Brandon Ferguson at the Weekly is citing KPCC that cites other media outlets in passing along the news that all six of the Fullerton cops who participated in the beating death of Kelly Thomas last July have been given notices of termination.
This means that Craig, Blatney and Hampton have now joined the list that previously included Ramos, Wolfe and Cicinelli.
Of course official announcements are not forthcoming from the City since we the lowly taxpayers are not to know which cops are fired (if ever) and what for.
Since the sources have been cantilevered out there pretty far, I’ll withhold saying anything else until I can touch base with my source inside the FPD.
In the meantime, reflect on this: after the killing these cops were not disciplined; they were left on the streets by a leaderless department and a chummy city council majority – Jones, Bankhead and McKinley. Wolfe, Blatney, Hampton and Craig have been on paid leave since August, costing us several hundred thousand dollars.
The metamorphosis to an oxygen breathing life form was slow and painful...
We’ve just traced a string of obnoxious comments to an operation called Delta Partners. What is Delta Partners? It’s a front for the sleazoid repuglican bagman Dave “Dick” Ellis who tried to sell the OC Fair to himself, who hired Dick Ackerman as an illegal lobbyist to grease it, and who was later hired by Ackerman last fall to rip off the Three Dim Bulbs in a useless anti-recall campaign.
What a guy! Here are his comments, a pathetic amalgam of illiteracy and ignorance. Enjoy the wit and wisdom of Dave Ellis, intellectual voice of the anti-recall:
Nice move Bruce. Nothing like convicting them before a jury does. Remember you work for all citizens of Fullerton. Your job is to represent ALL citizens. I want my Council Members to make decisions based on FACTS, not things you make up in your head. You still claim there is a cover up by the PD, yet you’ve done nothing to prove it. Why is that? I’ve heard you say the police reports were doctored, yet have you seen them? Can you prove they were?
Stop running your mouth unless you can back it up with FACTS! I want my Council Members to think before they speak. The problem is you can’t speak without Bushala or Thompson putting words in your mouth.
I’m worth millions, I’ve had a successful medical career, I’ve served my country with honor, I’ve raised a wonderful family, and I to sit hear and listen to these FUCKING IDIOTS.
Whitacre you grandstanding fool. Had the video been released when you requested there would have been no audio. Just a grainy indecipherable mess that proved nothing. They audio was added in preparation for the preliminary hearing. When the DA tells you to refrain from stupid publicity stunts he does so for a reason. Let your Legislative buddies do the grandstanding, they’re much better at it.
At tonight’s Fullerton City Council meeting the City Attorney announced that the council had unanimously voted to pay $1,000,000 to Cathy Thomas, the mother of Kelly, who was beaten to death by members of the FPD who bashed in his face, and ribs, tased him, sat on his chest, and then stood around while the homeless man died in the gutter.
A million bucks. It’s hard to begrudge the Thomas family of the settlements that are coming their way in this obscene killing. And yet for those of us who have criticized the obvious Culture of Corruption in the FPD it rankles to contemplate the fact that we are responsible for the bill; and that other enormous payouts are coming our way.
Pat McKinley created this unholy mess as police chief while Don Bankhead and Dick Jones sat on their fat behinds all these years as the department festered under the incompetent and indifferent leadership. We get the bill. And Acting Chief Hughes can only act like nothing is wrong, even as Joe Wolfe, the apparent instigator of the Thomas murder breathes the air of a free man on paid vacation.
First there was the sexual battery cases against Albert Rincon. Those cost $350,000. We now know the Thomas murder will probably cost us at least $3,000,000. And there’s no telling what the other violent and criminal episodes perpetrated by thugs like Kenton Hampton, et. al., will cost.
I also note that once again PatMcPension voted to approve a settlement to make on of his embarrassing problems go away.
Really folks, haven’t you seen enough of this rogue’s gallery? The answer is crystal clear. RECALL.
I just came across this post I ran last August. It’s all about how some chucklehead named Davis Barber posted a story on his local blog about Richard Fritschie – who popped up almost on cue to spin a yarn that exonerated the cops in the beating death of Kelly Thomas. After that we have heard nothing more from Mr. Fritschie. I wonder why not. I also still wonder, as did “Mark S.” how this “witness” was put in contact with Barber in the first place, real convenient, like.
For some reason I can’t get the smug, rotund countenance of Sergeant Andrew Goodrich out of my mind ever since Mark S. put it there.
– Mr. Peabody
I just received an e-mail from one of our Friends that has to do with a new-found witness to the Kelly Thomas bludgeoning death. I’ll let our correspondent do the talking:
Enjoying a latte at the Downtown Plaza.
Hey, FFFF, over at the Fullerton Stories website they have a post about some person calling himself Richard Fritschie (image attached) who claims that he saw the Thomas homicide and that justifies the horrible beating and torture Kelly received at the hands of the FPD. Mr. Ritschie claims to be a street person and an itinerant jewelry peddler.
The narrative was both unconvincing and evidently self-serving. He repeats the specious claims by others that if Kelly hadn’t “resisted” he would be alive today, a completely unfounded and irrelevant assertion. He also claims that he has always been nicely treated by FPD. Of course the fortuitous appearance of this character eight weeks after the attack is suspicious in itself.
The most distasteful part of this post is the headline New Witness in Thomas Case Defends Police. I know that this website is dedicated to the usual, hollow happy talk about Fullerton; you know the thing: Chamber of Commerce/City Hall boosterism. It’s proprietor, Davis Barber, recently published a post in which he implied we should be thankful that the City provides us with a forum for public comment. But this latest effort really takes the cake.
After a bit of reflection I began to wonder how and why this Fritschie fellow would even get in touch with Fullerton Stories, or vice versa. Then it hit me: FPD or the DA made the hook-up. That would be par for police spokesman Andrew Goodrich’s course: selective and self-serving leaking of information while simultaneously telling the public that we must be patient and wait for the fair and objective “investigation” by Tony Rackauckas, the guy who has never prosecuted an Orange County cop for excessive force!
Anyway, keep up the good work FFFF! The truth hurts, but the truth will set Fullerton free.
At the OC Weekly Nick Schou has uncovered an old article about the militarization of the Fullerton Police Department under Pat McKinley. The seminal event of the story takes place in 1997 and describes a military-style invasion of the Latino Maple neighborhood in response to a drive-by shooting along Harbor Boulevard.
Me and my gang are gonna kick your ass. And you're gonna like it.
Since McKinley had cut his fangs on SWAT deployments up in Los Angeles it was just a matter of time before the bald badass brought his methods and manpower from the LAPD to Fullerton. The trouble with militarization, apart from the monetary cost of deployment, is the inevitable occupation mentality, and the concomitant “us versus them” mindset. When you watch the Veth Mam video this comes through loud and clear.
15 years later many of McKinley’s scrofulous chickens have now come home to roost. I have to wonder how many incidents in Fullerton over the years were escalated into confrontations by the cops themselves. And I have to wonder what all of this is going to cost us.
What can you say about an organization that is so corrupt that it not only tolerates, but has seemed to encourage police brutality?
What’s that you say? You say that the people in charge of it are responsible for the actions of those they hire? And who is responsible for putting fine gentlemen like these on the streets of Fullerton with badges, tasers and guns?
Um, okay.
Well, how about Pat McKinley – the man who matter-of-factly acknowledged he hired them all?
Mess with me and you'll get a visit from my crew...
Or how about the loud-mouthed buffoon who set loose his goon squad to be “hard, tough, and mean” in order to clean up the mess he made in Downtown Fullerton:
Will you please shut up!?
And then of course there’s the former Fullerton cop who’s been around so long that there were only 46 states when he was born, and whose blind eye has been cast upon the misdeeds of his police department.
Jurassic In Every Way
Well, Friends, take your pick there’s plenty of blame to go around. And don’t forget to thank yourself if you were one of the people who voted for any of these three miscreants.
Here’s the infamous clip of Fullerton City Councilman Pat McPension opining freely on CNN last summer, even though he claims now that he kept his mouth shut on orders of his attorney. It seems that Pat has a selective memory.
Take a close look at the video as he tries to spin his way out of the PR nightmare his gang had created for the City of Fullerton.
Pay particular attention to his reaction as he is asked if he has seen the video. He says no. Do you believe him? I don’t. Note how he believes it is “maybe two officers deeply involved;” how it’s not a flashlight, it’s a taser handle. I think he lied on national TV; I think he did see the video. He hired them. He trained them. He watched the video with them!
Also enjoy his slight pause as he reflects on the happy days of big, heavy flashlights “that were good.”
Here’s a post from last August that needs to be rerun. For pure fatheadedness and insensitivity you can’t beat Doc HeeHaw.
Of course now the cat is all the way out of the bag and we know this swine was covering up for a gang of thugs in a corrupt, out-of-control police department.
– Joe Sipowicz
Crazy is as crazy does...
In case you missed it, here is our own lovable mayor, Doc HeeHaw explaining his confusion as to what killed Kelly Thomas.
Insensitivity? Stupidity? All around assholishness? Yep that’s our good ol’ boy HeeHaw.
After being postponed twice the Preliminary Hearing in the case against Fullerton cops Manny Ramos and jay Cicinelli for the killing of homeless schizophrenic Kelly Thomas last July. Ten months have elapsed since that hot, fateful night.
Ramos is charged with second degree murder; Cicinelli with manslaughter.
The purpose of the hearing is for a judge to view evidence presented by the District Attorney and decide whether the charged should be bound over for trial.
All sorts of questions will be answered in the next day or two: will the DAs original charges fold as some have predicted? Will a cop-cozy judge say Ramos and Cicinelli were just doing their jobs? On the political side, how will more media exposure effect the Recall of the Three Bald Tires, occurring as it will with the delivery of absentee ballots?
For those who can make it, the hearing will take place this morning at 8:30 in Courtroom C1 in the Superior Court building, in downtown Santa Ana.
