.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
That’s the sound of my head pounding repeatedly against the brick wall of futility and frustration.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Following many months of public protest, following many months of residents lining up at City Council meetings, begging their elected leaders for help in restoring some semblance of peace to their embattled neighborhoods, the Anaheim City Council has announced… which of these? Guess:
A) Plans to create a Citizens Oversight Committee to work with Police and get to the root of why residents feel so unsafe that they are mobbing law enforcement responders with video cameras in an attempt to ensure officers “behave” while in their area.
OR:
B) Plans to enforce “rules of decorum” for Council meetings, because they object to how rude the public has become when addressing them.
Yep…God help us…the answer is B.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the meetings have become unruly to the point of affecting productivity. The clapping, cheering, hootin’ and a’hollerin’ between speakers bogs down the transition time between speakers, riles up already hot tempers, and diminishes the credibility of speakers viewed by more conservative residents watching the meetings online. Frankly the solidarity of supporters would be more dramatically-and effectively-shown by having a pre-determined spokesperson ask others to stand if they support a specific viewpoint, rather than base a show of support on how loud the room can get. I will even go so far as to admit I do not always feel particularly safe during some portions of the meetings, as tempers flare and a few of the speakers seem…well…not quite as balanced as one might wish.
Combine that with the lack of oversight regarding security – I was permitted to waltz into Chambers pulling a roller bag (electronics) fully expecting to be searched (my husband insisted I would not be allowed in at all) yet the Police department’s only concern was whether the large carrying case would block the aisle. I know that I carried no weapons, but I have no such assurance regarding some of the other whack jobs in the room. That bothered me more than a little. On the other hand, do I want more big-brother nanny-state security?
Well, given the options available, (like listening to the public, resolving their issues, and allowing them to go on with their lives?) apparently the solution Council conjured up was to explain to the unwashed masses how things are done in polite society.
As Gail Eastman told the Register, “I think that the better we can educate our citizens, the more productive meetings we’ll have.”
Contrary to the assumption that us ignorant backwoods bumpkins simply don’t know how to behave in public, and merely need to be taught how to conduct ourselves, I would hazard a guess that most attendees at the meetings are aware of proper decorum. The escalating behavior is likely not accidental. The impression I get is that these citizens are not yelling because they do not know any better, these people are yelling because they are convinced our leaders failed to hear them the first time! When Donna Acevedo asks, “Have you heard us?!” it is not a rhetorical question! She expects – and deserves – an answer from those who asked for the privilege to represent Anaheim on that dais. That means ALL of Anaheim.
This ties in with what on the surface seems to be an unrelated interview by Voice of OC, in which an interview with APD spokesman, Sergeant Bob Dunn, shared this information:
Talk of police harassment has been aired publicly for months, often during public comments at City Council meetings. But Dunn said that the police department first became aware of the allegations when a Voice of OC reporter called.
“At this point we are looking into that allegation,” Dunn said. “If [Voice of OC reporter] Nick Gerda had not called me to tell me what their concerns are, we would not know.”
Anaheim tells the world we have one of the largest, most professional (and certainly well funded) Police forces in the nation. So how do they miss such basics? For Dunn to publicly claim he only just heard about something that has been blogged into oblivion, and the topic of multiple widely broadcast Council meetings, just smacks of embarrassment. It also smacks of untruth. Over at Matt Cunningham’s Chamber-funded AnaheimBlog, Sergant Dunn makes it sound as though these protests harassing Police personnel are well known to the department. [Link unavailable – ed.]
According to Sgt. Dunn, this has become common in that neighborhood. He mentioned a recent incident: a pursuit that ended with the police securing the vehicle, in which a firearm was found. As police secured the creme [sic-it’s Matt] scene, someone in a car with an “FTP: Film the Police” sticker circled the area, yelling obscenities and calling the officers murderers.”
Dunn described situations when officers are forced to call for backup because they are being questioned by angry residents, which diverts the officer’s attention from the incident he was called in to handle. Dunn said officers would be happy to field questions afterward.
So apparently Dunn (and his Chamber-paid spokesperson at Anaheim Blog) wants us to believe that this these Ustream videos type of confrontation happens to cops all the time, and yet he simultaneously claims to be shocked – shocked I tell you! – that the public might not be fond of each and every one of the officers on Anaheim’s streets.
“Dunn said that the police department first became aware of the allegations when a Voice of OC reporter called. “At this point we are looking into that allegation,” Dunn said. “If [Voice of OC reporter] Nick Gerda had not called me to tell me what their concerns are, we would not know.”
Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic
Is Dunn lying? Or he is simply not very good at his job, which involves keeping tabs on what is going on in the community? I am not a fan of paying good taxpayer money for either of those answers. What’s worse, if Dunn had genuinely missed those many, many citizen complaints brought publicly to City Council, his insistence that this is the first he has heard of residents opposing Police behavior tells us the City Council has failed to call for accountability from the Police Department.
Whump. Whump. Nah, not the brick wall any more, I wised up and walked away. That Whump-whump was the sound of Dunn throwing his bosses under the bus. The only way he has not heard about this is if public comments went no further than the dais at Council. I guess the answer to Donna Acevedo’s “Have you heard us?” would be…no.
The Anaheim residents lining up at the podium week after week, exhibiting the behavior their elected representatives object to, are not there with minor complaints like potholes or traffic congestion (although those are serious enough.) Their stories trigger basic fears in those of us who hear them:
- Good kids without criminal records put into the system because they stopped to play basketball with the neighbor they have known since Kindergarten – thus earning a label for “associating with known gang members.” There is no known appeals process for getting your otherwise good kid off the list, and as it’s not a criminal charge there is no obligation for a trial, sharing of evidence, or even notification that your child has been labeled in such a manner.
- Officers involved in shootings are reassigned to the same neighborhoods, where they routinely encounter the families and friends of those they shot. They are permitted to interact with witnesses in pending investigations, and those who have filed lawsuits against the City – because there’s no policy against the practice. This includes at least one officer whose case is still being reviewed for potential criminal charges by the DA – openly cruising the neighborhood where some witnesses have reportedly not yet given statements to the DA’s investigators.
- Reports of officers involved in shootings verbally harassing or threatening family members of the deceased, and allegedly making threatening statements to neighborhood leaders.
- Policies that allow bodies damaged with graphic injuries to lie on the pavement for hours, in full view of children, before being taken to the morgue.
- Reports of disrespectful handling of the deceased in view of others. Neighbors report that Joel Acevedo was stripped naked and dragged to the Coroner’s vehicle. In an area with extremely strong cultural reverence for the dead this is doubly insulting.
- Anna Drive bystanders (especially children) who witnessed friends, family, and neighbors fired upon on by Police had no way to determine officers were not using live rounds. While the information was disclosed as residents were injured instead of killed, the fear induced by that event has left otherwise innocent witnesses in need of counseling.
- Reports of officers coming to the homes of family members of the deceased, behaving in a disrespectful manner toward those not accused of any crime, with what is perceived as the apparent intent of intimidation.
- Reports of discrepancies in the District Attorney’s review of the shootings, along with what appears to be no consequence for failing to activate the expensive digital audio recorders to capture evidence of the contacts, creates doubt of the veracity of the investigations.
- Fear of conflict of interest, as Police union leader Kerry Condon serves on Council member Kris Murray’s host committee for her re-election campaign kick-off, leave many convinced she will not risk the wrath of the most powerful public employee union in the City. Records show the Anaheim Police Association has spent hundreds of thousands in independent expenditure money for their chosen candidates. What are the odds Murray (or others) will call them on the carpet for their behavior?
Are these not issues worthy of the attention of our leaders?
Notice that in none of the above complaints do I defend gang members. The abuses I’m discussing are actions against residents unfortunate enough to live in an impoverished area, infested with gangs. These residents are just as entitled to a response from the Council majority as Bill O’Connell, dare I say more so, because they live in Anaheim. Bill O’Connell fled the city, and its problems, long ago, returning only to generate paychecks.
And while we all work toward eradicating the hated gangs, the offensive actions of the Police that needlessly escalate hostilities in already tenuous areas is something well within the authority of City Council to call upon the City Manager to fix. Resolve these issues and fighting the gangs becomes all that much easier, as Police stop making unnecessary enemies of the neighbors they are supposed to be partnering with.
I know from experience that once a neighborhood feels their confidence has been betrayed by Police they will never again work with those officers, and it takes a long time to get them to work with ANY law enforcement. The APD is not helping to rebuild bridges with their heavy-handed behavior, and without that collaboration between cops and locals, the gangs will continue to grow.
Residents of low income areas rarely have experience or training in conflict resolution, and crisis management. They have their hands full trying to help their kids expunge the mental images they unwittingly stored away in their minds, seeing the aftermath of crimes they had nothing to do with. It’s the Police department that has the resources to bring in crisis management experts to help diffuse a situation that their personnel bumbled into, and I expect them to be the professional experts they claim themselves to be – that is the argument made against having citizen oversight – so prove it!
Former Mayor Curt Pringle sent out mass messaging dismissing calls for oversight, claiming those requests are “politically motivated” while the head of the Police union serves on a sitting Council member’s political campaign team. The irony – or hypocrisy – is not missed.
Union leader Kerry Condon sent out emails and robocalls, telling us there is no need for oversight from civilians. He claims that while serving over 350,000 people in this community the Police department only logged 19 complaints. I could come up with that many complaints in one City Council meeting, much less in one year total. The numbers cited clearly show the APD-and by extension the City Council, do not see these statements during Public Comments as legitimate complaints, to be logged, and investigated.
This is the ultimate tragedy of our current leadership. They have failed to understand what it is that constituents are saying in their allotted 3 minutes. We’re not there for our amusement, or because we like the attention, our aim is not even to annoy politicians (as much as their egos believe this is the reason for crowds being there.) The public is there because our situation has become unbearable, and because filing a complaint through APD is either too intimidating – or has been done and ignored – and citizens have come to City Council for help as their last resort. These candidates run on a platform of public safety, then when elected, turn away from the very people who elected them when public safety issues become political hot potatoes. The good news is, those who elected the leaders can unelect them if they do not feel heard.
Our City Council needs to resolve these issues, and let the people – good, hard working people not involved with gangs but stuck living with the consequences of gangs and their interaction with APD – let the people of Anaheim know they have been heard and are valued. Then I’ll bet that the obscenities and shouting matches drop off faster than they would from any enforcement of rules of decorum.
(BTW – Greg Diamond may wish to chime in, but I thought REQUIRING speakers to fill out speakers cards had been ruled illegal?)
Whump! There it is!
(I’m just going to spare anyone who doesn’t get the reference an explanation.)
Thank you for the edit, Vern. You always find photos I would never have thought of. Nothing about the rules of decorum is on the just-posted Agenda for next week’s Council meeting. However, Gail was very adamant about enacting those guidelines, so i wonder if they are simply reminding us of the rules already in place, rather than adopting-or upgrading-into new rules?
I am concerned about the “required” speakers cards mentioned in the news article, and while aspects of the identify-yourself-and-be-nice-to-us rulebook end up in court now and then, it appears to generally fall into the catch-all category for open meetings, but I cannot find a specific precedent for proving unconstitutionality. Any lawyers out there?
The two Hillbilly pics were yours though – and I wouldn’ta thought of those!
“Any lawyers out there?”
I’m on it.
I agree.
Requiring speaker cards is a weapon used by corrupt politicians to curb free speech. It is sometimes difficult to get a point across in three minutes. But when several public comment speakers are able to explain an injustice by speaking after each other, their arguments can become clear and concise.
Speaker cards allow these corrupt officials to break up continuous subject speakers by scheduling unrelated individuals (The Reverent Cecil) to intervene and interrupt their message.
These disgusting Disney controlled council members, such as the horrible Gail Eastman, are using the council meeting after Memorial Day, (the day we honor those who died to give us free speech), to impliment their new policy to chill our free speech.
I’m most familiar with the procedures in Fullerton and Irvine and the Board of Supervisors, where the speaker cards are numbered and speakers are taken in numerical order, which does allow people to maintain a consistent theme across speeches. Is Anaheim considering some other method? I can’t imagine how they would try to justify it.
It is so depressing to me that 5 fairly intelligent people on the Anaheim Council can have such a disconnect with the community that surrounds them. This community IS crying out and no one is listening. The only that seems to have any compassion at all is Mayor Tait.
When the people of the community come to you screaming in pain and your response is they are not polite enough…..It is just so unbelievable.
Is it any surprise that those listening to this travesty of justice consider them cold, heartless, calculating. Just another politician with a lack of ethics or compassion.
This city and this community deserves better.
Kathleen, what you just said needs to be repeated at Council, please. And then it needs to go on a campaign mailer. Beautifully worded, thank you.
I am not even angry so much as I am sad. How do they simply not get it? How do you miss the heartbreak that spills out week after week?
I will never, ever, to my dying day forget the first time Donna Acevedo spoke at Council, that she had to fight a crowd and stand in line to wait her turn in order to speak to these arrogant people, was dehumanizing. I was SO proud of the Mayor for asking her to please stay and finish her thoughts when the 3 minutes were gone. I just could not imagine being in that place, to have this public setting as the only venue to share with the only authority you know of, and to be forced to fit your grief into 3 minutes, so that someone behind you gets the chance to talk about parking permits.
When that horrid badge bunny gets up to speak and demands extra time because the mothers get extra time, it makes me physically ill. No comparison, and apparently no compassion. Yes, Mayor Tait does genuinely care about Anaheim and her people, and he is abused constantly by these monsters who are convinced they know what is best for us and he is just in the way. Please drop him a note of encouragement, he is in the trenches with us.
Kathleen, you did a wonderful job at Council tonight. Thank you!
I’m listening to you live right now, at the Anaheim Council meeting, you’re great!
HAHA Diamond just kicked ass … this whole meetings great so far….
I don’t think that they were expecting to hear the “don’t destroy evidence” bit. It’s a fair request/demand, though.
The hard posture of the majority of the city council and the police association has increased the frustration of many. Addressing the reasonable complaints listed by Cynthia would diffuse the volatility of the relationship between ADP and affected neighborhoods.
Could Rusty Kennedy and his Human Relations Commission intervene, this time advancing the concerns and fears of these neighborhoods?
Could Loretta Sanchez, Tom Daly, Shawn Nelson, Janet Nguyen, Scott Baugh, Todd Spitzer talk to their colleagues in the city council to listen to these concerns?
Could Gustavo Arellano organize a campaign of celebrities, writers, artists, academics to demand that the APD listen and change the described practices?
These interventions will not substitute the current efforts of the affected and/ or concerned residents, but it could help until new council members willing to heal the city are elected.
Ricardo — I think that, since OC Human Relations made another sales pitch before the council recently (and are funded by APD) no…they would not be ideal to ‘intervene’ in terms of advancing the concerns/fears of Anaheim’s barrios.
Hi Gabriel, Yes, I am aware of the OCHR funding ties to the APD, and of the limitations this imposes on its role, which reached its lowest point at the Anna Drive neighborhood. Nevertheless, they are still an institution with recognition and appeal. I believe Somos Anaheim and Edward James Olmos participated in the recent OCHR award ceremony.
If Rusty Kennedy could assist in having the questioned policemen reassigned to other duties, areas, then that would be great. I will send him Cynthia’s article in a certified mail, and ask him to intervene addressing the neighbors’ concerns. It could be wishful thinking, pero nada se pierde . It is worth the try.
Ricardo Toro wrote:
> If Rusty Kennedy could assist in having the questioned policemen
> reassigned to other duties, areas, then that would be great. I
> will send him Cynthia’s article in a certified mail, and ask him to
> intervene addressing the neighbors’ concerns. It could be wishful
> thinking, pero nada se pierde . It is worth the try.
I’m sorry, asking Kennedy to be involved in any aspects of this matter is incredibly stupid.
Dear Duane,
Please keep the focus on the current pressing and relevant issues. The issue is how to change the practices of the APD in the barrios. I will let you if Kennedy responds or not. You may be right, it could be incredibly stupid, but worth the try.
Hi Ricardo:
> Please keep the focus on the current pressing and relevant issues.
> The issue is how to change the practices of the APD in the barrios.
> I will let you if Kennedy responds or not. You may be right, it could
> be incredibly stupid, but worth the try.
No, this issue is quite pressing and relevant given there is no lack of evidence showing that OC Human Relations is in bed with the Anaheim Police Department. They can’t be trusted to be fair and impartial in *any* matters pertaining to alleged police misconduct. I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I plan to release more information about this incredibly shady relationship on my Anaheim Investigator blog soon. I haven’t posted everything I have yet.
If you want to contact Rusty Kennedy, be my guest. You’re certainly entitled to do so. But if this scoundrel sticks his nose into these matters, I suspect he will be met with a very hostile response from more than quite a few residents in these affected working-class communities. Getting OC Human Relations involved is analogous to pouring gasoline on a fire; this organization’s ties to police are widely known throughout Anaheim now.
Edward James Olmos is a vendido! He celebrity shilled for Prop 38 last November and was photographed flying in a private jet with Jan Brewer! I don’t care how many Mexican-American movies he’s been in! ha.
I didn’t favor Prop 38, but I don’t think that people who favored it are necessarily sellouts. (Zealots with misplaced priorities, more likley.) And for all you know, he was traveling with Jan Brewer to lobby her to adopt more humane policies. Of course, I don’t know that to be true — but you don’t know it to be false, either. Extrapolating wildly from a photo of two people, as you do, is bad logic (and bad journalism.)
What? Did someone say something? I thought I may have heard some mild bloviating…oh well.
You used to be above this. I presume.
“Edward James Almost” was called out as such by Ricardo Sanchez, poet laureate of Aztlan, in the early 90’s. Nothing new.
You can’t enlighten me about my own people.
Well, OK then. That’s definitive.
Congratulations on winning the support of all those who favor the reconquista of the Southwestern United States (though, to be fair, with the intent of creating a new independent nation of Aztlan rather than returning it to Mexico) to the cause of justice for Latinos — or, let me go back and use the term I grew up with, Chicanos. I’m sure that they were on the fence on this one. Your bold attacks against Edward James Olmos may well be what makes the difference in securing victory.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go engage in some actual politics.
(By the way, not that I’m asking for any particular reason, but is Google Translate correct in identifying presumido as the Spanish translation of poseur? It also offers “afectado” and “echón,” and I want to be sure to get this one right.)
Callate guey! Edward James Almost is a vendido to all who have been paying attention for a long time (hell, he did a spot for the OC Human Relations Gala this year — which held as its title sponsor the Disneyland Resort! … you know, the evil mouse ears you’re doing a two-part bloviation on.)
Way to sound like a CCIR member too by conflating my mere mention of Aztlan with a literal reconquest political agenda! Haha.
You grew up with the term Chicanos…eh? How quaint. It’s no relic. We still use it.
How’s the political situation in Brea? Boring much? Not enticing or deserving of your laser like analysis?
(1) Brea is generally well run, by generally moderate Republicans. I’d like to see it produce more Democratic votes, but as OC cities go it’s not really the highest priority.
(2) I’ve never said that the Mouse is Evil. I just think that the Mouse is very, very hungry.
(3) Here is some information I just researched about the prevalence of the term “Chicano” and kindred terms, according to El Google.
I’d say that it was comparatively much more prevalent back in the 70s, at least in LA. I never said that the term was obsolete; that’s your straw man (or misinterpretation, whichever.)
(4) So you mention Aztlan, I take your statement at face value, and it’s somehow my fault? Why are you even here, Gabriel?
Y’all are to Anaheim what Lib OC is to SanTana.
I rarely comment here anymore, so don’t fret on that tip, Greg Diamante!
I think the meaning of that would be that the Lib OC guys meddle in a town that ain’t theirs, as me and Greg do?
Don’t forget though, you’re commenting on a Cynthia Ward post. Not to mention we carry posts by Duane and Ricardo, and I literally spend half my time in Anaheim these days…
Actually, I am a little insulted by this. If Gustavo is going to send someone to assassinate my character, at least he should have enough respect not to send someone armed with a popgun.
Sorry, but the notion that a person writing or commenting on a blog can’t write or comment on events in cities other than the one that person lives in is patently absurd. Says who?
Blog writers at OC Weekly routinely write and comment on events in towns they don’t live in (recent example, Gustavo writing about the fire pits on Navel Gazing). The thought that his opinion in any way lacks credibility because he doesn’t live in HB or CDM is absurd.
Present your arguments on whatever topic, regardless of where you live. Readers can take those opinions at face value and respond accordingly.
GSR, get your self-righteous head out of your arse.
Ricardo Toro wrote:
> Could Rusty Kennedy and his Human Relations Commission intervene,
> this time advancing the concerns and fears of these neighborhoods?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Rusty Kennedy, Executive Director of OC Human Relations, is the *last* person you want to invite into these working-class Mexican communities. As I have already pointed out, there is a considerable amount of evidence showing he is far more preoccupied about lining his own pockets with money from the Anaheim Police Department than addressing the “concerns and fears of these neighborhoods,” which he doesn’t give a damn about.
Besides the fact OC Human Relations has received $67,955 from Anaheim Police since July 2006, last year Kennedy trotted out former Police Chief John Welter at the home of a wealthy Laguna Beach donor to boast about their “partnership” in pacifying the darker-skinned folks in Anna Drive. The evidence I’ve uncovered makes it clear: Kennedy has a financial stake in aligning himself with the interests of the powerful, not the powerless.
See the following links for additional details:
http://anaheiminvestigator.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/keeping-the-rabble-in-line-oc-human-relations-received-special-5000-payment-from-anaheim-police-chief-as-reward-for-pacifying-angry-anna-drive-residents/
http://anaheiminvestigator.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/partners-in-power-kennedy-had-anaheim-police-chief-speak-at-home-of-wealthy-laguna-beach-donor-2/
Yes, chances are that RK and his commission may not be welcome in the working class neighborhoods. He could though assist Chief Quezada to reassign the questioned cops. The OCHR continues to assist community groups in the city and it has awarded SOMOS ANAHEIM a recognition:
http://www.ochumanrelations.org/human-relations-awards/
I would think that this organization may be asking the commission to look into this issue.
On a side note, I am old enough to have met Rusty’s dad, and the man was a champion of the common people. Advancing the concerns of the most vulnerable and being able to make changes in OC has not been an easy task. Rusty got lost navigating these waters, as your investigation has revealed.
I hope that you have been investigating the business relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and the blog operated by Matt Cunningham. His one-sided outlook has overall not helped to identify and resolve the issues in our city. He keeps evading the question whether he gets compensated by business groups and politicians or not. This is relevant as our issues and political discussion are greatly being fueled by the interest of the groups allegedly compensating him,and it is not being disclosed, it is not transparent. It seems that these ties have been confirmed already.
Looking forward to your investigations. Thanks Duane.
Hi Ricardo:
I personally knew Ralph and Natalie Kennedy when they were alive. I did volunteer work for the Fullerton Observer many years ago.
And you are most certainly correct: Rusty, his son, “got lost navigating these waters.”
Cynthia,
You are welcome to use my words on ANY literature that will help turn this community around. I am fearful for the summer. I work in this city for the children and their families. They deserve better than this from the people who should know better, the members of the city council.
Cynthia, Vern:
I realize pointing out the poor quality-control at OJ is a lost cause, but…
Cynthia attributes this paragraph to me:
“Dunn described situations when officers are forced to call for backup because they are being questioned by angry residents, which diverts the officer’s attention from the incident he was called in to handle. Dunn said officers would be happy to field questions afterward.”
I didn’t write that. It’s not even in my post – the link to which isn’t “unavailable”; it’s just that Vern is afraid to link to Anaheim Blog (where I allow you to freely vent your hallucinatory spleen). Here it is: http://anaheimblog.net/2013/05/23/anaheim-in-wonderland-explain-again-how-the-police-are-to-blurt/
What were you saying about an “echo chamber,” Vern?
Wow Matthew, your entire article about Anaheim in Wonderland is so much BS I can’t see straight! Please allow me to introduce myself as I LIVE on Guinida Lane along with my entire family. I’m a single [white – ed.] mom come to Guinida Lane from Thousand Oaks where I was displaced due to the financial crisis in 2008 along with increased financial demands due to my daughter acquring a childhood illness that crippled her. I sought low income housing in a “safe suburb” with “good schools” because this is what I was accustomed to providing for my children.
There are more women like me on their way to your “gang riddled, crime ridden” areas, so be forewarned. We are used to living in places like The Hills. We don’t take lightly to our rights being trampled upon. I can give you EXACT details of what happened along with several other witnesses and we would be happy to invite you to actually bring yourself to Guinida Lane to talk with us about what happened early Sunday morning following the Saturday incident involving our community role model, Donna Acevedo.
Yes, everyone was on edge after Saturday. We were all “sleeping with one eye open” so to speak. We didn’t expect to hear at exactly 4:30am “COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!” At which point my daughter, a trained legal observer and citizen journalist grabbed my phone, turned on her UStream account and ran to our patio gate. Please note our patio light is always on at night, so our patio and the area where the officer was standing was well lit.
Upon opening it, she was met with an armed officer who physically shoved her back into the patio, grabbed the gate and told her to “go back inside, this is not for you!” She climbed up on a pile of laundry bags in the corner of the patio and continued filming at a decent distance from the officer over the edge of the patio wall while I simultaneously re-opened the gate as she said “there is no one out here, Mom!” The officer screamed at me “get back inside” while pulling the gun abruptly from his waist up to point directly toward my head approximately 12-18″ from my face. I said, “We ARE going to film you! I already know I WILL take a bullet for anyone in this neighborhood. Are you going to shoot me!?” He then acted like he needed to go toward the alley where we were told later by the four waiting officers that there was a “suspicious vehicle.”
While this was happening, another officer with his gun pulled on the other side of “The Sandbox” Courtyard at 184-190 Guinida Lane pointed his gun at one of our elderly female residents who was sitting on a step leading to her apartment. She is brassy and does not pull punches with the cops, so she simply stood up and walked toward her apartment. The manager and her sons came out of her apartment. The manager’s 15 year old son followed me, my daughter, his mother and perhaps 2 other residents who were also catching the glimpse of the two armed officers running toward the alley.
Upon reaching the alley, the cops already had bright lights pulled out to shine on anyone with a camera phone. My daughter ran up the stairs and jumped on the rooftop to continue filming from the roof, but the officer with the light managed to shine that on her as well. They seemed awfully concerned with armed people breaking into homes, wouldn’t you say?
As soon as the manager’s 15 year old son walked into the light, the officers with guns still drawn and now pointed at this child said, “YOU! ARMS IN THE AIR! Back toward our voices! Hands behind your back.” The mom started screaming “Why are you taking HIM!? What did he do!?” She moved to get in front of her son and the officer pointed his gun at her at which point she put her hands up and stopped moving. The officers said he was being taken in for questioning under “suspicion.” They asked him if he was driving the truck that they had deemed “suspicious.” The truck belonged to the woman sitting on the steps earlier who had just gotten home from work.
I started yelling at the police that they were being filmed by trained citizen journalists, that if they took this underaged boy in, they would have a serious problem on their hands, and also telling the boy he did not have to answer any questions, give his name or anything – to just ask for his mom – which he did. The officers let him go. They were being asked by all of us who they were. They all refused to identify themselves. They abruptly got into their cars and left the scene.
As we usually do, we followed the cars – walking, not running, just to make sure they don’t go harass some other unsuspecting, innocent individual and sure enough, the cops surrounded a man walking down by the Paul Revere school. We (now all of my children are awake and know that I had a gun in my face a couple of minutes earlier) begin approaching the corner of the street where the man has his hands behind his back sitting on the curb. The cops see us and jump in their cars and leave. We ask the man if he is okay and he simply says “that was probably one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me. I was just coming out to take a walk. They had guns in my face and told me to sit on the curb with my hands in the air and all of a sudden they just left! Thanks guys!”
As happens ALL OF THE TIME on Guinida Lane, an ANONYMOUS call is made saying something is happening on the street or “in the area” so the cops can cover their tracks when they show up and do something to any random person they happen to catch alone on the street at that time. This is the HONEST pattern. Now, does it make more sense what I just said than that some “mob” of people were waiting to lure the police to the area? Or that we were illegally interfering somehow?
My son’s words after all of this happened, “I don’t feel comfortable knowing that all that stood between the barrel of an officer’s lethal weapon and my 3 month old son (who was in his crib in the living room at the time) is a wooden fence and a plastic window. When Joey was shot, the bullet from the officer’s gun went directly into a wall beneath a window where children were taking showers. We have all seen bullet holes from officer’s guns in buildings near windows where people eat, sleep and live out their day to day lives. When does the 7 year old little girl sleeping on the couch get shot by a rogue murdering officer? (see New York, Aiyana Jones) That’s what I don’t want to happen.
If me standing on MY patio kept an officer from lodging another bullet into MY home and possibly, accidentally a member of MY family – and this supposed “bad” guy got away when whomever called didn’t even give an address or a proximity of where this vandalized home was?? How does that make sense!? There was no helicopter out by the way – they’re always so fond of using their chopper to shine lights on residents and children to intimidate us hovering so low they set all of the car alarms off on the street and flashing their lights on specific homes and people (like me and my children) that they know are HELPING people know what their rights are so the cops cannot continue to harass them and unjustly arrest them for no reason other than their racist profiling.
Funny how I can give so much more detail about what happened than the spokesperson for the Anaheim Police Department. Let people judge the TRUTH – but don’t make up a bunch of suppositions and support those with LIES when you won’t even set your Lilly Foot on our Land. With much love and respect. The MAMA
oh! Did you go to Matt’s page? LOL. I should have warned you. He’s the secretly paid shill of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce …. which as I’ve said lately (since we figured out who’s paying him) reflects more badly on them than him. Did you post this at his site too? Mind if I add some paragraph breaks in? Well I’m gonna, dear…
Vern!!! You deleted a link to my post about Sinnah Black’s video of him and Dona Acevedo stalking Kevin Phillips?:
http://anaheimblog.net/2013/05/25/so-much-for-respectful-dialogue/
I’m sorry – did this video not fit the narrative you are trying to construct? Or is this another manifestation of your fear of engaging people who actually know what they are talking about? After all, I’m not afraid to let you post links on my blog. Why are you afraid to allow links to mine?
I figured as much and no, I did not post this to his page yet. I’d just like to see if he takes a moment to STOP being a YELLOW journalist/commentator. He loves Kelly Phillips so much, Kelly Phillips should patrol his area where his children play – if he has any.
For the record, that paragraph appears in this Voice of OC article.
Orange Juice Blog regrets any attribution of responsible and perspicacious journalism to Mr. Cunningham, while also wondering whether a simple correction without spittle-flecked hyperventilation would have sufficed.
Orange Juice Blog also regrets the above metaphor.
Greg, that was uncharacteristically brief and devoid of tiresome self-reference – and mercifully so. You may yet become a half-way decent blogger. In the meantime, shoot for being a quarter-way decent.
Are you charging for that comment too, Matt, or is it a freebie?
We’ve got Cunningham commenting on the WEEKEND, guys. Does that mean he’s off the clock? He must be really upset.
Just wait until later today….
He must be busy covering his ties to the Chamber of Commerce, and getting overtime, before someone starts investigating him.
Are you kidding? We don’t want to scare him off. I’m loving this.
I think people in the audience are clapping and jeering because City Council disrespects them by ignoring them. I watched many cc meetings and 3 minutes is not much time to get ones point across, especially when they aren’t used to public speaking. I think cc allowing public comments is simply a way to pretend they care. Their minds are already made up…whatever the topic of discussion. The cc are in charge…the cops are their enforcers and the public needs to get with the program.
Can’t the cops be investigated by outside, independent agencies? Yelling at cc weekly doesn’t seem to work…the yelling is falling on deaf ears. I say kick the bums out! All of them!
So this is what happens after Jr.High school (AKA OJB V.1).
The same clicks are fighting about the same kind of things in different sections of the Quad:
OJB V.2 = Anaheim Battleground
VOC = Santa Ana Battle Ground
FFFF = Fullerton Battleground
LOC & NSA = More of the same………
None of this would be happening if Tony Bushala were still alive.
(Reference to the bitter semi-humorous refrain leftwing bloggers sang during the Iraq War, “None of this would be happening if Colin Powell were still alive.”)
Excuse me? We do Irvine, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Laguna Beach, La Habra, San Onofre — wherever the action is.
(Except Rancho Santa Margarita, for some reason. And Brea, of course.)
I think that was supposed to be “Cliques”. I am surprised you VN.
Doesn’t matter, looking back it doesn’t make much sense, after all it was posted at 7:00 pm on a Tuesday, which can mean only one thing………………….
And I did see the Summerfest reference. That was good. I saw Fr. Moneypenny last week at St. Anglela’s…….But still NO MENTION OF THE PROM KING.
Fuck a Duck and a Shitfaced truck as they say.
I commented, here, didn’t even bother to read the content/comments because it all just gets too much. Now I scroll through and I see a Matt Cunningham angle, Liberal OC bashing and something else that surely would pique my interest (notice my correct grammar). For fucks sake 2XXVERN call me. I am becoming too slow.
A Liberal OC Santa Ana bashing thread takes me back……..
Time for me to go…..OK just ONE more!
I received a response from Rusty Kennedy, the Executive Director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. I asked him about the protocol to request their assistance on the issues listed by Cynthia, which I attached. This is a summary of his response:
“You ask about the protocol for raising the issues listed to the Commission. There is no requirement or set way to raise issues, we would respond to any of the specific cases listed if the aggrieved party called, e-mailed, contacted in person, or showed up at our offices.
James Armendaris of our staff is a police complaint specialist and could help anyone with a specific complaint about an officer’s actions. He can be reached here at 714-567-7470.
As for the activities of OC Human Relations in Anaheim before, during and after the civil unrest, there are many.
….OC Human Relations also taught cultural awareness to Anaheim Police officers at the request of the Chief of Police, and we shared insight into the plight of the families in neighborhoods like Anna Dr. who felt squeezed between the gang members recruiting their children and the Police coming in after the gang members and not knowing that their kids were not gang members. So they could understand better that the vast majority of the residents are families trying to survive in very difficult situations with little recreational area, streets that are unsafe, and poverty that gave them few alternatives in where they lived.
OC Human Relations has also consulted with the City Manager, City Council members, Police Chief and command staff about how to create safe venues for hearing public testimony about the issues you have raised and others. About how to include diverse voices in the decision-making process. About what are some of the concerns we hear from the community. And how to prevent violence.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Sincerely
Rusty Kennedy, Executive Director
OC Human Relations