It’s weird because the Court itself opens with the prayer, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court!” — a quote directly from the Court’s own website.

The new decision was 5-4, with the four most liberal justices against. They believe the First Amendment’s ban on establishing a government religion bans all mention of religion of any kind in any government situation. But how could they have wanted to ban something the Court itself does? Why was this case even taken up? Shouldn’t they first insist on ending their own prayer?

Moreover, the Supreme Court building in D.C. itself displays the 10 Commandments and Moses, God’s law-giver in the Old Testament. See the above picture. Shouldn’t the four liberal justices be outside right now with chisels, erasing Moses and other religious statues from their own building?

I forget what comic it was who said the government wants to ban the 10 Commandments and other religion from government functions so people are not reminded, “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not kill” whenever the government steals and kills.

At least for local government meetings, we still can get those reminders — for now.

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 John Seiler

Cops are getting out of control, especially in California. Not yet two years since the Fullerton police beat to death homeless man Kelly Thomas on July 5, 2011, comes this:

“Blood stains are still visible on the sidewalk at the corner of Flower Street and Palm Drive, where a Bakersfield man struggled with as many as nine officers and later died this week.

“David Sal Silva, 33 and the father of four young children, died early Wednesday morning after deputies say he fought with them and CHP officers who’d responded to a report of a possibly intoxicated man outside Kern Medical Center.

“The Kern County Sheriff’s Office says Silva resisted, a canine was deployed, more law enforcement arrived, batons were used and the man later had trouble breathing. He was taken to KMC, where he died. An autopsy was slated for Thursday, but no results have been released.

“Some witnesses apparently took cellphone video of the incident but deputies moved quickly to seize the phones. The Sheriff’s Office, after releasing a statement Wednesday and naming its officers Thursday, declined all further comment.

“People who say they witnessed the incident as well as Silva’s family members described a scene in which deputies essentially were beating a helpless man to death. They were indignant that cellphone video had been taken away by deputies.

“‘My brother spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life,’ said Christopher Silva, 31, brother of the dead man. He said he’s talked to witnesses but did not see the incident himself.

“At about midnight, Ruben Ceballos, 19, was awakened by screams and loud banging noises outside his home. He said he ran to the left side of his house to find out who was causing the ruckus.

“‘When I got outside I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head,’ Ceballos said.

“Silva was on the ground screaming for help, but officers continued to beat him, Ceballos said.

“After several minutes, Ceballos said, Silva stopped screaming and was no longer responsive.’

‘Police Tape’ app

Let’s hope one of the cell-phone videos somehow survived seizure by the Kern Sheriffs-Stasi. Also, the Kern Medical Center might have surveillance cameras that could be subpoenaed by Silva’s family. And someone in the hospital itself might have taken pictures without the Stasi seeing them.

If you’re ever in a similar situation, this shows the importance of immediately posting your photos to Facebook or somewhere else. We’re 22 years now from the video-taped beating of Rodney King (shown above), and most people have phones with cameras.

Also, the ACLU of New Jersey has released a free “Police Tape” app for Android and iPhones. According to the description:

“Citizens can hold police accountable in the palms of their hands with “Police Tape,” a smartphone application from the ACLU of New Jersey that allows people to securely and discreetly record and store interactions with police, as well as provide legal information about citizens’ rights when interacting with the police.

“The Android “Police Tape” app records video and audio discreetly, disappearing from the screen once the recording begins to prevent any attempt by police to squelch the recording. In addition to keeping a copy on the phone itself, the user can choose to send it to the ACLU-NJ for backup storage and analysis of possible civil liberties violations….

“The popularity of cellphones with video capabilities has raised legal questions about the rights of citizens to record in public. Fortunately, the courts have sided with citizens. In May 2012, a federal appeals court struck down an Illinois law that had made it illegal for citizens to record police officers on-duty. Also in May 2012, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice released a letter affirming the constitutional rights to record the police in public. These two developments came on the heels of a landmark ruling in August 2011, which recognized the right of citizens to record police officers after a Massachusetts man in Boston Common was wrongfully arrested for filming an interaction with a police officer.”

Unconstitutional

So the Kern Stasi’s seizure of the phones was completely unconstitutional. That could generate further lawsuits against the county for violations of citizens’ rights. The seizures violated not only the Fourth Amendment “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” The seizures also violated the First Amendment right of “freedom of… the press,” because in this age of Facebook and blogs, everyone is a journalist.

Finally, as I mentioned in my previous blog on a new private Detroit program, police need to be re-trained from their current mode of beating and shooting first, to the old one of first protecting the lives of citizens — even at the risk of their own lives.

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.

Editor’s note: This is the third part of a three-part series on how the homeless and mentally ill are treated in California. Part One was about the Kelly Thomas beating and death. Part Two was about how L.A. sheriffs deal with the homeless.

Aug. 28, 2012

By Tori Richards

The videotaped police beating death of homeless man Kelly Thomas left a lasting legacy on the Fullerton Police Department that has culminated with sweeping changes in how officers deal with the public.

The department’s dirty laundry was aired this week in a 53-page report that blasted the command staff for protocol that ranged from the appearance of falsifying reports to creating conflict of interests to encouraging a sub-par standard of doing business.

Civil rights attorney Michael Gennaco, who heads the Los Angeles police watchdog group, the Office of Independent Review, listed 59 recommendations for the Fullerton Police Department in the wake of Thomas’ death a year ago July. So far, 34 have been implemented, with several more mandates coming down soon.

The report was unveiled Aug. 21 at a Fullerton City Council meeting that was packed both with Thomas supporters and police union officials.

“My biggest priority since the Kelly Thomas murder is to ensure something like this doesn’t occur again, that we don’t have another incident similar to this,” said Councilman Bruce Whitaker. “We have to get down to the foundational level to ensure that we guard against something like this.”

Thomas, 37, was beaten in the parking lot of a bus depot when he tried to flee from a menacing interrogation from Officer Manuel Ramos. The schizophrenic homeless man had been trying to open car door handles when Ramos arrived with Officer Joe Wolfe; and the pair automatically took a hostile stance rather than engaging in a fact-finding mission.

A total of six officers eventually engaged in the beating and most of them were piled on top of Thomas. He was taken comatose to a hospital, where he died a few days later. Ramos was charged with second degree murder and another officer, Jay Cicinelli, with manslaughter for repeatedly bashing Thomas’ head with a Taser gun to the extent that he lost an eye.

Ramos, Cicinelli and Wolfe have all been fired.

“I was surprised from the beginning of the incident when I learned about it,” Gennaco told CalWatchDog.com. “My view is that this never needed to happen.”

Whitaker said he was actually surprised at the substance of the report.

“This one really captured more of the totality of some of the management shortfalls and problems in the department,” he told CalWatchDog.com. “It gives us a lot of room for thought to ensure these things are rectified.”

The Beating Seen Around the World

According to Gennaco’s report, “The tragic outcome and the manner in which is death occurred…sent shock waves of concern about the police officers’ actions throughout the nation and beyond. Photographs of the horrific injuries suffered by Mr. Thomas were published, traumatizing the public’s consciousness while contributing to the keen interest in learning how this encounter transpired.”

During his investigation, he interviewed dozens of police officers, command staff and other witnesses. He read reports, watched the beating tape and listened to the digital recording. In the end, the OIR gave a 50 page report to the chief along with three volumes of exhibits and transcripts. The purpose was to determine whether the officers violated policy and to conduct a review of department policies, procedures and training.

Gennaco wrote: “[M]ore can and should be done in reforming the way in which FPD hires and trains its officers, investigates and reviews uses of force, learns from those force incidents, holds its officers accountable and considers improvements in policy. Our recommendations are intended to spark continued reform in each of these areas to continue to move the Department forward in a positive way.”

He had sharp criticism for Ramos, saying his investigation was more akin to banter resulting in a non-productive and unprofessional discussion. At one point, Ramos asked if Thomas spoke English and any other language, sarcastically stating that his partner spoke 10 languages.

“The officers’ initial interaction with Mr. Thomas unnecessarily escalated a situation that, if handled professionally, could have been resolved without significant force,” Gennaco wrote.

When other officers arrived, they should have remembered they were investigating a non-violent offense with no evidence of a crime.

“However, the officers dealing with Mr. Thomas found a way to transform a casual encounter into an incident resulting in death,” Gennaco wrote. “Every patrol officer in America should know that there is a correlation between being homeless and the existence of mental illness. Yet in this case, the attitude adopted by [Ramos] was one of disdain and impatience that was aggravated when Mr. Thomas declined to politely and deferentially answer his questions.”

Gennaco did not dwell on the incident itself, saying that he would let a jury decide the fate of Ramos and Cicinelli. The three remaining officers who are still employed and not charged should be able to stay on the job, he stated.

The Investigation

Much of Gennaco’s criticism was levied at how the department conducted the investigation.

After the incident, the officers were brought to the station and allowed to watch the video in groups and then told to write their reports.

“A view-first policy could create the impression among some that the Department is attempting to clean up its reports so they appear consistent with each other and the video evidence that is present… Creating an exception for police personnel is inconsistent with long-accepted investigative practices,” Gennaco wrote.

One supervisor, in reading a report, changed a numerical range regarding the amount of force to the word “multiple.”

“It should be the goal of any reviewing supervisor to obtain more detail, not less,” he wrote.

Chief Michael Sellers — who has since retired on medical leave — chose not to respond to the station that night when informed of what happened. He then went on vacation. The next day, the department did not issue any statements expressing its concern.

“Rather, the Department seemed to hunker down as the information about the incident became known through other sources and dribbled out information about the event in a rather haphazard way,” Gennaco wrote. “In our view, the Chief of Police needed to address the incident head on and almost immediately.”

Sellers should have gone before the media to express the department’s concern, express regret without assigning blame and communicate apologies to the family. Instead, comments were given by the Public Information Officer, who is a member of the police union that protects the officers.

Another misfortune was that the department began its investigation rather than turning the matter over to the District Attorney’s Office, which handles officer-related deaths. The department needs to have some sort of policy regarding what to do in cases like this, Gennaco wrote.

Gennaco’s Disclosures 

One thing that the OIR found troubling was the department’s complacency. 

The OIR did not find evidence where supervisors and officers conspired to prevent misconduct from coming to light. Rather, the department had a “culture of complacency,” where commanders didn’t have the mechanisms to detect misconduct and didn’t properly address it when it happened.

One comment that was attributed to department leaders was that every organization needed “C players,” and they didn’t put a high premium on quality policing. Also, several leaders were not on speaking terms with each other, and many were in competition for the next chief’s job. One officer remarked that a particular supervisor would “give a goat a good evaluation.”

Despite the many criticisms, Thomas’ father Ron Thomas thinks that the department got an easy pass and more should have been done to the other officers on the scene.

“He seems to be protecting the police quite a bit,” Ron Thomas said of the Gennaco report. “He gave recommendations, but to not find that [Officer Kenton] Hampton should be terminated in of itself. He arrived when Cicinelli did and he had every opportunity to stop that and didn’t do it. He allowed great bodily harm to occur to Kelly. Because his brother in blue was doing it, he allowed it.”

Moving Forward

Sellers is now collecting approximately $300,000 a year in benefits. His interim successor, Kevin Hamilton, is gone too. An administration captain was demoted to lieutenant. And the department has made a lot of changes.

Before the Thomas beating, the department had provided crisis intervention training geared toward the mentally ill homeless to 14 of its patrol officers. Now all of the officers have been trained. And where before one full time homeless intervention officer was employed, it is now two, and the pair work around the clock.

On Friday, the new interim chief released a set of updated policy changes specifically requested in the Gennaco report:

* Major incidents will be recorded; reports will be written before the end of the shift;

* Supervisors shall not make any edits that make the reports less concise;

* Officers should consider using alternatives to force when warranted;

* When one officer sees another using force, it shall be reported to a supervisor;

* The Taser shouldn’t be used to strike someone and officers should stop using it after three tries.

During Gennaco’s interviews, he found many officers who were distressed over what happened and took pride in doing a good job. As a whole, the group was cooperative, while the chief was described as “distant to say the least.”

The report summed it up this way: “[T]he FPD that existed on July 5, 2011 is not the FPD of more than a year later — changed leadership, introspection, and reform have placed the Department in an upward trajectory.”

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a three-part series on how the homeless and mentally ill are treated in California. Part One was about the Kelly Thomas beating and death.

July 9, 2012

By Tori Richards

Welcome to 450 Bauchet St., a 10-acre compound in the heart of downtown Los Angeles that is the world’s biggest jail.

Known as Twin Towers, it has a population greater than many small towns, with 3,911 inmates, 900 staff, and even its own hospital.

But it also has another distinction: the world’s largest mental institution.

Housed in one wing and encompassing four floors, the mental health ward tends to approximately 1,200 inmates with psychiatric problems. Several hundred more of the most severe cases are located in the hospital.

California is now a state where the police — not doctors or counselors — are the front lines to millions of mentally ill who have no other recourse than to end up in the jails.

“Sheriff Baca has frequently commented that the mentally ill belong in a mental institution,” said Capt. Mike Parker. “In law enforcement we deal with things because other aspects of society have failed. You have a system not addressing the need. “In the end, law enforcement is the last stop. We’re not looking for that responsibility; it was given to us.”

A breakdown in the system has led to a large population of the mentally ill who turn to crime or simply wander the streets homeless, a recipe for disaster.

Just look at the case of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old schizophrenic homeless man who belonged in a mental care facility rather than on the streets.

His run-in with Fullerton police one year ago resulted in his beating death at the hands of officers ill equipped to deal with a person who had a mental disability.

In California, the severely mentally ill are four times more likely to be in jail than a hospital or clinic, a recent report found.

A task force comprised of doctors, lawyers and mental health organizations completed the 30-month study and released their report in March. It criticized the state for its failures, mentioning Thomas as an example where little has been done to safeguard rights, protect the mentally ill and provide prompt treatment.

The study found that mental illness accounts for 33 percent of the homeless, 20 percent of incarcerated inmates and death comes 25 years earlier than the general population.

How It Got This Way

In 1968, the California Legislature passed a law that required a judge’s order to involuntarily commit mental patients as an end to the earlier horrors where people were thrown into institutions against their will, never to emerge.

The law also ordered counties to open treatment centers and promised matching state funds of 90 percent to assist in paying for a host of new drugs that tamed psychoses, effectively keeping many would-be patients out of institutions.

In keeping with this mandate, Gov. Ronald Reagan started closing state-run mental hospitals and vetoed measures that would pass that funding on to the counties so they could deal with the issue locally.

Then Reagan became president and he slashed aid to mental health programs effectively ending any federally sponsored clinics. The burden was almost entirely on local jurisdictions.

But most counties lacked the resources to start their own programs. More and more people decided to live on the streets when they weren’t getting regular medication.

Voters approved Proposition 63 in 2004, the Mental Health Services Act, which raised taxes 1 percentage point on those making $1 million or more a year; and earmarks $1 billion a year for services. Gov. Jerry Brown also promised to overhaul the mental health system when he was elected, but the state continues to operate in the red.

A current law that expires this year may be extended, allowing judges to order the mentally ill to take medication and to receive outpatient recovery.

A Novel Approach

As the burden of caring for psychiatric patients began shifting to local communities, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department took notice. A leader in law enforcement, it became the first agency in the nation to dedicate police officers to specifically help the mentally ill.

“We receive training regarding dealing with the mentally ill; there is the unpredictability factor,” Parker said. “This is a very complex issue; it’s not quickly solved even with money or resources. It has to do with human rights vs. the right to not be forced to go into a mental institution. That’s the way the law is right now.”

Law enforcement straddles the line between a) helping people who are deemed unfit under Section 5150 of the state Welfare and Institutions Code — a danger to themselves, others, or gravely disabled; and b) and someone who is mentally ill but has committed a crime.

Both segments can be detained, the former for up to 72 hours at a mental facility and the latter in a jail cell awaiting a decision by the district attorney whether to file charges.

“Psychiatrists and psychologists work years to where they get a doctorate to deal with this issue in a controlled setting,” Parker said. “What does law enforcement get?”

The mental ward at Twin Towers is comprised of inmates who have committed felonies. An average length of stay is 50 days, so, “It’s not a lot of time to heal something,” Parker said.

About 20 years ago, the Sheriff’s Department initiated the Mental Evaluation Team, which has deputies assigned to handle calls involving people exhibiting psychological problems. It was the first such program in the nation.

Five deputies are partnered with clinicians from the county health department to get the mentally ill the help they need.

Deputy Greg Plamondon has been assigned to the unit for 17 years. He has won his department’s Humanitarian Award for going beyond the scope of his job. Most notably:

* An elderly woman who was living in filth and couldn’t deal with reality when her dog died was taken to a mental hospital by Plamondon. He brought her valuables with her and visited her there until she died six months later.

* A homeless man with a long history of mental illness had severe leg infections, so Plamondon had him committed to a psychiatric hold so that he could get care. Sometime later Plamondon saw him again and the wounds were worse, so the deputy spent months trying to learn his identity and Social Security number so the man could get benefits. The man later moved into a nursing facility.

* Plamondon was asked to locate a woman’s brother who was living on the streets. He was found on a curb in the pouring rain, unable to care for himself and suffering from hypothermia. Plamondon placed him on an involuntary hold so he could get medical and psychological help. The man ended up staying 30 days.

It takes longer

“A lot of officers don’t want to deal with this; it takes a little bit longer than a regular call and you need patience,” said Plamondon one afternoon after he had spent the entire day dealing with a man who had been making terrorist threats. “It’s a good fit for me; I like talking to people.”

He said he has a rapport with the mentally ill that he meets on the streets and often runs into the same people.

“About 75 percent of the homeless have some sort of diagnosis of mental illness,” he said. “It’s rare to convince them to get off the street. On several occasions, we’ve been able to get them into a board and care where they have food and shelter provided for them instead of shagging cans at risk of getting beaten up or worse by someone who doesn’t want them around.”

Part Three Coming Soon: A government review organization issues its use of force report on the Kelly Thomas death.

Editor’s note: Today marks a year since Kelly Thomas, an unarmed homeless man, was severely beaten by Fullerton police. He died five days later. This is the first of a three-part series.

July 5, 2012

By Tori Richards

An outside investigation into whether police officers violated policy leading up to the beating death of homeless man Kelly Thomas will be completed shortly. If consistent with preliminary findings, the investigation will lambast the Fullerton Police Department for a series of blunders.

A CalWatchDog.com investigation has found that, not only have the officers’ actions violated the city’s police policy manual, they are in sharp contrast to another police agency that encounters the homeless at a rate hundreds of percentage points higher, but without a record of violence.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — a model agency in its dealings with the homeless — has more than 2,000 encounters a month and runs a groundbreaking program that seeks to aid that sector, rather than incarcerate them.

“The International Association of Chiefs of Police gave its highest award to the LASD in 1996 because we partnered law enforcement with mental health and social workers to work together and identify people living on the streets and provide opportunities to them,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker.

That was 16 years ago and LASD is still going strong. Numerous police agencies have followed their lead and initiated their own polices, including Fullerton.

But on July 5, 2011, none of that seemed to matter when Thomas had a fatal run-in with six police officers at a Fullerton bus depot. The 37-year-old man was a schizophrenic who preferred living on the streets to a structured life indoors where he took his medicine.

He was a non-violent person who loved to read, had a great sense of humor with those who knew him and had a quiet and reserved personality for those who didn’t.

On that night a witness saw him trying the door handles of several cars and called police to report the suspicious activity. First on the scene was Officer Manuel Ramos, who could be heard on a police surveillance tape talking about how he had encountered Thomas in the past. Thomas was given a series of commands that he attempted to follow, none of it seeming to appease Ramos, who became increasingly aggressive.

Ramos then asked to look through a backpack that Thomas was carrying and was given permission. Fellow officer Joe Wolfe arrived on the scene and searched the backpack, locating mail addressed to another individual. The two officers conferred and then Ramos donned a pair of black latex gloves, telling Thomas he was going to “F— you up.”

This prompted Thomas to try to escape. But he was tackled by Wolfe, who gave him a baton blow to the leg so severe that the “whack” sound could be clearly heard on digital recorders the officers were wearing. A beating ensued that was magnified when four additional officers arrived and piled onto Thomas so hard that he later died due to lack of oxygen.

All the while, Thomas pleaded for help, repeatedly apologized and cried out in pain.

Murder charge

Ramos was charged with second degree murder. Another officer, Jay Cicinelli, was charged with manslaughter for repeatedly bashing Thomas’ head with a Taser gun to the extent that he lost an eye.

A video and audio tape of the gruesome attack was played in court before a judge, who ordered the pair to stand trial.

Much like LAPD with the Rodney King beating in 1992, Police Chief Michael Sellers did little to respond to public outcry after the incident made national news. And also like the LAPD’s Chief Daryl Gates, Sellers’ actions later cost him his job. Three city council members who participated in a cover-up and defended the officers were recalled in June by voters.

The city hired Los Angeles County’s Office of Independent Review to look at the actions of the officers to see whether they violated police policy. OIR was formed as an impartial investigative agency formed in the wake of LAPD’s Rampart Scandal, where officers falsified reports and engaged in rogue shootings.

Michael Gennaco, OIR’s lead attorney, told CalWatchDog.com that his report should be released within the next week and would be public. A preliminary six-page report was released in February that criticized the police department in two areas.

The first was the release of an unflattering Thomas booking photo from a 2009 trespassing arrest. Gennaco took issue with the fact that the photo — showing a disheveled Thomas — was released at all because the deceased Thomas was a victim rather than a suspect. The photo could have been released “to portray Mr. Thomas in a negative light,” Gennaco wrote.

Secondly, Fullerton PD told the media that two of its officers had suffered “possible broken bones” during the beating when it was later deemed that no such injuries existed.

“The correction caused some members of the public to question the veracity of the Department and created a belief by some that the Department intentionally tried to fabricate or exaggerate the officers’ injuries in an effort to create sympathy for them,” Gennaco wrote.

This over-exaggeration of officers’ injuries was consistent with their actions at the scene when a paramedic arrived and was directed to treat several officers with minor scrapes instead of tending to a mortally wounded Thomas crumpled in a heap nearby.

The Fullerton Police Department Policy Manual

Section 464 of the manual, titled “Homeless Persons,” is a 2-1/2 page edict meant to “ensure that personnel understand the needs and rights of the homeless and to establish procedures to guide officers during all contacts with the homeless.”

The tone of the manual is written in a manner to aid the homeless rather than treat them as suspects.

Specifically:

“Officers are encouraged to contact the homeless for purposes of rendering aid, support and for community-oriented policing purposes. Nothing in this policy is meant to dissuade an officer from taking reasonable enforcement action when facts support a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. 

“However, when encountering a homeless person who has committed a non-violent misdemeanor and continued freedom is not likely to result in a continuation of the offense or breach of the peace, officers are encouraged to consider long-term solutions to problems that may relate to the homeless, such as shelter referrals and counseling in lieu of physical arrest.”

In Thomas’s case, he was not involved in any type of violent offense, so he would fall under the above mandate to be referred to a shelter rather than beaten up and killed, said attorney Brian Gurwitz, a former prosecutor.

“Trying to open car doors could be auto tampering, which is a misdemeanor,” said Gurwitz, who has been retained by Thomas’s mother. “The papers he had appeared to be junk. Under no circumstances would it be violent, even possibility of stolen property would be non-violent. No DA would ever file this as a felony.”

It turns out that the mail Thomas was carrying that apparently escalated the events was later found to be discarded in the trash by its owner. But Ramos and his colleagues did not take the time to determine this before the beating began.

“He liked to read,” said Thomas’ father, Ron. “He had a Bible with him that he always read. The letters he found, they were just something else for him to read.”

Another mandate of section 464 calls for the appointment of a homeless liaison officer. The department has employed Cpl. John “J.D.” DeCaprio in this position for several years and he has built relationships with many in the homeless community, including Thomas.

DeCaprio has even been known to spend his own money to buy toiletries and clothes for many of the people he encounters on the streets, said Fullerton police spokesperson Jeff Stuart.

Unfortunately for Kelly Thomas, the city only has one such officer assigned to this duty and J.D. wasn’t working the night of July 5.

“DeCaprio said he never had to put cuffs on [Kelly] and that he always did everything that DeCaprio wanted him to,” Ron Thomas said. “They had a good relationship. DeCaprio did tell me that if he was on duty that night, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Section 464 is summed up with this passage under the subhead of “Other Considerations”:

“Homeless members of the community will receive the same level and quality of service provided to other members of the community. The fact that a victim or witness is homeless can, however, require special considerations for a successful investigation and prosecution.”

A Sharp Contrast: the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

Back in 1995, the homeless population was a huge problem in Los Angeles. They blocked businesses, aggressively panhandled and created an environmental hazard. Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker was then a sergeant at the West Hollywood station and had a real empathy for that segment of the population.

The city of West Hollywood got a matching funds federal grant and started a community policing program as a way to offer help. The Sheriff’s Department surveyed the public to find out issues of concern. Then it partnered with a local shelter to locate, identify and assist homeless who were willing to accept help.

“Those who were creating the nuisances were a small percentage causing the majority of the complaints,” Parker said. “It’s very expensive to incarcerate them as opposed to sending them to a homeless shelter. None of us enjoyed taking people to jail for panhandling. What we’re trying to do is focus on the root of the problem.”

Working in teams with mental health professionals and social workers, the deputies were so successful that the program soon became a pet project of Chief Lee Baca, who would later become sheriff. He expanded it countywide and also focused on rehabilitation efforts if a homeless person was incarcerated.

“The first two minutes after they walk out [of jail] are the most important ones; it decides which way they are going to go,” Parker said. “We have arrangements with veteran and volunteer organizations to pick up inmates willing to change their lives and take them to shelters so they can work on getting back into society.”

In 2000, Baca initiated a program to cut through the bureaucracy to help the homeless obtain Social Security cards and identification cards so they would be able to work.

“Sheriff Baca has taken a lead on this; he wants to address this situation so that it doesn’t involve incarceration,” Parker said.

COMING ON MONDAY: The mentally ill homeless: A problem the state of California has absconded and left not to medical personnel but to local law enforcement.

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.