There Is An Emergency in Fullerton!
Yep, there sure is.
The City Manager has called an emergency meeting of the City Council this morning at 9:00, a mighty odd time to hold a public hearing. The ostensible purpose of this emergency is to hire an outsider to evaluate the condition our FPD condition is in.
It’s pretty obvious that this decision could have waited until the next scheduled meeting. So what’s the emergency? Maybe City Manager Joe Felz and the Gang of Three are trying to look like they are finally, really and truly taking things seriously. And maybe they prefer dealing with Kelly Thomas related humiliations at nine o’clock in the morning to avoid hundreds of angry commenters.
The really pathetic aspect of the abject failure of leadership in Fullerton and this desperate and transparent effort to defuse a recall is that the real emergency existed on July 5, 2011 and was completely unknown to our oblivious City Council, including the supposed law enforce experts Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead. Or maybe they knew and just didn’t care. After all, McKinley was police chief from 1993-2009 and has admitted he hired all the cops who have made Fullerton famous lately; and Bankhead has been on the city council since 1888. Oops. I mean 1988.
F. Dick Jones has been on the council for 15 years; will he not take responsibility for the state of affairs he created?
What about the ever-compassionate Sharon Quirk? She has been on the council for seven long years. How many police-related monetary settlements has she approved?
Well, there you have it. An emergency. But its an emergency created by world-wide attention to the Fullerton Police Department’s culture of corruption, not by the corruption itself.
Well, go ahead and have your emergency meeting, folks. You can run but you can’t hide.
Hopefully we have a post forthcoming on this, but the LA Times reported that Hamilton admitted to them that the officers involved were allowed to view and use the the city video in crafting their reports. Wonder what T Rack and McKinley will have to say about that now that they have responded for calls to release the video as foolishness which obviously taints witnesses?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fullerton-death-20110812,0,6171933.story
The informant that called into John and Ken’s show also stated this, so he has been validated. Do you think the L.A. Times will also report that the supervisor allegedly had them rewrite their reports until he or she was satisfied?
Thanks for that. I’m working on a post and will try to publish it later this morning.
High blood pressure and stress! Fortunately they have medicine. If they had nay interest in the public welfare they would get Sellers back behind his desk – and then can him.
And then resign themselves in shame. Oh, wait.They don’t have any shame.
I wonder if all six officers were together when they watched the city video. It was seen as “bad practice”, but I say it’s collusion. That practice of coaching and editing staff reports goes on all the time. I know first this hand as a former public employee Nobody higher up wants to look bad. Everyone has to get their stories straight or else!
Recall of them and Close the Police Department – this is the Solution!
Outsource the whole thing to the OC Sheriff? They may not be that much better, but Hutchens would be less likely to have an incident like this happen on her watch, and I suspect she would have reacted more professionally and more quickly to it.
Clearly you aren’t aware of the seriffs deputies and jailers that killed an inmate in a way similar to Mr Thomas. Go to youtube and search the words you’re killing me! and it’ll come up. This killing happened in Orange Co Central Jail tazed mim 9 times
#7 NYOB, Outsourcing to the OCSD is a bad idea. The OC Weekly recently ran an article on two sherrifs deputies who arrested a man on warrant at his residense. The gentleman provided a document from a judge clearly stating that he was not the person on the warrant and to not arrest him. after reviewing this document, the deputies dismiised it and still took him to jail. When he went to court, the presiding judge just happened to be the one who signed the form stating he was not to be arrested. The judge was not happy that his orders were ignored by the sherrifs and told him that he should retain a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Read the article so that you can see why this would be a bad idea. Unfotunately, i can’t remember the gentelmans name to make your search easier.
Nice post, outrageous. Spell check much? Speaks to your level of education. You a cop?
And if you think the OC Weekly’s a valid source of information, you might re-evaluate that as well.
@NYOB The OC Weekly has uncovered a lot of local corruption and wrongdoing over the years. They are more credible than other local media outlets. They have the guts to uncover and publish all the corruption that takes place in Orange County. The name of the person who was wrongfully arrested by the OCSD is Chris Adrian Smith. The article was written by R. Scott Moxley. You should go to the courthouse and research this case for yourself if you think it’s not true. Talk to the judge while you’re at it. The answer to your question about me being a cop is NO. This is in no way a threat, but i wonder what would happen if Dexter Morgan was real instead of a fictional character on tv.
Oh, I hope this is discussed in the “emergency meeting”
Regarding that mayor/doctor who comments this morning that as a doctor “he’s seen worse survivable injuries” He’s definitely covering by saying this. Im not trying to brag by saying this-I have a point, I am a medical professional and I know, every doctor knows full well, that there’s more to it then “just” superfical wounds that can kill a person-as surely in this case, it was the injuries from the beating that killed him-therefore Kelly died from the beating and Mayor McCheese fully knows that-hes trying to cover
Chris Thompson I smell booze. are you drunk?
You can’t smell booze though a computer monitor. I believe you are smelling yourself, or maybe your wife.
Go back to sleep.
Thank you FFFF for sticking with this story!!! keep the presure on
Who was the one that recommended Fullerton talk to this consultant? Why was this one guy picked over hundreds of other possible consultants… seems like rushing into things by picking this guy to review the PD. Which leaves one more question: who does the consultant know in the City of Fullerton? Is he just another “friend” of Fullerton charging us between $50,000 and $100,000 to review policy? Could be the normal cost, but seems outlandish to me.
Excellent post. Even better question.
How did City Manager come up with this suggestion……FPOA?
Isn’t this consultent that found no problem with the cops that shot the kid through the window of his car? Or something like that, I read it somewhere. If that’s true the city manager is also working for the cops, not for the citizens
I bet it is way more than $100,000. Aren’t enough”experts” investigating. We have been getting far more information on our city from FFFF than any of the paid experts.
Love the “knitting socks comment”!!
Interesting how things play out (emergency meeting today?) These 6 cops, should be in jail… It really pisses me off at the things cops get away with. Paid leave administrative (how nice) how many group of assholes approved these policies that protect cops under one big blanket. In some cases ia is a joke.. I sometime think the police departments should be run by high ranking military officials and when cops don’t follow procedure they need to be be held accountable ASAP… and in jail while waiting for arraignment. When a member of society is accused/arrested of breaking the law they are arrested and wait a few day days to go before the judge. the same process should apply to COPS… Last thing I have to say in closing is this: the police is the largest organized gang in the country, think about it if you disagree…. Have a great day and support your local police obviously I didn’t mean that.
I fully agree George. I’ve grown up and lived in So Cal all of my life and experienced authority abuse from a deputy trying to impress my ex-wife and his two other uniformed gang members by threatening to shoot me in front of my 4 year old son, and the more complaints I made to the department, the more trouble I got into.
Your comment, the police is the largest organized gang in the country, is so true and pretty scary. I do hope this Kelly Thomas episode we are all so greatly passionate about will start changing this ‘acceptance’ of gang-like mentality by our DAs and start jailing these thug-fu%@s when a human being suffers or dies in their hands.
The reason they have turned into a gang is because they have been corrupted by their membership in labor unions. There are few combinations more prone to breeding corruption than the authority of a gun-wielding police force and the shadow-government, us-vs-them solidarity of a labor union.
@ # 15 & 16 re posted from a previous post
http://www.newswithviews.com/community_policing/community_policing.htm
Why I’ve said over and over we need a citizen revue board asap. They have one in LA. There must be someone here or on other sites that knows how to get started.
About the consultant, again, why THIS guy over all others? Who is he friends with?
Here’s an excellent article:
http://networkedblogs.com/lA9AI
Point well taken regarding the timing of this meeting. But I’m still troubled by the Closed Session they’re apparently having — it’s inappropriate and probably unjustified. I suspect they’re doing it just to piss people off. If Whitaker’s on his game (his absence above is noted, but it also seems fairly well known that he wasn’t screaming about the incident right after it occurred either), he’ll take an interview and tell what happened behind closed doors.
I don’t have any confidence in Whitaker at all. I left him out of the post because he’s only been on the council for 8 months. After a year he goes on, too.
But today Whitaker could unload on all those highly paid creeps that let FPD spin out of control. He won’t, but he should.
Quirky Quirk will let loose some banalities about healing and sorrow and wishing people well and handing out socks. She’s as culpable as the Three Blind Mice in my opinion. She’s only worried about rescuing a political career. But there’s no there, there.
C’mon Mr. Peabody. Great post, but you and I both know that Whitaker is the only guy up there that gets it. He’s sitting there next to Jones who is talking about lynch mobs and not understanding how such minor injuries could cause Kelly Thomas’ death. McKinley, who on national TV makes a speech about how facial injuries are not fatal and literally gets excited about his belief that the coroner has no cause of death. And Bankhead…who has finally apologized…about not wearing a tie. A successful recall is the best result we can achieve and Whitaker making a speech is not going to assist these guys in hanging themselves any faster. Give credit where credit is due.
Hey, I left Whitaker out of the post.
Still I will consider him a luke warm bowl of pudding until he starts acting like a leader. Let’s not set the bar too low by using the Three Blind Mice as our standard of comparison.
Does the FPD still have Kelly Thomas in their “custody”?? Does is normally take this long to do an Autopsy of this nature? The common sense in me thinks this lengthy “autopsy” is going to be fraudulent and the efforts are intended to thwart pursuance of an independent autopsy. Who knows, perhaps the corner is being forced to re-wirte their report, just the like the six.
I wonder the same ANon. Also, the FBI, as I understand it, has to wait for the DA to conduct their investigation before they can start theirs. Anyone know if that is true?
Sounds like they are all trying to avoid dealing with the issue by hiring someone to make a decision for them.
How about using the Grand Jury? It won’t cost us anything and it will be NEUTRAL!
Can someone please find out the name of the unnamed coroner? In kern county it’s the sheriff himself. I bet we can connect dots to more inside cronyism
The County Coroner is Sandra Hutchens, who is also the Sheriff.
Grand juries are not always neutral. First, they are constituted under an authority. Second, testimony before a grand jury is secret. In criminal grand juries, the district attorneys feed the jury anything the DA wants them to hear, and no defense is afforded to scrutinize the facts. District attorneys often use grand juries to get an indictment while shielding information from the public; informatin that they would have to provide in an open court hearing before a judge would grant a trial.
It seems that the official courses of action are all set. The City, the DA, the FBI, and the Thomas family through civil action have all taken their proper positions.
What is left is for the public to continue to seek the truth through this website and the other media outlets. All facts should continue to be investigated and layed out in the media.
Key is the “City tape”. Fine if the DA does not want it released so that potential witnesses can view it. But none of the council members are potential witnesses and must view it in order to form their opinions on how to supervise the police department. They will also then be free to characterize to the public what they saw.
If they refuse to view the “tape”, then they are choosing ignorance. Press them on this issue.
I heard that Whitaker stated that he wanted the council to see the “tape”.
Emergency meeting my tush, in my opinion they could have done this during the closed session on Tuesday, so ask yourselves, who wanted this to be today?
I would think that if you ask Ron Thomas, he can tell you where his son’s body is. I would assume still at the coroner.
Channel 5 news said that Ron Thomas was releasing new before and after pictures of Kelly.
Let someone here make sure that the new acting police chief sees these.
As for closed session, don’t we all wish we were a fly on the wall? None of the councilmen/women can discuss what is in closed session but the decision on if they will hire this outside guy to investigate will be announced by Joe Felz I assume.
Whitaker, Silva, and the gang of three are not allowed to publicly speak their opinions of what happened as they will be the final word on what will happen to the 6 roid raging cops on duty that night. Protocol blows!
By the way, the reason I am putting quotation marks around the word “tape” is that when we hear that the “tape” has been given to the DA, us old guys envision a VCR tape being pulled out of a machine and physically handed to a DA investigator.
It is important to note that the “tape” was probably recorded on a hard drive in the City’s computer. I doubt that they pulled the hard drive and handed it to the DA. Likely, the data was copied on a physical devise or simply sent to the DA by wire. Therefore, the City would still be in possession of the data.
There would be no way for the DA to prohibit the city council from viewing the “tape” except through a court order, which would not be granted. No authority in the City could prohibit the council from viewing the “tape” without being subjected to being sued for interference and being fired.
Steve, correct. Typically these days they have some form of an analog\IP hybrid cctv system with a DVR or NVR at it’s core where the video can be retrieved, viewed, archived and copied. Typically the data from these devices is backed up for 90 days on a raid storage type device. they handed the DA a copy.
This is terrible, they won’t release the tape in order NOT to taint the witness stories but the let the criminals review it on tax payers monitors. Outrageous, the supervisor should be charged with RICO laws and conspiracy.
Recall All of Them and Close the Police Department – It’s That Simple!
I am praying for the family of Kelly Thomas. I sincerely hope that his father gets the justice that his son deserves.
I am completely across the country and I can promise you that this story is being watched by millions of people everywhere.
Police brutality against innocent people is reaching epidemic proportions in this country.
It’s time to take a stand and stop it. Those cops belong in prison.
God Bless the Thomas family.
Thanks for your words from afar Titi, where are you? just asking so we know the locations this story is reaching- Reach far for as long as necessary, thats 1 of our goals
and to many
Very Good Job people of Fullerton… Keep the lights on these issues. And always remember that Cock Roaches run from the light.
Merijoe, you are most welcome. I am located in east Tennessee, near the North Carolina border. I have a large family, scattered all over the United States, from Texas, to Florida to Rhode Island. Most of us communicate via email, and needless to say, this story (and the link to this website) has been passed around by most of us.
Several of our family members have also posted links via other social media. These “officers” belong in prison.
God Bless,
Titi
This work you are doing re: Kelly Thomas and the corruption in Fullerton surrounding this extremely important, heartbreaking, and disgusting story is a gift to those of us not living in Fullerton. Because of you I am able to stay abreast of everything — I live in Boston and am watching this case very closely. Thank you!
so sad, just a thanks to FFFF , and all you all .
cu2maro
Hey Chiken how can one meet up with you tomorrow?–you are very opinionated and a frequent blogger!
Hey Chiken how can one meet up with you tomorrow?–you are very opinionated and a frequent blogger!
I loved Don’s apology today….. like anyone cared if he wore a tie.
His father, Ron, said Friday that four new witnesses to that struggle have come forward this week, and he notified the FBI and the Orange County district attorney of the new witnesses Thursday.
The four witnesses, who had been afraid to make themselves known, saw “100% of everything” and “100% of the nonstop beating to my son’s head” by police, Ron Thomas said. Two of the witnesses are a husband and wife, and they saw Kelly Thomas before his encounter with officers, when Thomas was “not bothering anyone, just walking,” his father said. The four witnesses approached the father Wednesday evening, he said.
“It’s real key,” Thomas said of the four witnesses’ accounts. “It substantiates a lot of facts. They’re very, very reliable people.”
The incident “goes so far beyond brutality,” the father said Friday.
That is really great news.
Excellent find, Donna.
Entire article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/12/california.homeless.death/
#42 from CNN/Justice
Do we need more tazers in fullerton?
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2009/06/tasers-about-to-hit-the-streets-of-fullerton/
can we recall the whole city coucil?
Hi Titi, did you hear/read about the man that got it, in Waverly Tenn??
Yes Billy, I sure did. It was completely disgusting. Sadly that and other incidents is what I was referring to when I said that police brutality is reaching epidemic proportions in this country. It’s got to stop somewhere.
What Kelly Thomas endured at the hands of those officers, and knowing they caused his death sickens me like nothing else ever has. I am haunted by this poor young man’s screams, and I can only imagine the heartbreak it has caused his family. The officers responsible belong in PRISON.
I believe that there has to be changes made in order to protect the innocent from armed thugs with something to prove.
Fullerton is Bell 2 the squeal.
From what I have been reading I think these cops will be rolling on each other in a matter of time. The first one to raise his hand gets the best seat on the bus to prison and the shortest sentence. “Brutality begins when resistance ends”. They teach that in the police academy and some of us never forgot it! The cops that beat this young man to death deserve to go to jail and deserve to loose any pensions accrued. My prayers go out to the Thomas family.