Downtown Fullerton Archives - Page 11 of 23 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

April 2, 2012April 2, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Fullerton Was Sold 20 Years Ago And The Recall Is How We Pay For Her Emancipation

Friends, long time community activist Steve Baxter wrote a must-read letter that was published in one of Fullerton’s up-and-coming blogs, The Fullertonian. Enjoy!

For a period of time I knew the man six Fullerton officers killed last July. His name was Kelly Thomas and I liked him. As I was walking to my car in the Fullerton Ralphs shopping center, a man, when seeing my “Justice for Kelly” button, said to me that if I cared this much about Kelly when he was alive, he would still be alive. I was pretty baffled at that statement, but then I saw the “NO RECALL! FULLERTON IS NOT FOR SALE” sticker on the back of this big boy’s Jazzy Jeff scooter and it all made imperfect sense. “Hey brother,” I yelled, “just because you …..” That’s as far as I got before I knew it was not worth it. Besides, you don’t look very dignified yelling at someone who is relegated to a scooter.

I know that Kelly was loved by his family, and I know that Kelly was welcome to stay at any number of relatives’ homes, and for periods of time, he did. I know what six of our police officers did to him, and I know how Dick Jones, Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley, the three councilmen now facing a recall, reacted publicly to his death. Their lack of urgency, their lack of outrage, and the insensitive treatment to Kelly’s family, after what in my mind may be the most shameful 10 minutes in this city’s history, rises well beyond what even I expected from these three men. I’ve witnessed their disdain for the victim and his supporters firsthand at many council meetings. I witnessed it again watching TV interviews, where their ignorance was broadcast across the county. These old mens’ desperate need for order trumped any need for truth. They lied and tried to spin the story at every opportunity, at times to ridiculous proportions. Dick Jones even tried to diminish Kelly’s injuries by saying he had seen worse in Vietnam. When the DMZ becomes the go-to reference point for downtown Fullerton, we have a serious problem. In light of this, the “NO RECALL! FULLERTON IS NOT FOR SALE” signs mean nothing to me.

Read the rest of “Fullerton Was Sold 20 Years Ago And The Recall Is How We Pay For Her Emancipation” on theFullertonian.com

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

More Mayhem In Doc Heehaw’s Crazy Wild West Show!!

by The Fullerton Harpoon168 Comments

Last fall anti-recallers wanted folks to believe that everything in Fullerton’s great and it was just a wholesome family town. Of course the facts are that City Councilmembers Bankhead, Jones and McKinley have turned downtown Fullerton into an all night free for all of drugged-up, boozing, fighting, defecating thugs from who knows where. And of course an out-of-control gang of badged thugs was deployed to try to keep the other thugs in line.

All of this is just a long preamble to advertise the fact that another shooting took place in Downtown Fullerton early this morning, in the parking structure in the 100 block of east Wilshire Avenue.

Who benefits from this mayhem besides the liquor peddlers? Ask Bankhead or Jones or McKinley next time you see them.

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Bankhead and The Great McDonald’s Leap Forward

by admin49 Comments

For those who really and truly want added proof of the fiscal irresponsibility of City Councliman Don Bankhead, here he is casting his vote to pay $6,000,000 to move a perfectly good McDonald’s restaurant about 200 feet to the east.

Bankhead’s only arguments? One, that he’s already wasted a bunch of money on this titanic Redevelopment boondoggle; and two, that without the relocation the titanic Redevelopment boondoggle might be harder to build!

Fortunately (somewhat) wiser heads prevailed, although nobody in City Hall ever admitted that the monstrous “Fox Block” was just a plaything for the Redevelopment staff, a source of government handouts to the so-called ‘developer,” and had absolutely nothing to do with the restoration of the historic Fox Theater.

Really and truly, Bankhead has been supporting massive boondoggles, huge corporate subsidies and crony capitalism for the better part of 25 years. High time to hit the road.

March 27, 2012December 12, 2016Brick Veneer, Fake Old, And Other Horrors

Slidebar’s Noise Assault: Is It Even Legal?

by admin189 Comments

Ah, late night music in downtown Fullerton. The louder it gets, the more people show up. And at the Slidebar, the party rocks on every night of the week.

Sure, it’s fun if you’re visiting from the 909 on a Thursday night. But to the rest of the public, nonstop amplified outdoor music is known as something else: a Public Nuisance.

Here’s what the Fullerton Municipal Code’s Limitations on Permitted Uses section has to say about music on outdoor patios:

Accessory Outdoor Dining or Patio.

15.30.040.I.7.c.ii. No amplified music or amplified entertainment is permitted outdoors, except recorded background music for dining establishments wherein normal conversation is not impeded; no music or entertainment shall be permitted on a patio past 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

So whose job it is to police the downtown bars and night clubs that have patios with outdoor amplified music?

March 26, 2012March 26, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Banners expressing love for Fullerton draw praise…

by Joe Sipowicz158 Comments

Bannerlove — Makes ya feel good. Oops, watchit there, just step over the bodies and the civil rights!

Thus spaketh Lou Ponsi who seems to be doing his level best to avoid real news and even to parrot the nonsense peddled by the anti-recall crowd.

Ponsi seems really impressed with banners stating how much folks love Fullerton. Ponsi doesn’t seem interested that the operation is the brainchild of downtown businesses who have profited off of the City Council’s crazy wild west show; nor in the irony that these essentially anti-recall messages are hung on public property. No, that would take independence and intelligence, traits that Ponsi simply doesn’t possess.

Of course Ponsi echoes the notion that the one and only problem is the minor altercation last summer that left Kelly Thomas’ brains in a Transportation Center gutter, and of course he ignores the reality a phone call made by – a downtown business, that may very well have an I Love Fullerton banner in front of it.

Ponsi2 — Really? I don't know anything about that stuff. Wow!

Lou must have a short or self-serving memory if he can’t remember:

FPD cop Todd Major – convicted of fraud, 2011.

FPD cop Kelly Mejia – plead guilty to grand larceny, 2011

FPD cop Albert Rincon – accused of a dozen sexual batteries while in uniform causing a rebuke from a federal judge and a $350,000 settlement (so far), but actually “separated” for something else (jeez how bad could that have been), 2006-2011.

FPD cop Vincent Mater – “separated” after destroying evidence in a Fullerton jail suicide, identified as an untrustworthy “Brady cop” and suspected of a roll in the false identification in the Emanuel Martinez case. Charged by the District Attorney,2011.

FPD cop “Sonny” Saliceo who through laziness or malice, permitted or encouraged the mis-identification of Emanuel Martinez who subsequently spent five months in jail.

FPD employee April Baughman who was recently arrested on charges of theft from the FPD property room over a period of two years. 2012.

A lawsuit by Veth Mam against the police department and FPD cop Kenton Hampton for a laundry list of civil rights violations and false prosecution. 2011.

A lawsuit by Andrew Trevor Clarke against FPD cop Cary Tong and half the FPD for a laundry list of civil rights violations. 2012.

A lawsuit by Edward Miguel Quinonez against the FPD and Kenton Hampton for even more civil rights violations. 2011

And let’s not forget the eventual civil and civil rights suits against the balance of the FPD Six (including our old friends Kenton Hampton and Joe Wolfe). 2011.

Then in non-police matters there’s the little problem of the City Council giving away land worth millions for free to campaign contributors; and giving away huge subsidies to the bag man who runs the anti-recall campaign. 1996-2012.

And finally let us recall the biggest scam of all – the perpetuation of the illegal water tax for fifteen long years that went, in part, to pay the salaries and pensions of the very city council that looked the other way year after year. 1996-2012.

Hey, Lou? Any of this ring a bell? What a punk.

March 24, 2012March 24, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Oh, Damn. Another FPD Brutality Lawsuit in Federal Court

by Joe Sipowicz68 Comments

Pat-McKinley-Cops-300x206 — You lookin' at me?

Nearly a year ago FFFF started what would turn into a long string of investigations into the FPD Culture of Corruption by telling the tale of a young man who claimed that he was beaten and abused by Fullerton cops during a downtown arrest.

There were plenty of skeptics here, and there was a barrage of personal abuse leveled against the man by anonymous FPD goons. At least there was until we published the results of an internal investigation, here, in which at least part of the victim’s assertions were confirmed.

Well last week another of Pat McKinley’s chickens emerged on the horizon, coming home to roost. Andrew Trevor Clarke filed a federal civil suit against Fullerton PD employees Tong, Contino, Hampton, Bolden, Salazar and Sellers.

Read the complaint

Sellers? Good call, but I wonder why Clarke didn’t include former Chief, present councilman Pat McKinley. After all, he will proudly tell us he hired all of ’em.

All I can say is the lawsuits are piling up so fast we’re going to need wings to stay above the legal paperwork. And I wonder how much this one is gonna cost us.

March 20, 2012March 21, 2012About Us

Big Downtown Developer (Me) Finishes Historic Project

by admin94 Comments

After many years, and many splinters, my brother George and I recently finished our latest project.

For those that bought into the anti-recall propaganda that I’m some sort big-time developer, well here you go: I moved a 375 sq.ft. house about 200 feet and restored it!

To read more about my big downtown development project please read the article by The OC Weekly’s Brandon Ferguson, here.

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

City Council Candidate Jane Rands Identifies Corruption

by admin51 Comments

Kudos to Recall candidate Jane Rands for correctly identifying repuglican bagman and fixer Dick Ackerman as the motive force behind the St. Anton Partners project’s meteoric rise from number six to number one. The Three Bald Tires clearly intend to reward the leader of the anti-recall team with a juicy multi-million dollar subsidy for his client.

Is this a quid pro quo? Of course it is. The Three Dithering Dinosaurs have been handing out freebies to their supporters and campaign contributors for years.

You see, in Fullerton the Culture of Corruption extends beyond the walls of police headquarters.

March 12, 2012March 12, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

“Dick” Jones: We’re All Socialists Now!

by Joe Sipowicz61 Comments

Listen to Ol’ Country Doc Jones babble on last Tuesday about how evahbody’s sub-sa-dized nowadays, so con’sarn it, why not go ahead and give his buddy Dick Ackerman a big ol’ Texas-sized hunk a’ public funds. At about the three minute mark HeeHaw goes on a rant about how “everything in this country has got subsidies.”

Is it really possible that this yokel doesn’t know the difference between the words “transit” and “transient?” Apparently not. And also note the idiocy that Ackerman’s project is good ’cause it’s “mixed use” – it might contain “market rate” apartments. I”ll let that assertion go since it’s not even worth challenging.

We now know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this knucklehead really and truly believes in crony capitalism; that he believes in top down master plans that result in coercion and taxpayer subsidy; and that he believes American life necessarily revolves around gummint subsidy checks – including the millions he’s handing over to the mastermind of the anti-recall campaign – his good ol’ buddy “Dick” Ackerman.

Dick Jones is a socialist!

February 17, 2012February 17, 2012Chronic Failure

The Fullerton Crime Wave

by Joe Sipowicz69 Comments

Dr. Demento — Gummint makes problems; gummint makes problems worse. QED.

Yesterday Grover Cleveland posted on how the Fullerton City Council’s creation of a boozy mess downtown that led to the emergence of an FPD goon squad to quell the crime wave that the council, including Recall targets Jones, Bankhead and McKinley, had created.

The only problem was that the FPD goon squad didn’t solve anything; it actually added to the crime wave!

Here’s a reminder video: a late night confrontation between a thug and some thugs in uniform. An innocent bystander was beat up and arrested. His offense? Capturing the event on video. Later he was put on trial for assaulting a cop, to which Fullerton cops Kenton Hampton and Frank Nguyen swore on oath in a court of law. It never happened, but that didn’t stop the FPD and the DA from trying to put an innocent man in prison. Now we have two more Brady cops, if they weren’t Brady cops already, and a nasty, expensive law suit waiting in the wings