A lot of oddly gleeful folks treat the verdict as evidence that police did the right thing the night Thomas suffered fatal injuries while being remorselessly tortured by men with badges.

That’s absurd. The frail, mentally ill homeless man wouldn’t be dead if a cop didn’t openly declare he was going to “f—” Thomas up and then follow through on his threat. If the officers had a shred of humanity, Thomas would be alive.

I’m glad to see the L.A. Times report that at least one person in Fullerton understands this:

“Fullerton’s chief of police said he would fight an appeal from one of the officers acquitted in the death of Kelly Thomas to get his job back.

“Jay Cicinelli was fired after being charged by Orange County prosecutors with involuntary manslaughter and excessive force in the 2011 death of the mentally ill homeless man.

“His co-defendant Manuel Ramos, also a former Fullerton police officer, was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

“On Monday a Santa Ana jury found both of them not guilty of all charges.

“Dan Hughes, Fullerton chief of police, said in a statement that his decision to fire Cicinelli is separate and unaffected by the acquittal.”

“’Former Police Officer Jay Cicinelli has alleged that he was wrongfully terminated and has demanded his job back,’ Hughes said. ‘I stand behind the employment decisions I have made.'”

2011 killing produced shameful reaction from many

Why do I express satisfaction that “at least one person in Fullerton” understands what happened to Thomas was horrible?

Because of Steve Greenhut’s U-T San Diego column, which points out that many in Fullerton didn’t get this at all.

“…in July 2011, the Fullerton political establishment rushed to the defense of officers who had beaten a 130-pound homeless schizophrenic named Kelly Thomas. The public saw the published photo of Thomas’ horribly swollen and bruised face, yet the mayor went on TV saying he had seen worse injuries in the Vietnam War and that it was unclear what killed Thomas, who died in a hospital days after the whomping.

“We also learned that police officers confiscated the video camera of a bystander and were allowed to watch the surveillance video of the incident and essentially get their stories straight before giving their statements.”

This is pathetic. As Steve points out, it is also not surprising.

“This one-time idealist wants to believe that in a free society the rulers are held to the same standards as the ruled, that the public wouldn’t stand for the kind of official brutality that takes place in unfree nations and that juries would punish killers even if they wear a uniform.

“Yet over years of writing about policing issues, it’s hard to remain hopeful. No matter how egregious the incident — police gunning down a troubled teen in an empty park, shooting a fleeing suspect in the back, or planting evidence in a car trunk — there’s rarely any punishment.”

Take it away, commenters. Explain to us once again how Kelly Thomas got what he had coming.

Sheesh.

I suppose it is remotely possible that an unbiased juror would look at this case and not see it as murder. But it is a stunning comment on the public's sky-high tolerance for police misconduct that the officers weren't even convicted of assault under the color of authority. The tape of Thomas, as he is being brutalized, pleading for his dad to magically appear from nowhere and help him is the most wrenching thing I've ever heard. CalWatchdog founder Steve Greenhut had a powerful summary of the deadly assault in 2012:

“… the Orange County district attorney recently released a horrific 33-minute video of the city’s police officers beating a frail homeless man named Kelly Thomas last July. Thomas later died in a hospital. …

“The surveillance tape caught the horrifying confrontation in vivid detail. We see a large officer named Manuel Ramos approach the scraggly Thomas, who is suspected of breaking into some cars. Thomas gives him some lip, but doesn’t act in a threatening way. Ramos then puts on what the district attorney calls a 'show' as he slowly slips on latex gloves, twirls his baton and then says, '[S]ee my fists … these fists are going to f… you up.'

“Another officer comes in and starts swinging a baton at Thomas, who cries out in pain. Yet another officer, Jay Cicinelli, used a Taser on Thomas and, as the DA explained, hammered Thomas in the face with the blunt end of it. Thomas called out for his Dad as the officers worked him over. Ramos is being charged with second-degree murder and Cicinelli with involuntary manslaughter. Ramos, the DA added, 'turned a routine encounter into a brutal beating death.'”

But a jury believes no crimes took place.

Move along. There's nothing to see.

Don't you understand? There's one set of rules for the centurions, and another for the rest of us.

By Steven Greenhut

FULLERTON — Many people were outraged this summer after a private investigator, with ties to a law firm that represents 120 police unions in California, made an apparently false police report that a Costa Mesa councilman stumbled out of a bar, appearing drunk, and was weaving all over the road as he drove home.

When police showed up at his door, Councilman Jim Righeimer was found stone cold sober. The clear goal of the phony call was to embarrass a lawmaker who had been leading the charge in his city for public employee pension reform, outsourcing services and other cost-saving measures.

Subsequently, officials in other cities revealed similarly disturbing tactics from their police unions.

And, despite the revelations, police unions continue to behave as before, trying to intimidate council members who refuse to go along with their demands for ever-higher pay and benefits, and protections for their members from oversight and accountability.

Two councilmen in Fullerton, Bruce Whitaker and Travis Kiger, are experiencing treatment similar to the Righeimer episode in Costa Mesa. The Fullerton police union is angry at the role those men played in demanding reform in the wake of the death of Kelly Thomas (pictured above), a schizophrenic homeless man fatally beaten by Fullerton officers in July 2011.

Pension reform

The unions also dislike Whitaker and Kiger’s call for pension reform, their consideration of a plan – common in Orange County and elsewhere — to shift police services from the city’s Police Department to the more cost-efficient Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The private eye mentioned above had ties to the Upland law firm Lackie, Dammeier & McGill. The Register had reported on the negotiating “playbook” the lawyers had published on their website until the bad publicity resulting from the Righeimer episode. The playbook detailed how police unions should bully elected officials into submitting to their demands.

Although the Fullerton police union employs a different law firm for contract talks, it is following a similar blueprint.

As the Lackie firm website explained, a union “should be like a quiet giant in the position of, ‘do as I ask, and don’t piss me off.'” It detailed the “various tools available to an association to put political pressure on the decision makers.” The firm advises police to “storm city council” and have union members and supporters chastise targeted council members “for their lack of concern for public safety,” even though negotiations are over pay rather than safety.

The playbook even calls for the police to engage in dubious behavior — calling in sick (blue flu) even when not sick, and using the color of authority to scare residents (i.e., calling for unnecessary backup units) into thinking there is a crime problem in their neighborhood. The frightened residents will then, presumably, support giving the police more money.

Scary unions

In Fullerton, union members have repeatedly stormed City Council meetings.

The union has handed out free T-shirts and free hamburgers to residents who voice support for the union in council chambers.

Supporters have yelled at council members and leveled unsubstantiated charges designed to scare Fullerton residents into electing pro-union candidates.

They have sent out one campaign hit mailer after another. For instance, the union claims that the council’s failed vote to seek a bid from the Sheriff’s Department to take over policing the city amounted to “putting our families at risk,” a statement that would come as news to the sheriff and her deputies.

Reminiscent of those “Reefer Madness” efforts from the 1930s, the union has transformed the council members’ irrelevant support for a statewide marijuana initiative into something ominously portrayed in mailers that proclaim, “Our neighborhoods could be full of marijuana dispensaries.” Even if the initiative passes statewide, Fullerton ordinances ban medical marijuana dispensaries. And there is no evidence dispensaries “jeopardize our families’ safety,” although I understand that police agencies in general are addicted to the federal cash that helps fund the drug war.

Checkpoints

Kiger and Whitaker are freedom-oriented conservatives who oppose on constitutional grounds Fullerton’s DUI checkpoints, which has led the union to claim yet another assault of Fullerton’s tranquility.

I’ve driven through Fullerton during those infuriating checkpoints, forced to wait in lines on public streets as cops randomly poke around in everyone’s cars, so I am glad some council members question this intrusion.

These are typical campaign tactics, perhaps, but Kiger also talks about a police officer who makes a “repeated false assertion to the public that I smoke marijuana.” He also says an officer followed him in a patrol car around town in what the councilman considered a clear act of intimidation.

The officers claim the Fullerton City Council race is all about “public safety,” but the police union is backing a liberal candidate with no obvious commitment to actual safety issues, but who seems willing to support the pay and pension packages the union demands, and who was mostly silent during the Thomas incident.

“If I wasn’t able to contribute money, these councilmen wouldn’t be able to defend themselves against these union attacks,” said Tony Bushala, a local businessman and blogger who was the main supporter for a recall election in June against three union-allied council members. “The unions put out a hit mailer every day, which explains the importance of Proposition 32.” That is the statewide paycheck-protection initiative that would stop unions from using automatic payroll deductions to fund political campaigns.

Last week, I wrote about a new study revealing that, from 2005-10, pension costs to the state government have soared by 94 percent for “public safety” officials. People often ask me why the state is in such a fiscal mess, why city councils don’t implement reasonable reforms and why so many localities are considering bankruptcy.

One answer can be found in Costa Mesa, Fullerton and elsewhere. Most council members don’t have the courage or resources to stand up to their employee unions. Until the public clearly rejects such campaigns, neither public services nor public finances will improve.

Steven Greenhut is vice president of journalism for the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Write to him at: steven.greenhut@franklincenterhq.org.

By Steven Greenhut

SACRAMENTO — Those who don’t understand why Fullerton residents are about to recall three of their city councilmen on June 5 ought to spend 33 minutes watching the videotape that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas released of Fullerton police officers confronting and then beating an unarmed homeless man named Kelly Thomas, who died from the crushing injuries.

The black-and-white surveillance tape caught the horrifying July confrontation in vivid detail, and anyone who can get through it without crying or feeling nauseated is an insensitive person indeed. We see a large officer, Manuel Ramos, responding to reports of someone breaking into cars at the city bus depot, approach the scraggly Thomas. Thomas gives him some lip, but doesn’t act in a threatening way.

Ramos puts on what the district attorney has called a “show,” as he slowly slips on latex gloves, twirls his baton and then says, “[S]ee my fists … these fists are going to f— you up.” Another officer comes in and starts swinging a baton at Thomas, who cries out in pain. As the D.A. explained, a third officer, Jay Cicinelli, uses a Taser to shock Thomas and then hammers him in the face with the blunt end of the Taser, as Thomas’ blood pooled on the ground. Other officers arrive later in the struggle and pile on to Thomas, who repeatedly yells, “I can’t breathe,” and “Daddy.”

A judge watched the tape and listened to three days of testimony this past week before ordering Ramos and Cicinelli to stand trial, the former for second-degree murder and the latter for involuntary manslaughter. As Rackauckas told the judge during the preliminary hearing, the officers “crushed the life out of” Thomas. Ramos, the D.A. said, “turned a routine encounter into a brutal beating death.”

So, what about the recall? Why blame police cruelty on councilmen Dick Jones, Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead? The answer is obvious. After this gruesome event, when many Fullerton residents were consumed by anger and demanded answers, their leaders failed them. The police chief took vacation, then went on disability leave, and then retired.

That left the council to take charge. Two council members, Republican Bruce Whitaker and Democrat Sharon Quirk, called for openness and demanded investigations. But the three others, the majority, denied the obvious, defended the officers and joined in a disinformation campaign.

Insensitive

It was bad enough that the Fullerton Police Department was putting out false information (i.e., claiming that officers suffered broken bones after a supposedly brutal fight with Thomas), but here’s what Mayor Jones said, which is as insensitive as it is idiotic: “I’ve seen far worse injuries that are survivable. I don’t know why he died.” Thomas, 37 and mentally ill, was physically fine, then was beaten to a pulp — something now undeniable, thanks to the video — and these city “leaders” couldn’t figure out what killed him.

Furthermore, the three councilmen opposed releasing the video to the public. They backed the department and ran from questions. McKinley, a former Fullerton police chief who hired the officers involved in the beating, wanted to keep the officers on the street during the death investigation. These three didn’t seriously question the police department, which confiscated the cameras of bystanders who witnessed the altercation, and allowed the officers to watch the video and get their stories straight before giving their testimony to investigators.

Jones referred to the peaceful citizens of his city who were protesting the Thomas death and the way the authorities handled it as the equivalent of a “lynch mob.” Can you understand the frustration?

“The community was crying out in anger,” said Fullerton businessman and blogger Tony Bushala, who is leading the recall movement. “They wanted leadership. Not only did Mayor Jones and councilmen Bankhead and McKinley fail to lead, but they joined with those who downplayed this horror. They tried to cover it up and circle the wagons. Their actions were cowardly.”

Scandals

Prior to the Thomas case, Fullerton’s police department had been beset by recent scandals, including officers accused of theft, illegal drug use and even having sex in a squad car. As someone who has covered police-abuse issues, I’ve seen the same thing play out — officials obfuscate and protect the officers, no matter the circumstances. Their unions protect the officers. The police department releases only that information that supports its side.

District attorneys don’t often prosecute such cases, but kudos to Rackauckas for being a leader in this situation. But it’s crucial to understand the depth of failure provided by those three council members who refused to live up to the responsibility vested in them. A recall — especially given the city’s mismanagement on other issues — is an admirable way for the public to issue a vote of no confidence.

Jones, Bankhead and McKinley have been advocates for eminent-domain-abusing, tax-squandering redevelopment projects throughout downtown Fullerton. They have failed to rein in pension costs. McKinley is a pension-abuse poster child, a double-dipper who receives $215,000 a year. All three men defended a water tax that has been ruled illegal, with McKinley complaining about “knee jerk” efforts to return the money to the public.

These are solid recall rationales. Admirably, the recall effort is remarkably nonpartisan — the replacement candidates come from across the political spectrum.

Unfortunately, the Orange County Register’s Editorial Board didn’t fully support this heart-felt political revolt, as it argued, “The citizens who voted [the three councilmen] in and now are disgruntled should vote them out during a regular election cycle.” The Register had no such qualms about backing the recall in 2003 of Gov. Gray Davis, for similar lack-of-leadership reasons.

The release of the video reinforces the wisdom of the recall. A recent news article explained that “legal experts caution that the footage doesn’t tell the entire story,” but we don’t need experts to tell us the truth, now obvious to anyone who can access YouTube. And we don’t need experts to tell Fullerton voters what to do about three councilmen who acted in a craven and unconscionable way.

Following the formal request of Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson, the FBI now is looking into this case. FFFF has the story here.

It’s embarrassing not only for Orange County, but the state of California, the the Feds have gotten involved in this. The city took weeks to question witnesses.

O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has done little. Ditto for California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

To read more about this, click here for recent FFFF articles on the killing, including an interview on the John & Ken show of the only witness to come forward.

Some of the latest claims against the brutal cops:

* One officer supposedly beat Kelly Thomas with the butt of his Taser until blood started coming up all over the officer’s arms and hands.

* Another officer supposedly drop knees Kelly Thomas’ nose and throat with the full force of his body weight multiple times, crushing the victim’s throat.

* This happened while Kelly Thomas was not moving or resisting.

There’s also a video, where you can hear the poor man being Tased — even though he’s already unconscious.

This truly is a major miscarriage of justice. It’s like the Rodney King beating of 20 years ago — except King survived.

And the killing of this “gentle man,” as friends and family described him, is but one example of police gone berserk all across America. Usually they beat and kill and harass with impunity.

This time they might not get away with it.