Talk about PERSERVERENCE paying off. Theresa Smith, the tireless mother of 2009 Anaheim police shooting victim Caesar Cruz, announced just this morning that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will (almost certainly) be reversing the DA’s ruling that the pumping of 15 bullets by five cops into this law-abiding 35-year old father of five as he sat in his car in a Walmart parking lot was somehow “justified.” At least, at this point, the reversal is “98% certain,” after which Theresa can take the case to court, have an actual trial, and AT LEAST get some answers, if not justice, after four years of law enforcement stonewalling.
Theresa, as you probably know, has been protesting the Anaheim Police Department for four years now, stubbornly demanding answers as to how and why her son’s killing happened, visible every week with her signs and fellow grieving mothers. At the time the DA ruled Caesar’s killing justifiable, after a short secret “investigation,” they didn’t have to tell the public or family members ANYTHING; that policy was changed later but not retroactively, so Theresa hasn’t even had the meager, half-assed, eight-page DA reports other survivors have been handed.
At the time Amber Stephens wrote about her on this blog, Theresa had been at it a year and a half, trying everyone’s patience, everyone who’d already moved on to other outrages and tragedies. I guess FOUR YEARS is what it took. (Amber’s story is still great reading, to get to know what Caesar was like – what a loss to his family and all of us.)
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (yes, the same Ninth Circuit that just recently dealt our useless DA Tony Rackauckas two OTHER body blows – ruling similarly on fellow 2009 victim Adolfo Sanchez AND ruling the Orange Varrio Cypress gang injunction unconstitutional – thank GOD for the 9th Circuit or we’d have NO justice around this joint) ruled that there were just too many “inconsistencies” in the Caesar Cruz case … between the cops’ stories and what’s known to be true.
Inconsistencies. YA THINK?
What bulldog attorney Dick Herman referred to in court as the “death squad” assembled around Caesar’s car that afternoon, allegedly in response to a tip that “a parolee” was in that car and in possession of a gun. The police, who we know had been harassing Caesar for months (though we don’t know why) knew perfectly well that Caesar was not a parolee. His only brush with the law had been SEVEN YEARS EARLIER – for “drug possession with intent to sell” – and he had finished his PROBATION for that five years earlier. (Probation being for lesser offenses than parole is.)
There was a gun found in the car, allegedly, but it’s not claimed that it was anywhere near him. And WAS it his? Was it registered to him? Or was it planted by the cops, or by this mysterious, hostile tipster? (These things happen.) All things none of us know yet. But nobody can see the sudden need for a firing squad in the situation. A firing squad in a busy, Christmas-season afternoon Walmart parking lot! A miracle nobody else was hurt.
Nobody has even brought up the word “gang” in association with Caesar Cruz; he had never been known to hang with a gang, which is the usual excuse for trigger-happy cops and public indifference; although his friends postulated that he was sometimes “profiled” for his shaved head and arm tattoos.
Interestingly, one of the five cops who pumped Caesar with fifteen bullets (two through the head, one through the heart) was Kelly Phillips (left), who later shot Joel Acevedo fatally, as well as at least one other young man non-fatally (Gerardo Pineda – but not for lack of trying!) Another one of Caesar’s shooters was Officer Bruce Linn, who later went on to shoot and kill David Raya. Death squad indeed.
At the time Amber wrote her story, DA Rackauckas was able to “boast” that “his office has never prosecuted a police officer for a shooting death during his 12 year tenure.” Since then of course there’s been Kelly Thomas, which – caught on video as it was and publicized by Tony Bushala and Kelly’s father as it was – was IMPOSSIBLE for T-Rack to sweep under the rug.
One thing we hope to learn, even if real justice evades us, is how do these police choose their targets? Their stories about how they really just had to shoot them in self-defense rarely add up. And it seems like the ones they end up shooting in the back are generally harmless, but they’ve been harassing them for a while anyway. While the big dangerous guys keep walking down the street unmolested. Maybe a trial will give us some insight, at least, into the thinking behind these legal Death Squads.
Im super stoked for Teresa. This is good news and welcome news. You are right in that we need outside oversight in the administration of justice here in Orange County. Too much corruption in this county law enforcement community.
and now for the pool, how long will it take for Matt Cunningham to post a blind defense of the APD, excusing “inconsistencies” as our own hysterical conspiracy theories? I have the first $20 on within 24 hours.
Oddly enough, neither Matt Cunningham nor much of anyone else has stepped up and challenged any of my specific allegations regarding the APD and others in Orange County, CA law enforcement. I expected a challenge from the cop apologists of this County. No such challenge materialized. You should ask yourselves why especially if you care about how your taxpayer dollars are utilized in your name.
I’ll take that $20. Once bitten…
If this case wins the precedent may be set for the other cases you prominently keep featuring in this blog.
YES!!
Your Anaheim police department specifically engages in the deliberate harassment and intimidation of people including US born American citizens. Your Anaheim police department at the very least aids and abets criminal civilian trash who damage a victims property and attempt murder (short list). By default, this means the Anaheim police department aids and abets murderers. The attempt(s) on my life can’t be an isolated incident and successful attempts must exist.
Your Orange County law enforcement community can’t possibly care about solving the gang member problem since they use gang member types to commit crimes for them. Harassment / intimidation in a form more vile than your sleazy cops are allowed to do. Property damage / Home privacy violation etc etc. In other words like Bernie Madoff, your Orange County law enforcement community are the exact opposite of what they purport to be vis a vis this gang problem. And when you consider that my criminal harassment began with Stan Knee (GGPD), Brad Gates (OCSD), Randall Gaston (APD) and other assorted racist sociopaths around the time that I started working on Colombian law enforcement engineering projects for an American company based in Stanton, it makes you wonder whether these idiots are involved in the Colombian cocaine trafficking business. According to the OCWeekly, the ex-Sheriff and current prison inmate Mike Carona was friends with ex-cocaine trafficking pilots in between commiting felonies and being Orange County Sheriff. Based on the behavior of your cops, this sort of discovery would explain EVERYTHING. The violent mafia trash behavior by the criminal cop element in Orange County CA always smelled of drug trafficking to me.
So my contribution to the Theresa Smith, Acevedo and Diaz story is to simply make the point, that if your law enforcement community was criminally stupid and racist enough to try to treat German Santos like some sort of gang member then there is no limit to the decimation these sick idiots have reigned upon the community in Orange County CA – and especially the latino community.
The reason why your “men of law” brazenly commit felonies while hiding behind the color of authority is simply because there are enough criminals in city government, DA’s office and court system to provide cover. We figured that one out almost immediately. If you could see the brazen and disgraceful hubris of your cops when they are acting like criminals you would undertand what I mean. It’s the hubris that comes from knowing your ass is covered and that the “criminal justice” system is rigged. You have no oversight here – this four layers of oversight meme is a joke – it accomplishes just the opposite by creating the false impression of the existence of oversight.
Anyway, this is why no one challenges me. Thanks to your taxpayer dollars, your law enforcement community taught me every criminal act that they are capable of – and I intend to share my knowledge with the people who paid for my education – YOU.
How do the police choose their targets? The average OC cop/deputy harasses someone simply because someone above them gave the order. There is close to zero ethical courage on their part to refuse an illegal order. And the shaudenfreude glee some of these idiots have when engaged in such criminal harassment is a sight to behold. How they run when they see a magical camera present also clearly suggests that they understand their behavior to be criminal.
As to why someone is targeted – probably an endless number of reasons but here are a few
Currying financial favor for a rival business
Petty retribution / revenge for defending your rights, suing, threatening to sue etc
Protecting their drug dealing business
Cover up mistakes made in the performance of duty
Covering up the coverup
Plain racist bullying shadenfreude because you can only feel good about yourself by denigrating others (by the way – the true sign of a bonafide idiot)
Because a federal agency told you to
Because the more people you ticket / arrest the faster you climb up the sleaze pole of police career success
Generally speaking, you can’t go wrong with the “follow the money” strategy in understanding the “why”.
Oh I forgot, like a broken clock that is correct twice a day your police might correctly “target” someone. But even in this circumstance, it is a serious criminal act to conspire to harass intimidate stalk emotionally and financially harm any person in the United States under the color of authority. And anyone who advised these idiots otherwise is a future federal prison inmate as well.
Look here Vern – a story perfectly timed to supplement my assertion that your cops are dancing with drug cartels
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1
I went from never having a problem with cops to everyone in OC law enforcement harassing me around the time of my involvement in Colombian engineering law enforcement projects courtesy Stan Knee, Randall Gaston, Brad Gates and assorted other trash. Hmmm ?
This is why “DA and the gang” hide behind a lot of self serving “secrecy” mechanisms. If it weren’t hidden the fraud could not be carried out. This is why those numerous cases were instantly dropped by the DA when challenged by residents in Orange.
Shit stinks in the sunlight.