Here is an interview with a young man who was at the Transportation Center the night of July 5th, 2011. He was waiting for a bus.
His story has the ring of truth to it, and is interesting because it suggests several interesting facts. First, according to this account an “Hispanic” officer had Kelly seated on a curb and had his baton in his hands during some kind of discussion that lasted several minutes, at least; at which point Kelly got up and ran. He was quickly caught from behind, punched repeatedly and spent the rest of his “altercation” with FPD face down. There was no death-struggle between a superhuman drug-crazed freak and six officers grimly fighting for their lives.
There’s is no doubt from this account that the first two cops had difficulty subduing Thomas – most likely because they couldn’t get both hands cuffed behind his back. As the witness suggests, this could have been because the first officer was on top of Kelly from behind and Kelly’s arm was pinned beneath him. After that it was just a gang mugging.
Yahoo News led off today with the doings in little Fullerton, California, here, related to the stories of police brutality against Veth Mam and of course, Kelly Thomas. Here’s somebody called Mike Ritto, President of the Downtown Business Association, moaning about the hurt put on local retailers:
“They’re telling people, ‘Don’t go to Fullerton.’ Nobody here did anything wrong. Why should the retailers suffer?” said Ritto, speaking of the protesters who have packed public forums and marched outside the police station every Saturday for a month.
Ahem. Nobody here did anything wrong? Why should the retailers suffer? Uh, dunno, Mike. Maybe it’s the bad karma associated with devil’s deal downtown Fullerton has made with an out of control police force.
I can mindread, and yes they thought they had the right man!
Naturally we hear from FPD spokeszit Andrew Goodrich, who, inexplicably, remains spokeszit despite a string of lies and half-truths that would have made a NAZI Ministry of Propaganda functionary’s heart sing:
Goodrich, the police spokesman, said allegations that the officers in the Mam case perjured themselves were false because they believed when they testified that they had arrested the right person.
Oh, really? False charges of perjury? Really, Andy? You really want to go there? Of course the charges are perfectly true; either that or your union pals are so f-ing incompetent that they belong in institutionalized care somewhere. Which is it?
See that guy over there? He didn't do it.
And here is Deputy DA Rebecca Reed, casually explaining that the whole Mam story told by the cops was pluasible:
“I thought it was reasonable that Veth Mam had been involved in this altercation before filming,” she said. “The video did not show the whole story.”
Say what? No, Becky, the laws of time and space were not suddenly suspended by the evil Mam. What she meant to say was: “we are told to go along with the cops story, no matter how ludicrous it might be; we have no compunction about charging and prosecuting an innocent man; we don’t give a damn about justice; my only concern is that this loss is going to hurt my record.”
From the very beginning of the Kelly Thomas beating death at the hands, Tasers, fist and feet of the Fullerton Police Department, that department’s spokeshole, Sergeant Andrew Goodrich told the public that the fateful incident was intiated with a phone call: a phone call to the dispatcher stating that somebody was breaking into cars in the vicinity of the Transportation Center.
From the get go, the story sounded absurd to people who knew Kelly Thomas and who averred that Thomas wasn’t violent or a thief. And of course to a public that has come to understand that Sergeant Goodrich seems incapable of telling the smallest bit of truth, the idea that there was a call at all became a matter of doubt.
Tellingly, the police have issued no information about this mysterious phone call and who made it, and so far they have given no indication that they have the slightest iota of evidence that anybody was breaking into cars at all.
This is important, because it lends credence to the idea that the phone call, if there was one, was made in collaboration with the police themselves. This could implicate both caller and cops in a conspiracy. A conspiracy to do what? Since the result of the incident was the bludgeoning death of a harmless man, that question is almost to horrible to contemplate. But at the very least the facts lead to the reasonable deduction that the conspiracy, if it existed, was meant to deprive Kelly Thomas of his civil rights – a violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment right, to be specific.
Of course making a false report to the police is some sort of crime (although Goodrich has yet to make an honest report to the public, which seems to be A-OK to his higher ups and the City Council). So somebody should be in big trouble for that alone.
Was there a call? If so, who made the call and why? I don’t know, but I admonish the Do-nothing DA and the Federal investigators to find out. You can bet Ron Kelly’s attorney Garo Mardirossian and his investigators will. Soon.
The other day FFFF noted the eerie silence of the offspring of former Fullerton activist Ralph Kennedy when it came to the bludgeoning murder of the homeless man, Kelly Thomas at the hands of the Fullerton Police Department. We cynically noted that Rusty Kennedy’s OC Human Relations Commission relies upon the goodwill of police departments to lobby County government to continue funding this useless organization. Sharon Kennedy, who continues to publish the moribund and yellowing Fullerton Observer seems to have lost her moral compass, too.
The Kennedy siblings are not important themselves except that they are representative of Old Liberalism in Fullerton, and its total disregard for the killing of a completely helpless human being by the cops.
Here is Rusty expending three minutes of verbal gas saying absolutely nothing and trying as hard as he can to avoid speaking the truth: that the Fullerton Police deliberately killed a harmless, mentally ill man. Enjoy the end where Mr. Kennedy offers the services of his impotent operation, as if the cops who committed this crime against Kelly Thomas simply needed some sensitivity training courtesy of the Human Relations Commission.
Rusty, like his Collaboratin’ pals, obviously have been bought and paid for. But I promise one thing. When Kennedy comes hat in hand to the Board of Supervisors next spring I will be there to help pull the financial plug on this worthless hypocrite.
FPD spokeshole Andrew Goodrich is now peddling bull so fast it has crept up over his hip waders and into his britches.
His latest rasher of shit is the story that cop Kenton Hampton roughed up and mistakenly arrested the wrong guy last October. He and his buddies cooked up a story in their reports and had the DA prosecute Veth Mam for obstruction of justice. Of course the jury saw the same video we posted here and acquitted Mam.
Goodrich’s latest fib is that the cop accidentally nabbed the wrong guy – someone who didn’t jump on a cop’s back. But anybody viewing the video knows that’s just bull. Check it out. You can see Hampton roll up and confront the crowd. Hampton clearly had no knowledge of anything that happened previous to his arrival. He set his eyes on a guy he saw video recording the altercation and hit him in the face, then starts throwing him around like a rag doll.
Goodrich wants us to believe that in the chaos of the moment the brave boys in blue picked on the wrong guy. Well that’s just a bald-face lie.
Now Mam has a lawyer. The same lawyer as the dad of FPD fatal beating victim Kelly Thomas. FPD is looking at assault and false arrest; and Fullerton’s self-insurance fund looks to get even smaller.
For some reason the DA hasn’t prosecuted the FPD liars including an officer named Frank Nguyen, for perjury, but that charge may be coming soon, although the incompetence of DA spokesholetress Susan Schroeder does not inspire confidence. Let’s hope somebody impresses upon our do-nothing DA the importance of being honest on the witness stand. After all, isn’t he telling us we can’t see the Thomas murder video because it might taint witnesses. Hah!
P.S. The DA supposedly had the video in their possession a month before the June/July trial and decided to try this dog of a case, anyway. I don’t know who made this expensive decision, but here’s the roll call of DA personnel who worked on the case at one time or another:
Poor Doc HeeHaw. There’s been so much riled-up lynch-type mob fussin’ a goin’ on that there jes’ ain’t enough grits and Jack Daniels to wash down the bitter bile thass stuck in the ol’ man’s gizzard. This mornin’ we had us some infermation that Fullerton’s Southern fried Mayor was a steppin’ down. Land O’ Goshen!
From KFI’s Steve Gregory, from Ron Thomas who jes’ had a meetin’ with the mayor.
Later on the City’s spokesgal sed it jes t’weren’t so. Should’a figgered that out r’seffs. Heehaw ain’t never done nuthin’ graceful-like.
So is he a comin’ or a goin’?
Our sources tell us that Dr. Jones is soon a headin’ outta town – to San Fransisko so’s he kin git ona croos ship that’ll haul his carcass away from all the feudin’ n’ a fightin’ so’s he kin take a gander at them glassiers and eskimoskeeters.
Looks like lawyer Garo Mardirossian has the City of Fullerton squarely in his sights. He is representing the Thomas family in the beating death of their son Kelly. Here’s the CNN interview including a snippet from Michael Gennaco. Interestingly Mr. Mardirossian is now also representing the man who was thrown around by FPD officer Kenton Hampton and subsequently jailed and wrongly prosecuted by the DA based on fraudulent evidence from the Fullerton cops. We reported about that here and here. That prosecution was rejected by a jury because the cops demonstrably perjured themselves. Garo has no apprehensions about naming Kenton Hampton as being present at both incidents. The clip is a bit long but worth viewing in its entirety.
Although it’s going to end up costing everybody in Fullerton to resolve these cases, you can bet on one thing: none of our so-called “leaders” will take personal responsibility for this total failure of civilian oversight of a police department that is manifestly out of control.
Unchained Melody…
