OC Register Emphasizes Stunning and Brave Aspect of Battery
Fullerton City Council member Ahmad Zahra has landed in the OC Register for his battery & vandalism charges. While I was busy getting the court records to break this story, the Register has opted to… give you little by way of new details and a lot by way of telling you how stunning and brave and bravely stunning Ahmad Zahra is in their puff piece downplaying the alleged battery.
Looks at this sentence:
Fullerton Councilman Ahmad Zahra faces two misdemeanor charges of vandalism and battery stemming from a September altercation in which he allegedly damaged a woman’s cellphone.
“In which he allegedly damaged a women’s cellphone” isn’t exactly the big takeaway when battery is on the list of charges. This is a suck up piece if ever I read one. Even the sub-head of “Misdemeanor charges stem from a damaged cell phone” downplays the charges.
In the article, and again I quote, “Details of the alleged crimes were not available.”. You can’t admit you know nothing and then claim with any confidence that you know from where the charges stem.
Cite your sources and give details. Otherwise stop pushing narrative as if it’s news. Saavedra has been around too long to be this sloppy.
But hey at least he managed to give us Zahra’s life story full of as much puffery as is possible in under 250 words.
If the charges are real then none of the petty details of Zahra’s upbringing, life, religion and sexual orientation are relevant to the story.
If the charges aren’t real then, you guessed it, none of that matters either.
You see, his personal backstory isn’t relevant to his pending charges unless he is being targeted because of any one or a collection of the things in said story and there is no evidence or even an accusation that such is the case.
Why Tony Saavedra would spend more words worrying about identitarian nonsense than the charges in question speaks volumes to the usefulness of the OC Register as a reliable news source. Maybe, per Zahra’s not-so-clever barbs at us, they’re “aspiring to be fake news”.
The OC Register died many years ago.
It was probably painful for this ball-licking reporter to actually write something negative about a government official. That’s why it took a week.
I would like to see this man recalled.
Let’s see the mug shot. The media couldn’t wait to see the picture of Norby the FPD leaked.
I’m sure all of his boohoo friends have told him how great he is and that this will all blow over. Well, it won’t.
The flippant attitude on the photo seems to be a cover for deeper seated hostilities displayed during city meetings what he can play both the victim and the antagonist
I’m sure many will turn a blind eye to behavioral /procedure problems & sacrafised civility simply for the purpose of defending/championing homosexual personalities for the noble ideals of equality for all
What the shit does that even mean?
He’s gay so he gets to hit people?
Jury instructions for battery. Unwanted touching no matter how slight.
The defendant is charged with battery [in violation of Penal Code section
242].
To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must
prove that:
1. The defendant willfully [and unlawfully] touched
in a harmful or offensive manner(;/.)
[AND
2. The defendant did not act (in self-defense/ [or] in defense of
someone else/ [or] while reasonably disciplining a child).]
Someone commits an act willfully when he or she does it willingly or on
purpose. It is not required that he or she intend to break the law, hurt
someone else, or gain any advantage.
The slightest touching can be enough to commit a battery if it is done in
a rude or angry way. Making contact with another person, including
through his or her clothing, is enough. The touching does not have to
cause pain or injury of any kind.
[The touching can be done indirectly by causing an object [or someone
else] to touch the other person.]
Yeah it could have been a lot of things. It’s too bad Ahmad isn’t a (R) or didn’t sell illegal fireworks otherwise FPD’d have told the news, posted on Instagram, put out a press release and cued up the bodycam footage for Youtube so we’d know exactly what happened.
It pays to be a union stooge and to have City Hall cover for you.
You may know this CCCB – what constitutes “calling in an outside agency to investigate”?
At what point is that supposed to occur?
That normally only happens when the crime involves an officer in your own department, but not always. Really, any conflict of interest can trigger it, but it also depends greatly upon the seriousness of the crime/situation. A minor battery and vandalism isn’t something that would normally trigger it. A call to another department to take a report and investigate a case as apparently minor as this would be met with resistance and derision (more than likely a firm “NO”) by the other department, who would have to run an officer short (that they might not be able to spare) while that officer is in Fullerton investigating FPD’s case. The case is going to boil down to the witness statements and evidence. The evidence in this case would be the broken phone, photographs of the scene and any visible injuries, both of which the officer should have taken care of. Little known fact: police reports are rarely admitted into evidence….I’ve actually never had one admitted. They are supposed to be a summary of witness/suspect/victim statements and the scene. Photos? Absolutely. Officer testimony? Yes, but only as to things the officer himself witnessed….he (usually) cannot testify as to what the victim or witnesses told him. Tape recordings of the witness interviews? Only sometimes. It’s really hard to say what really went down, but if FPD blew it then there wouldn’t have been a filing, as the DA looks for any little reason to dump misdemeanor cases. It seems to me as though FPD did their job here. The police report will stay private, only available to defense and prosecution until the case is resolved. The only reason I would have to be alarmed at how FPD handled it is if the incident was worthy of an assault with a deadly weapon or battery with serious bodily injury charge but got written up as a misdemeanor, and there is no indication whatsoever that it was. An ADW case is just that…potentially deadly…and it’s a high bar. A battery with serious bodily injury would likely mean broken bone, stitches, etc. Whatever happened probably falls into the category of “be nice to know but not a big deal, good gossip” as opposed to the Felz drama, which is in the category of “Holy shit! He did WHAT? AND FPD DID WHAT? And neither Felz or any of the officers involved in covering it up went to jail? You’re fucking kidding me!” A little investigatory tip: occasionally check for lawsuits filed against Zahra related to the incident. If it was something serious, a lawsuit would eventually be filed, and sometimes even if the incident was minor. What happened would likely be laid out in the complaint.
Off topic: Can we please make it easier to space between paragraphs?
Thanks for the response. My issue is that I don’t trust FPD to have done their jobs as opposed to following the orders of corrupt leadership.
Unfortunately Fullerton PD hasn’t earned the trust to be able to believe that they did their jobs when it comes to a member of Council or staff. That the DA upgraded it from Assault to Battery is interesting but even aside from that we have zero evidence that anything has changed over at FPD in regards to accountability. This seems to qualify as a “Major Incident” according to the current FPD policy manual (page 228) as even though it was a cite and release arrest, it was still an “Arrest of a department employee or prominent Fullerton official”.
Yet crickets from the same department who named and shamed an innocent man when Officer Roesler lied about being stabbed. Hell, we have a few examples of FPD running their mouths to the media or instagram while being full of shit and this “major incident” only got found out by accident.
off-top: I’m not sure how to fix that to be honest.
It’s a wobbler situation. I’m sure a call was made by the watch commander through the chain of command as specified by policy, but the conversation on the Chief’s or Captain’s end was something along the lines of:
“What happened?”
“What were the injuries (if any)?”
“Was he taken into physical custody?”
“Which officer is handling it?”
“Do you think that officer is capable of handling it himself, or should we call in detectives or another PD?” (Probably wouldn’t even ask about the other PD if it was a cite and release situation).
I understand your concerns given past history, but I strongly suspect this is a whole lot of nothing along the lines of incidental contact while Zahra was extremely pissed about something and knocked a cell phone out of a woman’s hand, especially since it was originally an assault and only upgraded to battery later. Of course, I’m just speculating. DAs sometimes overcharge within the realm of the evidence with the knowledge it will facilitate a plea bargain to a lesser charge. I always hated that whenever they did it on my cases, always discouraged my trainees from doing it, and when I was watch commander, would have a serious conversation with whoever wanted me to approve their overcharging report.
I will also add that newer officers can be extremely confused about whether to charge assault or battery and the differences between the two (even though they shouldn’t). A supervisor would have been on scene and probably guided the charges…but even some supervisors are clueless.
Anyway you slice it, the Zahra recall just got another talking point.
FPD should have called in favors and BEGGED another agency to handle the issue just to be above reproach considering their past and complete lack of integrity as we’ve outline in these pages.
I can see how all of that would be believable but the city needs to earn the benefit of the doubt and when they just sweep under the rug an assault charge for a council member it stinks to high hell.
Past is almost always prologue here in Fullerton.
Detective Brayle was called to the scene. He’s not clueless, and made the arrest on Zhara. He’s a good cop doing his job.
Hey it’s Zahra, not me, saying otherwise.
I just don’t have any reason to trust FPD based on literal years of experience with their shocking levels of corruption.
I will defer to you, sir. Like I said….sometimes DAs overcharge for the easier plea bargain. I never did think there was a strong likelihood of malfeasance by FPD on this particular case.
I will also add that what I’m most curious about is who was being called and what the subject of the call was…..
That should be made public immediately!
The city council should tell the city manager to tell Chief Dunn to release the 911 call. That should help clear things up.
Miguel: 911. Please help us, my X just broke my sisters phone, tagged my wall, and shoulder chucked my sister after he got in her face. She’s scared, I’m scared, this man is nuts, please come to 2113 S. Pomona Ave. Unit X-18 ASAP!
I was at a party in San Clemente over the weekend. It was a small gathering of friends and I got into a conversation with someone I met for the first time who said the Fullerton city Council has a member who was charged for beating a woman. Yet, he could not remember the name of the councilman.
Time to release the 911 call!