(Maybe this will just go away?)
It’s been over FOURTEEN MONTHS now, since Hector Hernandez was gunned down on his front lawn by Fullerton Police Officer Jonathan Ferrell while trying to fight off an attack dog that Ferrell had sicced on him seconds earlier. Everyone is still waiting for OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer to complete his investigation of this OIS (officer-involved shooting) – when pressed months ago by Hector’s family and friends, and the Fullerton City Council itself, to make a decision on charging Ferrell, Todd promised it by late May. But still … crickets.
What could be so complicated about this case? Leave out the disastrous, leaderless chaos among the ten Fullerton cops that night, and the 14 months of FPD lies and cover-ups since then – those are not in Spitzer’s purview. It seems pretty simple that Officer Ferrell 1) sicced his K9 “Rotar” on Hector for no compelling reason while Hector was holding his empty hands in the air as instructed, and then 2) seconds later shot Hector fatally, twice, while Hector was on his back trying to defend himself against the attacking dog.
Clearly Ferrell is a bad-decision-making hothead who valued the well-being of his dog over a human life. And he is still on the force, which is a big problem. A lot is being held up by Spitzer’s drawn-out Hamlet impersonation – the civil suit from Hector’s family is waiting on that; Ferrell’s future with FPD is waiting on it; reforms to the FPD are waiting on it.
Thalken
The idea that Spitzer will ever charge a law enforcement officer with killing or brutality also is waiting on it. The only LEO he’s charged for anything in his three years was some female sheriff who stole and used an inmate’s credit cards. Why, just a couple weeks ago we had to shell out $195K over the behavior of Michael Thalken, a drunk off-duty sheriff who pulled a gun on a harmless, skateboarding kid in San Clemente, threatening him “Get down on your knees or I’ll blow your brains out,” not identifying himself as law enforcement and LYING about it afterwards… and Spitzer chose not to charge Thalken with ANYTHING.
Sure sounds like Todd is gravitating toward “The Cop is Always Right” philosophy.
Hardin
I know two things: Todd will read this because he cares what I think, and he is getting obsessed with the upcoming election next June where he’ll be challenged by popular Democratic reformer Peter Hardin. His desperate-sounding fundraising e-mails paint Hardin as some criminal-loving caricature of liberal LA DA George Gascón. But how will Todd distinguish himself in the remaining months, as better than Hardin? He could either show that he’s tough but fair and eat into Hardin’s reformist base, or go full-bore “law and order” and keep the police unions and fearful conservatives happy. It looks like he’s going with the latter.
Rackauckas
Why did so many of us choose Spitzer over his crooked 20-year predecessor Tony Rackauckas, and how much better has Todd turned out to be than Tony? Tony was a font of endless scandal, due to his skirting of rules, his cheating, the win-at-any-cost mentality he fostered within his department. As far as I can tell Todd doesn’t cheat and lie like Tony did. But as far as getting justice for victims of police brutality (OR busting political corruption), Todd’s record is about as bad as Tony’s so far.
(Todd did please us reformers a bit by initiating an easier process for a law-abiding person to remove themselves from a gang injunction, but in the year since we gave him a lot of credit and praise for that, he’s only removed THREE applicants, and rejected several deserving folks without explanation. Some call that “crumbs.”)
Back to the killing of Hector Hernandez, which seems like a pretty simple case that shouldn’t be taking over a year. There’s two theories – Todd is afraid to rule against ANY cops and piss off those unions and hardcore “keep us safe at all costs” voters … or maybe he’s planning to charge Officer Ferrell but is waiting for the most politically opportune time to do it, hoping he’ll get a lot of good press for it next Spring or so. Well, in the latter case, I don’t see how the public wouldn’t see through THAT, but also as the man said:
We’ll be speaking about this at the Fullerton City Council meeting tonight at 6, and hope the full Council will join Mayor Whitaker in YET ANOTHER STRONGLY WORDED LETTER OF IMPATIENCE to DA Spitzer. See you there, we hope!
Great article!
I can’t be there tonight but I’ll make the next one.
We won’t shut up.
#justiceforhectorhernandez
Yeah I had to miss last night too, sadly, truth be told. But next one let’s have a crowd! August 17, 6 pm to sign up for comments.
Seems pretty cut n dry to me
“Sure sounds like Todd is gravitating toward “The Cop is Always Right” philosophy.”
Gravitating. Heh.
I voted for Tony Racetrack – because he’s much older and apt to croak a lot sooner. Y’all helped stick us with Spitzer for who knows how long.
That’s one way to look at it and maybe you were wise, but there’s nothing so depressing as to see misbehavior as egregious as T-Rack’s rewarded with re-election.
To me that was just a distinction without a difference. Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen Spitzer on parade longer than you have.
Right about the same time I wrote and published this piece, Spitzer released his “findings.” They are dated July 27 but he released them yesterday afternoon. (I published this piece at 2:30; what time did Spitzer release? Don’t know if my piece had any causation…)
http://orangecountyda.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=23959
Anyway the finding was predictably that Officer Ferrell acted within policy in understandable terror for his life. These sentences from page 7 take the cake (for those who’ve seen the videos):
“…Corporal Ferrell first observed Hernandez holding a knife in his right hand when Corporal Ferrell was grabbing ahold of Rotar and was standing over Hernandez. He then immediately observed Hernandez making stabbing motions towards Corporal Ferrell. Corporal Ferrell FEARED FOR HIS LIFE® due to the close proximity he was to Hernandez and Hernandez’ unrestrained arms. Corporal Ferrell maintained that he was in fear of being imminently stabbed by Hernandez. Corporal Ferrell fired two rounds, grabbed ahold of Rotar, got Rotar off of Hernandez, and backed away from Hernandez.”
We’ve all seen those moments, with Hector lying on his back, struggling with the dog, Ferrell standing over him. Elsewhere in Spitzer’s report it says Ferrell was “inches” from Hector. I guess, if you’re talking like sixty inches. Feared for his life??? BULLSHIT.
We’ll look at the rest. Supposedly Ferrell had had an encounter with Hector half an hour earlier that we were never told about.
“He then immediately observed Hernandez making stabbing motions towards Corporal Ferrell. Corporal Ferrell FEARED FOR HIS LIFE® due to the close proximity he was to Hernandez and Hernandez’ unrestrained arms.”
Of course one recourse Corporal Ferrel could have exercised was to BACK THE FUCK UP. But no. It was easier to unload a couple rounds into a guy on the ground whom he had just released his dog to attack – for no reason.
P.S. FEARED FOR HIS LIFE®, indeed.
The Justice For Hector Coalition responds to Spitzer’s report with this press release (partly written by me)
Justice 4 Hector! Coalition Response to District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s Decision
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
_____________________________________________________
Contact: Garo Mardirossian: (323) 855 – 7007
Vern Nelson: (714) 235-8376
FULLERTON, CA —
OCDA Letter: http://orangecountyda.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=23959
The recently received report from Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer exonerating Fullerton Police Officer Jonathan Ferrell for the May 27, 2020 killing of Hector Hernandez is a travesty of justice demonstrating, along with the rest of Spitzer’s three-year record, his unfitness to hold the County’s highest office in law enforcement.
According to the OCDA’s investigative report, Officer Ferrell was justified in killing Hector because he feared for his life. Based on the evidence presented, the OCDA’s narrative ultimately lacks substance as:
● Hector had been complying with his empty hands up before Ferrell sent the canine after him;
● Hector was on the ground trying to defend himself from the attacking canine;
● Hector was NOT making stabbing motions toward Ferrell as stated by Spitzer;
● Ferrell was NOT “mere inches away” when he killed Hector, as stated by Spitzer, but at a safe distance several feet away and Ferrell negligently moved up to stop Hector from defending himself from Ferrell’s canine.
Once again, DA Todd Spitzer makes it clear to families who’ve lost loved ones to police violence, that they can expect no justice or accountability. This decision comes scant days after Spitzer declined to press charges on an off-duty sheriff deputy who held a harmless San Clemente youth at gunpoint.
Orange County deserves better. The Justice For Hector Hernandez Coalition will continue to demand transparency and accountability. We won’t stop demanding justice for Hector Hernandez.
What a tragedy. This “investigation” is a joke and a tactic of those who wish to continue to hide and cover-up and protect and to enable and foster a corrupt and opaque and criminally violently murderously broken ass system. And it seems at the top. OC DA. Police chiefs. And Police Union leadership. What a travesty.