I TRIED TO GET THE WYPR PUBLIC RADIO TO PUBLISH MY COMMENTS ON CARDIN THREE TIMES AND THEY REFUSE TO ALLOW A COUNTERPOINT OF ACCURATE, REASONED, AND RELEVANT CONCERNS TO BE MADE. THEY ARE A BIZARRE GROUP! THEY ALSO ARE REPORTING RAWLINGS-BLAKE CHOICE FOR POLICE COMMISSIONER AS A GOOD ONE WITH NO NEGATIVE PRESS. I HAD A BACK AND FORTH WITH THE BALTIMORE SUN REPORTER WHOSE ARTICLE WAS NOTHING BUT PRAISE, ASKING HOW A JOURNALIST COULD FAIL TO IDENTIFY WHAT IS A CONTINUOUS RECORD OF TROUBLE AND CORRUPTION CLEARLY DOCUMENTED IN CALIFORNIA MEDIA. YOU SEE THE OPINION FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN IS POSITIVE. I THANK THE SMALL PAPER 'NORTH BALTIMORE PATCH FOR AT LEAST RECOGNIZING A CONCERN.
WHAT I SEE IN THIS GENTLEMAN IS A CHARACTER TRAIT THAT MATCHES MOST OF RAWLINGS-BLAKE'S ADMINISTRATION......HE WILL STARE STRAIGHT THROUGH YOU WITH AN ICY LOOK IN HIS EYE AS YOU STATE YOUR OBJECTIONS AND CLAIMS OF CORRUPTION AND ILLEGAL ACTIONS BELAYING A COMPLETE DISREGARD TO YOUR COMMENTS.
California is known for police brutality and Long Beach and Oakland is no exception. You know when a STATE has a lawyer listing for police brutality law firms, it is reasonable to assume that Batts comes from a long line of human rights violators. Rawlings-Blake has overseen an escalation of police brutality since coming to office and it looks like she is doubling down on human rights violations. The people at the table choosing the police commissioner.....the enterprise zones. No one from the communities being abused.
Police Brutality Law Firms Oakland California, Police ...Find Oakland, California Police Brutality lawfirm listings and reviews on Lawyers.com.
There is no argument as to the intentions of hiring Batts.......escalating human rights violations.....so I'd like to look at the dynamics at play when a government actively works to violate the law. O'Malley used the technique described below when he was Mayor of Baltimore. During his tenure we saw a police force openly harassing the public in underserved communities just as happens in New York City.....stop and frisk everybody......make everybody a suspect. You can see why Attorney General Gansler is pushing the DNA database for anyone suspected of a crime.....same psychological warfare......AND IT IS WARFARE TACTICS USED IN ACTIVE THIRD WORLD CONFLICTS. AGAIN, IN ORDER TO USE THESE METHODS YOU MUST SUSPEND THE RULE OF LAW. IT IS ALSO WHY YOU SEE O'MALLEY AS GOVERNOR WANTING TO BUILD THE JUVENILE JAIL IN BALTIMORE. IT INDICATES A CALIFORNIA-STYLE CRUSH ON POOR PEOPLE.
We talked about the fact that with the huge income inequity created by massive fraud and the elimination of the middle-class and push to ever deeper poverty of most of the people in the US, the 1% will have to develop a third world security and penal apparatus.......and this is it. Remember, people in poverty that have no way of finding jobs and no social service support must commit crimes to survive. In Baltimore, 40% of workers are from outside of the city. Corresponding to that statistic is a close to 40% unemployment rate for minority youth in Baltimore. THERE IS A CITY POLICY OF FORCING MINORITY FAMILIES TO LEAVE THE CITY BY GIVING THEM NO WAY TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES AND LIVING IN CONSTANT FEAR OF INCARCERATION. One thing that California has that Baltimore has not is a strong civil and social justice organization. In Maryland, the Maryland ACLU is working with groups violating civil liberties and the President of the Baltimore Chapter of NAACP is a good friend of Rawlings-Blake. So we have a lot of work to do to strengthen civil/social justice. The article at the bottom is by Van Jones and addresses just such broken systems as exist now. The answer to what Baltimore officials have planned is a rebuilding of justice organizations in Maryland. I noted above that most people......minority, white, men, and women will or already fall in the category of ever increasing poverty, so while currently the African-American community bears the brunt of the injustice, it is coming to a family near you. Think of England at the heights of its colonialism and how they sent their poor packing in vessels bound to Australia. Those poor were white, not minority so brutality is equal opportunity. People might laugh at the introduction of such extremes, but these people at the top have no moral compass......their greed is all consuming.....and they will take any and all steps to get what they want.
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!
WE HEAR CITY COUNCIL SAYING THEY WANTED TO PROMOTE FROM WITHIN AND NO DOUBT KNOW WHAT IS COMING. WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER IS THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE THAT LASHES BACK AT INNOCENT PEOPLE WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES TOO MUCH TO BEAR. WHETHER IRAQ, LIBYA, SYRIA, OR EGYPT TO NAME A FEW......PEOPLE REACH A POINT WHEN THEY STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK.....AND IT IS THE INNOCENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS THAT ARE CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE WITH BRUTAL REGIMES. THIS IS JUST COMMON SENSE.
THE PROBLEM WITH CRIME IN THE CITY IS A LACK OF EMPLOYMENT AND A SLOW DETERIORATION OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES FOR UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES......THINK 'ENTERPRISE ZONE' DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!!! ROUND UP THE DEVELOPERS AND YOU CAN START TO HAVE A HEALTHY CITY!! I WONDER IF BATTS HAS A WHITE-COLLAR APPROACH TO CRIME?
In a 2006 article for the F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin, Mr. Batts and Cynthia Renaud outlined his approach in Long Beach. In particular, he suggested that quality-of-life crimes like vandalism be more vigorously pursued by patrol divisions that draw on diverse skills, like those of nuisance abatement officers.
IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR BALTIMORE COMMUNITY JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS TO CALL THESE CALIFORNIA LEGAL AND JUSTICE AGENCIES FOR INSIGHT IN FIGHTING WHAT IS SURE TO COME.
Lawyers Fighting Police Brutality
Nobody is above the law, including cops. But twenty years after the Rodney King beating we continue to witness incidents of police brutality in California.
Now communities are standing up and saying "no more" to police brutality. Our California Police Brutality Lawyers are doing our part by using the law to help victims of excessive force, civil rights violations and police brutality in California.
Whether the incident involved a taser, a police dog, an officer-involved shooting or a false arrest, you might have a legal case. You might be able to get damages to compensate you for your injuries. You also might be able to help change the system. It might be your case that compels the police department to weed out the bad cops and revise its policies so nobody else suffers.
Our California Police Brutality Lawyers take justice seriously. We have committed our careers to protecting your constitutional rights. California Police Brutality Lawyer Darrell York is a veteran criminal defense attorney and former police officer. California Police Brutality Lawyer Sarah Garvey is a Harvard Law School graduate and journalist.
If you've had your civil rights violated or been victimized by excessive force, we'll stand beside you in court and make sure that the real story comes out.
Gang Law in California
Police brutality does not always involve physical violence. It can also take the form of harassment or coercion. As gang subculture flourishes so too does an emerging body of gang law in California.
Gang law on its own does not amount to police brutality. But whenever we are dealing with a system that has the ability to marginalize, stigmatize and criminalize activities of certain people we need to take a close and continuing look.
Gang law in California is a series of statutes and legal interpretations that spans civil, criminal and evidence law. Gang law regulates what alleged gang members can wear, where they can go and how harshly they will be sentenced for crimes. Given the latitude courts give to the use of "gang experts" in building cases some commentators fear that gang law implicates an alleged gang member's right to a fair trial.
I HAVE READ MUCH JOURNALISM ON BATTS AND HIS CALIFORNIA POSTS. ONE THING I SEE IS COMMON: THERE IS AN ACCEPTANCE OF A HIGH DEGREE OF CORRUPTION AND A SYSTEMIC ENVIRONMENT OF PRESSURE TO KEEP SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC ABUSES OF POWER AND CORRUPTION.
AS PUBLIC POLICY GOES BATTS FOUGHT THE DISMISSAL OF OFFICERS BY DECRYING THE POLICE UNION'S DECISION TO ALLOW LAYOFFS RATHER THAN TAKE MORE CUTS TO PENSIONS. BATTS ALSO SPOKE OUT AGAINST ANY TAX HIKES TO ALLOW FOR PUBLIC SECTOR HIRING.
THESE ARE THE TRAITS THAT ATTRACTED BALTIMORE LEADERS TO BATTS.
Batts Leaving LBPD
From Issue: Volume XVI - Number 16
1/1/1900 Beachcomber
5199 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. #608
Post Office Box 15679
Long Beach California, 90815-0679
Phone: (562) 597-8000
Jay Beeler
The Oakland Tribune Wednesday afternoon said that LBPD Police Chief Anthony W. Batts will take over the Oakland Police Department in September. He replaces Wayne Tucker, who resigned from the position in February.
Meanwhile the Beachcomber, in its Friday edition, is publishing a story about how Batts was being blackmailed by a police officer with release of a domestic violence report naming Batts and Congresswoman Laura Richardson, to whom he was once married.
Friday's Beachcomber story, part two of two parts about "Lobstergate," follows ...
Well before Lobstergate went to trial two of the plaintiffs worked very hard at getting city officials to “do the right thing” and clean up the organizational corruption they saw within the Long Beach Police Department.
“This isn’t about Lobstergate, this is far more serious,” Sgt. David Gage told a Press-Telegram reporter in October 2006. “This has shown me that the leadership within the LBPD failed to fulfill its duty when it was presented with a problem, that there is no honesty, integrity or respect in this administration.”
Fellow officer and plaintiff Warren Harris echoed those words in saying “There is so much more going on here than some unauthorized dives.”
Harris told superiors that the pending lawsuits that he, Sgt. Gage and Officer Craig Patterson eventually won for $4.1 million in February 2008 “wouldn’t have cost the city a dime” if they apologized, created a whistleblower policy that protected all city employees against retaliatory activity, and publicly broadcast that policy. It never happened.
Gage wrote a four-page letter in September 2006 to Mayor Foster, with copies to the city manager, city auditor, district attorney, city attorney, city prosecutor and others, attempting to exposed what he saw as criminal and civil laws being broken, corruption, cover-up and blackmail in efforts to sweep Lobstergate under the rug.
Blackmail: Who & Why?
Prior to becoming chief of police in October 2002 at the age of 42, Anthony W. Batts apparently had at least four crime reports taken against him for domestic violence in the cities of Long Beach, San Pedro and San Diego. One of those reports was taken before he was named chief and the reported victim was his wife, Laura Richardson-Batts, 6th District councilwoman at the time and currently Long Beach’s representative in the United States Congress.
(Richardson is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee regarding special treatment by her mortgage lender after her neglected Sacramento house went into foreclosure.)
That altercation reportedly took place in the Civic Center parking garage outside City Hall and Richardson-Batts was seen wearing sunglasses at the city council meeting shortly thereafter, apparently to cover a black eye. She also sought refuge with Tonia Reyes Uranga, councilwoman for the 7th District. About that time Richardson-Batts was said to be living in a house on Parker St. in San Pedro where her mother currently lives.
Attempts to get those reports have been unsuccessful without the cooperation of Congresswoman Richardson, who did not respond to our e-mailed questions concerning the incidents. Yet the incidents are common knowledge among many LBPD insiders contacted by the Beachcomber.
Within the Long Beach Police Department those documents are said to be under lock and key in the police chief’s office and one source has stated the crime report number has been changed and the original title changed to “bicycle report,” apparently in reference to a stolen bicycle.
It is a felony to change these documents and one of the officers who participated in taking it kept a copy and was a principal among the three night-shift officers involved with lobster diving, unauthorized discharge of assault rifles, falsification of time cards and retaliation against the officers who reported their behavior.
Apparently the threats to “blow the whistle” on Batts to local news media using a copy of the crime report worked. Disciplinary recommendations ranging from one year of demotion and eight days of suspension were all reduced to letters of reprimand by Chief Batts and his command staff, against the recommendations presented by Commander Torben Beith, who oversaw the port security detail.
This action also effectively took the matter away from Civil Service Commission hearings and the public, wherein officers were set to testify about criminal and misdemeanor activities as well as Batts’ domestic violence reports and the subsequent blackmail attempts.
Batts’ domestic violence history subsequently proved problematic for him in obtaining FBI clearance for a security clearance as well as being able to legally carry a firearm.
Black Chief Wanted
One source with City Hall insider knowledge said that the main reason that Tony Batts got the chief of police job in the first place was because he was black. “The mayor and city council wanted a black police chief and the new city manager at that time, Jerry Miller, was willing to overlook Batts’ prior domestic violence crimes and he got the job,” our source said.
Words used by former officers to describe Batts often ranged from “slick, charismatic, golden- tongued, outgoing and intelligent” to “vindictive, arrogant, egotistical, womanizer and mean.” A former detective relayed the story about how one officer said “Hi Tony” to Batts in the public service building elevator with the response “You will address me a chief” and was, shortly thereafter, given a transfer.
During the Lobstergate trials in Los Angeles early last year Batts perjured himself on the witness stand by telling jurors that the LBPD would never cite people for lobster diving in the port when, in fact, a neighbor of Sgt. Gage was cited at about the same time as the LBPD lobster diving incidents and was prosecuted by Tom Reeves. That neighbor was put on the witness stand and directly refuted Batts’testimony, thereby diminishing Batts’ truthfulness as a witness in the eyes of the jurists.
Batts also falsely testified on the witness stand that the words “malcontent” would never come from his lips in describing certain officers. Sources within the LBPD said Batts often used the words at various meetings throughout the department. “It was very common for him to say that,” one source said.
Plaintiffs Harris, Patterson and Gage claim that – in addition to the chief – they “witnessed lieutenants and sergeants lie on the witness stand at the coaxing of the city attorney.”
When all of the facts about Lobstergate – including multiple misdemeanor crimes and the more serious felonies of blackmail and changing official police reports – were laid in front of City Prosecutor Tom Reeves in January 2005, he did nothing. “Selective prosecution is itself a crime, in violation of the equal protection clauses in both the California and United States Constitutions,” one knowledgeable legal source told the Beachcomber.
Summing It Up
A letter sent to the Press-Telegram editor (only portions were published) in April 2007 by former LBPD Homicide Detective Tim Cable sums up what others interviewed for this story voiced about the department’s management, in addition to stating that it was “very top heavy.”
“The city council and our new mayor … are so full of praise for him. He’s the messiah who has single-handedly lowered the crime rate and should be rewarded. But how does he do it?
“The chief doesn’t work the streets, he doesn’t answer calls for service, he doesn’t work gangs, he doesn’t solve homicides, he doesn’t make arrests, he doesn’t deal with the criminal element at all unless they line up outside his plush office and wait to turn themselves in.
“If the Chief is such a valuable asset and sought after by other agencies then why didn’t the City of Inglewood snap him up when he applied for the chiefs job there? Why didn’t the City of Santa Monica grab him but chose a subordinate instead?
“Yes, Chief Batts is intelligent. He presents himself as a professional and he has the gift of eloquent speech but beware, he also has a large ego. You think that all the officers who have left the department did so for money? No sir! Money has always been and always will be a source of low morale within the rank and file.
“But don’t overlook the fact that there just may be other reasons for the exodus. They won’t tell you for fear of retaliation. They won’t tell you what it’s like to work for a man who will praise you one minute and smite you the next.
“Having worked under nine different chiefs during my 31-year career only one comes to mind that created such a hostile environment; he came from L.A. Oh, and that chief promoted Chief Batts to the command level and set his feet upon the way.
___________________________________________________
HERE WE HAVE A BALTIMORE MEDIA OUTLET TRYING TO RAISE THE QUESTIONS PUBLICLY. YOU WILL SEE HERE A SAMPLE OF THE ARROGANCE AND DISMISSIVE ATTITUDE FOR WHICH BATTS IS KNOWN. THE BALTIMORE SUN PRAISES HIM AND MAKES NO MENTION OF HIS TROUBLED PAST.
New Commissioner Brushes Off Rough Oakland Tenure Anthony Batts, the mayor’s pick to be the city’s next police commissioner, tenure as Oakland’s police chief ended poorly.
By Adam BednarAugust 28, 2012 North Baltimore Patch
Anthony Batts Anthony Batts' the mayor's choice to be the next police commissioner speaks to reporters on Tuesday
. http://northbaltimore.patch.com/articles
When a reporter asked Anthony Batts about his decision to resign from the police force in Oakland, CA last October during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday, he was quick with a joke.
Pretending he didn’t hear the question, Batts put his hand to his ear and asked: "Did you say Baltimore?"
Batts went on to describe his tenure in Oakland as "gift of love from me."
But news reports from Northern California have raised some issues about his previous job performance that are no laughing matter.
Batts' tenure in Oakland reportedly started heading south after the city laid off eighty police officers when its union refused to increase the portion its members pay toward their pension plan. After the layoffs, Batts announced the department wouldn’t be able to provide some services, and refused to support a tax increase that would have allowed the city to rehire the officers, according to the East Bay Express.
He then applied to be police chief in San Jose, after only serving as the police chief of Oakland for about a year. It was also announced just before his resignation that the Federal Government was threatening to take control of the department because it hadn’t met the terms of a consent decree to reform the department after a scandal involving Oakland cops beating and framing drug suspects in 2000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
But on Tuesday Batts had a much different take on how his last job ended.
He called his service in Oakland a "gift of love from me."
Batts, who was serving as the police chief in Long Beach, CA at the time, explained he was approached by a headhunter about the job and declined, but reconsidered after four officers were killed in Oakland in a single day.
"As I started looking more into the city of Oakland, I was touched by the sheer carnage, the loss of life of young people in that city, the deaths of people who look more like me," Batts said.
He said that he grew up in South Central Los Angeles, which struggled with the drugs and crime that were hurting Oakland, and that he wanted to help kids who looked like him because he often wondered if anyone cared about those kids.
"Oakland wasn’t done to be a career move. Oakland was done for me to be a gift to try to take my skill base to try to address and make things better, and I think we did have progress that was there," Batts said.
He said his inability to click with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was elected after Batts was hired, was his major reason for leaving Oakland.
"Sometimes styles just don’t match. And it wasn’t anything personal. I don’t have any animosity against the mayor. Sometimes its just business," Batts said.
In a news release announcing Batts being hired, the administration sites his leadership training and law enforcement experience as being two reasons it decided to offer him the job.
"Anthony Batts has what it takes to lead the Baltimore Police Department forward and to continue building on the progress the men and women of the BPD have made reducing crime and violence," Rawlings-Blake said in the news release.
__________________________________________________
THIS IS FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN. I HAVE FOUND LITTLE MEDIA COVERAGE ON BATTS THAT IS FAVORABLE....MOST MAKES THE MAN SEEM TO BE A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN. WE HAVE A LAWSUIT IN WAITING WITH THE EBDI PROTESTOR THAT WAS BRUTALIZED ON CAMERA AND SEVERAL CITIZENS KILLED BY POLICE FOR NO LEGITIMATE REASON. BATTS COMES FROM A POLICE ENVIRONMENT THAT MAKES THIS RECORD SEEM LIKE CHILD'S PLAY.
Taking command Our view: New police commissioner Anthony Batts' experience, confidence and fresh perspective could serve Baltimore well
Whoever Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had chosen to replace retired Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III would have had a tough act to follow. But in Anthony Batts, who comes to Baltimore after a 30-year career in California that included stints as police chief in Long Beach and Oakland, the mayor may have found a leader whose skills and experience match Baltimore's needs. If Mr. Batts can build on the solid accomplishments of his able predecessor, he will find a warm welcome in this city............
___________________________________________________
BALTIMORE CITY MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE HAS SIGNALED SHE INTENDS TO HEIGHTEN POLICE BRUTALITY AND HARASSMENT RATHER THAN ADDRESS CONCERNS ALREADY EXPRESSED IN UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES. IF YOU DO NOT HEAR THE NAACP AND OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS SPEAK OUT AGAINST BATTS AS THE MAYOR'S CHOICE.....WHICH I DON'T SEE HAPPENING....YOU KNOW THAT YOUR LEADERSHIP IS NOT WORKING FOR YOU! CALIFORNIA HAS A LONG HISTORY OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND INCARCERATION RATES THAT SURPASS MOST THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES. JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS HEADED BY LEADERS LIKE VAN JONES HAVE BATTLED THIS FOR DECADES. WHY BRING IT TO BALTIMORE?
Police Secrecy Rules: CA Politicians Cave to Cop Union Pressure
Van Jones Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, American Progess Action Fund
Posted: July 2, 2007 02:00 PM
Last Tuesday, in a shameful display of political cowardice, an important police accountability bill was stalled in committee.
The bill, SB 1019 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) would have overturned a State Supreme Court decision in Copley Press that resulted in the closure of public hearings on citizen complaints of police misconduct. It would also have restored very limited public access to the disciplinary records of cops who are found to have violated the law and abused the public trust.
As a result of Copley Press, officers who abuse their powers and violate people's civil rights are now protected by a cloak of secrecy. The California Supreme Court held that under State law, the "privacy rights" of abusive officers are more important than the public's right to know. The shameful truth is that California's policy of secrecy about police conduct is now one of the most restrictive in the country.
Why couldn't Senator Romero, who represents parts of the City of Los Angeles, get her relatively modest bill out of the Assembly Public Safety Committee?
Part of the reason lies in the tactics of the police unions who, prior to an earlier vote in the senate threatened to torpedo term limit reform, and repeated their mantra that allowing greater openness and transparency would somehow endanger officer safety and compromise the security of police operations.
There is no evidence to support this allegation, either in California or in any of the thirty-plus states that allow public hearings on citizen complaints. In 30-plus years of open hearings pre-Copley Press in California, there is not one single instance of a single officer being physically harmed as a result of such information being released.
In fact, the Copley Press decision had nothing to do with officer safety or operational security. The Court's 42-page opinion does not once mention either of these issues. Nor do the extensive briefs and pleadings of the plaintiff police unions to the Court.
Finally, SB 1019 contains specific provisions that allow for records to be kept confidential if a police chief or sheriff certifies that their release is likely to compromise officer safety or operational security. The fact that the police unions have rejected this provision clearly shows that their safety and security concerns are completely bogus.
Despite repeated invitations by Senator Romero, they have not proposed a single amendment of their own to address these supposedly crucial issues. The truth is that the police unions are not interested in public accountability plus protection. They are not interested in public accountability at all. Period. End of discussion.
It is important to note, however, that the national black officers' union, the Black Police Association, has endorsed SB 1019. It is reasonable to assume that these officers have no interest in putting officer safety or operational security at risk. They do, however, know all about racism and its insidious effects.
It is no accident that in California, the jurisdictions that have opted to establish open and public mechanisms of citizen oversight are all major urban centers with large minority populations. There is overwhelming evidence that these are the communities most affected by officer misconduct and, for that reason, the most distrustful of police.
Recently released statistics by the U.S. Department of Justice show that in casual encounters with the police, African American and Hispanic citizens are almost three times more likely than whites to be subjected to a search. In the same encounters, force is used against African Americans almost four times more frequently than against whites. The use of force against Hispanics is more than twice as frequent as against whites.
The experience of Oakland, where the Ella Baker Center is headquartered, confirms these findings. In 2006, seventy-eight percent of complaints filed with the Oakland Citizens' Police Review Board were by ethnic minority--mainly African American--complainants.
Under Copley Press, these citizens are deprived of the right to demand public accountability and adjudication of their grievances at an open hearing, even though this City formerly granted them this right. This enforced secrecy will inevitably cause severe damage to public confidence, especially in the communities most affected, where trust in the City's police is at its most fragile. I have no doubt that the insidious effects of police secrecy will have similar effects in Los Angeles and California's other major cities.
There has recently been much talk in California about the need for community policing. The necessary foundation of a community policing effort is public trust. If there is no public accountability, that basis of trust is undermined.
For that reason, SB 1019 is endorsed by a growing number of respected figures and organizations within the law enforcement community. These include Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessy, City of Newark Police Chief Ray Samuels, and the National Black Police Association.
As observed by Chief Samuels in his letter endorsing SB 1019, "[t]he development and maintenance of the public's trust is essential to the effective operations of a law enforcement agency. The transparency allowed under this legislation in the adjudication of administrative complaints against police officers is fundamental to that effort."
But for reasons of perceived political self-interest, California's lawmakers are refusing to hear this message.
The main reason why Senator Romero's bill has been blocked is that California's political leaders have failed to commit their support to this bill or to advocate for its passage. Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa did submit a letter of support early on in the process, but he has not publicly advocated for its passage out of committee. He declined an invitation to testify in support of the bill at Tuesday's crucial hearing.
The greatest disappointment of all has been the abject failure of leadership by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Not only did Nunez fail to support and advocate for the bill, he actually helped to engineer its defeat--whether unwittingly or otherwise--by neglecting to fill a critical seat on the committee that blocked it. As Speaker Nunez was certainly aware, that seat was previously held by a key supporter and co-author of the bill.
Mayor Villaraigosa and Speaker Nunez both publicly denounced the May 1 police melee at MacArthur Park in which dozens of people were injured, but when the cameras were gone and there was a real chance to advance police accountability, the Mayor remained silent and the Speaker sided with the police unions.
Despite this setback, the bill can still be moved. We need to let Speaker Nunez know that he will be held accountable if SB 1019 fails and that the next time there is a significant incident of police misconduct, and the public is kept in the dark, he will bear a significant portion of the blame.
WHAT I SEE IN THIS GENTLEMAN IS A CHARACTER TRAIT THAT MATCHES MOST OF RAWLINGS-BLAKE'S ADMINISTRATION......HE WILL STARE STRAIGHT THROUGH YOU WITH AN ICY LOOK IN HIS EYE AS YOU STATE YOUR OBJECTIONS AND CLAIMS OF CORRUPTION AND ILLEGAL ACTIONS BELAYING A COMPLETE DISREGARD TO YOUR COMMENTS.
California is known for police brutality and Long Beach and Oakland is no exception. You know when a STATE has a lawyer listing for police brutality law firms, it is reasonable to assume that Batts comes from a long line of human rights violators. Rawlings-Blake has overseen an escalation of police brutality since coming to office and it looks like she is doubling down on human rights violations. The people at the table choosing the police commissioner.....the enterprise zones. No one from the communities being abused.
Police Brutality Law Firms Oakland California, Police ...Find Oakland, California Police Brutality lawfirm listings and reviews on Lawyers.com.
There is no argument as to the intentions of hiring Batts.......escalating human rights violations.....so I'd like to look at the dynamics at play when a government actively works to violate the law. O'Malley used the technique described below when he was Mayor of Baltimore. During his tenure we saw a police force openly harassing the public in underserved communities just as happens in New York City.....stop and frisk everybody......make everybody a suspect. You can see why Attorney General Gansler is pushing the DNA database for anyone suspected of a crime.....same psychological warfare......AND IT IS WARFARE TACTICS USED IN ACTIVE THIRD WORLD CONFLICTS. AGAIN, IN ORDER TO USE THESE METHODS YOU MUST SUSPEND THE RULE OF LAW. IT IS ALSO WHY YOU SEE O'MALLEY AS GOVERNOR WANTING TO BUILD THE JUVENILE JAIL IN BALTIMORE. IT INDICATES A CALIFORNIA-STYLE CRUSH ON POOR PEOPLE.
We talked about the fact that with the huge income inequity created by massive fraud and the elimination of the middle-class and push to ever deeper poverty of most of the people in the US, the 1% will have to develop a third world security and penal apparatus.......and this is it. Remember, people in poverty that have no way of finding jobs and no social service support must commit crimes to survive. In Baltimore, 40% of workers are from outside of the city. Corresponding to that statistic is a close to 40% unemployment rate for minority youth in Baltimore. THERE IS A CITY POLICY OF FORCING MINORITY FAMILIES TO LEAVE THE CITY BY GIVING THEM NO WAY TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES AND LIVING IN CONSTANT FEAR OF INCARCERATION. One thing that California has that Baltimore has not is a strong civil and social justice organization. In Maryland, the Maryland ACLU is working with groups violating civil liberties and the President of the Baltimore Chapter of NAACP is a good friend of Rawlings-Blake. So we have a lot of work to do to strengthen civil/social justice. The article at the bottom is by Van Jones and addresses just such broken systems as exist now. The answer to what Baltimore officials have planned is a rebuilding of justice organizations in Maryland. I noted above that most people......minority, white, men, and women will or already fall in the category of ever increasing poverty, so while currently the African-American community bears the brunt of the injustice, it is coming to a family near you. Think of England at the heights of its colonialism and how they sent their poor packing in vessels bound to Australia. Those poor were white, not minority so brutality is equal opportunity. People might laugh at the introduction of such extremes, but these people at the top have no moral compass......their greed is all consuming.....and they will take any and all steps to get what they want.
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!
WE HEAR CITY COUNCIL SAYING THEY WANTED TO PROMOTE FROM WITHIN AND NO DOUBT KNOW WHAT IS COMING. WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER IS THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE THAT LASHES BACK AT INNOCENT PEOPLE WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES TOO MUCH TO BEAR. WHETHER IRAQ, LIBYA, SYRIA, OR EGYPT TO NAME A FEW......PEOPLE REACH A POINT WHEN THEY STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK.....AND IT IS THE INNOCENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS THAT ARE CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE WITH BRUTAL REGIMES. THIS IS JUST COMMON SENSE.
THE PROBLEM WITH CRIME IN THE CITY IS A LACK OF EMPLOYMENT AND A SLOW DETERIORATION OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES FOR UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES......THINK 'ENTERPRISE ZONE' DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!!! ROUND UP THE DEVELOPERS AND YOU CAN START TO HAVE A HEALTHY CITY!! I WONDER IF BATTS HAS A WHITE-COLLAR APPROACH TO CRIME?
In a 2006 article for the F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin, Mr. Batts and Cynthia Renaud outlined his approach in Long Beach. In particular, he suggested that quality-of-life crimes like vandalism be more vigorously pursued by patrol divisions that draw on diverse skills, like those of nuisance abatement officers.
IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR BALTIMORE COMMUNITY JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS TO CALL THESE CALIFORNIA LEGAL AND JUSTICE AGENCIES FOR INSIGHT IN FIGHTING WHAT IS SURE TO COME.
Lawyers Fighting Police Brutality
Nobody is above the law, including cops. But twenty years after the Rodney King beating we continue to witness incidents of police brutality in California.
Now communities are standing up and saying "no more" to police brutality. Our California Police Brutality Lawyers are doing our part by using the law to help victims of excessive force, civil rights violations and police brutality in California.
Whether the incident involved a taser, a police dog, an officer-involved shooting or a false arrest, you might have a legal case. You might be able to get damages to compensate you for your injuries. You also might be able to help change the system. It might be your case that compels the police department to weed out the bad cops and revise its policies so nobody else suffers.
Our California Police Brutality Lawyers take justice seriously. We have committed our careers to protecting your constitutional rights. California Police Brutality Lawyer Darrell York is a veteran criminal defense attorney and former police officer. California Police Brutality Lawyer Sarah Garvey is a Harvard Law School graduate and journalist.
If you've had your civil rights violated or been victimized by excessive force, we'll stand beside you in court and make sure that the real story comes out.
Gang Law in California
Police brutality does not always involve physical violence. It can also take the form of harassment or coercion. As gang subculture flourishes so too does an emerging body of gang law in California.
Gang law on its own does not amount to police brutality. But whenever we are dealing with a system that has the ability to marginalize, stigmatize and criminalize activities of certain people we need to take a close and continuing look.
Gang law in California is a series of statutes and legal interpretations that spans civil, criminal and evidence law. Gang law regulates what alleged gang members can wear, where they can go and how harshly they will be sentenced for crimes. Given the latitude courts give to the use of "gang experts" in building cases some commentators fear that gang law implicates an alleged gang member's right to a fair trial.
I HAVE READ MUCH JOURNALISM ON BATTS AND HIS CALIFORNIA POSTS. ONE THING I SEE IS COMMON: THERE IS AN ACCEPTANCE OF A HIGH DEGREE OF CORRUPTION AND A SYSTEMIC ENVIRONMENT OF PRESSURE TO KEEP SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC ABUSES OF POWER AND CORRUPTION.
AS PUBLIC POLICY GOES BATTS FOUGHT THE DISMISSAL OF OFFICERS BY DECRYING THE POLICE UNION'S DECISION TO ALLOW LAYOFFS RATHER THAN TAKE MORE CUTS TO PENSIONS. BATTS ALSO SPOKE OUT AGAINST ANY TAX HIKES TO ALLOW FOR PUBLIC SECTOR HIRING.
THESE ARE THE TRAITS THAT ATTRACTED BALTIMORE LEADERS TO BATTS.
Batts Leaving LBPD
From Issue: Volume XVI - Number 16
1/1/1900 Beachcomber
5199 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. #608
Post Office Box 15679
Long Beach California, 90815-0679
Phone: (562) 597-8000
Jay Beeler
The Oakland Tribune Wednesday afternoon said that LBPD Police Chief Anthony W. Batts will take over the Oakland Police Department in September. He replaces Wayne Tucker, who resigned from the position in February.
Meanwhile the Beachcomber, in its Friday edition, is publishing a story about how Batts was being blackmailed by a police officer with release of a domestic violence report naming Batts and Congresswoman Laura Richardson, to whom he was once married.
Friday's Beachcomber story, part two of two parts about "Lobstergate," follows ...
Well before Lobstergate went to trial two of the plaintiffs worked very hard at getting city officials to “do the right thing” and clean up the organizational corruption they saw within the Long Beach Police Department.
“This isn’t about Lobstergate, this is far more serious,” Sgt. David Gage told a Press-Telegram reporter in October 2006. “This has shown me that the leadership within the LBPD failed to fulfill its duty when it was presented with a problem, that there is no honesty, integrity or respect in this administration.”
Fellow officer and plaintiff Warren Harris echoed those words in saying “There is so much more going on here than some unauthorized dives.”
Harris told superiors that the pending lawsuits that he, Sgt. Gage and Officer Craig Patterson eventually won for $4.1 million in February 2008 “wouldn’t have cost the city a dime” if they apologized, created a whistleblower policy that protected all city employees against retaliatory activity, and publicly broadcast that policy. It never happened.
Gage wrote a four-page letter in September 2006 to Mayor Foster, with copies to the city manager, city auditor, district attorney, city attorney, city prosecutor and others, attempting to exposed what he saw as criminal and civil laws being broken, corruption, cover-up and blackmail in efforts to sweep Lobstergate under the rug.
Blackmail: Who & Why?
Prior to becoming chief of police in October 2002 at the age of 42, Anthony W. Batts apparently had at least four crime reports taken against him for domestic violence in the cities of Long Beach, San Pedro and San Diego. One of those reports was taken before he was named chief and the reported victim was his wife, Laura Richardson-Batts, 6th District councilwoman at the time and currently Long Beach’s representative in the United States Congress.
(Richardson is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee regarding special treatment by her mortgage lender after her neglected Sacramento house went into foreclosure.)
That altercation reportedly took place in the Civic Center parking garage outside City Hall and Richardson-Batts was seen wearing sunglasses at the city council meeting shortly thereafter, apparently to cover a black eye. She also sought refuge with Tonia Reyes Uranga, councilwoman for the 7th District. About that time Richardson-Batts was said to be living in a house on Parker St. in San Pedro where her mother currently lives.
Attempts to get those reports have been unsuccessful without the cooperation of Congresswoman Richardson, who did not respond to our e-mailed questions concerning the incidents. Yet the incidents are common knowledge among many LBPD insiders contacted by the Beachcomber.
Within the Long Beach Police Department those documents are said to be under lock and key in the police chief’s office and one source has stated the crime report number has been changed and the original title changed to “bicycle report,” apparently in reference to a stolen bicycle.
It is a felony to change these documents and one of the officers who participated in taking it kept a copy and was a principal among the three night-shift officers involved with lobster diving, unauthorized discharge of assault rifles, falsification of time cards and retaliation against the officers who reported their behavior.
Apparently the threats to “blow the whistle” on Batts to local news media using a copy of the crime report worked. Disciplinary recommendations ranging from one year of demotion and eight days of suspension were all reduced to letters of reprimand by Chief Batts and his command staff, against the recommendations presented by Commander Torben Beith, who oversaw the port security detail.
This action also effectively took the matter away from Civil Service Commission hearings and the public, wherein officers were set to testify about criminal and misdemeanor activities as well as Batts’ domestic violence reports and the subsequent blackmail attempts.
Batts’ domestic violence history subsequently proved problematic for him in obtaining FBI clearance for a security clearance as well as being able to legally carry a firearm.
Black Chief Wanted
One source with City Hall insider knowledge said that the main reason that Tony Batts got the chief of police job in the first place was because he was black. “The mayor and city council wanted a black police chief and the new city manager at that time, Jerry Miller, was willing to overlook Batts’ prior domestic violence crimes and he got the job,” our source said.
Words used by former officers to describe Batts often ranged from “slick, charismatic, golden- tongued, outgoing and intelligent” to “vindictive, arrogant, egotistical, womanizer and mean.” A former detective relayed the story about how one officer said “Hi Tony” to Batts in the public service building elevator with the response “You will address me a chief” and was, shortly thereafter, given a transfer.
During the Lobstergate trials in Los Angeles early last year Batts perjured himself on the witness stand by telling jurors that the LBPD would never cite people for lobster diving in the port when, in fact, a neighbor of Sgt. Gage was cited at about the same time as the LBPD lobster diving incidents and was prosecuted by Tom Reeves. That neighbor was put on the witness stand and directly refuted Batts’testimony, thereby diminishing Batts’ truthfulness as a witness in the eyes of the jurists.
Batts also falsely testified on the witness stand that the words “malcontent” would never come from his lips in describing certain officers. Sources within the LBPD said Batts often used the words at various meetings throughout the department. “It was very common for him to say that,” one source said.
Plaintiffs Harris, Patterson and Gage claim that – in addition to the chief – they “witnessed lieutenants and sergeants lie on the witness stand at the coaxing of the city attorney.”
When all of the facts about Lobstergate – including multiple misdemeanor crimes and the more serious felonies of blackmail and changing official police reports – were laid in front of City Prosecutor Tom Reeves in January 2005, he did nothing. “Selective prosecution is itself a crime, in violation of the equal protection clauses in both the California and United States Constitutions,” one knowledgeable legal source told the Beachcomber.
Summing It Up
A letter sent to the Press-Telegram editor (only portions were published) in April 2007 by former LBPD Homicide Detective Tim Cable sums up what others interviewed for this story voiced about the department’s management, in addition to stating that it was “very top heavy.”
“The city council and our new mayor … are so full of praise for him. He’s the messiah who has single-handedly lowered the crime rate and should be rewarded. But how does he do it?
“The chief doesn’t work the streets, he doesn’t answer calls for service, he doesn’t work gangs, he doesn’t solve homicides, he doesn’t make arrests, he doesn’t deal with the criminal element at all unless they line up outside his plush office and wait to turn themselves in.
“If the Chief is such a valuable asset and sought after by other agencies then why didn’t the City of Inglewood snap him up when he applied for the chiefs job there? Why didn’t the City of Santa Monica grab him but chose a subordinate instead?
“Yes, Chief Batts is intelligent. He presents himself as a professional and he has the gift of eloquent speech but beware, he also has a large ego. You think that all the officers who have left the department did so for money? No sir! Money has always been and always will be a source of low morale within the rank and file.
“But don’t overlook the fact that there just may be other reasons for the exodus. They won’t tell you for fear of retaliation. They won’t tell you what it’s like to work for a man who will praise you one minute and smite you the next.
“Having worked under nine different chiefs during my 31-year career only one comes to mind that created such a hostile environment; he came from L.A. Oh, and that chief promoted Chief Batts to the command level and set his feet upon the way.
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HERE WE HAVE A BALTIMORE MEDIA OUTLET TRYING TO RAISE THE QUESTIONS PUBLICLY. YOU WILL SEE HERE A SAMPLE OF THE ARROGANCE AND DISMISSIVE ATTITUDE FOR WHICH BATTS IS KNOWN. THE BALTIMORE SUN PRAISES HIM AND MAKES NO MENTION OF HIS TROUBLED PAST.
New Commissioner Brushes Off Rough Oakland Tenure Anthony Batts, the mayor’s pick to be the city’s next police commissioner, tenure as Oakland’s police chief ended poorly.
By Adam BednarAugust 28, 2012 North Baltimore Patch
Anthony Batts Anthony Batts' the mayor's choice to be the next police commissioner speaks to reporters on Tuesday
. http://northbaltimore.patch.com/articles
When a reporter asked Anthony Batts about his decision to resign from the police force in Oakland, CA last October during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday, he was quick with a joke.
Pretending he didn’t hear the question, Batts put his hand to his ear and asked: "Did you say Baltimore?"
Batts went on to describe his tenure in Oakland as "gift of love from me."
But news reports from Northern California have raised some issues about his previous job performance that are no laughing matter.
Batts' tenure in Oakland reportedly started heading south after the city laid off eighty police officers when its union refused to increase the portion its members pay toward their pension plan. After the layoffs, Batts announced the department wouldn’t be able to provide some services, and refused to support a tax increase that would have allowed the city to rehire the officers, according to the East Bay Express.
He then applied to be police chief in San Jose, after only serving as the police chief of Oakland for about a year. It was also announced just before his resignation that the Federal Government was threatening to take control of the department because it hadn’t met the terms of a consent decree to reform the department after a scandal involving Oakland cops beating and framing drug suspects in 2000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
But on Tuesday Batts had a much different take on how his last job ended.
He called his service in Oakland a "gift of love from me."
Batts, who was serving as the police chief in Long Beach, CA at the time, explained he was approached by a headhunter about the job and declined, but reconsidered after four officers were killed in Oakland in a single day.
"As I started looking more into the city of Oakland, I was touched by the sheer carnage, the loss of life of young people in that city, the deaths of people who look more like me," Batts said.
He said that he grew up in South Central Los Angeles, which struggled with the drugs and crime that were hurting Oakland, and that he wanted to help kids who looked like him because he often wondered if anyone cared about those kids.
"Oakland wasn’t done to be a career move. Oakland was done for me to be a gift to try to take my skill base to try to address and make things better, and I think we did have progress that was there," Batts said.
He said his inability to click with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was elected after Batts was hired, was his major reason for leaving Oakland.
"Sometimes styles just don’t match. And it wasn’t anything personal. I don’t have any animosity against the mayor. Sometimes its just business," Batts said.
In a news release announcing Batts being hired, the administration sites his leadership training and law enforcement experience as being two reasons it decided to offer him the job.
"Anthony Batts has what it takes to lead the Baltimore Police Department forward and to continue building on the progress the men and women of the BPD have made reducing crime and violence," Rawlings-Blake said in the news release.
__________________________________________________
THIS IS FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN. I HAVE FOUND LITTLE MEDIA COVERAGE ON BATTS THAT IS FAVORABLE....MOST MAKES THE MAN SEEM TO BE A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN. WE HAVE A LAWSUIT IN WAITING WITH THE EBDI PROTESTOR THAT WAS BRUTALIZED ON CAMERA AND SEVERAL CITIZENS KILLED BY POLICE FOR NO LEGITIMATE REASON. BATTS COMES FROM A POLICE ENVIRONMENT THAT MAKES THIS RECORD SEEM LIKE CHILD'S PLAY.
Taking command Our view: New police commissioner Anthony Batts' experience, confidence and fresh perspective could serve Baltimore well
Whoever Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had chosen to replace retired Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III would have had a tough act to follow. But in Anthony Batts, who comes to Baltimore after a 30-year career in California that included stints as police chief in Long Beach and Oakland, the mayor may have found a leader whose skills and experience match Baltimore's needs. If Mr. Batts can build on the solid accomplishments of his able predecessor, he will find a warm welcome in this city............
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BALTIMORE CITY MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE HAS SIGNALED SHE INTENDS TO HEIGHTEN POLICE BRUTALITY AND HARASSMENT RATHER THAN ADDRESS CONCERNS ALREADY EXPRESSED IN UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES. IF YOU DO NOT HEAR THE NAACP AND OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS SPEAK OUT AGAINST BATTS AS THE MAYOR'S CHOICE.....WHICH I DON'T SEE HAPPENING....YOU KNOW THAT YOUR LEADERSHIP IS NOT WORKING FOR YOU! CALIFORNIA HAS A LONG HISTORY OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND INCARCERATION RATES THAT SURPASS MOST THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES. JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS HEADED BY LEADERS LIKE VAN JONES HAVE BATTLED THIS FOR DECADES. WHY BRING IT TO BALTIMORE?
Police Secrecy Rules: CA Politicians Cave to Cop Union Pressure
Van Jones Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, American Progess Action Fund
Posted: July 2, 2007 02:00 PM
Last Tuesday, in a shameful display of political cowardice, an important police accountability bill was stalled in committee.
The bill, SB 1019 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) would have overturned a State Supreme Court decision in Copley Press that resulted in the closure of public hearings on citizen complaints of police misconduct. It would also have restored very limited public access to the disciplinary records of cops who are found to have violated the law and abused the public trust.
As a result of Copley Press, officers who abuse their powers and violate people's civil rights are now protected by a cloak of secrecy. The California Supreme Court held that under State law, the "privacy rights" of abusive officers are more important than the public's right to know. The shameful truth is that California's policy of secrecy about police conduct is now one of the most restrictive in the country.
Why couldn't Senator Romero, who represents parts of the City of Los Angeles, get her relatively modest bill out of the Assembly Public Safety Committee?
Part of the reason lies in the tactics of the police unions who, prior to an earlier vote in the senate threatened to torpedo term limit reform, and repeated their mantra that allowing greater openness and transparency would somehow endanger officer safety and compromise the security of police operations.
There is no evidence to support this allegation, either in California or in any of the thirty-plus states that allow public hearings on citizen complaints. In 30-plus years of open hearings pre-Copley Press in California, there is not one single instance of a single officer being physically harmed as a result of such information being released.
In fact, the Copley Press decision had nothing to do with officer safety or operational security. The Court's 42-page opinion does not once mention either of these issues. Nor do the extensive briefs and pleadings of the plaintiff police unions to the Court.
Finally, SB 1019 contains specific provisions that allow for records to be kept confidential if a police chief or sheriff certifies that their release is likely to compromise officer safety or operational security. The fact that the police unions have rejected this provision clearly shows that their safety and security concerns are completely bogus.
Despite repeated invitations by Senator Romero, they have not proposed a single amendment of their own to address these supposedly crucial issues. The truth is that the police unions are not interested in public accountability plus protection. They are not interested in public accountability at all. Period. End of discussion.
It is important to note, however, that the national black officers' union, the Black Police Association, has endorsed SB 1019. It is reasonable to assume that these officers have no interest in putting officer safety or operational security at risk. They do, however, know all about racism and its insidious effects.
It is no accident that in California, the jurisdictions that have opted to establish open and public mechanisms of citizen oversight are all major urban centers with large minority populations. There is overwhelming evidence that these are the communities most affected by officer misconduct and, for that reason, the most distrustful of police.
Recently released statistics by the U.S. Department of Justice show that in casual encounters with the police, African American and Hispanic citizens are almost three times more likely than whites to be subjected to a search. In the same encounters, force is used against African Americans almost four times more frequently than against whites. The use of force against Hispanics is more than twice as frequent as against whites.
The experience of Oakland, where the Ella Baker Center is headquartered, confirms these findings. In 2006, seventy-eight percent of complaints filed with the Oakland Citizens' Police Review Board were by ethnic minority--mainly African American--complainants.
Under Copley Press, these citizens are deprived of the right to demand public accountability and adjudication of their grievances at an open hearing, even though this City formerly granted them this right. This enforced secrecy will inevitably cause severe damage to public confidence, especially in the communities most affected, where trust in the City's police is at its most fragile. I have no doubt that the insidious effects of police secrecy will have similar effects in Los Angeles and California's other major cities.
There has recently been much talk in California about the need for community policing. The necessary foundation of a community policing effort is public trust. If there is no public accountability, that basis of trust is undermined.
For that reason, SB 1019 is endorsed by a growing number of respected figures and organizations within the law enforcement community. These include Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessy, City of Newark Police Chief Ray Samuels, and the National Black Police Association.
As observed by Chief Samuels in his letter endorsing SB 1019, "[t]he development and maintenance of the public's trust is essential to the effective operations of a law enforcement agency. The transparency allowed under this legislation in the adjudication of administrative complaints against police officers is fundamental to that effort."
But for reasons of perceived political self-interest, California's lawmakers are refusing to hear this message.
The main reason why Senator Romero's bill has been blocked is that California's political leaders have failed to commit their support to this bill or to advocate for its passage. Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa did submit a letter of support early on in the process, but he has not publicly advocated for its passage out of committee. He declined an invitation to testify in support of the bill at Tuesday's crucial hearing.
The greatest disappointment of all has been the abject failure of leadership by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Not only did Nunez fail to support and advocate for the bill, he actually helped to engineer its defeat--whether unwittingly or otherwise--by neglecting to fill a critical seat on the committee that blocked it. As Speaker Nunez was certainly aware, that seat was previously held by a key supporter and co-author of the bill.
Mayor Villaraigosa and Speaker Nunez both publicly denounced the May 1 police melee at MacArthur Park in which dozens of people were injured, but when the cameras were gone and there was a real chance to advance police accountability, the Mayor remained silent and the Speaker sided with the police unions.
Despite this setback, the bill can still be moved. We need to let Speaker Nunez know that he will be held accountable if SB 1019 fails and that the next time there is a significant incident of police misconduct, and the public is kept in the dark, he will bear a significant portion of the blame.
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