Big Brother Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

October 7, 2011October 7, 2011Big Brother

Fullerton Police Beating Complaint “Sustained” by Internal Investigation; Officer Named.

Wow! Remember this story we posted way back on June 14th? It’s about a guy who claimed to have gotten physically assaulted by the FPD, who he says robbed him, and threw him in jail. Back in June this guy’s story was assaulted also, likely by the same goons who beat him up. Officer Cary Tong was identified as the culprit in the case, and, perhaps we should start including his name on the FPD Hall of Shame roster.

In light of all the horror stories that have emerged from the FPD dungeons since we posted this story, it seems more credible than ever. I wonder if all the trolls who tried the hair-splitting approach to discredit him are having second thoughts.

And I wonder if this guy has had the good sense to contact Garo Mardirossian.

– Joe Sipowicz

When we posted a college student’s allegations of police brutality last week, several commenters responded by calling the victim a liar and saying that the claim could not possibly be true.

Well, here is the truth according to FPD’s own Internal Affairs department: the complaint containing allegations of brutality and theft was “sustained” against FPD Officer Cary Tong.

Read the findings (pdf)

The letter from Chief Michael Sellers calls officer Tong’s actions “inappropriate and not within policy,” and states unequivocally that “a finding of sustained means that the evidence indicates that the complaint was well founded.“

Officer Cary Tong was listed as both the arresting and booking officer that night, putting him at the center of the entire event described by the victim in the complaint. That complaint included a long list of violent actions against the young man while he was handcuffed, including the deliberate breaking of his finger, theft of his personal cash and several beatings both at the arrest scene and during his booking at the jail.

The opaque and severely limited disclosures made in this non-public letter are a direct testament the police union’s lobbying power, which has fostered laws and an internal culture that encourages police departments to protect bad officers and keep their abuses secret from the public. In this case, we still don’t know if the officer was punished with a light slap on the wrist or even disciplined at all.

In all likelihood, Officer Tong is still patrolling the streets of Fullerton. Shoot, he might even pull you over tonight.

October 6, 2011October 6, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Ex-Chief McKinley Unleashed Bad Cop

by Travis48 Comments

Just for those of you who mistakenly believe FFFF has only recently become interested in the doings and misdoings of our police force, here’s a post originally published October 7, 2009 – exactly two years ago, detailing the way in which the esteemed Pat McKinley molly-coddled the worst of his boys, who just happened to be President of the Fullerton Police Officer’s Association, the union that supports the councilmen cover-up artists Jones, Bankhead, and (surprise, surprise) Pat McKinley.The incidents described here took place six years ago, leading a reasonable person to infer that the culture of corruption cultivated by McKinley has deep roots, indeed.

Enjoy a blast from the past courtesy of the FFFF archives!

– Joe Sipowicz

Officer misconduct cases are usually handled behind closed doors, hidden away from the public who are ultimately the victims when cops go bad. Recently a document slipped out from underneath the curtain and gave us some insight into Chief McKinley’s department, which had a habit responding to officer misconduct by looking the other way and pressuring victims to stay silent — demonstrating brazen contempt for the rule of law.

Officers John Cross and Gregg Nowling were caught on tape in the 2005 beating of a young man who was pulled over for playing his music too loud. Fearing outrage, the department refused to release the recording to the public. Nowling resigned, but John Cross was the president of the Fullerton Police Officers Association (the union), so he decided to take his chances and ride out the punishment that was sure to be nothing more than a token admonishment from his friendly boss, Chief Patrick McKinley.

He's big. He's bad. He's baaaaack! — I'll just pretend I didn't see that.

John Cross should have been fired and sued, but a deal was allegedly struck with the victim in which charges would be dropped if the young man kept quiet. This allowed the department head to give Cross a mere slap on the wrist – a two step demotion in pay for the next two years.

When nobody was paying attention, Chief McKinley eliminated John Cross’ punishment one year early:

The record shows that almost immediately, John Cross began another series of disturbing actions that ultimately forced the department to fire him. The Council found one example most frightening – Officer Cross had covered up an incident involving a drunk off-duty sheriff who was brandishing his weapon in public. He also failed to follow up on a potential suicide when it was only a few doors down from his location. At least six of these events involved Cross’ turning off his audio recorder in violation of department policy.

There are plenty of other allegations of McKinley’s department looking the other way when incidents were perpetrated by those the department favored, and this is only one of the most severe. As one of our commenters said, McKinley’s game was played at the the expense of our community’s safety, peace, and tax dollars.

September 13, 2011September 14, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Cop Union President Barry Coffman Identified

by Jan Florys Dog166 Comments

UPDATE: Please note Coffman’s admission: “This year, my first citation”. So he obviously took on this assignment to harass citizens out of the sheer joy of it. And there you have it. Your tax dollars at work.

The other day we shared a video here of the Fullerton Police Department’s PR disastrous anti-honking ticket strategy. Of course it was justifiably greeted with a hail of scorn and outrage and was ridiculed across Southern California as blatant harassment of peaceful protesters. Egad, another FPD humiliation. Another day another embarrassment!

Oh, well, I guess when you don’t have a sense of shame it’s impossible to be shamed.

What went unmentioned in the video was the identity of the well-fed cop who handed out the ticket to the protester who had the temerity to honk for justice for Kelly Thomas. Well, I know who this churlish individual is.

No surprise! That’s Fullerton Police Officer Association President, Barry Coffman – the head union goon who got The Three Blind Mice McKinley, Bankhead, and Jones elected in the first place, and then watched in satisfaction as these three clowns handed over Fullerton to his union comrades.

Barry says he is smirking because he gets so much job satisfaction. But Barry won’t be smirking for long. Whatever the DA does there will be Federal and civil lawsuits coming FPD’s way, and likely punitive damages against the McKinley Six. And that’s not going to be hushed up as usual. And he’s got an anti-recall campaign to finance with three elderly orangutans who have finally been exposed as utterly incompetent.

three blind ortangtans — Not much to work with...

Smirk on that, Barry.

September 9, 2011September 9, 2011Big Brother

OCTA Uncut

by Travis198 Comments

A month ago we posted the OCTA surveillance video that captured the immediate reaction of witnesses after the Kelly Thomas beating.

Here is the full video from OCTA Bus 5599’s DVR on July 5. Perhaps our more observant readers can glean new information from the 18 minute recording. As always, leave your observations in the comments section below.

Update: As suggested by EyeNeverSayNo, I ran the audio through a noise reducer to help clarify some of the conversation. That version of the video his here.

The video shows all seven cameras at once and is best viewed full screen at 720p.

September 3, 2011September 3, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Hey Mr. DA, Is This What Happened?

by admin295 Comments

August 31, 2011About Us

The Security Camera Win-Win. Prescient Irony From FPD!

by Joe Sipowicz55 Comments

Watch this discussion from a few years back about adding surveillance cameras in the Fullerton Transportation Center. Of course the FPD captain is overjoyed at having another opportunity to make things safer. Be sure to view all the way to the end where you can enjoy Doc Dick holding forth on the issue of public safety.

August 30, 2011December 12, 2016Big Brother

Flight of the Slidebros

by Travis267 Comments

The quality of the bus depot surveillance footage on the night of Kelly Thomas’ beating is still a mystery, but here’s a demonstration of the low-light and zoom capabilities of that same camera taken on August 16th (including with some random zoom footage from an identical model camera obtained elsewhere.)

This camera is about 150 ft. away from the spot where the beating took place. In this example, the camera was aligned to capture the comings and goings of Slidebar patrons on a Tuesday night.

August 23, 2011August 23, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Kelly’s Army Sends Do-Nothing DA a Wake Up Call

by Joe Sipowicz244 Comments

July 11, 2011July 27, 2011Big Brother

WANTED: Witnesses to the Brutal Beating Death of Kelly Thomas

by admin9 Comments

I just met with Ron Thomas, father of deceased Kelly Thomas, at the Fullerton Transportation Center. He and his daughter were posting fliers around the Fullerton Sante Fe train depot & OCTA bus terminal in the hopes of talking to witnesses that were present on the night his son was brutally beaten to death.

For all those who care, there is a candlelight vigil tonight at the Fullerton Transportation Center at 7:00 pm.

Ron Thomas did say that the entire deadly beating of his son by six cops was caught on the city’s camera (the same camera that we reported on here two days ago.) Ron also said that the police will not let him look at the video to see what happened to his son.

July 8, 2011July 27, 2011Big Brother

Is There Video of the Kelly Thomas Beating?

by Travis65 Comments

We heard that Tuesday’s beating of a homeless man to near-death by Fullerton police may have been within range of one of the city’s surveillance cameras at the Fullerton Transportation Center…and so we sent our camera man over to check it out:

It looks like the camera had a clear shot of the bloody event. I suppose that if there is a tape, we won’t get to see it unless it exonerates the cops who were involved.

On the other hand, damning evidence will be held tightly by the city so as not to embarrass anyone or facilitate the requisite citizen outrage.

All the public can do is ask and see what happens.

Even so, the last resort in the quest for transparency would lie with our elected councilmembers, who are ultimately responsible for ensuring the safety of the public and can demand to see the recording for themselves.