The morning the lights went out in Riverside

Mother Nature provided a helping hand to fire fighters today with moisture and even some rain but the fire season's not over by a long shot.



More information about the morning the lights went out in Riverside for the first time in some say, 20 years.


It all started at 6:40 a.m. somewhere in San Bernardino County miles away when depending on what you heard or read, a transformer blew, there was a structural fire(as opposed to a wildfire) or power lines came apart and closed down a major highway for hours. Whatever the exact cause, it had a profound impact on the delivery of electric power to many parts of the Inland Empire.

Somehow, a major power line which supplied all of Riverside failed, leaving the city of 300,000 in the dark from anywhere from 30 minutes to 4-5 hours or longer.

While the power was being restored, Riversiders were ask to conserve electricity to avoid more outages.



Not being conserved is money being spent on Election 2007 as the next round of campaign disclosure statements were filed, and it was disclosed that Ward One incumbent, Dom Betro has spent nearly $200,000 to try to get reelected to another four years in office. Now it's beginning to make sense why some of his ardent supporters are getting cranky on the internet, because Betro is being forced to outspend his rival, a grass-roots candidate over 5.5 to 1. It's difficult to contemplate let alone live the reality that you're forced into a runoff with an individual who's spending much less money. But it's reassuring that a competitive campaign can still be launched for an elected position without breaking the bank.

The election campaign funds have been very interesting this time around, as more and more money is spent to win a position that pays about 25% of Betro's money spent in terms of its annual salary. But then again, it's other people's money and it's that money and more which has born its influence on decisions made by the city government.

Some of the latest campaign contributions were interesting if hardly surprising.

Donating $3,000 is yet another developer who has benefited from the policies exercised by the current city council downtown. This time, it's Siavash Barmad who is the developer who hopes to reap profits off of the Fox Plaza project downtown and was greatly aided in land acquisition for his profit venture by the city of Riverside's Redevelopment Agency. I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine is the oldest philosophy known in politics.

But it's interesting to see how the campaign contributions show BASS's evolution into a quartet which many hope will add Donna Doty Michalka and William "Rusty" Bailey even as it loses Councilman Ed Adkison and tosses Councilman Art Gage to the curb.

In more backscratching, one of Adkison's engineers, Chuck Cox has two groups, Friends of the Airport and Hidden Valley Properties which are donating a total of $5,000 to Adams' campaign. As you know, Cox is working on several projects impacting Ward Seven's Redevelopment Zone.





Here are Election 2007's by the latest numbers.


The Big Spenders:


Dom Betro(Ward One): $198,000

William "Rusty" Bailey(Ward Three): $180,600

Art Gage(Ward Three):$167,250

Donna Doty-Michalka(Ward Five): $145,740

Chris MacArthur(Ward Five): $139,000

Steve Adams(Ward Seven): $115,160



The Grass Roots Brigade:


Terry Frizzel(Ward Seven): $15,850

Mike Gardner(Ward One): $37,200



The most expensive wards:

Ward Three: $347,850

Ward Five: $284,740




Big Donors:



Riverside Police Officers' Association: $27,500 more spent

Betro: $10,000

Gage: $7,500

Michalka: $10,000


What's fascinating is watching the role of the RPOA's PAC in shaping the GASS quartet which was formulated through similarly high campaign donations to a series of candidates during three election cycles from 1999 to 2003, in response to the creation of the Community Police Review Commission.

The continued existence of the commission and the contentious labor negotiations in the summer of 2006 have brought many of the city's unions to the forefront of the campaign contribution race which will help shape the continued evolution of what is now the BASS quartet. One of the reasons the RPOA allegedly nixed Gardner as a viable candidate for endorsement was because of his past connections with the CPRC, the same board that Betro blamed Gardner for causing "past problems" involving its operations. But then in the past, Betro also blamed the RPOA for problems with the CPRC as well and now is taking its money. So it seems as he's simply an opportunistic finger pointer although last year wasn't an election year so it might not count. His supporters point fingers at Gage although Betro and Gage appear to be closely matched with funds from the police union so far and it's clear what both of them have brought to the CPRC since accepting these funds in recent weeks.


Still, the RPOA leads the unions in campaign contributions although the Fire Fighters Association is close behind and has broken ranks with the RPOA in the Ward Seven race choosing to toss its support to Adams while the RPOA is sitting the Ward Seven race out due to alleged past problems with former elected official and current candidate, Frizzel when she was mayor and current problems with Adams who has attacked them in his campaign brochures during the preliminary round of Election 2007.

Some elected officials are also dropping some money into campaigns.



Outgoing Ward Five Councilman Ed Adkison: $12,717

MacArthur: $10,217

Bailey: $2,500



Adkison's support of MacArthur allegedly began before he filed his papers but only became official later on. It's not surprising to see him put money into the campaign of the man he hopes will replace him but it's quite a large chunk.

His support of Bailey is less surprising, given that he has already endorsed the man that will fill in the gaps appearing in the BASS quartet. It's that whole "team player" philosophy that's been going around although Adkison is stepping down from being one of the "players".




Riverside is still the "city of trees" and more have been planted. Sponsors included DHL(which handed out hats, but alas, not earplugs) were on hand to greet attendees.



Over 2,500 people attended the funeral of Rialto Police Department SWAT officer, Sergio Carrera, jr.



Making the grade was the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Office of Independent Review, which was evaluated upon direction of the county's board of supervisors, according to the Los Angeles Times.



(excerpt)


Supervisors sought the review at the request of the union that represents sheriff's deputies. Steve Remige, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, had told supervisors that he thought the department was already well monitored and that the money it spends on the review team could be better used to hire additional deputies.

The county report, released this week, concluded that the oversight group provides a valuable service to the county, including reducing liability to potential civil lawsuits by recommending training for deputies and by ensuring that deputies who violate policy are appropriately disciplined.

"By having the OIR monitor the department's actions, LASD personnel are more cognizant to follow departmental policy," according to the report by county Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka.

Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Office of Independent Review, said he believed the report accurately reflected the role his office plays in the sheriff's discipline and training process.

"I'm pleased to see that the CEO's office has reported that we actually make a difference," he said. "The most important thing we do in my view is actually keep investigations and departmental decisions on discipline honest, and when they're not we have the ability to tell the public that they're not."




When Gennaco was with the United States Attorney's office, he oversaw the pattern and practices investigation over the Riverside Police Department which was initiated in July 1999.



Inadequate training and policies may be the focus of the investigation released on the controversial May Day incident at MacArthur Park, according to the Los Angeles Times. About 25 Los Angeles Police Department officers may face discipline in this case.


(excerpt)


Does the report's blanket indictment of systematic problems in the LAPD make it harder to pursue any individual officers for their actions? That is an interesting question," said Jeffrey C. Eglash, attorney and former Police Commission inspector general.

Though the report stated that leadership problems aren't an excuse for poor judgment and lack of common sense, it also cautioned that Police Chief William J. Bratton may weigh those factors in delivering individual discipline.

"Even if planning was inadequate, tactics were flawed, command had broken down, situational awareness was poor and proper training was lacking, in the end some behavior by officers on May Day 2007 appeared to be unjustified," according to the report. "How much weight is given to each factor will be a decision that Chief Bratton will make."

Just because the report mentions 26 officers doesn't mean that the force they used was improper -- that is still to be determined, Bratton said in an interview this week. He said the number of officers under investigation could rise.

Several sources familiar with the inquiry said Bratton's investigators are far more likely to bring internal charges against three to six officers -- and even then, the punishment may be far less than a firing. The department's investigation is expected to conclude in January.


The leadership of the Police Protective League which is one of the labor unions responded.


(excerpt)



But Police Protective League President Tim Sands said the union doesn't understand how LAPD officials can conclude that any individual officers are at fault when the investigation remains ongoing.

Although the report stated that department policy is clear on the use of force in crowd control situations, Sands disagreed: "It is far from clear."

Sands points to an October 1996 LAPD training bulletin on baton usage.

Said Sands: "An example is given in which individuals who are being pushed from the rear into a skirmish line, even though not intentionally threatening officers, can be classified as an aggressive combative, and the baton may be used as an impact weapon to gain compliance," he said.

Hank Hernandez, police union legal counsel, said much of the May Day force he's seen on television and video tapes can be explained. "Bratton doesn't know the history of training, and he is going to have to eat crow," he said. "The bottom line is there are inconsistent rules with regards to LAPD use-of-force policy."

For decades, attorneys for officers accused of misconduct have successfully used the wording of various department bulletins to suggest that their clients' missteps were somehow the result of poor training or inconsistent policies.

Hernandez said that in crowd-control situations, officers act together and "don't have time to sit down and discuss the approach with each other. . . . We expect them to use common sense and judgment, but you cannot in a skirmish line act alone. They have to act as a team."

I (heart) the CPRC: The odd one out

If you woke up this morning in the dark in most parts of the Inland Empire, you were not alone. A major power outage hit much of Riverside, Moreno Valley and portions of San Bernardino County including Colton. Many updates as they happened here beginning at 6:45 a.m.



Fire coverage continues at many outlets including the Los Angeles Times and the Press Enterprise.

Six more people have died including four undocumented immigrants. Many others have been injured but the Santa Anas have lessened which has helped the fire fighters somewhat.







The Community Police Review Commission's annual report is interesting reading, particularly a section that was added during one of its revisions involving the relationship between the commission, the police department and the city manager's office which oversees them both.

As you know, every city council member on the dais including several up for reelection have been publicly silent on what has been going on with the CPRC during the past several years.

The response of some campaign camps to this is not to question what their own candidate is doing, but to point fingers at the other guy, in the latest tit for tat exchange going on involving candidates who aren't even running against each other. At least not yet. But the fact is the dais and the campaign trail have been awfully quiet on the CPRC in the wake of six resignations including five commissioners and one executive director.

Several months ago, I requested statistics involving findings recommended by the police department and the CPRC and asked them to be compared to the depositions released by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis in the city manager's office. The objective was to see how much strength the CPRC's findings had and how much independence it had. The answer was not very much to both questions.

But first getting the statistics to be released by the city manager's office was like pulling teeth.

In 2006, this request was made in writing to the city manager's office and its response was that it didn't keep records of these findings in a way that could provide comparative statistics. Former Executive Director Pedro Payne had wished to compile such statistics but was forbidden from doing so by the city manager's office.

It was odd that this current city manager's office stated that these records didn't exist because prior administrations at City Hall had documented that information and in 2003, provided that information to the CPRC. Now suddenly there was nothing? But perhaps that could be chalked up to inexperience. The current crowd in that office doesn't have much experience in that area, something the current salary of City Manager Brad Hudson for example, doesn't reflect. Before coming to Riverside, he was after all, heading an economic development agency.

The question came up again this past year and this time, the response from administrative analyst and interim executive manager, Mario Lara was different. He wouldn't commit himself to a yes or no answer, preferring to say the middle ground and say his boss's office kept some statistical records.

At a later meeting, which was attended by DeSantis, the same request was made and DeSantis tried to muddle the waters while appearing to do commissioners by "clarifying" the issue. Commissioner John Brandriff and other commissioners said, no we want what was asked for, a response which left DeSantis aback especially when these commissioners held fast. Commissioner Peter Hubbard, who manages a company, American Medical Response which has a public safety contract with the city through that office, jumped in predictably to DeSantis' defense. AMR is grateful enough for its contract to provide ambulance services for Riverside to drop campaign contributions in the majority of the city council members campaigns during the past 10 years.

Is Hubbard really all that much removed from the city manager's office than the current executive manager of the CPRC is?

But with nearly every city council member involved in turning the CPRC's appointment process into a political one including several currently running for reelection, this is what should be expected. That's why you have a body that is more closely resembling City Hall than the community.

So anyway, DeSantis recovered and promised to deliver the statistical information and he actually did. Somehow, the information changed from being about findings, to whether or not policy violations were found but at any rate, it was still interesting to find that even though all three bodies had a fairly close range for agreement on findings, it was the police department and city manager's office that appeared to be almost on the same page.

This is most clear in the chart in the public report that addresses comparisons by finding rather than policy violations as shown in the last posting. There's no chart shown in the report to compare the relationship on policy violations between the police department and city manager's office. Whether that was an accidental omission or a deliberate action is unknown. But if you look at the first table, it does show a similar three-way comparison with the department and city manager's office only one percent apart, at 92 and 91% respectfully while the CPRC checks in at 87%. Interestingly enough, the city manager's office is even better at backing the officers' actions than the department is, which makes sense when you consider the city manager's role in the relationship between the department, the city and risk management issues including civil litigation.

Another interesting statistic was concerned the category of "no finding made" which is when there might be wrongful conduct but there is no written policy at the time to clarify it. The department discovered no instances of this finding in its own investigations of officers with complaints. The CPRC on the other hand assigned that finding to four complaints and the city manager's office to seven. It looks like DeSantis really likes that category but it's not clear what comes out of that disposition. New policies? Changes to old policies? And by who? His office?

After all, didn't DeSantis try earlier this year to change the department's promotional process?

Several commissioners at the last meeting expressed concern that community members are confused or have a misconstrued perception about the role of the city manager's office and the city in general in the citizen complaint process, but that's really not true. Many community members know that the role of the city manager is to protect the city from different forces including the threat of law suits involving one of the departments under its umbrella. And with six active law suits against the city involving four incustody deaths, this has become more critical than ever and the actions taken against the CPRC by City Hall in the past 18 months clearly reflect that.


As does the clear lack of response from the dais.


How do you file a complaint?

There will be a future posting explaining that process and all the different agencies out there which handle complaints that aren't as well known including the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights division, the State Attorney General's office's Office of Civil Rights and the Riverside County Grand Jury as well as this site. That site also has a blog here.





Campaigning is continuing in the final two weeks until the election. Some folks who have been out surveying Ward One's precincts have said that candidate, Mike Gardner has a lot of support. Individuals surveying Ward Three said that William "Rusty" Bailey is the name on many people's lips.

Councilman Dom Betro's self-identified initialed brigade is still rattling sabers at Inland Empire Craigslist trying hard, I guess, to win him some votes there while their cohorts are out there doing the actual campaigning. If it helps them at all, I'm still dressing down and I'm in jeans and aqua-green today and sneakers that have seen better days but if you have chronic plantar fasciitis, your shoe options are limited.

I made my point about how I feel about creepy online behavior and they believe that it's funny. So I'll leave them to their laughter and just keep doing what clearly pisses them off, which is to blog.

And yes, my name really is Mary. It's a bit funny to hear someone call me that in postings and then question if that's really my name, so much so I couldn't continue reading that posting. Yes, the person who provided that information to you was correct since it's clear that I and this initialed person have never met. I know people who work in the Betro campaign who do not conduct themselves in this fashion and thus I'm not familiar with those who saber rattle behind fake initials at Craigslist.

Fortunately, there are a lot of interesting links at that site to resources dealing with both civic issues and issues in other places.

Signs reported destroyed are several Art Gage signs and I'm still waiting for news from the Press Enterprise's Dom Betro sign watch to see how many are missing or destroyed from that camp because every other candidate has yet to be afforded the courtesy of article coverage and editorial condemnation of the theft and destructions of their signs.

Folks, it should go without saying that sign stealing and destruction is a violation of the free expression and property rights of those who post the signs in their properties. If you support either of these beliefs, you don't do it, period.





A police chief in Pennsylvania is in deep water at the moment.

At WJAC-TV, there is this this video about the Conemaugh Township Police Department Chief Howard Jackson, who is facing at least 50 allegations of misconduct filed by officers in his department.






The Eastside's new youth opportunity center will be opening this weekend to respond to the needs in that community. The idea for the new center sprang after a series of shootings on the Eastside two years ago


(excerpt)


The Eastside neighborhood, where about one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, is home to the city's oldest and most violent gang, whose battles have claimed innocent victims and terrorized the community. But the last killing on the Eastside was in March 2006 and crime has dropped 11 percent over the first six months of this year compared to the same time last year, according to police statistics.

City parks and recreation officials partly credit the increased after school activities and community events offered at the area's parks and community centers.

"If kids have mentors and role models, the dynamics change," Nuñez said. "Kids need places to go that provide a positive outlet."

Once a rundown, mold-infested building, the Youth Center is now an uplifting place where teens can get advice, Nuñez said.

Checked floors; purple, blue and red-painted walls; skylights, a plasma TV, computers and a graffiti-art mural in the center's main room create a teen-friendly place. The community gym, in the same building as the center, also was refurbished.

If the program is successful, centers will be opened in other areas of the city.

Longtime Eastside resident and retired Riverside police Lt. Alex Tortes said the center will give at-risk youth a chance.

"We can't turn our back and walk away from them," said Tortes, who oversees recreation programs in the Eastside's parks. "This will give them another option, another choice."



The memorial for Rialto Police Department officer, Sergio Carrera, jr. is being blogged live here.


(excerpt)


October 26, 2007

Soon to be memorialized
Kling said Carrera, the second Rialto officer killed in the line of duty, would be remembered always once a memorial is erected in Carrera's honor.

Carrera's badge has been retired, Kling said, and will one day be presented to his family.

"The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing," Kling said, quoting author Leo Buscaglia. "Only the person who risks is truly free."

—Adam C. Hartmann
ahartmann@PE.com

Canary in the Mine: The annual report by the numbers

No end in sight at least not for a while for the fires raging through Southern California including the Inland Empire.

Hundreds of thousands have evacuated unsure of where to go or if there will be anything left standing to go home to. Fire operations for the Inland Empire blazes are being run out of Riverside.

Whether warnings about fires were ignored is also being examined as well as whether or not insurance companies will raise rates or bail from California as several companies including All State have already done.




"Did you know most complaints could be avoided through the use of common courtesy?"

---CPRC Annual Report



In Riverside, the Community Police Review Commission released its public report for 2006 about five months before its public report for 2007 is due. Originally scheduled to be released and presented for the city council in March 2006, the report was delayed because of the campaign that was initiated against City Hall against the CPRC beginning in January 2006 but intensifying nearly a year later.


The average time that complaints spend from the time they are filed to the time they even reach the CPRC is 170.8 when combining both category complaints(more serious allegations including excessive force). According to departmental policy 4.12, the guidelines for category one complaints are 60 days and 30 days for category two complaints. These do not include the times that the CPRC held a complaint or sent it back to the department for further investigation or inquiry. About 86% complaints were heard and the rest were administratively closed.

Complaints in the Eastside are still registered as zero. The reasons why are many. Residents don't file because they or their family members fear retaliation. That there is an informal complaint process in place that circumvents the CPRC and the police department's own complaint system. In recent weeks, the police department has even challenged the statistics provided by the CPRC on the Eastside but has yet to offer up any numbers of its own.

The majority of allegations made involved violations of departmental policies followed by those involving discourtesy. Of those sustained, most of them were in these two categories as well.

The majority of the more serious allegations including excessive force, criminal conduct and discrimination or harassment received not sustained findings from the CPRC. Most of the other categories did not reflect this trend.

The number of complaints increased in 2006 over 2005 which was a year where a fairly high number were filed, but the number of allegations decreased. Allegations in most categories decreased although due to a reclassification of complaint categories, it was not possible to make comparisons between this year and previous ones.

Complaints involving discrimination and harassment sharply increased and came in at its highest number since the CPRC first heard complaints in 2001.



The sustain rate for the CPRC involving allegations was 8.6%. For the department, it was 5%. For the city manager's office which makes the final decision, it was 4.6%.

Allegations that are unfounded range from 32% of the CPRC's complaints to 76% of the police department's allegations with the city manager checking in at 62%. The CPRC in contrast has a much higher percentage of complaints which are not sustained than either the police department or the city manager does.

Complaints filed by ethnic or racial category are the following.



African-Americans: 22%

Latinos: 15%

Whites: 40%

"Other": 4%

Unknown: 15%




Officers with multiple complaints are part of the following statistics.

Complaints: 80

Allegations: 168

Officers receiving multiple allegations: 14(4% of the department)

Half of these officers had at least one sustained allegation.


Number of officers receiving five or more allegations: 5 (with at least one sustained)




The CPRC also discussed the ongoing trends involving the police department as reflected in its complaints received last year. Many of the trends are the same ones that have appeared in annual reports for several years now so much so the text remains virtually unchanged.

Officers are required to activate their audio recorders in professional contacts. Full compliance is still not done but the department has taken a role in taking action when this policy is violated.

The department's policies and procedures including departmental policy 4.12 and the department's conduct and performance manual for administrative investigations mandate certain requirements in areas where the department still has problems, including how interviews with witnesses and officers are conducted.

The stipulated judgment required the department to conduct unbiased, thorough and timely investigations, but it's clear if the CPRC's trends are correct representations of reality that more work needs to be done in this area.

One noted trend which has been in quite a few annual reports now stated that the administrative investigators, be they internal affairs sergeants or field sergeants, should ask questions that "elicit facts and opinions and not desired responses" which are also known as leading questions.

Even though the department's performance manual lists some "common pitfalls" which include "leading questions" , failure to interview all witnesses and "refreshing a witness' memory"", these problems is still noted in this latest annual report.

The commission also noted that complaint interviews had been seen where the witness's credibility is questioned and not the officer's. This is puzzling given that the stipulated judgment required that an officer's credibility be carefully and thoroughly evaluated including through the examination of his or her past complaint history. Noted criminal justice professor and author, Dr. Samuel Walker from the University of Nebraska, Omaha praised this practice and the Riverside Police Department's use of it in his latest book. But the commission noted a deficiency in this area.

A happy note in the report was that there weren't as many sergeants or lieutenants assigned to investigate complaints they were involved in and that situation had improved though there were still cases where that did happen.


More on the annual report in future blog postings. You can pick up a copy for yourself to read at City Hall, Sixth Floor at the CPRC office. It's hidden at the moment in a maze of cubicles in the back of the sixth floor, just follow the signs that read [sic]"police review commission".

Though on the other hand, the sign is fairly accurate these days.

If you have adobe acrobat, you can also download the pdf version at the CPRC Web site. Just follow the links on reports.



"Did you know you can read the results of cases reviewed by the CPRC online at www.riversideca.gov/cprc by clicking on the "FINDINGS" link?"

Actually no, that page which is here has been removed but is being repaired. Scroll further down on the page down to where "findings" is located.

The flow of mash notes has stopped from "B" but still more spouting off by those very courageous initialed individuals at Craigslist including someone using the moniker, TGB who apparently has confused himself with "B" the cyber harasser and is whining about being accused of being a cyberharasser himself or herself. Besides the creepy, quasi-intimidating title, his or her post was constructive criticism as I have stated. But if he or she wants to throw in his lot with "B", he or she can go right ahead.

It's perfectly understandable to confuse yourself with another person, who like yourself doesn't use their real name, opting instead for fake initials to hide behind by making personal attacks that have nothing to do with political views.

Since these individuals choose to remain anonymous, there is no way for me to ascertain if they aren't the anonymous individuals who told me that I would be the first liberal on the list to be shot or the target of violence. Or the individual that said I had lost my license because of too many DUIs and was everything from a bitch to a whore. Or that my mother's uterus was "filthy" and that I should have my uterus sewn shut by the county. All written by cowards who didn't use their names.

There's after all, a big difference between saying that I hate your blog and disagree with everything in it and posting that I saw you so-and-so many times, where and when and what you're wearing and gee, I can just imagine the stains in your "granny pants". One's about expressing an opinion. The other, is called cyberstalking. And as I recall those individuals, none of whom ever posted under their names, whined and cried about how I was censoring them for choosing to moderate comments or for not allowing them to continue to ejaculate or piss on my blog. These terms are accurate because these individuals were also likely, socially immature and like many people in that category, resorted to scatological and sexual references throughout their posting tenure.

My fear for my safety, elicited nothing but laughter and more cyberstalking behavior from them. Terrorizing a woman was fun for them and very funny, but then at least one of them tried to rationalize by saying that his or her opinion, I wasn't even a woman or a person for that matter.

See, these individuals are like the "B"s of the world. They are nameless cowards who know that number one, if they used their names they will probably be recognized by someone reading or myself and that what they are doing is inappropriate behavior. If they are so proud of what they are doing and it's really helping their candidate if there's one involved or for whatever reason they claim to be doing it, then how come they won't give their names? But at least they have other initialed individuals like themselves to defend their behavior. So did these other individuals.

So if they want to write posts pissing and moaning about being accused of being this, that or the other, that's their problem when they choose to hide like a coward behind initials which are probably fake and behave in ways that are at the very least, creepy. It's difficult to sympathize and I'm not going to do so and I'm not going to split hairs about there being "good" harassers and "bad" harassers.

It's a shame because there are many in their camp who do not behave in this fashion. People who are out there campaigning for their candidate and having to work extra hard so that these individuals can spend their time on Craigslist saber rattling not to help the political campaigns but to make themselves feel better. The behavior of these initialed individuals doesn't flatter their candidates of choice. It just smacks of desperation and fear of an election that they might not be able to predict its outcome. As it should, there are a lot of futures invested in stock Betro and those who are out walking his precincts whether in his camp or not and thus too busy to post on Craigslist, say that hey, this guy Mike Gardner's got a lot of support. Betro most likely will win because most often, money does, but those who back him still have to sweat out two more weeks. and the stress, tension and toll it's clearly taking on some of them is manifesting itself here.

Actually, some of his alleged supporters did initially spend time talking about what their candidate did in a way that was intelligent, but alas, now it's all about making personal attacks on individuals, not for political views but for clothing. Why the change? Why the desperation that wasn't there only a few weeks ago? Why the fake initials? Maybe all the intelligent Betro supporters just left and are out doing phone banks and walking precincts and these ones are the replacements who can't do those things so they try to "win" in other ways.

As for harassment on Craiglist or elsewhere including the posting of links to personal information, pornographic photos and other things, I have been one person who has condemned it as I will keep condemning it no matter if you're for Betro, against Betro or don't give a damn either way. It's been done against people on both side of the coin here and it's wrong period and cowards(including in that they never use their real names to cyberharass) are the people who engage in it.

I'm not going to be like this unidentified but probably using fake initials TGB character and cry about how it's being done on "his" or "her" side and then defend it or write it off when it's against someone I disagree with. And I hadn't even pegged this "B", for simplicity sake let's call him Bozo, as a Betro supporter like TGB apparently has. That person appears to be a harasser who just likes to harass.

And why I'm at it, I don't give a damn what you all wear or how you dress. Whatever suits you.

Of course, being tossed into a group of people together as "cronies" of this, that and the other organization when some of us don't have a horse in this race as long as it's a fair contest, would not be disappointed if all the sitting council members got pink slips, don't like candidates who are racist and xenophobic in their campaigns, want independence on the dais not cronyism in the form of what's been called "team players" and are thinking, no hoping that in two years by the time some of us have our turn at the polls that this ridiculously long election season will be shortened. Having two elections five months apart is ridiculous. It focuses the attention on raising more and more money which makes it all the harder on grass-roots campaigners who can't or don't rely on out of town developer money.

But then running an election process as if it's a city-wide contest which is all about forming and knocking down alliances of "team players" which represent one special interest group or another, rather than focusing on ward representation is ridiculous as well. Quartets to knock down civilian review. Quartets to knock down city resident participation and enrich development interests. Quartets to fire city managers. Quartets to push for the hiring other city managers while they are still working elsewhere. Quartets to knock down a "bad" quartet when it's really about replacing one group of elites with another. Quartets going back and forth claiming to do one thing and then quietly doing another, like in the case of BASS and the CPRC. Quartets built and cultivated mostly by people with political connections and money.

Which is why you have the same group of people working on many "team player" campaigns including many individuals who don't live or work in those wards and thus can't cast a vote. That's why there's a repetitiveness to the lists of endorsers on several campaigns including many businesses donating from outside the county let alone the city, and individuals from outside the wards. That's why some of the campaign lists appear so similar.

If individuals on the dais are endorsing people who haven't even filed papers to run yet, then that's an issue of concern involving cronyism for many people whether that is involved or not. After all, the same people who called that cronyism themselves several years ago are quiet now. What these elected officials are basically saying through these actions is that they will only work with people of their choosing, not those of the voters in those wards. People who stump for Betro who go on the attack against Councilman Art Gage as if the next mayoral race was taking place in two weeks, rather than the city council race cloud the issue as well.

Just as in the case of the email that originated from a city-owned ISP, there were tips galore on who the individual or individuals was who are playing the role of "Bozo". The flagging and removal of posts linking to this blog has apparently resumed this morning with a twist. That being that the postings involving the police department's crime statistics report given at this week's city council meeting have been the focus of these removals. But given the restrictions that their candidate of choice has pushed on the speakers at city council meetings, most notably on July 12, 2005, flagging posts for removal while defending it is par for the program.

That posting included information provided by a police union representative about staffing and equipment issues in the department, issues which have been at the forefront before. Concerns about these issues are not recent news, but have been discussed in the past including during the city's annual budgetary process. It's no secret that the Riverside Police Officers' Association's leadership has advocated for these things to add to a growing department that is essentially playing catchup to a faster growing and expanding city.

The city manager, Brad Hudson, had informed me that they needed to find the money for both of these items. That struck me as odd because you didn't hear that when the unspecified percentage of the city's budget which will be allotted to subsidize what a certain crowd in Riverside believes is art. As I have stated several times, I haven't seen a lot of Black or Latino artists representing this agenda item at the last two city council meetings when this issue has come up for discussion.

I think it might be moot because after November, it's not known whether the "city of the arts" title will not be shelved in favor of the next hot thing.

But discussing initialed people who claim to be so committed to their political candidate but yet, still use fake initials to hide behind in order to make personal attacks against people, purportedly on his behalf is really not worth the time and energy so back to the rants and the raves. Back to I guess, doing what makes them run around rampant with initialed identities ranting about people's clothing as if that's a form of political campaigning in the first place.





The battle over the fate of a supermarket that was nearly seized by the Riverside Redevelopment Agency and handed off to Developer Mark Rubin to build apartments ended with the proposed renovation of the mall including the construction of 22 condominiums, according to the Press Enterprise.


(excerpt)


Councilman Ed Adkison won election to the City Council in 2000 and said renovating California Square was one of his campaign promises. He is not running for a third term and his time on the council ends in a few weeks.

"This is a good way to finish it up," Adkison said.

It wasn't until the city Redevelopment Agency got involved that things began to happen at the strip center, Adkison said.

At first, officials threatened to force out all the businesses, including Maxi Foods, and to allow Los Angeles developer Mark Rubin to build apartments.

But a public outcry about losing the supermarket, the Iglesias family's threat of litigation, and a projected cost to the agency in the millions of dollars, led Adkison and the City Council to reverse course.

In November 2004, they agreed to work with the Iglesias family. The agency bought some of the parcels, including through eminent domain, and the Iglesias family bought one, too. The buildings on most of these parcels were torn down earlier, leaving only a section once occupied by a television store, an auto parts shop and a Mexican seafood restaurant.




Updates from Riverside Land Grab about former Ward One candidate's decision to endorse Mike Gardner in the runoff as well as an article that critiques the coverage of eminent domain in the city of Riverside by the Press Enterprise.

I had pegged Doug Haberman for the city's future public information officer, which is a shame because he was once a hard-edged reporter. You can see that the days of a Dave Danelski, who now writes award-winning environmental exposes, and Phil Pitchford are long gone. Most of the really good reporters at the Press Enterprise don't seem to spend much time at the Riverside bureau for some reason anymore.

I was puzzled to see Ray Smith take the county job because he was a cool reporter who covered trials at the courthouse for a while. The county of course is covered by excellent investigative journalist, Kimberly Trone.




The still sublime Dan Bernstein, columnist at the Press Enterprise writes this followup to his earlier piece on the rumors that the novel would no longer be taught in high school classrooms. He had the candidates running for the Riverside Unified School District seats pick their favorite novels.

Still Bernstein remained blue about what some have called the novel's demise as a teaching tool in Riverside.


(excerpt)


Moi? "Our Mutual Friend," Charles Dickens. I wasn't much of a reader in high school, and this book intimidated me. But I stuck with it and, to my surprise, found myself immersed in a stratified society of peculiar characters with even more peculiar names -- compliments of an author who knew a thing or two about writing.

As these candidates described their memories and spoke of values and passions forged at a young age and carried through life, it occurred to me that this is a fitting legacy -- or epitaph -- for the novel. It had its time. It did its job well.

Today's proficiency-propelled pupils are headed along a much different path. It's easy to devalue the novel, but impossible to replace it. And it's awfully depressing to think that some students might never even know what they missed.




Is the system in place to track narcotic evidence in Berkeley's police Department adequate enough to prevent it from being stolen?

That's the question asked during an 18 month investigation done by members of the Berkeley Police Review Commission and the department was found wanting, according to the East Bay Daily News.


(excerpt)


In a lengthy report compiled following an 18-month investigation, the Berkeley Police Review Commission subcommittee slammed the department, some officers and Police Chief Doug Hambleton for failing to notice, report and act in a timely matter when then-Sgt. Cary Kent tampered with and stole from 286 drug evidence envelopes.

Kent was feeding a drug habit that had severely impacted his job as a police sergeant, the findings said.

"The personal failings of one (officer) may be forgiven. The systematic failure of a department to identify and remedy major lapses in security, personnel management and administration must be addressed immediately," the report states.

In April 2006, Kent pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft by embezzlement and one count each of possessing heroin and methamphetamine. He was sentenced to spend a year in an electronic home detention program and sent to a drug treatment program. Kent, who had retired a month before at age 55, was also sentenced to five years' probation.

It is not known how long Kent was stealing drugs. Problems were noticed by others in the department as early as January 2005, the report states.


The department implemented new changes to address the flaws that led to the drugs being stolen by one of its own officers.


(excerpt)


Changes made include:

_Moving drug evidence into a separate alarmed unit.

_Conducting drug evidence inspections at least once every six months and random audits in between.

_Making certain that drugs are inspected, weighed and chemically tested, which was not the case before.

_Inspecting and logging the contents of the drug envelopes before they are destroyed or burned.

Additionally, the city council earlier this year repealed a 20-year-old law that outlawed drug and alcohol testing of police and firefighters. Drug testing has not started because the rules for when an employee would be tested have not been agreed upon with the unions.

Firefighters and police would not be tested randomly; tests would follow reasonable suspicions or after a serious on-duty accident.

Lastly, drug evidence may be moved to a different department and monitored by a city employee outside the police department, Hambleton said.



According to the San Diego Tribune, a New York City Police Department officer was suspended without pay pending an investigation into an off-duty shooting of an unarmed motorist.

(excerpt)


The officer, who has been with the force since 2004, was involved in a traffic dispute that began early Sunday after a fatal motorcycle accident forced police to divert traffic off the FDR Drive in East Harlem, police said.

Jayson Tirado, 26, apparently refused to let the narcotics officer's sport utility vehicle merge into traffic, and “words were exchanged,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

A passenger in Tirado's car told police that Tirado “made reference to the fact that he had a gun – 'Mr. Ruger' or something like that” – then pointed toward the officer with his right index finger, Kelly said.

At least one shot struck Tirado in the torso, and he died at a hospital, Kelly said.

The officer left the scene but approached a marked police car early Monday, identified himself, said he was having chest pains and “then makes a statement he may have shot somebody,” Kelly said.



In Los Angeles, the police chief there, William Bratton is unveiling his agenda for his second term according to the Los Angeles Times.


(excerpt)


Bratton cautioned, however, that budget woes -- including a threatened loss of a telephone users tax now being challenged in court -- have created uncertainty.

"I do not want to really start planning for new initiatives when I don't know if I will have money basically to maintain current initiatives," the chief said.

But he said that barring financial cuts, he wanted the Valley Bureau to be split into two sections for better command and control.

"I want to create a second bureau in the Valley. It is getting so big that [Deputy Chief] Mike Moore effectively has eight commands out there. It is getting too big with the population growth in the Valley."

The bureau currently includes the police divisions of West Valley, Van Nuys, Mission, Devonshire, Foothill, North Hollywood and Valley Traffic. Another station is slated to open next year.

Bratton did not reveal how he planned to divide the area.




Whether or not officers with protective orders against them due to domestic violence allegations should be able to carry and possess weapons is being hotly debated in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

At least 35 officers in that city's department have had domestic violence-related protected orders filed against them but many can still take their firearms home.

SLAPPing community organizations and other follies

Fires continue to spread throughout different locations in the Inland Empire and elsewhere.

More than 135 homes have been burned and fire agencies across the United States are sending people to the fires to assist. Smoke and ash are making it difficult for those evacuating their homes and for those trying to breathe.


People are discussing the fire here.





"You wouldn't believe how many people have been bought and sold in this city."


---Riversider




Ken Stansbury asks here why no one has responded to his comments about the SLAPP law suit filed against him and the Riversiders for Property Rights after they tried to circulate a ballot initiative proposal on the use of Eminent Domain in the city of Riverside.



One of them answered that because Stansbury was polite in discourse that they didn't want to argue with him about the issue of eminent domain if both sides didn't agree on it. What that's saying is that some parties are clearly more in arguing with other people who are deemed interesting in arguing, than in discussing issues. That the only point of discourse is to "win". That's a trait that we all are prone to at one time or another.


But unless I'm misreading Stansbury wrong, that's not the question that he's asking there. In a sense, it's not even the issue that is at stake here. Eminent Domain is an important issue, but what appears to be the question is how do you feel about a SLAPP law suit being used as a tool of intimidation against a community organization trying to utilize the process of circulating a petition to place something on the ballot?



That's an interesting question, and here's one possible response as to why there's no responses on the issue. Those who don't answer don't want to talk about the actions taken to intimidate a community organization into dropping out of their participation in an important part of the democratic process because they were scared that they were going to be slapped with the city's legal fees which at this point are at least $150,000.

Recently, the city including City Attorney Gregory Priamos backed off on announcing any intention to collect the city's legal fees on a law suit it initiated on its own behalf, but the damage has been done. The text regarding the city's intent to ask to be awarded attorney fees from the defendants had for the most part done its job.

How do you defend a SLAPP law suit? How do you defend your candidate's vote to authorize this law suit and its continuation? How do you factor in that the sole vote against it was cast by the city council's own villain, Councilman Art Gage? Other council members said his vote against it was self-serving and smacked of opportunism.

So was and so did this SLAPP suit.

Rather than let the voters decide on an issue that's being discussed, debated and coming up for vote in other cities, Riverside's government minus one decided to take that decision out of the voters' hands. In this case, it's eminent domain but tomorrow, it could be another issue but it would still come down to the same thing, which is stifling the efforts of a community organization to circulate a petition to put a measure on the ballot.

People can hem and haw over how just the city's actions were for the betterment of the city's residents but what if they also decide to utilize the ballot initiative under their right as Californians on a different issue? What if the city decides to SLAPP them? Will it be used as a tool to shut down this vital process in the future?

Stansbury of course has caught ire here. It's too bad that the more news that comes in from people marching the precincts in Ward One which favors the chances of Ward One candidate Mike Gardner, the more personal the attacks get towards those who criticize Betro or the GASS quartet on Craigslist get.

One individual I talked to who has marched what he called the "boondocks" and far reaches of Ward One said that the majority of homes he visited were planning on voting for Gardner. Whether or not those who plan to show up and vote at the polls is still the question, with the only poll that really counts still two weeks away. A lot of political agendas and futures are riding on the election so expect the rancor to intensify, not lessen in the next two weeks.

I've got to hand it to Stansbury who's been civil even when being personally attacked, rather than politically criticized to the point where someone even posted a picture of a woman's crotch in a posting to discourage him. But if the guy can stand up to the city in a courtroom on a regular basis, he's probably not going to be too bothered by cyberstalking porn posting nonsense.

In fact, he's made changes to his petition and intends to recirculate it.

Cyberharassers and cyberstalkers are not there to discuss politics, but to make personal attacks in the hopes of discouraging someone's expression through tactics meant to embarrass, frighten, humiliate or intimidate unless anyone can think of a reason how posting a porn picture or posting personal comments about a person's clothing or family court record constitutes political discourse.


Here are some resources to employ if you find yourself in this situation that you may find helpful.


California Anti-SLAPP Project

Survival Guide for SLAPP Victims

SLAPP Organization Center

SPJ: Anti-SLAPP Model



And while you're researching, here are two outstanding sites.


Californians Aware

California First Amendment Coalition




Both sites include information and letter templates on the California Public Records Act and the Ralph M. Brown Act. Every person interested in how their government operates should be aware of these two statutes.




The police department in Riverside gave an oral presentation of its crime statistics both citywide and within each neighborhood partnership center. Three of the four area commanders attended and so did many of the command staff members, Chief Russ Leach and Riverside Police Officers' Association President Ken Tutwiler.



The report was oral and on PowerPoint. Crime was down across the city in different categories in the four areas of the city and programs which had been implemented including neighborhood watches and the citizen academy for Spanish speakers were successes according to Leach.



Staffing issues continue to be a concern in the police department even though the city has created about 45 officer positions in the past several years, with the population and surface area expanding in the upcoming years.



The department could use about 50 officers spread out in a two-year period and more squad cars. More field officers. More detectives, more bodies in the positions as Tutwiler put it. And of course, with sworn officer positions there has to be civilian positions added to and it's not clear whether the information about the 25 civilian positions being added refers to newly created ones or the thawing out of a number of civilian positions in the police department which were frozen last year with the money "saved" being put back into the development arena.



And the department needs about 30 more squad cars.



City Manager Brad Hudson said that the city will have to find the money for the positions and the cars(which are going to have to wear themselves out more than some are already), which is interesting because from what we've all heard for the last year or so, the city is raining money. Just last night, the city voted to promise to devote a percentage of its annual budget to "promoting the arts". It's too bad Press Enterprise reporter Doug Haberman was absent this week because he had said money, what money after the city approved the "concept" of the "city of the arts", a process it often uses before it starts tossing money at something. Here is where Haberman can find part of his answer.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)


At the request of Councilman Dom Betro, the city will also look into how to best fund the city's arts and cultural programs.

"This is a great plan, but it lacks a stable funding source," he said. "If we are going to live up to the name, we need to take that extra step. ... We have to significantly fund the arts at a better level than we have been."



There was an interesting discussion in the article about the demise of the Orange Blossom Festival and the birth of the newly proposed citrus festival scheduled for "after April".


(excerpt)


Belinda Graham, the city's development director, said the event is not meant to replace the downtown Orange Blossom Festival, which was axed last year because of violence. Graham said the 12-year festival was so successful that it lost its focus.

The new celebration will focus more on the history of the citrus industry, she said. A site has not been determined, Graham said.

"It's good to remember our history and celebrate it," Graham said. "It's what the city was built on."



I think promoting arts is absolutely necessary especially to kids and teenagers through classes, training programs and workshops. But what it looked like was that the "city of the arts" is an umbrella for subsidizing arts and culture for those who can already afford it. And the representative artists and musicians weren't the most ethnically, racially and gender diverse group. Why is this effort which purports to support diversity in the arts sending mostly White people to serve as its spokesmen?



Nearly $2 billion will be spent in the next several years on 20 years of projects squeezed into five years under the Riverside Renaissance banner but how much will go to public services to match and keep pace with the growth that's expected in the next five years or so? That's a question on many people's minds whether it's an election year or not.


An interesting thing happened at the city council meeting when a Councilman Steve Adams' supporter was second in line to anoint him the new city councilman and to tear into former mayor and current councilwoman, Terry Frizzel. That was after The Truth publisher, Salvador Santana stumped for Adams and also sharply criticized Frizzel who actually implemented more than a few of theh programs that Adams is taking credit for now during an election year.

Santana was responding to comments made by Yolanda Garland, a La Sierra resident, who took exception to her neighborhood and ward being called a "mess" by Santana at an earlier meeting and expressed her two cents on the issue last week.

This second person spoke about how tired he was of the ranting and raving and anger shown at the dais during city council meetings by speakers. Of course, he watches them on television and not much of the behavior taking place from the dais makes it on the air. He also made a pitch for Adams, who spent most of the time at the meeting trying to show how down he was with the city's rank and file police officers during his speeches because Tutwiler was present in the audience for the crime statistics report. Adams as you know is up for reelection in two weeks against Frizzel.



The city council, well most of the ones sitting in the middle, applauded this man's speech somewhat louder than they applaud the passage of most agenda items including the recent celebration of the arts. And hopefully, this applause did make it through to the viewers from home. Several elected officials did not participate in the applause, those being the more politically astute elected officials such as Mayor Ron Loveridge.


"B", who has been busy writing more mash notes for me at Craigslist obviously didn't like that much and responded. I totally agree with him in that I should have never mentioned my mother or bring her into "this". It's too bad that cyberstalkers that spent months pissing on this blog haven't accorded my mother the same courtesy, even demeaning her uterus as "filthy" or bringing her up in that lovely email I received that was traced back to an ISP registered to the city. It's too bad that all harassers can't be as considerate as "B".


Past Ward Seven city council candidate, Jim Martin reminded the city council members of how messy democracy is, and of the importance of engagement between the city government's leaders and those who elect them. His point hit home with those in the audience even though it was lost on several of those sitting on the dais. But it does provide food for thought. Prior city councils have had to navigate themselves through some pretty turbulent times and not once did they pass restrictions on public comment at city council meetings. Not once did they applaud someone who criticized their critics. And not once did they order police officers to remove little old ladies or anyone else from the dais for any reason let alone for having exceeded the three-minute(which was actually five minutes back then) speaking limit.

They even had individuals who refused to stop talking after five minutes and the only thing that Loveridge did was shut the meeting down on one occasion in June 1999 because someone did what someone might call "ranting and raving" today, but he didn't order police officers to remove this individual from the building like several mayor pro tems seem prone to do.

That city council that "did nothing" could have sent the issue on the city council conduct code to the Governmental Affairs Committee and imposed restrictions on public comment at its meetings and blamed it on one individual like the one who shut down a meeting in 1999 or groups of individuals. But they didn't. They may have not liked what they heard, may have even recoiled at a lot of it, because they were criticized much more severely than this current group by many sides, but they listened.

They didn't spend time clicking palm pilots, flipping through reports, rolling eyes, grunting, sighing, hmphing, talking amongst themselves or doing other things.

It's interesting running into several of these elected officials who "did nothing" and lacked "courage" and discussing with them the incidents of the past. Several of them were much more aware of why it was important to make the decisions they did during that turbulent time and were glad they made them. Former Councilwoman Maureen Kane made some interesting comments as well during a Community Police Review Commission workshop on her experiences on a research committee at a special workshop conducted in 2004.

This makes me wonder if this current leadership would have handled a difficult situation like the shooting of Tyisha Miller quite as well as the prior one tried to do. The same city council members who even blame the past leadership for 30 years worth of problems with the police department never had to face meeting after meeting of angry, upset community members of all different races and backgrounds for months on end to push them to act on an issue that for a while, they dragged their feet on. I'm not sure they would have handled it nearly so well but in part like Martin said, that is what they are elected to do, to handle the difficult situations and turbulent times, with a political courage far different than that type that's been cited often in campaign speeches during the past several months.


The had to make some very difficult decisions to move this city forward and even if it took them time to make them, they stepped up to the plate on these issues. Some of these same city council members I have criticized myself many times, some of them are having their actions totally erased or rewritten to label them as failures and "do nothings" by those stumping for candidates running for election. But could this city council that is in place now have responded in the same way or better?

How they handle their roles in much calmer times doesn't indicate that they have enough fortitude and patience to tackle the issues that the city council of the late 1990s had to address. If they can't handle the critical comments they hear now, they would have had a much more difficult time back then.

The applause at the city council meeting might have been an emotional release of frustration from the dais, but it was not an example of fine leadership.







On Monday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office charged Kris Antonio Wiggins with murder in relation to the fatal onduty shooting of a Rialto Police Department officer, according to the San Bernardino Sun.


(excerpt)


During a news conference Monday, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos announced Wiggins, 32, has been charged with murder in the death of Officer Sergio Carrera Jr., 29.

Two special allegations - that Wiggins "personally and intentionally" discharged a rifle and that he killed a peace officer - also were filed.

The criminal complaint against Wiggins also asserts his actions "proximately caused great bodily injury and death to Sergio Carrera."

Wiggins, who told Rialto police his name was Jaranard Thomas, could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted. The District Attorney's Office has not ruled out seeking the death penalty.

"Anytime a peace officer goes down in the line of duty, it's a big deal to us," Ramos told a crowd of about 100 people.

Carrera, of Beaumont, was fatally shot in the head Thursday when he and three other Rialto SWAT officers barged into Wiggins' West Cascade Drive apartment during a drug raid.

Police said Wiggins struggled with an officer but have refused to say whose gun was fired, who pulled the trigger or even whether Wiggins had a gun of his own.

"I want to make it very clear today that it was not a Rialto police officer that pulled the trigger," Ramos said Monday. "It was not friendly fire."

But he balked at saying Wiggins deliberately shot Carrera and refused to discuss the facts of the case.

You've got fan mail

More "fan" mail here at Inland Empire Craigslist where there's an ongoing discussion of sorts between who is better, Dom Betro and Mike Gardner or who is better between Betro or Councilman Art Gage. Now Betro and Gage aren't running against each other, at least not yet, but there's still some interesting discussion.




(excerpt)


Not everyone attending events/meetings share the same recollection or interpretation as you. In other words, not all you post is reality no matter how many times you say it. Same holds true for a certain Betro opponent and other related detractors on Craigslist who seem to like a revisionist history or better yet selective history on many topics including Tequesquite Park, ED, and the like. I'll choose Betro's record of accomplishment and care for community and people anyday over those who spew hate instead of truth.

I'll choose a critic who can use his or her real name over one who doesn't and opts to use titles like the one used on this note which are creepy in the use of some quasi-intimidation tactic like using the word, "careful" and forced intimacy meaning that this person uses a term of endearment in a matter clearly opposite that and making it appear as if they know me when he or she can't even state his or her name. That's just creepy and wierd. I don't buy that this individual is directly involved in Councilman Dom Betro's campaign, because I think the vast majority of those who are are busy out there, campaigning and not spending so much time skulking around on Craigslist writing comments against their critics two weeks before election day.


It's hard to know whether that "certain Betro opponent" otherwise known as the "one of which we clearly cannot name" is Gardner or Gage and this individual didn't choose to be more specific on exactly which person he or she was talking about, which is his or her prerogative. But it would clarify the situation if this "certain Betro opponent" had a name. Are they talking about Betro's rival in this year's city council race, or Betro's alleged rival in his alleged run for the mayoral seat, according to a recent article in the Inland Empire Magazine?

Speaking of revisionist history, that certainly was the case of Tesquesquite Park.


To erase Gardner entirely out of the fight for Tequesquite Park to remain a park without being carved up and sold to developers for a tidy $10 million is revisionist history at its best. Gardner's role in the situation involving Tequesquite Park is what helped elevate him into contention in Election 2007 in contrast to his poorer showing in 2003. Many people involved in the fight to keep Tequesquite Park even those who support Betro in the city council race are more gracious in their acknowledgement of the importance of the role played by Gardner in that effort. It's too bad that the city council member of Ward One and his supporters at Craigslist can't follow suit, but instead act as if any such acknowledgement of Gardner's work is so threatening to their own candidate's chances that they engage in some creative revision of this episode that has shaped Election 2007.

The irony is that the Betro who first ran for office had the ability to be that gracious and humble and likely would extend credit to his competition for work well down, but his tenure on the dais has served as a cautionary lesson on the impact that power and status can have on a city official's attitude over time.

After all, I didn't recognize the man who yelled at me, saying I was losing credibility because I had merely questioned his statement that he made at a community meeting that wasn't the truth. His public diatribe was also in response for my support of a stance taken by one of the city's labor unions taken in September 2006. However, a mere six months later, this labor union became the #1 donor to his campaign, according to a recent campaign disclosure statement submitted by Betro's treasurer. I wouldn't be the first on the receiving end of that kind of behavior.

Pardon me, for being a little confused at the flip-flop in terms of his change of attitude involving one of the city's labor unions! But that wasn't the only one of its kind. I don't agree with Gardner's stance on a lot of things, but the one major difference between him and Betro is that Gardner's actually nice and humble. He doesn't bully people, he doesn't yell at them in public for questioning him on a false statement he's made and so far, he hasn't sat on the dais and rolled his eyes at speakers who disagree with him or snapped at people about to lose their businesses to Riverside Renaissance. That's a major reason why those I've spoken to who support Gardner want to vote for him.

Ironically, they like Gardner for the same reason many of them liked and voted for Betro when he first ran for office. What a difference four years can make, with a grass-roots candidate facing against a former one who appears to have forgotten his roots. One of the more successful grass-roots candidates in history becomes in a sense not much different than the attitudes he and his supporters criticized during his campaign.

And unlike Betro, Gardner graciously shares some of the credit and Betro's supporters on Craigslist act as if that's an endorsement of Betro. Perhaps one candidate crediting his rival for an action is just so utterly incomprehensible to some of them because they are so caught up in winning an election any which way and more than a few of them have their own futures tied up closely with Betro's. But what they've done is they've pigeonholed their own candidate into an unenviable position where he can't even admit that he's ever erred or that his rival may have contributed to the process because to do so might suggest that he's anything left than perfect.


After all, as Press Enterprise columnist, Dan Bernstein stated here that the statement that downtown was on verge of collapse was somewhat exaggerated.


I guess this is an example of yet another campaign tactic from camp Betro to show up on Craigslist? Some of Betro's supporters contributed some good conversation on that site and there has been interesting dialogue on different issues. But then it's clear that there are others who are not interested in discussion at all and these individuals likely have very little to do with Betro's campaign.

Because as stated, the serious campaign people are probably out there working hard for their candidate, not saber rattling on Craigslist. Actually, there's a lot of good people working on Betro's campaign just as there was in 2003 when he first ran. This batch of purported Betro supporters is probably not a good representation of them and their work.

It's too bad that pushing for measures to restrict public input at city council meetings beginning on July 12, 2005 when Betro proposed the motion that led to the city council voting 6-1 to ban city residents from pulling items from the consent calendar wasn't enough for the current city council. Betro's so-called supporters have been flagging posts at Inland Craigslist that link to this site, proudly defending their actions. That's really not surprising but the two years this blog has been in existence has seen much worse.


In 2005, the reason the city council members and their supporters said there was a need to put restrictions on the consent calendar was because of all the "rants and raves" that were being spewed by city residents coming up to the podium. Now that it's an election year, council members up for election who voted for the measure are saying, it's to make the meeting more efficient. Revisionism of past events, some might call it. Of course, some of those who were for it then have spent time in meetings hoping that people who have complained about the restrictions on the consent calendar have short memories about the episode including who exactly did support it.



What they have shown by doing these things is that they are no more eager to receive public input outside their own circles than the city council has become through its own actions to restrict it including ordering police officers to "escort" elderly women out of the city council chambers. Before the latest batch of "team players" came to the dais, elderly women didn't have to be concerned about telling very embarrassed police officers that they would have to carry them out of the chambers. But give "team player" and Mayor Pro Tem Ed Adkison a gavel, and on two separate occasions earlier this year and last year, elderly women were "escorted" by police officers. The entire city council rewarded Adkison's behavior by extending his term as mayor pro tem an additional six months.

Then the SLAPP law suit that was used to try to break a community organization circulating a petition to put something on the local ballot, by intimidating them with the threat of having to pay the city's hefty legal bill from Best, Best and Krieger. The most egregious SLAPP suit it was called? Another embarrassing episode brought to Riverside courtesy of the current batch of "team players". Several council members said after the damage to this organization had been done that they opposed any move by the city to collect legal fees from the members of this organization but it was several years too late.


This particular "fan" comment was titled, "Careful Mary Dear" and believe me, anonymous poster, I am after receiving a barrage of harassment and threats last year, all by anonymous individuals. If this individual indeed is representing Betro's "care for community and people" then they aren't doing a very good job.



And here's another "fan" letter from a more familiar sounding writer, who calls himself "B" for among other things, I have a "b" in my britches.


(excerpt)


Mary,

I'm the one who has been chatting with you about the Midnight hour. For simplicity...you can call me B. This whole Careful string is not mine but figured i'd jump on to limit confusion.

I'm also writing to let you, know, that my comments to you have noting to do with the council man of who's name begins with the same letter.

In fact I assert that you lose all credibility when you leep[sic] far beyond cop issues and attempt to be a political pundit. It really starts to look self serving and so have some of your recent appearances on City tv.

Actually your brand of liberalism tells me that you are one of the trust fund babies. You can dress shabby and talk po' but the fact that your[sic] not burdened with employment reveals your deepest desire to be KNOWN as some sort of activist for the unfortunate. Thats[sic] what's really unfortunate.

Don't be so obvious.

XOXOXO,

B




"B"'s absolutely right. Don't be so obvious. Too bad he can't take his own advice. I believe we've "met" before but haven't been properly introduced here.


Like other anonymous posters, "B" has a name, but per usual this individual is missing something below the belt, the male bodily organ which is equated to courage by some insecure men in order to define and retain it as a male trait. Consequently, he is unable to post under his real name but as far as initials go, his choice is at least close to reality in more ways than one. Too bad his spelling hasn't really improved since he showed up last time round to bitch and moan about "cop" matters and other things. There's a lot of great men out there and I've had the privilege to know many but "B" just isn't one of them. In fact, he probably resents men like this more than he does me. His postings have a strong tone of a difficult lifetime spent of trying to measure up to a good man, and failing every single time.

And like other men afflicted with what's been called SPS, he instead tries to get his point across to what he most likely views as an uppity bitch even if he might never say those words out loud, by focusing on that person's physical appearance whether it's clothing choice or hair style. This is the hallmark of an emotionally insecure and immature man, with an inability to relate to a woman who thinks, writes and yes, even criticizes. It flies in the face of his views that women should be seen and not heard and if they should be seen at all, it's in ways that are pleasing to men with his strict patriarchal upbringing.

"B" further shows his inability to relate to women who fit outside his narrow stereotype by writing a criticique me for everything including most importantly, my clothing style in the guise of "advising" me like some version of Svengali and then by closing it off with symbols for "hugs and kisses". Much more extreme examples of this type of behavior are seen in relationships where men batter women and then buy them flowers afterwards. He probably explains away his conduct by saying, "if you know what my life was like, you'd understand why I'm being such an abusive asshole".

"Fan" mail like this and much worse serves as a barometer check to keep going and to keep blogging on the issues in Riverside. If these individuals are too cowardly to use their real names even as they use mine, then as far as critics go, they aren't worth a bucket of warm bull's piss. And if they're all fired up to bitch, piss and moan under initialed monikers at Craigslist, I must be doing something right.

Indeed "B" has a name and I'm pretty sure of who he was since his morning post because frankly, only one individual in this city has been fixated on my writing a book. No one else has even asked me about it. He always had a name. But for him and others of his ilk, it's just not nearly as much fun that way to actually use it.




In Riverside, the fires rage on. Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein discusses them here.



In San Bernardino, the two candidates running for city attorney tout why they are the best for the job.


(excerpt)


The Santa Ana winds have enlisted a new ally: the brittle residue that replaced an extinct substance commonly known as rain. This is the partnership that terrifies and terrorizes us each October.

They all look alike, these dense, cotton-like braids of smoke, these cantering columns of jagged, angry flames, these sickly brown Southern California horizons. But they all have different names.

Some we've heard of: Malibu. Lake Arrowhead. Poway. Some send us scrambling to the map: Agua Dulce. Guejito. Roca.

All of them put us on notice that this is a season of vicious randomness.

Malibu morphs into Mosul. Forty thousand flee Fallbrook. Lake Arrowhead inches toward inferno.

A quarter million Southern California households (and counting) are urged to evacuate. Wild Animal Park animals are on the move. Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego's answer to the Super Dome, opens as a shelter as the sinister winds whisper, "Katrina."

Many millions will be untouched by all this. But the season of prickly dread carries a message for the casual spectator, too: Next year. There's always next year.








Just when you thought the current power struggle over the San Antonio Police Department couldn't get any more confusing, along comes some police officers who aren't sure what side their union bosses are on according to the San Antonio Express-News.


(excerpt)


At one news conference, union president Teddy Stewart slams the police chief. Stewart accuses Bill McManus of ordering a review of SAPD training and procedures to placate critics. The union president adds, "Chief, you want to find out where the training is lacking? Train your citizens to quit killing us."

Hours later, the chief fires back at his own news conference. He says he's "tired of turning the other cheek." He also says, "I back this police department, and I back what we're doing."

From the inside, some viewed the dueling tirades as a farce, a partly staged act between two supposed adversaries who get along better than most realize.

As one officer who knows Stewart well explains, "Teddy is just doing this because he's running for re-election."

Says a longtime colleague, "That kind of posturing is normal. It's not unusual for the union president to call the chief and say, 'I'm going to have a press conference and blast management.'"

Says another officer, "Teddy is in bed with the chief."

Is he? Some troops believe the union boss is too close to McManus. That Stewart doesn't represent the rank-and-file forcefully enough against a chief who represents the city's interests. That Stewart's inflammatory rhetoric — he called community activists "cop haters" — was designed to garner officer support for his re-election bid in January.




Don't be surprised if while all the players in this drama are figuring out exactly what their roles are, an outside agency like the Department of Justice decides to come in and do its own full-scale investigations regarding the status of the police department.

Santa Anas and other gusts of wind

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute."


---Abraham Lincoln




"Man is by nature a political animal."


---Aristotle



"A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected."


---Carl Sandberg






Santa Ana winds are whipping through Southern California causing blazes to break out including several in the Inland Empire.

Fires have broken out in at least six counties and even shut down the Metrolink from Riverside to Los Angeles this morning. Power outages all over San Bernardino County as well.



I was catching up on Inland Craigslist and ran into my latest "fan" there who of course decided to keep himself or herself anonymous. Having decided to remove his or her last posting, he or she has posted this instead.


(excerpt)


Mary,

I loved the way a few lines from last post inspired all sorts of rants and raves from you. All it takes is a few words and you just keep typing and typing and typing. Histerical!![sic]

I'll look forward to your future writing about leadership and politics. Throw in a bit of mental instability and your book will be nearly complete.

And to think that you also like my hair as if that has anything to do with what i wrote.

I don't think it will ever be midnight and that is fine to. You're quite amusing.





Laughter is considered to be the best medicine out there, so it's heartening to play a role in that process for someone and there's a recurrent theme in this anonymous posting that is symbolic of this year's contentious election.

Politics and leadership.


Actually, this theme that this anonymous writer brings up in his or her latest posting runs through this latest election cycle in Riverside. Who or what defines what's a good political leader for determining the "future" of Riverside?

The voters of course. But following the campaigns in an election season that I don't know, seems a bit longer than usual has been fascinating. As you know, we now have what seems to be a much longer election season because of changes made to the process by the voters in a recent election. So it just hasn't appeared to have lasted for months, it actually has taken months so far just to get to the point where the final election still stands two weeks away.

Still making the rounds are the campaign mailers which begin flooding the mailboxes in the wards in which the candidates are running to represent. The purpose of these mailers is in part to define what is politics and what is leadership in this city. Do they work? Do they influence people on how to define these two intertwining issues? Sometimes, it's hard to tell because the mailers come so fast and furiously that it's all one can do just to keep up with each exciting installment that is part of a larger picture of an election race. That's certainly been true of Election 2007, so far.

A recent mailer circulating from the Dom Betro camp apparently has some folks complaining that the Ward One incumbent is alleging claiming to be the savior of Tequesquite Park. This is interesting considering the original intent of the city council through its Riverside Renaissance project was to carve up the parcel and sell off chunks of it to developers for the hefty sum of around $10 million to developers so that these funds could be put back into use for other park projects.

Dan Bernstein, columnist for the Press Enterprise covered this issue several times including in his infamous "Retro Betro" column earlier this year.

So another person questions this and mentions the active role of Ward One challenger, Mike Gardner in all this. In response, one of Betro's supporters who at least uses initials when he or she posts, said well, where was Mike when all this was going on, what with Betro saving the parks at the same time his direct employee proposed selling chunks of them off to developers for different projects. Actually, Mike was leading a fairly well executed campaign on how to put Tesquesquite in the right direction by making it a focus of Election 2007.

And the difference between Gardner and Betro is that Gardner is graceful enough to give some credit where credit is due, something that Betro appears loathe to do because after all, this is an election year, a fight to remain the current Ward One representative.

After all, I found out the hard way what happens when you challenge Betro on any of his truths or merely question them in front of a crowd of people in my case involving a contract he said was being "finalized" which at that point wasn't even being negotiated. I think that was the day I met the real Betro, the one that has even some of his strongest supporters questioning their involvement in his reelection campaign.

Someone else's response may have been that Gardner was either serving on the Community Police Review Commission or as Betro himself implied at a recent public forum, causing all of its "past problems". That flies in the face of yet another anonymous poster with a yen for Bingo who has blamed Councilman Art Gage for all of the CPRC's problems but had to go back three years to find an example.

The most likely reason why is of course, because certain political camps don't want to mention or even encourage people to ask questions not about the CPRC's past problems, but its more current ones. Why? Because then to find some of those answers, we would have to start looking at some of these "team players" currently sitting on the dais rather than the guy they kicked to the curb for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the CPRC. And these "team players" have endorsed both Betro and Ward Three challenger, William "Rusty" Bailey. Why? Because these two candidates are also viewed as "team players".

Gage and Bailey have slammed each other in campaign fliers, just as Ward Five leading candidate, Chris MacArthur did with his rivals including Donna Doty-Michalka who has conducted herself very well in this campaign despite a lot of mudslinging.


Then there's Councilman Steve Adams who although he spent most of last year running for greener pastures up in the seat of power in Sacramento claims to have saved Ward Seven from what one city resident called, "being a mess". These claims and statements greatly offended La Sierra residents, some of whom vocalized their opinions at a recent meeting. But then if you remember, when Adams first came into office at his first meeting, he called Arlanza a "snake pit" filled with "snakes".

So now Adams, like Betro, is a "savior" in this case of La Sierra. Well, except for the fact that Adams loves his role as a councilman so much he decided to essentially jump ship and run for the state assembly last year. Meaning, that finishing out his term as the elected representative of his ward wasn't that important when stacked up against furthering what he no doubt hoped would be his upward trajectory through the political ranks of this state.

In another controversial campaign letter, Adams also accused the Riverside Police Officers' Association not endorsing them because he was not beholden to anyone, which upset the RPOA, according to this article in the Press Enterprise.

Expect as the money in campaign coffers wind down to see even more political letters and mailers imploring voters in the odd-numbered wards to support these candidates.

Here's what to do with latest round of mailers. Don't read any of them, but place them in a pile in chronological order. Then after the election, bind or staple them together and read them, as you might an interesting book about the travails of life on the campaign trail.



Okay, back to the "rants and raves" of which this blog is known.




The Riverside City Teachers Association has decided for the fourth year in a row, to shake things up a little in the school board race. According to the Press Enterprise, the union is not backing any of the incumbents in the upcoming election to fill three slots on the board.


(excerpt)


This time around the union is backing a pair of first-time challengers, Riverside public relations consultant and lobbyist Tom Hunt and Riverside lawyer Luis Aguilar.

The union's political action committee gave $10,000 and $15,000 to their respective campaigns, according to candidates' disclosures filed with the county Registrar of Voters.

"The PAC decided these would be the best candidates to the shake up the board," said union head Mark Lawrence.

He cautioned that the union hasn't made it a policy or tradition to endorse challengers exclusively. The union is open to endorsing all candidates, even those that might disagree with the teachers on certain stances, Lawrence said.
But to win their backing, he said, candidates should "listen to us and not just take information from the district as gospel."

Lawrence suggested that the union would support board members who vote consistently for resolutions favored by teachers, and those who encourage input from teachers on issues affecting their classrooms, such as curricula and testing.

The other candidates for three board seats are incumbents Lewis Vanderzyl and Gayle Cloud and challenger Arthur Murray, a retired teacher. Murray was not endorsed.

The city council election has been getting the most attention but there's excitement building in the school board elections as well.



The Press Enterprise also did this article on the toll that the prosecution of cases involving police officers who have been shot take on all parties.


(excerpt)


The shooting of a policeman, especially when several other officers are present, can create some unavoidable challenges for investigators, said Tom Nolan, an associate professor in Boston University's Criminal Justice department.


Fellow officers turn their attention to rescuing their comrade, he said.

"The crime scene in a situation when you have an officer down -- it's pandemonium," Nolan said in a telephone interview. "There's a risk to the physical evidence ... the chaos can cause investigation hurdles later, after the scene is secure."

He also said interviewing witnesses can be difficult in neighborhoods where police are regarded with suspicion.

"For someone who sees police as an enemy or occupying army, that is going to stonewall things," Nolan said. "I don't think the investigators are going to get the cooperation they need."

Taking the information from investigating officers and deciding what to do with it is the job of prosecutors such as Ben Gonzales, a chief deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County.

Gonzales, who will not be handling the Carrera case and declined to discuss it specifically, said his job requires setting aside emotion.

"Yes, we recognize that it is a police officer, and yes, there is a lot of public awareness and a lot of media attention," Gonzales said in a phone interview. "But the law has the same rules of evidence and the same standards of proof," he said.




Kris Antonio Wiggins, who was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Rialto Police Department officer, Sergio Carrera, jr. may be arraigned today at 1:30pm. Murder charges will be filed against him.




The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board sharply criticized the Los Angeles Police Department's actions during the infamous May Day incident at MacArthur Park.


(excerpt)


So it can only be with a sense of weariness that any L.A. veteran pages through the LAPD's latest self-examination, this one of police actions during this year's May Day demonstration in MacArthur Park. Here again comes the LAPD to announce that it has looked hard at itself, identified its shortcomings and is, at last, prepared to improve.

In fairness, this latest effort is better than most, and ranks with some of the tough outside reviews over the years. It cites serious failings by command officers and breakdowns in leadership and communication, and it spares no feelings in skewering some of the top officials whose missteps helped create the chaosin MacArthur Park. The department should be commended for taking seriously its charge to examine itself.

Still, there are dispiriting revelations in the report that lead one to wonder how much the LAPD today is genuinely changed. Of the scores of officers on the scene that evening, not one appears to have attempted to intervene to stop the improper use of batons against protesters. Training in the department seems to have lapsed perilously -- the Metropolitan Division's basic training course was cut in 2005 and was inadequate even earlier than that, the result being that many officers did not understand proper crowd-control techniques. These findings suggest cultural and institutional defects that Chief William J. Bratton has had five years to address but that continue to bedevil Los Angeles' most important agency.


A rebuttal response was published later.


(excerpt)


By contrast, The Times never misses a chance to second-guess officers' use-of-force, criticism that often is not borne out after a full examination of the facts. In the 40 months since an officer struck suspected car thief Stanley Miller with a flashlight, The Times has lambasted the LAPD in repeated editorials regarding three incidents -- the Miller case, a few punches at William Cardenas, who was allegedly resisting arrest, and the shooting of alleged teenage car thief Devin Brown. These incidents resulted in one officer fired and no criminal prosecutions.

Just four days after the Brown incident, the first of three related editorials blasted LAPD's "Lingering Shoot-First Culture." Yet there was no quick-draw apology when Officer Steve Garcia, the policeman who killed Brown, was ultimately exonerated by the LAPD's Board of Rights, or when the district attorney decided not to press charges against him. The only formal review to find fault with Garcia was the politically charged Police Commission, and that vote was not unanimous.

The Times consistently gives activists broad latitude yet utterly fails -- in either its news pages or opinion pages -- to report their corrosive effects on the force. It praises the federal consent decree -- a tedious system of triplicate investigations, audits and paperwork procedures -- under which the LAPD now operates. Yet it has never reported that officer-involved shootings (as a percentage of arrests) have actually climbed to 125% of the three-year pre-decree average. This should raise questions about the decree's effectiveness or even whether it was originally necessary.


Both the Times' board and the author of the op-ed piece disagreed about the role that current LAPD Chief William Bratton plays in the latest round of what the editorial board called the LAPD's "cycle of disaster".

The board says Bratton plays the pivotal role to turn things around whereas in the op-ed piece, it states that Bratton discontinued crucial training done by the Metropolitan Police Team that was involved in the incident at MacArthur Park.





In Philadelphia, at least 10,000 Black men will patrol the city streets according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson voiced support for the program, saying that traditional policing isn't working in the city. The men will receive training but will not carry weapons or have the power to arrest.


(excerpt)


"Sign up here!" a volunteer shouted to the long line of men that circled Temple University's Liacouras Center. "Be a part of history!"

In addition to the 6,000 already registered online, more than 7,000 men showed up wearing suits, fraternity letters, job uniforms and T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and the words: "Stop the Violence."

Many waited more than an hour to register, though they did not know much about how they would be trained or deployed to curb violence. But all agreed they wanted to see an end to the killings and drug wars that have seized their neighborhoods.

More than 300 people have been killed here this year. Last year, there were 406 homicides, and most involved black males.

"It's the first step," said Ronald D. Morris Sr., 50, a middle school teacher who brought his 16-year-old son, who has lost two friends to violence. "I hope to try to awaken the spirit of these guys."