflating sewer rates. Could this be the season for another flip flop on increases which will show up on public utilities bills as happened the last several years with the infamous multi-tier electric rate increase?





The Press Enterprise Editorial Board has decidedthat civilian juries should not hear cases involving the military. The next case down the pike involves a former Marine who along with others raped a 15 year-old Iraqi girl in front of her family then killed all of them before setting them on fire. If a civilian jury can't understand that such an action has no more to do with enforcing public safety than it would in civilian society than civilians shouldn't be deciding civilian crime cases either.




The latest rumble between the San Bernardino Police Officers' Association and the police chief continues into another day as Chief Michael Billdt confronts rumors that he is picky about which officers he favors.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



n a written statement co-authored by Mayor Pat Morris and City Manager Fred Wilson, the chief said that he has based his leadership on values such as integrity, respect for the law, and accountability.

"Unfortunately, adherence to these values can occasionally cause an officer or employee to disagree or become angry for personal reasons," the statement reads. "While this reaction is understandable, it is unfortunate to see it spill over into baseless allegations and inflammatory statements that are destructive to the department's morale."
Story continues below

The statement follows a call by the city police union at a City Council meeting Tuesday for a change at the top of its department, with union representatives accusing the chief of "autocratic and self-serving" leadership.

Union President Rich Lawhead said union members will meet this evening to weigh the evidence behind the accusations.

Union members also may consider a vote of no confidence in the chief, Lawhead said.






A San Diego Police Department officer nicknamed "" has been charged with tipping off drug dealers.


(excerpt, NBC)



uan Hurtado Tapia was arrested Tuesday by FBI and DEA agents. According to federal prosecutors, Tapia was a patrol officer working with the San Diego Police Department when he was allegedly in contact with drug traffickers who were already under investigation. Through court-authorized wire taps, agents said they obtained evidence of him using police computers to run criminal history checks and then passing on that information to drug traffickers.

On Wednesday, he appeared on a criminal complaint alleging "misuse of his status as a law enforcement officer to obtain and pass sensitive information to associates who were involved in drug-trafficking crimes."

Agents said they learned in May 2008 that people they were targeting in their investigations were in some sort of contact with Tapia.

"We're very disappointed that one of our officers is accused of this kind of behavior" assistant police chief David Ramirez told NBC 7/39.





This isn't the first case of its kind but it could be worse. He could be sleeping with them and protecting them.



Three police officers have been fired in Waterbury.



(excerpt, Republican-American)



McCarty was fired for mishandling a domestic violence complaint
involving a fellow officer, Capt. Michael Edwards — who also was
fired. A third policeman, Sgt. James Cagno, was given a written
warning for his role in the incident.

The behavior of the three officers has triggered some soul-searching
among the leaders of the police department, leading to department-wide
retraining, revisions to policy and a closer look at how the city's
police handle calls that involve their own members.

"If you're not learning from the incidents, you're not doing anyone
any favors," said Police Superintendent Neil O'Leary.






Police officers in Columbus, Georgia are resisting civilian review by signing a petition to get rid of it.






(excerpt, Ledger-Enquirer)



"I feel like we are being singled out," said Police Lt. Charles Kennedy, a 23-year veteran of the department with 388 sworn officers. "That is my personal opinion."

Columbus Councilor Julius Hunter sponsored the ordinance that would change the Public Safety Advisory Commission's name to the Public Safety Review Commission. It would also give the group power to investigate public safety matters only after internal investigations are complete. In an advisory role, the commission may recommend that the mayor or council initiate additional investigations.

Councilor Wayne Anthony supports the changes and pushed for the formation of the advisory group after the shooting death of Kenneth Walker. The unarmed man was shot after the sport utility vehicle he was riding in was stopped Dec. 10, 2003, as part of a drug investigation.

Anthony said Friday that he was not aware of the petition.

"I think there are voices from both sides of the issue -- some opposing it, some supporting it and some looking for common ground," Anthony said.




The ACLU and the first graduate of the Department of Justice's consent decree program, Pittsburgh Police Department, are are in harsh disagreement over how many disorderly conduct citations the police have issued this past year.



(excerpt, Miami Herald)



"Nobody likes to get sworn at, but you can't make it a crime," said Witold
Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Foundation of
Pennsylvania.

The ACLU's request came in connection with a federal lawsuit involving David
Hackbart, who was cited after allegedly making an obscene gesture at another
driver, and then at a police sergeant. In a recent court filing, the city
said the citation was not for Hackbart's gestures, but because he was
blocking traffic.

Walczak told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the city had initially claimed
it had only one disorderly conduct citation involving rude remarks to police
or other people over that period. He called the additional citations
evidence that the department had failed to adequately train its officers.

Walczak said officers were wrong to cite a woman who said, "I'm a
(expletive) passenger," during a traffic stop; a woman who was "swearing
profanities to a companion in front of the Girl Scouts"; and a man who
"engaged in loud noise, racial slurs and pig remarks."



In Philadelphia, a committee is being formed to study the physical effects of being tased.





This entry discussed a survey conducted involving the police culture's code of silence and how and when it's adhered to by officers. The answer is, a lot of the time.




More police training, said the city council in Inglewood.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



"The recent officer-involved shootings have raised important questions and community concerns about the Inglewood Police Department and how officers go about their jobs, especially in cases involving use of force," the council said in a statement. "We will continue to aggressively seek updates ... to ensure that officers are receiving the latest training possible."

The council also directed Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks to consider bringing in personnel from outside agencies while the department evaluates how much training its officers need.

Police spokesman Mike McBride said Seabrooks will respond publicly Friday.

"She'll follow through with the mandates of the City Council," McBride said. "We're all onboard."






More information on the city council's mandate here.

Canary in the Mine: The commission that couldn't?

This week's city council meeting on July 22 at 6:30 p.m. brings up this duo of issues on the discussion calendar. The proposed rate structure for sewer fees hikes and Operation: Reelection. Both will be discussed here more in detail before the meeting this Tuesday.



Hats off to the people who are fighting against the development of a medical building on top of what used to be Chinatown. They won a 30 day extension from the Riverside Planning Commission to prove their case which is not to dismantle the project but for it to be less intrusive on a cultural and historical landmark of the city's heritage.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



James Lu, chairman of the Riverside Chinese Culture Preservation Committee, which has led opposition to the project, said he appreciated the extra time. Committee members will spend the next 30 days deciding what concessions they are willing and not willing to make, he said.


Developer Doug Jacobs said after the meeting he has made a number of accommodations and isn't sure what more there is to discuss.

Jacobs is proposing a three-story 65,000-square-foot medical building on a 4.2-acre site at the northwest corner of Tequesquite and Brockton avenues. A Chinatown existed there in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jacobs has agreed to conduct a full archaeological excavation of the site before construction and incorporate features inside and outside the building that reflect the site's history, including Chinese gardens and display cases in the lobby.

The culture preservation committee wants the building moved from the corner so as not to disturb archaeological resources believed buried there. They want the corner used for green space instead.

The committee says a 1990 minute order by the Riverside County Board of Education, which owns the property, stated that future uses of the site must preserve its "cultural, historical and archaeological values."





A similar battle is being waged downtown and a lawsuit was filed by the Old Riverside Foundation to overturn a city council decision made about a segment of the Fox Theater project, according to the Press Enterprise.



(excerpt)



The proposed demolition of historic buildings is a key reason for the lawsuit, the first ever filed by the 29-year-old foundation, said President David Leonard.

"Our objective is to integrate the historic buildings into the design of Fox Plaza," he said. "There has never been such a degree of removal and demolition of historic buildings in a downtown district as Fox Plaza represents."

Developer MetroPacific Properties proposed Fox Plaza with as many as 532 residential units and 1,693 parking spaces in three garages, and as much as 76,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

The project would occupy nearly 6 acres downtown -- two partial blocks on the east side of Market Street between Mission Inn Avenue and Fifth Street and the square block bounded by Market, Sixth Street, Fairmount Boulevard and Fifth Street.

Historic structures that would have to be demolished to make way for Fox Plaza and for a separate parking garage for the Fox Theatre include the Stalder Building, at the northeast corner of Market and Mission Inn, and several smaller buildings on both Market and Fairmount.

The suit says the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act in part because the council's approvals did not include conditions to avoid demolishing the historic structures and because the environmental impact report contained too little analysis of the project's impact on historic resources.






The Community Police Review Commission is still silent on whether or not it's planning to fulfill its charter responsibility and investigate the death of Martin Gaspar Pablo. On this agenda the "Pablo incident" is listed as a "briefing and discussion of the CPRC purview" which probably means the city manager's office and the city attorney's office are going to explain why the CPRC won't be fulfilling its chartered responsibilities this time aroun because if it were going to do so, it would have done it already. And the commissioners minus Jim Ward will probably nod their heads collectively and say, "next".



Speaking of the CPRC, the depositions in the Cloud case are listed on its Web site as are other sources of information on the investigation into the fatal shooting of Douglas Steven Cloud. The information on the Joseph Darnell Hill case isn't available yet. If you click that link, you'll end up reading the Summer Lane shooting investigation public report. But then again, if you have some time read that report and you'll understand the politics behind the earlier mention of the CPRC.

At any rate, here are some more depositions on the Cloud case.



Officer Brett Stennett who was interviewed by plaintiff attorneys on Dec. 11, 2007 in Riverside provided his account of the shooting incident that unfolded at the scene of Cloud's crashed motor vehicle several feet away from him. He has been working at the police department after graduating from the San Bernardino Sheriffs' Academy 3 1/2 years ago.


On Oct. 8, 2006, Stennett had been partnered with Officer Nick Vazquez. They received a radio call of a "211" at the Home Depot at Indiana and Madison. They didn't receive much information about the incident but a description of the vehicle. While driving, they saw Cloud's crashed vehicle. Vazquez got out of the squad car as did Stennett after he spoke on the radio. Vazquez approached the driver's side of the crashed vehicle while Stennett went to the passenger's side. Stennett had his gun drawn as he approached.

Cloud was sitting in the car with his hands on the steering wheel. Stennett saw that the rear end of the vehicle was damaged.

Vazquez yelled commands to Cloud including "show me your hands". Stennett couldn't see clearly into the passenger window to know Cloud's position in his seat. Another man was standing by the driver's side window looking into it.

Stennett wasn't aware if the police department had any written policy on how to remove someone from a car if they didn't want to leave it, but in this case, he began pulling on Cloud's arm to get him through the driver's side window after he had moved to stand to the left of Vazquez. He didn't believe by Cloud's movement that he was injured.



Vazquez had his gun out at that point, aimed in a line towards Cloud's upper torso and he told Stennett to try to gain control of Cloud's hands. Stennett reached in up to the level of his upper arms to do that while the tires were spinning and kicking up debris from the ground.


At that point, Officer David Johansen was there and tried to help Stennett grab Cloud. But neither were able to pull him out of the window. Then Stennett heard Vazquez tell him to take a step back away from the car. He did and soon after, heard the first gunshot fired by Vazquez.

The attorney asked Stennett if he had intended to shoot Cloud.


"No. My job was to be the hands on guy. I mean I was there to have my hands free, if possible to take advantage of any situation that might arise where I could be helpful. I mean, Officer Vazquez was my lethal cover."


More shots followed and Stennett did pull out his gun but reh0lstered it when he saw that Cloud had been "disabled".


Stennett was later interviewed that day by Det. Jim Brandt and nearly a year later by Internal Affairs Sgt. Don Taulli.





Frederic E. Cagle, jr. was interviewed in Riverside on Dec. 4. 2007.


Cagle worked at Acura Dealership of Riverside on Oct. 8, 2006 and was in the fleet office when he heard the noise which brought him outside. He went to provide assistance after Cloud's car had crashed. The car had a huge dent on its rear side, it was resting on top of a downed palm tree and broken glass was everywhere. He saw a tanned man in his mid-twenties with brown hair and blue eyes sitting in the car. He told the man to be still and Cloud had asked him if he had hit him. Cagle said, no that he had hit his truck and the tree. He told Cloud he would be okay and to lie still. Cloud was dazed after the accident with a scratch over his eye and Cagle touched him on the chest to keep him still.

Cloud wasn't wearing a seat belt and there was no center console in the car near where he was sitting. Cagle stayed with Cloud telling him to be still and that everything would be all right until the officers came. A police officer got out of his squad car with his gun drawn about 20-25 feet away from where Cagle was standing. He and another officer in the same car ran to Cloud's vehicle. The officers didn't say anything to Cagle but he saw the drawn weapons and stepped away from Cloud's vehicle.

Cagle was now eight feet away from the rear point of the car.


The officers had their guns pointed as they approached the driver's side of the car, aimed inside the window at Cloud. Cagle heard the officers yell, "get out of the car". Nothing else was said by the officers that he could hear. Stennett tried to open the door but could not.

Two other officers arrived and also approached the driver's side of the door with their guns drawn. Several officers tried to pull Cloud out of the window and pulled his body out part way, from his belly button to his chest.

At some point, the officers lost their grip and Cloud went back into the vehicle. The back wheels began spinning at that point and gears were grinding. The officers stepped to their left. Vazquez shot his gun once.


"My first thought is that's not what a stun gun sounds like", Cagle said.



Vazquez paused and then lowered his gun to aim at Cloud's chest area. Vazquez fired again, two to three times. Cagle never took his eyes off Vazquez, unaware that Officer Dave Johansen had also fired his weapon.


The first voice Cagle heard after the shooting was his own.



"You just shot that kid," he said, "You didn't have to kill him."


Cagle ordered another employee to get his daughter in a car and take her home. The officers told Cagle to go back into the showroom.



Cagle was then cross-examined by John Porter, representing the city. During this interrogation, Cagle mentioned that he had expressed concerns to one of the plaintiff attorneys that he feared retaliation from the police department if he had to testify against its officers. The attorney said he didn't have to worry about that.

Cagle had spoken with Cloud's relatives several times including one time when someone came to the dealership to ask if they could plant another palm tree where the other one had been.








As gasoline prices keep soaring, more and more people are using the Metrolink trains to commute to work and to school. But what to do about the lack of parking?



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



In San Bernardino, the parking adjacent to the Santa Fe Depot was full by 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, a half-hour before the first of three early-morning Metrolink trains headed west.

Commuters who could not secure a marked space parked along an unmarked curb. Others parked a block from the station, while others circled the lot looking for a spot. Many commuters were dropped off at the station.

Several expressed their displeasure with the parking situation.

"There are days when there is enough parking (at the station) and there are days like today when there's not enough," said Allen Kreger, who commutes daily to downtown Los Angeles from his home in Redlands. "I leave at the same time of day every day. It's just a question of how close to the station I can park."

On this day, he parked a block away.

What Metrolink officials can do about the parking crunch "is a great question," he said.

"Real estate is precious. It's hard to say how you provide more parking, especially with ridership up," Kreger said. "Fuel prices and whatnot is driving more people to use it (Metrolink), which is great. I don't know where you would fit more parking around here."






The San Manuel Band of Indians is renewing its pact for services with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.






Another installment in the horrifying story of the murder of a young girl in 2003 because of lies told by a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective was published in the Los Angeles Times today.



Martha Puebla, 16, was murdered in 2003 by gang members after one of them was arrested in connection with the slaying of a rival gang member. While Det. Martin Pinner and Det. Juan Rodriguez were interrogating the suspected killer, they showed him a fake photo lineup and told him that Puebla was working with police and had fingered the man as the killer. They signed her name as identifying the man being interrogated as the one responsible. Five months later, Puebla was shot and killed after the man had ordered the other gang members to kill her for snitching.

In reality, Puebla had very little to tell the police about anything related to the slaying. But being a woman of color, she was of course expendable because when these detectives used her to lie and make their case, they must have certainly known what the consequences would be.



The action taken by the LAPD occurred after this article on the appalling incident was published by the Times and it was simply to transfer the detective to another division, five years after the fact.








The mayor of Chicago has blamed the media for making police officers timid.



(excerpt, Chicago Sun-Times)



One day after Police Supt. Jody Weis acknowledged the contradictory trends of rising crime and laid back officers, Daley wholeheartedly agreed and said he has no idea how to reverse it.


Weis says cops worry about suspensions.

Never mind that police officers and their union view the mayor as quick to judge them whenever an officer is accused of brutality or other wrongdoing.

Daley blamed a news media that couldn’t get enough of the infamous videotape of now-fired officer Anthony Abbatte pummeling a diminutive female bartender.

“Remember how long you kept beating the police? That affects them. They’re human beings. They can’t take it. I’m the mayor. You can beat me up every day. That’s your job. [But] when you start beating police officers…because none of you have been in uniform, none of you have been out at 2 a.m. to stop a car, go into a home or an apartment when you see someone pointing a gun at you,” that has an effect, Daley said.

“This is a very difficult, challenging job and they’re always afraid of beefs because, once they get a beef, you write about it. [You say], ‘He has 25 C.R. numbers [complaints registered], all unfounded.’ You say, ‘Why? This fella must be a problem’. And you find out most of them are gangbangers and dope dealers [who] filed charges. And they didn't show up in court or adminstrative hearings. [Yet] you write about it….You beat em up pretty good. Now, you want to be their friend.”

Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue agreed that the media shares responsibility for the phenomenon Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th) has called “de-policing.” But so do the brass and the politicians.




But with all the serious problems which have long plagued the Chicago police, including videotaped beatings, corrupt narcotics officers (including as depicted in the book, Brotherhood of Corruption) and allegations of torture, is it any surprise that it's attracted a lot of attention including by the media? The city must have really believed it needed to clean house in that department because it hired a former federal law enforcement officer to head it. Corruption in a department is no doubt a morale buster as well, one might think.







Moving to Chicago? Here's a job opening.



City of Chicago
First Deputy Chief Administrator
Independent Police Review Authority I

The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) is an independent
department of the City of Chicago staffed with civilian investigators
that intakes and investigates allegations of misconduct made against
members of the Chicago Police Department.

The First Deputy Chief Administrator position reports directly to the
Chief Administrator and acts as head of department in the absence of
the Chief Administrator. The First Deputy is actively involved in and
has responsibility for establishing the goals and strategic plan of
IPRA and for implementing those through policies and every day
decision making. The First Deputy will have significant policy making
duties as well as exercise significant personal judgment and
discretion on a daily basis in supervising the functioning of IPRA.

Duties:

Supervises the investigative process, establishes standards for
internal procedures and insures appropriate guidance and training for
IPRA personnel.
Recommends changes to CPD training and policy to address systemic
concerns identified through investigations, and reviewing
investigations and complaints to identify patterns.
Represents IPRA at community events and interacts with the City
Council and other city departments.
Partners with local and federal prosecutors, as appropriate to address
criminal misconduct, will also work with the Chicago Police Department
in analyzing incidents to recommend changes to policies, practices,
and training.

Qualifications:

The First Deputy should have experience with investigating misconduct,
familiarity with police procedures, knowledge of state, federal and
constitutional law, past supervisory experience, good communication
skills, impeccable integrity, and strong analytical and writing
skills.

Interested Applicants must apply by email at: ilana.rosenzweig@ iprachicago. org

or

By Mail:

Chief Administrator Rosenzweig

Independent Police Review Authority

10 West 35th Street, Suite 1200

Chicago, IL 60616

Deadline to apply: Applications will be accepted until further notice.
Interested applicants should provide a resume and list of references
Benefits: Medical, Vision, Dental, Flexible Spending Account, Long
Term Disability, Twelve Paid
Holidays, Deferred Compensation, Pension Plan, Tuition Reimbursement

Salary: $136,088.00

Evaluation: Your initial evaluation will be based on information
provided on the application form and documents submitted with the
application. Applicants must be submitted by the individual applicant.
No second party applications will be accepted.

Residency Requirement: An employee must be an actual resident of the
City of Chicago. Proof of residency will be required at the time of
employment.

IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY AND REQUIRE A REASONABLE
ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE APPLICATION PROCESS,
PLEASE CONTACT THE CITY OF CHICAGO, DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES AT
312-744-4976 (VOICE) OR 312-744-5035 (TTY). YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO
PROVIDE INFORMATION TO SUPPORT YOUR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION REQUEST.

ALL REFERENCES TO POLITICAL SPONSORSHIP OR RECOMMENDATION MUST BE
OMITTED FROM ANY AND ALL APPLICATION MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR CITY
EMPLOYMENT.

City of Chicago is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer

City of Chicago
Department of Human Resources

Richard M. Daley, Mayor
Homero Tristan, Commissioner