When past is prologue: The case of the missing officers continues

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."


----George Santayana




The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget." "You will though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."


---Lewis Carroll





An audit of the Riverside Police Department was conducted by consultant Joe Brann at last night's city council meeting and for the most part, the news was good. He said that the department had made significant gains in engaging in actions that were more about obtaining results than in reporting activity and the agency was keeping better records of what it was doing. He also said it had proven that it was on the "cutting edge" on engaging in problem solving measures through developing new training curricula. That's certainly been true, most notably through the department's development and implementation of the mental health crisis training program in response to the growing challenge for officers of interfacing with the mentally ill.


However, it wasn't all good news.


In fact, there was some pretty bad news but it didn't drop out of the sky or strike like a bolt of lightning on a clear day. If you've been reading here and talking to people, it shouldn't be surprising that some serious issues have arisen in the department over staffing cuts that were made to address this city's budget crisis. Even though the police department's budget had increased by 5% during a year where nearly every other department but the fire department (which increased its budget by about 3%) saw cuts, the department was losing staffing.



Do the math. If you've got staffing ratios that are close to the boundaries of where they should be such as in the case of field officers to supervisor ratios, then you're going to potentially face problems if vacancies open up in these positions and they aren't filled. And yes, vacancies have opened up, in fact two supervisory positions will become vacant in the next several weeks because of two retirements. There are more possible retirements on the horizon as well. So consequently, there is always the potential for problems with staffing ratios and that has caused a great deal of concern in the department and in the city if not exactly City Hall particularly its seventh floor. This report might have been news to the city government but to city residents and police officers, it's been an issue of contention for a while now.

So what has the department and City Hall done in response to these retirements? They've frozen positions. They have already frozen positions at the entry level (well, almost all of them) and that has extended to the supervisory and management level. There was no great announcement that they were doing so. In fact, there wasn't really any public discussion on this issue at all.

The city has frozen sergeant positions. It has frozen lieutenant positions. It froze a deputy chief position and officer positions. It has frozen "on call" detective services outside of the homicide unit. That means if there's rapes, child abuse or other crimes after hours, the victims may or may not have access to a detective in that speciality. May have, because the response by officers is that they will go out anyway without being paid because it's what they are there to do, but it's still an issue that needs to be addressed.


Also at issue is the experience level in the department's sworn division and how that relates with supervision and management and their relationships with rank and file officers. That was a critical deficiency during the 1990s leading up to the shots fired on Dec. 29, 1998 which were heard around the world. This problem played a major role in the circumstances which led to the $22 million invested in the stipulated judgment that the city entered into seven years ago. It said so all over the lawsuit filed by the state in Riverside County Superior Court but you don't have to take my word for that. You can read it yourself.





The statistics cited in the report are as follows.



Civilian vacancies: 21

Civilian vacancies that can't be filled due to FMLA, Workman's Compensation, etc. : 9


Sworn positions vacant due to above also including military leave: 21



Number of overall vacancies cited in a June 9, 2008 letter by the department: 24


Average age of police officer (oft-cited): 24 with 2 1/2 years experience


Percentage of officers on probation: 23.4% (high number of officers with 2-3 years experience)





Shifts with no lieutenant watch commanders: <7%

Shifts with sergeants working partial shifts: 9%

Total shifts impacted: 15.4%

These figures were disheartening in terms of those cited for the lieutenant watch commander situation. On the surface, the department had made a small degree of progress in terms of lowering the total shifts impacted percentage from around 17% several months ago to its current above figure, but as mentioned in the report it's probable that this statistic could raise during the summer months when there are more vacations being taken by the necessary staff members. So which will it be? Will the percentages of sergeant watch commandered shifts go up or down? Brann in his presentation said that this was one of the most critical areas to track and to address when problematic trends arise which has happened and it's been a notable trend in other law enforcement agencies currently under consent decrees as well. But does the city even understand what a trend is and what it can mean for the future? That might be debatable.


Also hit hard was the civilian side of the department where many of the vacancies exist, including positions which provide "supportive roles" to law enforcement officers and including those where employment turnover has been fairly high.


So how did the city respond?


Watching the behavior of the city staff present including Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis and the city council, there's no way to be sure that they even get it or are following what has been going on even after all the city has been through. And one of the major problems from the start were the absences from the dais.

It was bad enough that several elected officials and city staff members failed to make appearances. Most of the police department command staff was there, as were the area lieutenants and the president of the Riverside Police Officers' Association. But certain key people in the process were missing.



City Manager Brad Hudson, the direct employer of Chief Russ Leach was missing in action. So were Mayor Ron Loveridge who was at a conference of mayors and/or on vacation and Mayor Pro Tem Frank Schiavone who's kind of been missing since his crushing election loss several weeks ago. The fact is that the city council should have believed and certainly understood that these audits were critical to receive not to mention that they should have had some inkling that there would be problems related to the budget cuts. They should have all been at the meeting and so should have Hudson.

One would think that this is clearly obvious but one might be wrong.

But what was truly bad were some of the responses to the report, especially comments made by DeSantis who maybe wasn't prepared to respond properly to the audit or maybe this whole situation is just beyond his scope. Problems are bad, but it's the response to them that's really important. That's what experienced, professional city management employees do in situations like this one. However, instead of responding by saying, yes we have some issues and we're going to examine how to best examine them and address them, DeSantis naturally took the opposite route.

It's called covering one's butt.

DeSantis didn't appear to see any problem with the situation at all and in fact, tried to argue that the opposite was happening. The police department's position with its positions was actually flush. Speaking of flush, hopefully if he plays poker he keeps his wallet in his pocket because everyone could see he wasn't holding a good hand. On the one hand, he is accurate in saying that the city council did vote to pass the budget submitted by his office (and since the finance department was consolidated with his office, that's been the case) but he was wrong when he said they voted for a budget that put the department in a good position.

Whether ignorance or arrogance was the primary sentiment behind his words, is not clear at this point but he was wrong. And none of the city council members called him on it because few of them have shown the capacity to do so with Hudson or DeSantis even on other issues. Several of them were too busy defending themselves and clearly dismayed that they weren't being praised at the podium. A couple did put that all aside for a couple of minutes to ask important questions. But what was said was too little and not very encouraging.

DeSantis from the city manager's big chair cited some statistics which didn't make any sense certainly not to anyone who's been paying attention the past several years. First he started citing the ratio of officers to supervisors for the entire department which has nothing to do with what was cited in the stipulated agreement and on page 22 of the Strategic Plan. Perhaps he should go reread both of these documents. Perhaps he should just go and read the documents if they are unfamiliar to him. I'm sure his office has at least a copy or two lying around somewhere.

Then DeSantis cited a figure for the officer to supervising sergeant ratio of about 4.5 to 1. The Brann report cited a figure of between 6-7 to 1. The latter sounds much closer to the statistics the department has shown in this area going back to at least 2003 according to department records. Statistics which are available to the public upon written request through the California Public Records Act. Actually, the department has done fairly well in this area and consistently well, deviating outside of this ratio a relatively small percentage of the time. And on occasions, they have enjoyed smaller ratios. However, it makes no sense that if they've consistently been at about 6-7 to 1 ratios that with position cuts and freezes which were part of their department's budget that this ratio would drop so significantly. Well, except to DeSantis of course who appeared caught off guard.

The only clear solution in this case is for DeSantis or his boss to produce hard copies of the statistics which illuminate his assertion about the department's budgeted ratio. If it is everyone else who is confused besides them, then this office needs to enlighten us. But no one on the city council asked for this information which isn't exactly surprising. Hopefully, they will ask for it during the discussion about Hudson's next pay hike, the one which may come about to keep him from departing the city for the county.

But then the city council wasn't exactly embracing let alone exercising leadership in this situation either. As one person said, it's easy to stick to the guidelines of the police department's ongoing development during times of plenty, but during more difficult fiscal times, this leadership has been lacking. It was lacking in the 1990s when the police department faced similar budget cuts and unfortunately even after all the city has gone through in this century, it is still lacking today.

And it's not just this current city council because if you've been paying attention, this has been an issue in connection with the department's implementation of the strategic plan and the stipulated judgment itself since early 2005 when the city council either scheduled poorly or gave lip service to the semi-annual progress reports by the police chief and what was then, the attorney general task force. Not a good sign back then and it's not really progressed much since.

Maybe part of it is that there's little remaining collective memory on the dais of what was going on nearly 10 years ago. Maybe the patterns that existed still remain to be addressed. But if they aren't, then the very real possibility exists that the department could go backwards. Brann said that it would be very difficult for the department to maintain its progress and keep improving without addressing its staffing challenges. That's so because it was nearly impossible for the department to do so when addressing the issues of community oriented problem solving policing in the 1990s. Inadequate staffing for implementation, the consent decree stated. Inadequate staffing for pretty much anything.

The one sentence I hear over and over outside of City Hall, is we don't want to go back. "Back" is in reference to the 1990s when the department went into its free fall because of the same issues that are faced by the city leadership today. What is past is prologue.

There was absolutely no reason to feel any confidence at all in the city manager's office or its direct employer, the city council while standing at the podium and speaking on this issue. There was absolutely no reason to feel any confidence in these entities while sitting in the audience at the meeting and listening to what was going on. I had emailed the city council and mayor as I had posted here and received not one written response. I did speak with two city council members who did express some concern about the situation and I did see some nodding on the dais when I mentioned my email. But even when the department is center stage, it still doesn't seem as much a priority when it comes to addressing infrastructure issues. And if you don't put the foundation on your house, it won't stand up for very long.

So it's a bit alarming to say the least that the city council right now doesn't seem much more proactive on situations such as this one than the city council of decades past. But then if you have council members who are more concerned about pushing people away from public participation (and then bragging about it to the wrong people) or talking about city residents having "no ethics" or having "little to no class" or engaging in juvenile toilet humor (with people being surprised that Councilman Steve Adams went there and then shrugging their shoulders and saying he's kind of crude in his commentary anyway), you just aren't going to see that kind of commitment from city leadership until the voters hold them accountable for their decisions or lack of them. Not until the other co-producers, the community and the department step to the plate. History has shown time and time again that this is the only action that works with most issues and the police department in particular.


One thing you will note about the statistics cited above is the composition of the police department. The average age has hovered around 24 for several years and the experience level is between two and three years on the job. That shouldn't be surprising in a department that has had to rebuild itself from the ground up and that will only change through the passage of time.


So you have a very young police force, including nearly a quarter of the department's patrol division being on probation. In most but not all cases, this involves one out of every four patrol officer having less than 18 months on the job and even less time spent working on a solo assignment. So special considerations have to be taken in terms of supervising and training these younger, less experienced officers. That's just common sense.


And as Brann said in his report, the department hasn't neared the point where it is defined through a well-seasoned and experienced work force. That day is still a fair distance off and consequently, it's more important than it might otherwise be for these officers to be closely supervised by sergeants and lieutenants who are not distracted by overseeing too many officers at one time and can give each one the time and attention that he or she needs to develop into confident, professional and well-trained officers.

The rather young age of the sworn division is one that's been present in the department beginning at least back to the huge turnover which resulted after the 1998 Tyisha Miller shooting and the 2001 stipulated judgment with then State Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office. According to the Riverside County Grand Jury report on the police department in 2000, entire divisions including the field training division submitted resignations en mass which were rejected. Still, some say up to 80% of the department's officers left and most of them were replaced by newer officers, which created a generation of officers who weren't here when the Tyisha Miller shooting and its aftermath took place. On some level, that's been viewed as a positive aspect of a changing department culture that is more likely to embrace the many changes taking place.

Yet, the flip side of that is that as the report stated, it's important that these officers have closer supervision and that management monitors their training. If the force were more "seasoned", then it could get by on a higher than 7 to 1 (which is commonly used in law enforcement agencies). But it's not seasoned and the day when it will be, is as said, not even on the radar yet. That's reality and it's that which needs to be addressed lest we be doomed to repeat our past mistakes like a residual haunting where actions are repeated in sequence over and over with the pattern never being broken.

But what also became clear is that the city government and some of its direct city employees need closer supervision. And given that there's another election year on the horizon, this is one issue that bears watching in terms of evaluating the performance levels of those on the dais who are running for more terms in office. Election 2009 is almost here and it's time to do some serious thinking about what kind of leadership is needed in this city once again.


To be continued...








U.S. senator and presidential candidate, John McCain buzzed into Riverside for a noontime fundraiser at the Riverside Convention Center. His motorcade traveled down Orange Street and entered through the front of the complex while about three dozen activists protested with signs and chants at the front.


If you have about $1000, then you could afford lunch and listen to McCain talk about the housing foreclosure rates among other things. If you had $50,000, you get a lot of perks. And at least one city council member and numerous city employees gathered at the center to the event which was sponsored by Mission Inn owner Duane Roberts and his wife, Kelly.



Over 30 demonstrators from various groups showed up to protest McCain's presence in Riverside.

Lt. Gary Leach of the Special Operations Division didn't have any business cards but was still able to provide his contact information to leaders of the demonstration including the National Alliance for Human Rights. The Community Police Review Commission has come up with a policy recommendation regarding the issuance, distribution and presentation of business cards by police officers and to have business cards be included in equipment inspections. But for the most part, if officers at the lower end of the hierarchy want to have business cards, they have to purchase them.

However, just as employment positions inside the department have been frozen, so apparently have the business cards. And if lieutenants who are issued business cards run out or don't carry them, then it's not likely that officers will have them.

Besides, the problem isn't that officers won't issue business cards, it's that often they won't identify themselves especially if they think it might be for a complaint. Two officers responded to a call for service in the city several months ago and when a person told them he was going to complain about him to the area commander, one officer allegedly told him that he would never be able to contact or find the supervisor especially on a Sunday. Unbeknownest to the officers, the man had the area commander's phone number on speed dial and so, the dialing sped along and the officers did hear a few words from their not-so-unable-to-be-tracked-down-supervisor.





Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson is back in jail on contempt charges for refusing to testify in a federal grand jury proceeding which is focusing on former Marine sergeant and Riverside Police Department officer, Jose Nazario.




The Human Relations Commission gave its annual report before the city council and included a list of all the activities it has been involved in for the past year. The written report can be found here. The HRC saw two of its full-time support staff get reassigned not long after a letter was written by HRC expressing concern about the departures of several Black and Latino management employees. Untimely, or very timely depending on how you look at it.

After being transferred to Mayor Ron Loveridge's office, it continued to struggle particularly with high turnover among its commissioners, losing quite a few last year.




Shaquille O'Neill loses his speciality badge from Maricopa County! How did he get one in the first place?

Litigation, libraries and ladies

The weather is cooling down about five degrees or so in Riverside County but things are heating up after a local activist group filed a lawsuit against the development of general use aviation at March Air Reserve Base. Friends of the Hills filed its civil action through its attorney in Riverside County Superior Court.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The March Joint Powers Airport Authority has ignored a state law requiring it to study the environmental impacts that small airplanes, charter jets and helicopters would have on surrounding communities, Johnson said Monday.

"General aviation has the potential to result in substantially increased noise, toxic contaminants, air pollution and poor water quality," he said.

Johnson pointed to a recent legal settlement in which the civilian airport's master developer, March Global Port, paid more than $100,000 for its hazardous jet-fueling system adjacent to the military airfield.

The lawsuit seeks to undo a May agreement between the airport authority and the U.S. Air Force opening the airport to broader civilian uses.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires airports to stay open to the public around the clock in order to qualify for airport-improvement grants.




The litigation comes at no surprise given the nightmare that the March Joint Powers Commission and GlobalPort have put the residents of several neighborhoods through in the past several years. DHL Express made a convenient scapegoat readily used by two of Riverside's elected officials who are also members of MJPC and who are running for political offices in 2008 and 2009.

Friends of the Hills has been a very necessary burr in the city's saddle on other occasions. At the neighborhood conference, a person at one of the seminars mentioned their success at litigation before one city employee at the session nervously added, that it didn't encourage filing lawsuits to achieve change. Well of course it doesn't. But this area is where community activists have achieved the most change in this city especially with holding the government's feet to the fire on growth-control laws passed by the voters.





Also not cooling down is controversy which took place at Fairmount Park stemming from a promo for golfing from Riverside's Park and Recreation Department.


(excerpt, Dan Bernstein, Press Enterprise)



The cashier told Bob his wife could play for free. But Carol? Sorry. The rules (and flier) say: "Ladies play free when accompanied by a paying partner." Carol had no paying partner. Pay up. On Ladies Day!

Fumed Carol, "Only a man could come up with something like that."

She wrote to the Parks & Rec Department: "The assumption (for Ladies Day) would be that ladies get to play free. However, if you go to the next paragraph on the flier, you have to be accompanied by a paying partner which would have to be a 'man' to able to play free."

Carol called the rules "very sexist because if two women go to play together one is going to be free and the other woman has to pay."

Carol even raised the specter of domestic discord. "If one man takes two women, one pays and the other doesn't. That could be a problem for the man."

"This is Ladies Day at Fairmount Park? I don't think so. If you're going to have Ladies Day, make it Ladies Day. If not, it should be one person pays and one person doesn't."





But there's good news at City Hall after the Board of Library Trustees voted to endorse recommendations created by a task force involving the expansion and renovation of the downtown library and museum. With each step in this direction, the prospect of City Manager Brad Hudson's original vision of a combined effort to renovate both cultural institutions grows less likely but never say never in this city. The drama has just began and it will continue when the task force takes its recommendation to the city council. Who's vision will win out in the end? It's too close to call at this point. Too close to even try. But it will be interesting to watch.


The discussion about Hudson is whether or not he will replace Larry Parrish as Riverside County's CEO. But one thing that you must remember is that Hudson doesn't apply for governmental positions, he has the recruiters come to him which makes it much easier for him to exert greater control over the negotiation process. This worked out quite successfully for him to land his current job in Riverside and it led the city council back in 2005 to actually believe it was the one who'd taken initiative over the situation.






The trial of former Riverside Police Department officer and U.S. Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario has been postponed.


The Press Enterprise finally reported on the situation involving Jermaine Nelson, the United States Marine who was held in contempt of court twice for not fully answering questions during a federal grand jury proceeding that's focused around Nazario's involvement in the killing of Iraqi detainees in Fallujah in 2004.



(excerpt)



Nazario's attorney, Kevin McDermott, said he believes the prosecution is asking the grand jury for murder charges. Such hearings are held in secret.

On Monday, Nazario's trial was rescheduled from July 8 to Aug. 19.

Nelson and Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer are charged with murder and dereliction of duty in military court, each accused of killing one detainee at the same house as Nazario.

Weemer also has refused to testify and has been held since June 12 in the San Bernardino County Central Detention Center in San Bernardino, according to jail records.

Nelson previously served nine days before being released when he agreed to listen to the prosecution's questions.

He appeared before the grand jury last week.

"He answered the ones he could," his attorney Joseph H. Low IV said.


Euphoric Reality series on Jose Nazario case.






The Eastside Riva injunction at five months. All parties report including Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco filed his second gang injunction, also against a Latino gang. Pacheco also said that the Riverside Police Department asked for the Eastside Riva injunction when at past meetings with community members in the Eastside, the police department said it was Pacheco's office.

One of those interviewed for that article, former Riverside Police Department lieutenant, Alex Tortes has just been hired to serve as a liason between the American Indian tribes and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. This is in the wake of the controversy surrounding the relationship between the Sheriff's Department and Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, in the midst of several officer-involved shootings on the reservation.






Even among a fiscal budget crisis, Moreno Valley's city council members are actually considering giving themselves 10% salary raises. One elected official however sees a problem here. I'm sure many city residents including those who vote in city elections do as well.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Councilman Richard Stewart said he thinks the fiscal climate is wrong for a pay increase.

"It's not the amount of money, it's the significance," Stewart said by phone.

The proposed pay increase is part of a series of actions the council is expected to vote upon as part of approving the 2008-09 budget of $244.8 million. The budget closes a $7.1 million deficit in the general fund by cutting some services and using reserve or unspent funds to make up the difference.

The proposed budget includes funding for the council's pay increase, city Finance Director Steve Chapman said by phone. If approved by the council, the pay raise would not take effect until Jan. 1, or after the Nov. 4 City Council election.

Stewart said he would argue against the pay raise.

"It's a bad signal to cut department budgets and then raise your own pay," he said.





More prison sentences given out in connection with the home invasion robbery ring run by several police officers. About 17 individuals employed by three local law enforcement agencies and state corrections have been busted in this crime ring.



(excerpt, Associated Press)



Former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Jesse Moya was sentenced to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release and fined $5,000. Former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Rodrigo Duran was sentenced to 66 months in prison and five years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Geronimo Sevilla was sentenced to 87 months in prison, three years of supervised released and fined $1,500. Steve Quintero received 57 months in prison, three years of supervised released and fined $5,000, according to the statement.







In New York City, the pastor who was to have presided over Sean Bell's wedding instead is teaching new police officers in the police department about cultural diversity.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)



And the message from Bishop Lester Williams, one of five community leaders asked to help teach the new cops how to deal with diverse cultures, was one of progress and hope.

"It is improving," Williams said of police-community relations.

"I think its very important that we maintain this level of trust, and maintain this level of service and work with each other. The more we build these bridges, the better the community we can have," he told the cops at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater, in their last week of training before next month's graduation.

Williams' joined the panel after taking Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on a two-hour tour of South Jamaica last Thursday.

The tour -- which started at Williams' Community Church of Christ and wound through two housing projects -- was to gauge the temperature of police and community relations since three detectives were cleared of all charges the Nov. 25, 2006 Bell shooting.

Williams said Kelly was in a difficult position, but was "bending over backward" to try to heal relations between cops and sections of the black community.




Five days of diversity training are provided to the new officers, provided from various leaders from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Comments from some of the students appeared to be positive.


(excerpt)



"It is just so different from what I grew up with," said rookie Steven Jehl, 27, who was raised in a predominately white, upper-middle class suburb outside Lansing, Michigan.

"It's a different world here, so programs like these are invaluable," Jehl said.
Black and Hispanic rookies said the sessions were a reminder to treat residents with the same respect they want as cops.

"My experience growing up will help me out on the streets," said a 26-year-old African-American rookie, who said cops stopped him about a dozen times while he was growing up in Morris Heights section of the Bronx.

"You know the usual line: 'You fit the description of a man in the area.' As a cop you have authority, you should be trying to diffuse that divide," he said. "I want to treat people the way I wish I was treated."





More information about Orange County's newest sheriff, Sandra Hutchens including her fatal officer-involved shooting nearly 25 years ago.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Plasencia family lawyers R. Samuel Paz and Gilbert Varela said the lack of gunpowder burns indicated Hutchens was much farther from the victim than she had testified. They said she and Anderson had no reason to fire. County lawyers said blood spatter on Plasencia's gun proved he was pointing it at her when he was shot.

A jury awarded the family nearly $1.4 million in damages -- then the largest police misconduct verdict in California. The family agreed to a $1-million settlement after the county appealed.

The family's lawyers said they still believe Hutchens testified falsely about the events that night.

"Oh, she lied, definitely lied. There is no way that she couldn't remember," said Varela, who said the shooting and her testimony should have raised questions about her qualifications to be Orange County's sheriff.

Hutchens said the shooting was tragic but justified.

"The outcome -- I was stunned," she said of the jury's verdict. "I believed that what I did was right. I don't think the jury connected with me. They felt this family needed help."

One of the jurors, Beverly Provo, said the evidence left her with the impression that deputies "just busted in and started shooting." She said sympathy for the Plasencia family played a role in deliberations.

"It was really a tragedy," Provo said during a recent interview in her Inglewood home. "I felt so bad for them because they lost their father."

The verdict's sting lingered, Hutchens said. For years, she had a recurring dream in which she faced a life-and-death situation and her weapon would not fire.

"It was hard to talk about for a while," she said. "Taking somebody's life does impact you."


The FBI caught two Broward County Sheriff's Department deputies in a narcotics sting.



The deadline to submit an application for the assistant United States attorney position has closed, but here are the requirements.



In Minneapolis, some police officers were charged with firing their guns from a vehicle while drunk.



(excerpt, Minneapolis Star Tribune)



Because the charges are felonies, Scott Mars, 34, and William Thornbury, 28, could lose their peace officer licenses if convicted. Both officers were also charged with carrying a gun while under the influence, a misdemeanor.

Mars admitted to driving up to the house of a man who complained about the noisy party, yelling a profanity while the man stood in his yard, and then firing shots from a 9-mm handgun out of the sunroof of his sport-utility vehicle, a court document said. More shots were fired as he drove away.



Mars has a prior history of shooting an unarmed 15-year-old man while on duty.

Shake and bake

Oh my goodness, the shake and bake state! First we bake for four days, then we shake. First at 6:40 a.m. at about 2.8 and then more so at 7:19 a.m. Two big bangs almost like sonic booms and then some mild to moderate shaking.


According to this site, the quake was two miles east of Loma Linda and was 4.0. But if you live in the shake and bake state, these are things that are part of life. Of course everyone handles these quakes differently. Once while visiting my aunt, a quake shook the house, knocking pictures off the wall, chairs over, slamming doors and throwing bricks off the chimney as it whipped back and forth. About seven of us stood under two doorways while our heads kept hitting the top of them. Then it ended, and we walked down stairs to where my aunt was still preparing dinner in the kitchen as if nothing had happened, even though the kitchen was a mess.

Quake? What quake?



In Riverside, there's been a lot of discussion on the impact of the city's budget crisis, the freezing of law enforcement positions and the effect it may or may not have on several components that were enforced by the stipulated judgment with the State Attorney General's office and remained in effect after its dissolution. It remains to be seen what will happen and how retirements of supervisory officers will impact the department's staffing levels if those positions aren't filled.


This is an email sent out to the mayor and city council addressing this issue.







As you are aware, the police department and consultant Joe Brann will be reporting on the progress made by the agency in terms of implementing the strategic plan. The city is in the latter half of the strategic plan time frame and about half-way through the time frame of the plan from March 2006-2009.



As you are also aware, there were budget cuts citywide in response to the challenging deficit situation stemming from a state deficit, decreased tax revenues and .other reasons. The police department received a 5% increase for its 2008-09 budget. However, the department also instituted a hiring and promotional freeze and froze recruitment incentive funds in its budget.



Some of the positions frozen are apparently at the supervisory levels and consist of positions which were or will be vacated through retirements and are not scheduled to be filled. These include both sergeant and lieutenant positions. The exact number is not clear at this point.



If you are familar with the stipulated judgment which the city was under between March 2001-March 2006, you will recall several reform mandates which were included in that document. These were that the department is to establish and maintain a 7 to 1 ratio between officers and supervisors for field officers and that there would be lieutenant watch commanders on all shifts. According to documents, the department did a fairly good job at consistently implementing both requirements during the period of the stipulated judgment. It's not always possible at all times to adhere to these guidelines but it did a fairly good job.



In March 2006, the city council conducted a workshop to discuss how to implement the strategic plan and with a vote to 7-0, approved a plan to do that which is in place now which is regular progress reports. One of the recommendations by Brann when approving the dissolution of the judgment was to keep in place several key components including the two listed here. The city council agreed to do so at the workshop.



In the post-stipulated judgment period, the police department has been successful at maintaining the ratio. However, during the last audit, Brann noted in his presentation that the department was starting to show a slight increase in shifts without lieutenant watch commanders. It was listed as a development to watch to ensure it did not become a trend.



There's great concern that the freezing of the sergeant positions in particular might endanger this officer to supervisor ratio among both the police department (including I believe at least one of the police unions) and the community. There's also a lot of confusion as to whether or not there is a problem here and if so, what steps will be taken by the city and the department to address it. There are difficult decisions which are made in fiscally difficult times but there's concern too that once positions are frozen or removed, they won't be restored when the economical picture improves. Freezing lieutenant positions may or may impact the lieutenant watch commander guidelines, especially if they also include lieutenants with other "on call" positions (i.e. detectives) which have been frozen as well. "On call" lieutenants are those who if necessary provide backup on shifts utilizing sergeant watch commanders.



This was a serious problem with the police department in the 1990s and it was one of the problems which led the city and the department to the stipulated judgment in the first place. If these positions are to be frozen and if they do impact the officer to sergeant ratio, then there should be in place a timeline explaining how long this will be and when it will be reversed so that these positions don't fall by the wayside. And during the mid-year budget reexamination process, this subject needs to be readdressed and reevaluated. Steps should be taken if they haven't been already to perhaps come up with a strategy to ensure that the ratio is not negatively impacted.



The city has invested over $22 million in this process implementing reforms in the judgment and the Mayor's Use of Force Panel's own recommendations as of 2006 and probably more since. The very least that this investment both in the stipulated judgment and the strategic plan deserves is a public discussion on this pressing issue.



Thank you for your time,




So far not much in terms of a response from the city government.



While one of Riverside's elected officials might be running for another term because he's eying the presidency of the National League of Cities, other cities like Canyon Lake can barely afford their membership fees let alone sending delegates.





The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians which runs a casino entered into an agreement with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department for policing.



The Riverside County Sheriff's Department practices what it calls "zone policing".



A housing program for disabled military veterans is having its budget reduced by two-thirds.



Also, in housing, several cities are taking steps to arrest home foreclosures within their boundaries.



The arrests of three narcotics officers who stole drugs from dealers led to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department chief taking some drastic action.



The three officers were arrested on federal charges of drug trafficking.


(excerpt, IndyChannel)



An indictment unsealed Tuesday named police officers Robert B. Long, 34, Jason P. Edwards, 36, and James Davis, 33.

It described Long as a narcotics detective and the leader of a conspiracy this spring to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute.

All three officers were arrested by the FBI. It was not immediately known whether they had defense attorneys.

The indictment said the officers talked in code by telephone and that Long tipped a fourth defendant named in the indictment, Kabec Higgins, 31, about police plans to search his business, Ear Candy Muzik.

Long also seized a FedEx parcel containing up to 13 pounds of marijuana, the indictment states. About eight pounds were removed and sold for $4,000. Long then turned in nearly five pounds from the parcel to a police narcotics vault to cover up the missing portion.

The court document also indicated Long and Davis entered an apartment looking for marijuana, and the three officers took five pounds of the drug and $18,300 from a home during a June 4 break-in.

After that break-in, Davis "wiped the interior door handle and lock with his gloves in an attempt to clean off any fingerprints," the indictment stated.

It also indicated that Long and Davis illegally seized $20,000 from a person they thought was selling marijuana in March. Davis also was accused of "illegally stopping cars" to seize money.

"(The officers) reportedly committed acts in uniform, using police vehicles, displaying a bogus search warrant, breaking into private property and diverting seized drugs and cash to their personal benefit," said U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison.


The police chief in Okoee, Florida has been fired.



(excerpt, WESH)



The firing came after accusations surfaced that he took prescription drugs from a police department employee. He was also forced to take two days off without pay last year after Ocoee officials said he pointed a Taser gun at a coworker.

Reffett's wife said the allegations were unfounded, and she said that her husband was given an ultimatum either to resign or be fired.

"He's never been fired. He's never had anything like this ... to come to a little town like this and be asked to do a job, but then when he goes to do the job, they don't want him to do the job, no. He in no way deserves this," Reffett's wife said.




A lawsuit filed against the CHP by a former deputy chief settled for almost $1 million.



(excerpt, Sacramento Bee)




The $995,000 settlement was made public just as a new element of the department's treatment of former Deputy Chief Art Acevedo came to light. A private investigator hired by the state tailed Acevedo in early 2007 to find out whether he was leaking information to The Sacramento Bee, according to a sworn statement obtained by the newspaper.

"The CHP has some explaining to do," said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, a frequent critic of the department.



Acevedo, now police chief of Austin, Texas, bucked the CHP establishment in 2004 when he applied to become commissioner at a time when then-Commissioner Dwight Helmick was considered vulnerable. Helmick was forced out a few months later by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In his lawsuit, Acevedo said he suffered retaliation for trying to become commissioner and reporting questionable actions by the CHP, including allowing officers to stay on past the mandatory retirement age of 60 to spike their pensions.

Last January, the State Personnel Board agreed. It found that the CHP trumped up disciplinary charges against Acevedo, tainted his promotional exam and took other steps to discredit him. An administrative law judge called the retaliation "particularly egregious."

The heat wave continues

The heat wave that has the Inland Empire in its grip continues. There might be a break on Monday but we'll have to wait and see.


On Friday, Riverside shattered a 25 year old record for this date when its daily high hit the 108 degree mark. On Saturday, the city nipped the old record (also set in 1973) by one degree, with a high of 106. Today is set to be a bit hotter but the weather folks assure us that a cooling trend will begin Monday.



How to cope with the record heat.




Being sent in the mail, is a letter of censure to Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge by the Democrats for crossing party lines and urging all Democrats to join him in voting for Councilman Frank Schiavone who is Republican for District One supervisor. Loveridge made this plea in a taped political announcement which was dialed out to Democratic voters' homes. Schiavone ran against incumbent supervisor, Bob Buster who's a Democrat.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



That irked local Democratic activists, said Mickey Birkle, communications director for the Democrats of Greater Riverside.

About 20 members of the 200-member group attended Thursday's meeting and voted unanimously to send Loveridge a letter asking him to apologize and explain his actions, she said.

"We feel he's betrayed a trust," Birkle said. "We'd just like him to come and say, 'I goofed.' "

Loveridge on Friday said he had no comment about the letter, for the time being.

"I prefer not to respond to a letter I've not seen," he said. "I'll await its delivery."



As well everyone else to see what happens next. Loveridge wants to see the letter first, Schiavone has been fairly quiet on the issue and it remains to be seen what the next actions of the local Democrats will be.





The barely-there Community Police Review Commission is set to hear four policy recommendations stemming from its review of complaints involving the Riverside Police Department. Two of them stemming from the department's audio recording policy, one from the field practices manual and another involving officers providing business cards.

On the audio recorders, the commission is submitting a recommendation that the department more strictly enforce its audio recording policy. Under the current policy, patrol officers are required to activate their belt recorders during all self-initiated professional contacts as long as it's safe to do so. And many of them have been doing it especially after the amnesty period ended by decree of the city manager's office in August 2003. But a few don't do it or they record portions of contacts. The commission stated in its recommendation, that if only the officers turned on their belt recorders and hadn't left the commission in the midst of deciding a he-said, he-said situation, they could have been exonerated. One wonders why it's clear that the commissioners believe the officers' versions in these cases, they didn't exonerate them anyway.

It's not easy for most community members to understand why there's a reluctance for officers not to record their contacts. If they're doing their jobs well and by policy, then these recordings are their best insurance against false allegations. And the vast majority of recorded incidents are never heard by employees of the police department unless there's a complaint filed in relation to that particular contact.

The commission also recommended that the department equip its officers with recorders that are not as likely to have difficulties with the power switch, if they couldn't find a "preferred placement" where it would be free from inadvertant shutoff. This policy recommendation came after several complaints reviewed where the officer had difficulty utilizing the power switch.






A motorcyclist was killed by a collision with a vehicle owned by the city of Riverside vehicle, which is why Van Buran was closed for hours while an investigation was conducted. The story seems to be so far that the city's vehicle ran a light while spraying a substance at the side of the road and the driver admitted doing so but the investigation is still ongoing.


There's a discussion on the accident here.





Going home is the truck driver who was injured in last month's freak tornado.



San Bernardino's community garden opens this week and is being worked on by elementary school students in that city.





Does every city have a brand name, is the question asked. A helpful list is provided of each city and its current (but subject to change) slogan and how they stand with the top 10 in the nation. Riverside checks in with its own latest title, "City of the Arts and Culture".




Should the handling of local elections be farmed out to private corporations?



More intrigue in the case of former Sheriff Michael Carona's corruption charges.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



According to the motion by Assistant U.S. Attys. Kenneth Julian and Brett Sagel, Carona instructed the woman in 2005 to deny to Orange County district attorney's office investigators that she and Carona had once had a sexual relationship.

In 2000, prosecutors allege, Carona also told the woman to falsely deny to internal-affairs investigators that then-Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo made inappropriate sexual advances toward her. Carona told the woman he had previously helped Jaramillo concoct a cover story after investigators observed Jaramillo and a woman engaged in a sex act in a county car, according to prosecutors.

Carona is not charged with asking this woman -- who once worked as Jaramillo's secretary -- to lie to investigators. Prosecutors want the judge to allow them to call her as a witness in an attempt to prove that Carona has a propensity for tampering with witnesses.

Carona's lawyer, Jeffrey Rawitz, said the woman has made several conflicting statements, including one in which she denied having sex with Jaramillo or Carona. The defense will ask that Guilford not allow her to testify at Carona's trial, scheduled for Aug. 26 in Santa Ana.





Through its push for civilian review, the NAACP is being unfair to the Moss Point Police Department. That is what the city's mayor is telling everyone.


(excerpt, Mississippi Press)



Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and about 40 members of his organization attended the Moss Point Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday to argue that a citizen review board that's been disbanded for three years should be revived in light of recently reported instances of police misconduct.

"My basic stance is that Mr. Clark is premature in even suggesting a citizen review board, because he has not reviewed his complaints with me," Bishop said Friday. "He has not reviewed his complaints with the incoming chief. I think she deserves the respect of hearing those complaints before any action is taken to act upon Mr. Clark's recommendation. That's the bottom line."

Sheila Smallman was recently named the new police chief of Moss Point, replacing interim police Chief Frederick Gaston. Smallman has not yet assumed her position at the Moss Point Police Department and could not be reached for comment Friday.

Clark said Friday that the new chief's input about the issue should not be a factor, because his organization is asking for an independent oversight committee that should not have to depend on approval from the police department.

"They (the city) are waiting to ask the question they already know the answer to," Clark said.




The battle to increase access to personnel records in St. Louis is taking place behind closed doors.



(excerpt, St. Louis Today)



"Isn't it great irony that we are here to talk about open government," said John Chasnoff, an activist who filed the suit demanding internal documents about officers who used 2006 World Series tickets that had been seized from scalpers.

"I'm really frustrated about today. I wanted to see the judge's reaction and hear the attorneys outline their arguments," said Chasnoff, of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression. He and the group are the plaintiffs.

Circuit Judge Ed Sweeney summoned lawyers to his chambers. A court clerk said the meeting would not be public.

Sweeney later defended the closed 45-minute session as not unusual. He said it was a procedural meeting in which no transcript was kept and no arguments were heard. Sweeney said he would rule on the issue at hand — both sides' motions for a ruling without a full trial — based entirely on documents filed by the lawyers.

"Had either (attorney) said they wanted this to be in open court, we would have done it there," Sweeney said.




In Santa Clara County, a deputy who hit several cyclists killing two, faces manslaughter charges.





A former Bloomington Police Department sergeant has been convicted of four rapes.




Two criminal cases involving former Riverside Police Department officers had recent developments.



Jose Nazario worked for the department before being arrested in connection with the killings of several Iraqi detainees in Fallujah in 2004 becoming the first civilian to be tried for alleged war crimes committed while in the military service. A federal grand jury indicted him on manslaughter charges. This past week, another Marine, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was issued his second contempt of court charge for failing to appear to answer questions for a federal grand jury.

Another former marine, Ryan Weemer also refused to answer questions of the grand jury. Weemer's allegations against Nazario and other Marines came to light while he as being interviewed by polygraph for a position with the Secret Service. Nelson and Weemer are facing murder charges.



(excerpt, Marine Corps Times)



Los Angeles after U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson on May 22 found him in contempt of court because the sergeant refused to meet with the grand jury. On May 29, Anderson ordered Nelson released with the condition that he meet with the grand jury and answer some questions in the Nazario case.

Nelson met with the grand jury as scheduled June 18 and answered some questions before he was allowed to leave and return to his military duties, his attorney, Joseph H. Low IV, told Marine Corps Times.

Nelson took his Fifth Amendment protection in declining to answer questions about the Fallujah killings.

Attorneys for Nazario say that federal prosecutors are trying to collect testimony from Nelson and another squad member, Sgt. Ryan Weemer, so the grand jury would issue a superseding indictment against Nazario on the more serious charges of murder and use of a weapon in the commission of a crime.



Executive summary of the Nazario case.



Another former police officer Laura Digiorgio who was convicted of charges in relation to a workman's compensation claim has through an attorney filed a motion for a new trial and a separate motion to unseal juror records. She also filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the police department fostered a hostile work environment and failed to accommodate her disabilities.

When past is prologue: The case of the missing officers

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does."





---Margaret Mead






"The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes."


---William Davis







“One person can make a difference and every person should try.”





---John F. Kennedy







"All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players."





---William Shakesphere











"Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."





---Robert Frost









Turmoil between City Hall and the Riverside Police Officers’ Association has been the conversation all this week by different parties.

Budget cuts in the police department have led to a freeze on hiring police officers in the department and filling vacancies including those at the supervisory and management level. Several positions which were vacated or will be by retirements include one or more lieutenant positions, one or two sergeant positions and the deputy chief position that was vacated by the retirement of David Dominguez to take the chief’s spot in Palm Springs.

The budget situation and the decisions which have resulted from it have apparently also led to at least half of all “on call” detective positions being frozen. Among those listed as being impacted are detectives from the gang unit, property crimes and the sexual assault and child abuse unit. This would mean that if any of these crimes took place after hours, they would be handled by patrol officers who most often are the primary responders to thefts, rapes, child abuse and gang violence. However, what would happen is that if the detectives in these divisions couldn’t come out after hours, detectives who are already “on call” for divisions including the homicide and robbery division would be given the task to handle these crimes. But these detectives might be already busy handling crimes that they are "on call" for in units like homicide.


However, the most seriously impacted positions from this deep freeze could be the sergeants who work in the field operations division and the officers they would be supervising. Why? Because the department has since 2001 been adhering to specific officer to sergeant ratios in field operations. This was done to comply with one of the required reforms of the stipulated judgment imposed by former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Lockyer was adamant about the serious problems caused by staffing shortages in the writ that he submitted in Riverside County Superior Court which charged the city and its police department with multiple violations of state law and its constitution. He was adamant about the problems created by having a lack of supervisors to oversee the actions of rank and file officers or who were assigned to supervise too many of them on one or more shifts.

He understood the reality of having to make difficult decisions including those involving personnel in the police department during fiscally difficult times brought upon the city through recessions and other economic crises. However, he also understood that once the city began slashing positions, those positions often weren’t restored even during years when the fiscal budget picture was much more rosy. That was the past but is it now prologue?

And he was right to be concerned. Quite a few people are concerned right now.

Look at what is happening seven years and more than $22 million later and only two years after the department's biggest bargaining chip for maintaining the growth of its staffing levels was gone. The city has come full circle with having to make decisions about freezing supervisory positions. When Lt. Ken Carpenter, who runs the traffic division, retires as anticipated, he won’t be replaced and it’s not clear whether he’s the only lieutenant retiring or whether there are others. Two sergeants in field operations are also due to retire or have retired and at least one of those positions won’t be filled. Actually, maybe two won’t be filled, but the fate of the second position is not known as of yet and remains the center of a fair amount of confusion and perhaps at this point, indecision.

Why is this chain of events playing out potentially very bad news for the department and the city?

Pick up a copy of the department’s strategic plan or peruse the lawsuit, The People of the State of California v the City of Riverside filed in 2001 and you’ll find out why. It’s mentioned certainly in the lawsuit so many times throughout, you’d have to be asleep to miss it. On second hand, maybe some city employees getting paid high salaries have slept through it. After all, how long did it take Hudson to drop the ball on carrying out the 7-0 wishes of the city council on how to implement and monitor the strategic plan during the spring, summer and into the autumn of 2006? How long did it take the city council to get their direct employee back on track?


According to page 22 of the Strategic Plan 2004-2009, the mandate under the stipulated judgment was to “maintain a 7 to 1 officer to supervisor ratio”. During a workshop conducted by the city council in March 2006, the body voted to maintain implementation of most of the terms of the stipulated judgment even after its dissolution several weeks before the workshop. In fact, the mention of it in the Strategic Plan is that this reform is “ongoing”. This is very important because it was the failure of the city and department to properly staff the department with officers especially supervisors during fiscally difficult times which bred the conditions which led to the department being investigated by multiple outside agencies at the county, state and federal level.

Because several vacant or soon to be vacant sergeant positions have been frozen by the city, the ability to maintain this critical ratio may be in trouble. From what people have been saying at the very least, it might be close to being in trouble. Too close for a city and department that have had to go through such an arduous and expensive process to be at. Would we be this close if this city actually had leadership both on the dais and in the city manager's office who actually remembered what it was like to be in a position of being under a consent decree due in part to these problems? Do any of them remember what it was like when these problems were endemic in the department?

Obviously not. And maybe this situation is simply beyond their scope.

Do any of them even want to take one step back into that era? Because a major concern by those who are following this situation is how much they don't want to go back to those days. That in itself is a sign of progress.

But the sergeants aren't the only supervisors who might be feeling the squeeze.


Also, at issue is the impact of the freezing of anywhere from one to three lieutenant positions depending on how many of them retire besides Carpenter and whether or not these freezes will impact the ability of the department to deliver on this component of the stipulated judgment which is that the majority of the shifts, there should be a lieutenant working as watch commander. In cases where sergeants are assigned to that position, then it should be only for a portion of the shift or at least there should be a lieutenant on call.

According to documents from 2003-2005, the department had a more difficult time fulfilling this mandate than it did maintaining the 7 to 1 supervisor ratio but it was still successful a majority of the time although during the department's audit by a hired consultant earlier this year, it was noted that the percentage of shifts where there was a sergeant watch commander was slowly increasing. Will that continue with fewer lieutenants in the department? The department and city needs to address this issue as well as that involving the other hiring freezes.


The police chief and the city manager's office need to respond to this situation and how it's going to be handled and the city council needs to provide a public forum to do so. At least two city council members, Mike Gardner and Andrew Melendrez have expressed concern over the situation but it's not clear whether or not the rest of them are even paying attention. Too much of the debate is going on behind closed doors at City Hall and too much of the battle over the implementation of the components of the stipulated judgment which remain is taking place off stage.

It's time to bring the public into the loop because ultimately it's also the public that will be impacted by these decisions.






The Eastside Neighborhood Plan was discussed at Longfellow Elementary School in the Eastside and attended by about 30 residents, along with city employees and elected officials.

Mayor Ron Loveridge dropped by the meeting and greeted the audience. He said usually the city focused on two neighborhood plans a year but this year, only the Eastside would be the focus.



“This is not an idle exercise,” Loveridge said.



Ward Two Councilman Andrew Melendrez said that the process had the mayor’s full support and that this meeting was just the beginning.


“This is going to be an exciting evening,” Melendrez said.


Residents gave their suggestions for what they wanted to see and the list grew long fairly quickly. Affordable housing, more local businesses, gang intervention programs, well-maintained streets, creative arts programs and other things were on the wish list.

Strong points in the Eastside included the cultural and racial diversity, the close proximity to public transportation and the number of parks.

But what went unmentioned for the most part except by one resident was the impact that other long-range plans like that unveiled by the University of California, Riverside would have on the Eastside’s future. Given that many Eastside residents feel that the downtown is expanding from one direction and UCR is coming from the other, leaving them smack in the middle as they call it.


The next meeting will take place on July 17.


Meanwhile, in downtown, the police department transferred the area commander, Lt. Chuck Griffitts out of that assignment and replaced him with Lt. Vic Williams who spent the past several years as a watch commander.


Returning to town after three months spent at the FBI Academy, was Lt. Larry Gonzalez who is the East Neighborhood Area commander. He attended the Eastside Neighborhood Plan meeting where residents greeted him after his sabbatical.





Being denied an expansion permit by Riverside's planning commission was Carlos O'Brien, after a police detective appeared at the hearing.





Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein says, bye, bye DHL.



(excerpt)



DHL, the wounded duck of domestic air freight, will most likely flap its way out of March Air Reserve Base (one international flight excluded).

But Snapple will be bottled and distributed at the old George AFB in Victorville. And MoVal could be the Empire's next colony of warehouses.

It is the unwritten Law of Hubdom: They come and they go. Hubs are not forever.

DHL's sleep-deprived relationship with the Empire was tension city from the start. But Snapple promises to be an excellent fit, especially now that the Debtinator has declared a statewide drought.




While not zipping along, the trials in Riverside County's court system are proceeding more quickly than anticipated under the new guidelines.





Columnist Cassie MacDuff of the Press Enterprise asks what effect will Prop. 99 that was passed by voters have on San Bernardino's attempts to move forward with vacating 82 acres of its city to build a lake?




Sandra Hutchens is now the Orange County sheriff after being sworn in office.




As gas prices rise, more and more people are relying on public transit including Metrolink and the Metro Red Subway lines in Los Angeles. The trends seen in Southern California match those seen elsewhere in the country as gas prices reached the $4/gallon mark on average and are approaching the $5 mark in this state.



In Los Angeles, there will be Metrolink, Amtrak, the Blue, Red, Green, Gold and Purple light rail lines, three bus companies and Greyhound.



In Riverside, there's Metrolink, Amtrak Connection service, the RTA and soon, Adams-Shuttle Service-for-Stranded-Greyhound-passengers.






Two Barstow Police Department officers filed lawsuits alleging retaliation in the workplace.



Also getting sued are two Liberty Borough police officers who sexually harassed a female high school student.







Friends of Marcial Cax-Puluc, the Guatemalan man who was fatally shot by Dekalb County Sheriff's Department Deputy Derrick Yancey have said they won't rest until his innocence is proven, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.


Several weeks ago, Yancey while off-duty shot Cax-Puluc because he said that the man had shot and killed his wife, Linda. However, suspicion has clouded the double murders given that Yancey had been arrested several times in past years for assault including an incident where he had allegedly brandished a gun and chased his son threatening to shoot him.

So there's been some speaking out as the shootings remain under investigation by the tight-lipped police department.


(excerpt)


"We know they killed an innocent guy who was just trying to get some money to help his mama in Guatemala," Perez said.

Yancey could not be reached for comment Tuesday. No one answered phone calls to his Stone Mountain home.

Roommates at the Stone Mountain-area apartment complex where Cax-Puluc lived described him as a "timid" teenager who didn't speak much. "He was a quiet kid. He didn't smoke. He didn't drink," Jose Perez said.

"He was just getting used to us," said another roommate Luis Perez, 30.







Atlanta's police chief has said that three of his employees should be fired for covering up the child pornography crimes of another employee.







The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing to talk about the electric rates in western Riverside County.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



While taking no position on the proposed rate increase, the Western Riverside Council of Governments hopes to focus attention on its push to change the baseline electricity allowance for local customers.

The baseline is the amount of power needed to meet 50 to 60 percent of the energy needs for the average household. Power is cheapest at the baseline level. Customers are charged more if they exceed their baseline amounts.

Representing 14 cities and Riverside County, the council argues western Riverside's baseline is unfair because the region is grouped with coastal communities, which have cooler summers and warmer winters.

As a result, the coastal areas use less power than this region, so Riverside County customers easily exceed their baseline allowance, the council maintains.




Friday, June 20 at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Building on Lemon Street.


Visitors to this blog have included the following:



City of Riverside

County of Riverside

California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer

United Nations

Loma Linda University Medical Center

University of California, Riverside

Davis Design (Ontario, Canada)

Old Sixth Ward Community

Edelman PR

MD Consult, LLC

CJ-CABLENET (South Korea)

University of Toronto

Tel Aviv University Network (Israel)

Northeastern Illinois University

FEDEX INTERNATIONAL TRANSMISSION

Medical Research Council (Head Office)) (United Kingdom)

Advantica Restaurant Group

Rock Creek Corporation

Classic SleepCare LLC

Alexander & Alexander Information Technology

Telenor Business Solutions AS (Norway)

New York Institute Of Technology






Top Six Countries by visits:


United States

United Kingdom

Canada

Australia

Germany

France



Top three continents (out of six visited):



North America

Europe

Asia




Top five languages:


English

Korean

German

Turkish

Spanish

When agendas collide: The future of the downtown cultural institutions

City residents in Riverside attending a public forum on the future expansion and renovation of both the library and the museum in downtown applauded the mayor's task force which released its report a week ago.


About 80 people attended and 24 people spoke on the projects. They supported the recommendations of the panel. Recommendations which of course run counter to City Manager Brad Hudson's original plan. Will that cause any turmoil down the road?



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The recommendation for separate expansions runs counter to a city proposal for a $25 million expansion that was meant to create additional space for the library as well as space for the museum to host high-quality traveling exhibits.

That proposal was moving through the city approval process until a January public meeting, where residents overwhelmingly spoke out for two separate projects. Many of the more than 300 people at that meeting were supporters of the Committee to Renew the Library.

The committee and residents said they feared a joint project would shortchange both the library and museum.

Other tentative guiding principles from the task force:

The Main Library expansion will be on the present site and the building will be an icon that represents the city's commitment to lifelong learning.

The museum is an integral part of the downtown cultural center and its expansion will include space downtown that can host world-class exhibits.

The library board will recommend how much expansion space is needed for the Main Library and the museum board will do the same for the museum.

The Chinese Pavilion in front of the Main Library will not be moved.

This last recommendation was welcomed by Cindy Li on behalf of the Chinese Culture Preservation Committee, which collected about 500 signatures in favor of keeping the pavilion where it is.

It serves as a valuable reminder that Chinese laborers helped Riverside prosper going back to the 19th century, Li said.

The Unitarian-Universalist Church next to the Main Library won't be touched, Assistant City Manager Tom DeSantis said.




It's reassuring to hear that at least at the moment the historic church that also sits on the block of the library isn't next on the city's eminent domain list for Riverside Renaissance and hopefully it stays that way. And that the pavilion will stay where it belongs because I haven't met anyone yet who favored moving it to another location.

But given that the people's vision and now that of the mayor's own hand-picked panel favor separate projects for both the library and museum, what will happen next especially in between the time of this public forum and when the panel presents its recommendations to the city council? What will happen after that? If you recall, the sentiment in the beginning in the city was that Hudson's proposal was the plan. Over 300 concerned city residents appeared to oppose it and their views were kind of dismissed at first. Then the opposition continued past one meeting and City Hall must have been kind of shocked by that. After all, community leaders who met with Hudson on another issue reported back that he had told them that they would bring 30 people to one city council meeting and then what?

Still, there is still a long road ahead.

Is the forecast for sunshine or for clouds? Stay tuned as this situation continues onward. But it's often a toss up whether or not the recommendations of task forces get followed by the city council especially if their vision differs from that of the city's. Some task forces like the Mayor's Use of Force Panel which addressed reforming the police department see all of their recommendations get implemented. Others simply are placed on a shelf and left to gather dust. Many others fall somewhere in the middle.


At any rate, the final meeting of the task force will be on Wednesday, June 25 at 3-7 p.m. on the seventh floor of City Hall. The city council is tentatively set to hear the task force's presentation in August. You know, the month when many city residents are on vacations. But it's important to remain vigilent about the expansion and renovation plans for both the library and museum.






Hiring new police officers is Redlands' police department. In Riverside, they are still frozen and will be until economic conditions improve. Riverside Renaissance of course will continue right onward.


Menifee, the newest city, held its first city council meeting amid much excitement and confusion particularly when it comes to state law governing public meetings. It shouldn't feel too bad as more established city governments still get confused about that pesky little public participation law.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Councilman-elect Wallace Edgerton, unanimously elected mayor by his council colleagues, said he preferred to "err on the side of caution" and led the council-elect in changing the plan to interviewing publicly.

"I think the first thing this council needs is legal advice, especially in regards to the Brown Act," Edgerton said.

As the council-elect prepared to proceed with public interviews some members realized another group was scheduled to use the auditorium at the Kay Ceniceros Senior Center.

They then moved the meeting to another room, too small to fit their audience.

At least a dozen people crowded around the doorway, standing in the hallway as two attorneys warned the council-elect it was in violation of the Brown Act because the public no longer had access.



Norco passes its annual budget. It passed a measure to raise sewer fees on Aug. 1 and most likely will raise trash fees as well. People aren't too happy about that at all.





Former Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle's confirmation to the state parole board has been delayed while the various factions of the state government fight it out.



Here's a lovely comment written on Belo blog, in response to the same sex weddings being performed at the Riverside County Administrative headquarters.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise
Warning: Bigotry expressed here is graphic)



So who's last name do these fudge packers now share? Does the law dictate that the more masculine member of any pair of fairies becomes the husband who's family name is dragged through the mud and the one with the limpest wrist is then the husband who now carries the memory of a maiden name?

Or do the queers themselves distinguish who it will be by checking a box on their application for marriage license, identifying who's the "Top" and who's the "Bottom" in their relationship?

Or perhaps they combine part of each one's last name. For instance if Mr. Sorenson were to marry Mr. Butterworth, they would then be recognized as Mr. & Mr. Sorebutt. Or, if Lesbians, Ms. Foreman was to marry Ms. Titus, friends would be invited to the Foretit's wedding.

What about when these relationships turn sour, who would be awarded custody of the family Gerbil?
Is everything considered community property and gets equally divided? I guess it's only natural to see the Sorebutt's split all, right down the middle...
Still, I don't know, this whole gay marriage thing is confusing to me. I guess the only clear issue now, is that they each get to sleep in a wet spot....

Well anyway, my hats off (pants staying on) to all the gay couples who can now tie the knot., may your lives be as fulfilled as your,,,,,,, well, never mind, I never was much good at making a toast.
Congratulations to all,,,,,,,,,




Unfortunately, there are people who do like to put their homophobia in all its ugliness on display in a daily newspaper blog.





The civilian review board in Eugene faces its first major test.


Meanwhile, the Police Advisory Commission and the Fraternal Order of Police are clashing in Philadelphia.




In Washington, D.C. the controversial check point program is coming under scrutiny from the local government after two-thirds of the neighborhood residents filled out a survey disagreeing with the program.


The program has led to a community divide.




(excerpt, Washington Post)





"We are tired of having to listen to gunfire. We are tired of having bullets pierce the sanctity of our homes," said Kathy Henderson, a former leader of the advisory neighborhood commission in the area. She said she was launching a petition drive in support of Lanier.

Concerns about constitutional intrusions were "academic discussion," Henderson said, adding that residents felt that "our rights are being violated every time people descend on our community and commit crime."

Robert Vinson Brannum, another neighborhood leader, said stops and searches are becoming a part of American life, citing airport screenings and metal detectors in public buildings.

He said residents have a lower expectation of privacy in their vehicles than at home, adding, "I do not believe this program violates anyone's constitutional rights."

But others said the program was an intrusion and ineffective.

Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D), who represents Ward 5, where the checkpoints were established, said he had initially gone along with the program. But after hearing from ward residents at a community meeting Friday night, he had concerns.

Slightly more than half of the 100 people at the community meeting filled out a questionnaire, and nearly two-thirds of respondents opposed the checkpoints. "The checkpoints create an atmosphere of uneasiness and distrust," Thomas said yesterday.

Deborah Golden, a Trinidad resident and constitutional lawyer, said she had to go through the checkpoints several times. They were "clearly unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment" that protects citizens from unlawful searches and seizures, she said.

She also said that she was able to easily circumvent the checkpoints by cutting through alleys and parking lots when she was in a hurry to get home and that she saw many others doing that as well.



And when it rains it pours in the Atlanta Police Department as another officer has been indicted on sexual assault charges following the ones who were arrested for obstructing an investigation into child pornography allegations involving another officer.



Convicted at trial was a former Maywood Police Department officer who was charged with beating a handcuffed man.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Prosecutors argued during a seven-day trial that Michael Joseph Singleton rammed the prisoner's head against a wall in retaliation for a stream of insults and behavior that included spitting at the officer.



Maywood police brutality case reopens after first jury deadlocks
The victim, Jose Bernal, now 35, was knocked unconscious, his nose was broken and he suffered a temporary paralysis to one side of his face.

Jurors rejected Singleton's claim that he had been trying to restrain a violent, resisting suspect when the two men fell and Bernal struck his head against the wall. A trainee officer working with Singleton that May 2004 night testified that the veteran officer used excessive force and then lied about it.




Singleton had been tried earlier this year on this case but the hung jury voted 9-3 towards acquittal. Maywood Police Department is facing multiple investigations from federal, state and county agencies in part for hiring at least 13 officers (about one-third of its sworn force) who had failed to pass probation, were fired and/or prosecuted for criminal charges while at other law enforcement agencies. In addition, the city council in Maywood voted twice to appoint two interim chiefs with criminal and/or disciplinary records.



At Fairmount Park this weekend, there will be the annual fishing derby. It's free if you register and you need to bring your own bait and gear. It's the first derby since the city finished drudging the bottom of Lake Evans so maybe you'll be able to see the fish this year.




Quote of the week: Ward Seven Councilman Steve Adams' scatological humor that he exhibited on the dais at last week's city council meeting still reigns but here's the runner up so far:


"I mean, at least you don't randomly switch between all-caps, bold, and italics, like the wacky chicken-lady who runs five-before-involuntary-commitment, but other than your own vanity, I'm not sure you're serving anyone here. Do stop spamming, will you? "



---Anonymous, Craigslist



This person clearly has the Jonesy for the organization, Save-Riverside which has been monitoring different city issues for the past several years but is clearly confused on several issues. Besides a rather annoying and unfortunate prejudice against mental illness and mentally ill people, he or she is stating that people own chickens who don't or perhaps never have owned chickens.

As for the "wacky chicken-lady" and the "five-before-involuntary-commitment" , what a silly and stupid comment. I wouldn't want to put my name on it either. No wonder the vast majority of people who write stuff of this ilk remain anonymous. It's unfortunate the sheer bigotry against mental illness and mentally ill individuals that has shown up there and other places through anonymous comments by people who would never put their names to it.

The problem for me with being called "crazy", "wacko" or told that I need anti-psychotic medications, "involuntary commitment" or to be "muzzled" is not that it's an insult (because being "insulted" by bigots isn't exactly an insult), but that it's an insult against a population of other individuals. If this person has ever listened to or spoken with mentally ill individuals and realized how deeply insensitive comments like this hurt, then they would probably not engage in this behavior. But maybe they do know and they just don't care. Sad, how sad that is but it's just a commentary on them that I think most people who read that site are probably picking up on given the complete lack of support for his or her comments.

For more of my sentiments on this vein of behavior, you can read this month's Bitch magazine.