FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Category: Big Brother
Big Brother is a reference to a fictional character in George Orwell’s novel “1984”. The phrase describes any overly-inquisitive or overly-controlling authority figure or attempts by government to increase surveillance.
Aren’t ya just sick and tired of watching our city council continue vote on things because they say it’s “mandated.” I can think of dozens of times hearing O’l Doc Hee Haw holler “we don’t have a choice cause it’s man-dated” or “it’s the law.” Now, when was the last time you ever heard of any city councilman going to jail because he voted his conscience against something really stupid?
The reality is that our allegedly conservative Republican political representatives are indulging their own high price, big-government sentiments, and hiding behind policies established by one of the most liberal legislatures in the nation – and of course continually giving away the store to public employee unions.
Friends, the next time you hear someone say “it’s mandated” or, “it’s the law” tell ’em to prove it. And proving it doesn’t mean saying it’s true because you heard it from the City Attorney who is shilling for some staff make-work project or other.
With a little digging I have discovered that our old small government pal Matthew J. Cunningham, who raked in hundreds of thousands of bucks doing $200 an hour make-work for Rob Reiner’s tax-and-redistribute Children and Families Commission has found a new gig. Or, as is more likely the case, has had a gig given to him by his repuglican overlords.
A year ago FFFF exposed the hypocrisy of this guy making a small fortune off of the nanny statists and social engineers at the Children & Family scam. After that sweet run was terminated due to uncomfortable exposure, Cunningham landed a contract with the social engineers at the Orange County Transportation Authority to do…well, I’m not real sure.
It might be instructive to remember that two targets of Cunningham’s tiresome tongue treacle, Bill Campbell and Kurt Pringle, were OCTA Board members when he got this new arrangement last November. I wonder if this contract was result of an honest RFP or if was just laddled out to Mr. C. behind closed doors.
Here’s the agreement, noting Mrs. Cunningham as the “Principal” of the operation and the Mr. as “Project Manager.”
Hmmm. $30K a year with a scope of work that seems ridiculously inconsequential. Basically it entails reading city agendas for transportation issues and telling the OCTA who’s on city councils and going to some meetings. Tellingly, there is no listed OCTA project manager named to ride heard on the egregious wordsmith suggesting that OCTA contract quality control may well be no better than that exercised by the C & F Commissariat.
Well, I guess this means we’ll be doing a public records request for work product and billing records.
P.S. Please note that Pacific Strategies is still using the phony “Suite C” address – hilarious given that the Cunninghams operate their business, whatever it does, out of their house.
A few months ago we told you about a narcotics raid executed on the wrong home, resulting in a pastor and his family being held at gunpoint by the Fullerton police.
Today we bring you an important update from the family: Robyn Nordell says that their persistence has finally led to a formal internal investigation of the Fullerton Police Department.
Brother, I've got some questions.
That’s good news I suppose…if we forget for a moment that the cops get to investigate themselves. And it did take about six months of rigorous prodding and a public spectacle from the courageous victims just to get this far. Furthermore, the public has no idea what an internal investigation actually entails, or how well it will be executed. Nor is it likely that the public will ever be privy to the outcome. And finally, the whole process is guaranteed to be about as transparent as a brick wall.
But let’s look at the bright side: some cop somewhere is finally tasked with figuring out how it all went wrong, and why. If that’s the best Fullerton can hope for, I guess we’ll take it.
Meanwhile, we’ll do our best to find out what constitutes an internal investigation.
We often give the Fullerton Police Department such a hard time; so let’s switch things up and send out this PSA on their behalf. It’s on the house, guys.
Loyal readers, feel free to turn in your expired Viagra and Prozac on Saturday, no questions asked. No mention of prescription materials acquired at one of our fine local collaborative establishments.
Witness below the testimony of Pastor Chuck, in which he chronicles the night that the Fullerton police entered his family’s home and held them at gunpoint in a narcotics raid executed on the wrong house:
Next, enlighten yourself with the unhallowed details here.
Remember, if it could happen to one of the Lord’s anointed, it could happen to you too.
Remember a few weeks ago when some bonehead made a threat against Fullerton cops on our blog?
Well, the Friends have finally reported a crime that the cops are taking seriously.
bleep bloop bleep
According to the FPD, the guys in “hi-tech crime detail” paid a visit to our humble blog, evaluated the comment, analyzed the free speech implications of prosecuting it and ultimately decided to write up a report and send it off to the D.A.
So what will the D.A. do? Probably nothing. It’s fairly obvious that “Mad Nerd” lacks the intent (and mental capacity) to actually carry out his threat, but rather was just trying to make trouble for some meddlesome bloggers.
Anyway, we’ll let you know if a search warrant comes in.
The other day some sick individual left this hideous comment attached to a blog post regarding Fullerton police officers:
Wow.
That’s messed up! Our initial analysis led us to the almost certain conclusion that this rather obvious death threat against Fullerton’s Finest was actually left by a member of Fullerton’s own police union, the FPOA, in an effort to stir up trouble for us bloggers and draw much needed sympathy for their own members. Agent provocateurs is what I believe they call police officers who pretend to join in an otherwise peaceful rally and then incite violence, usually in order to facilitate a brutal police beatdown against pesky protestors.
But, in this post 9-11 world, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Which is why we decided to notify the Fullerton Police Chief and the FBI about this potential threat to officer safety.
Thanks. You never can be too sure.
Is it illegal to call for the death of police officers? I have no idea. But it really is a horrible thing to say, and none of us bloggers here would condone any such sentiment. We should leave it up to our law enforcement specialists to look into it and decide for themselves.
We’ll let you know if we hear of an investigation.
Every once in a while you read a story about some innocent citizen whose privacy and safety are wrongfully violated by a police raid executed on the wrong home. Picture the frightening scene of a modernized para-military police force busting their way into your home with guns drawn, putting your innocent family members in immediate danger. Of course it’s almost always perpetrated under the guise of the interminable War on Drugs.
Well, this time it happened right here in Fullerton, and to the last person whom you would expect.
An actual dramatization
Notable conservative Christian activist and self-described “family values” advocate Robyn Nordell says that her family was mistakenly treated to an armed raid by Fullerton narcotics agents back on October 20th, 2010. According to statements filed by the Nordells at city hall, police quietly came onto her property one evening through her back gate and then entered her home with guns drawn through an unlocked back door. Once inside, police held the Nordell family at gunpoint while they checked her house, presumably for drugs and parolees.
Oops. It turns out they were actually looking for the neighbor who lived next door.
The Nordells helpfully provided photos showing the obvious differences between the two properties, including a deteriorating address marker on the back gate:
Well, that’s not very good. If you’re going to storm someone’s house using lethal force, you better make sure the address is right.
Robyn and her husband Chuck have demanded an investigation by the city council into this incident. While the police have been apologetic, actual follow-up and resolution seems to be lacking. It took several months and some persistence just for the victims to get a copy of the police report.
Corrective action? Unlikely. And if the cops do manage to change something, will they ever admit it to the public? Keeping incidents quiet is always best for them, but never good for the rest us.
Of course he will. He’s already re-authorized the original bill twice and voted to make it permanent. Why should we think he won’t join the majority of Dems and ‘Pugs to renew some of the law’s more controversial provisions in the coming days?
The probing will continue indefinitely.
The Patriot Act was created in the rabid aftermath of 9/11 and passed by a broad coalition of legislators who never even read the bill. It granted federal law enforcement bureaucracies a new range of surveillance powers previously considered unconstitutional by anyone who bothered to read the Fourth Amendment.
Warrantless wiretaps, secret court orders, and immediate access to the Internet history, emails, medical records, public library records and school records of every single American are now available to any agent convinced that terrorism might take place somewhere sometime.
Not a terrorist? The definition of terrorism has been conveniently expanded to include activities previously protected by the 1st amendment, such as protests in inconvenient locations or anything else that fits the vague description of “disruptive activity.”
Nope. No terrorists here.
Lost on every foam-at-the-mouth terrorist hunter who embraces this law is one simple reality: the invasive provisions of the Patriot Act apply not only to them evil terrists, but also to every single law-abiding American citizen of the United States.
Thanks, Ed Royce, for another unchecked expansion of government power.
Several years ago this blog documented the shameful saga of Fullerton’s red light cameras, which were shut down after a judge declared that the city had been operating them illegally. That was an embarrassing moment for the mystified members of city council; even more so for the city attorney who lost in court and then stuck us with the bill.
The cameras were removed, but the poles and strobes still hang over Harbor Blvd today.
Muy bonita, Fullerton.
Should the city take them down?
Nope. Please leave them up forever as permanent monuments to magnificent and expensive failure, driven by a desperate quest for new revenue. Ah, wonderful new revenue streams… usually that means some gimmick conjured up to extract more money from the beleaguered public, promoted by tireless staff (and in this case, an eager red light camera salesman) and then executed by council with little regard for external consequences, all to avoid dealing with the real problem: excessive spending.
Any way, I see no sense in tearing down those poles. None at all.
