A city councilman in nearby San Marino has brought up the possibility of taking the guns away from the police force as a way for a “use of force become a terrible stain on San Marino.”
According to the linked article, within the past five years, police have had to use force a grand total of three times.
Three times. The fact is that force was used 0.6 times in five years.
So what is it that is really bothering councilman Dennis Kneier?
Here is what worries Mr. Kneier:
While America has a policing problem, Councilman Dennis Kneier said, he didn’t want that issue in his neighborhood. Kneier worries a misunderstanding or accident might turn into a “use of force” and become “a terrible stain on San Marino.” So he suggested staff explore a style of policing where patrol officers don’t carry firearms.
America has a policing problem?!
I don't think so.
We have a huge overreaction problem, but not some widespread "policing problem".
But San Marino is the Beverly Hills of the San Gabriel valley. The median income is $147,000,
In fact, San Marino is the third most expensive city to live in Los Angeles county. It tops Beverly Hills and Malibu. It is a small town, only about 13,000 population. But it is surrounded by larger cities such as San Gabriel, Temple City, Alhambra and the behemoth of Pasadena.
In other words, there is a reputation to protect.
And that reputation is protected by 25 sworn police officers, seven cadets and a slew of civilian employees. And at a city of 3.8 square miles, that's 6.5 officers per square mile.
Now I noted that there has not been a situation in which force was used that was due to some misunderstanding.
What does the police chief think of such a proposal?
Police chief John Incontro is not all that keen on the idea.
“We’re not an island, and we don’t have a wall around us,” Incontro said. “We have people committing crimes from outside this city, and the officers need to be prepared. They need to be sufficiently equipped to handle those incidents.”
Most valid point!
One does not realize that a small town surrounded by larger towns as is San Marino simply puts them smack in the middle of potential trouble.
Chief Incontro also noted a couple a major shootings that occurred in small towns. Those being Newtown, Connecticut and Lakewood, Washington.
Some cities in Los Angeles county choose to have a local police force and some choose to contract out to the county sheriff. San Marino wants it's own police and what comes with that. That includes a unique sense of community of knowledge thereof. It's not to say that if the city decided to eliminate the police force and contract with the LACS it would be bad. But they carry guns. And deputies don't necessarily stay in one area too long.
The good thing is that the rest of the city council did not think it was a good idea, it is not being entertained at this point. That does not mean citizens should not be vigilant and keep pressure on the city council to avoid a future council from entertaining it as a good idea.
Showing posts with label policing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label policing. Show all posts
Monday, June 08, 2015
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Today's WTH Moment
Last night in Chula Vista, California there was an accident on a freeway in which firefighters and police responded to and what happened next, well it truly falls into the WTH* file.
Apparently there was a territorial dispute between the California Highway Patrol officer on the scene and a firefighter.
According to this account in U-T San Diego, the CHP officer asked the firefighter, employed by Chula Vista, to move the fire engine out of traffic lanes. The firefighter is the engineer, or driver of the fire engine. He said that he had to go to check with his captain as they follow a chain of command. The CHP officer did not like that as Chula Vista fire chief, Dave Hanneman, relayed this quote from the officer according to the firefighter:
"No you need to move now or you'll be arrested."
Again, WTH?!
As Chief Hanneman noted, the fire engine was parked behind an ambulance that was loading people involved in the accident inside. That is done because as Chief Hanneman said:
"Our firefighters are trained to use the engine to protect the scene. Our number one priority is the safety of our firefighters and patients."
According to Chief Hanneman, this is the first time that he has heard of such an incident in San Diego county but he has heard of such territorial disputes in other parts of California.
But that is not even the topper of this tale.
The officer proceeded to cuff the firefighter that he was talking with and put in in the back of his squad car. And the officer also ordered a fire-rescue crew from the city of San Diego to leave the accident scene.
For a third time, WTH?!
When supervisors from all departments arrived, the officer did release the firefighter.
Of course the job of the firefighter and the police officer are different and overlap at an accident scene. Usually the firefighters are there to ascertain the situation and determine if any of those involved in the accident need to be treated at the scene or hospitalized. In that case an ambulance or paramedic truck would be called to remove the people and get them to a nearby hospital.
The officers arrive to also ascertain the situation, investigate as much as they can about the possible cause, speak with those that can speak and very importantly to make sure that the scene is secured enough so the firefighter and rescue personnel can do their job.
The authority should be shared not one over the other.
But a clearly testosterone-infused CHP officer decided he would be the one to be in charge and show that he was the boss. He was so impressed with himself that he decided to handcuff the firefighter and put him in the back of his squad car. And to top it off, he decided to chase off other firefighters in a show of brainless he-man.
It is incidents like this in which the public will quickly and rightfully take sides. I can almost guarantee that most will take the side of the firefighters. And count me in on that.
There is no reason whatsoever for this to have escalated the way that it did.
The fact that supervisors have to be called in to referee this territorial dispute shows how absurd the situation got.
I am thinking that, God forbid, if this was a real emergency situation such as an earthquake and there was more than what happened in this particular would this have happened?
I should like to think not.
But this should make clear that the firefighters were correct to protect the other emergency personnel doing their job. It should also make clear that all personnel should work together and not with some pointless agenda.
The other takeaway from this is that firefighters are just more respected on the whole than police officers. Especially the California Highway Patrol.
Firefighters are seen as people that will do anything to save a building in a fire. Rescue people. Even rescue animals.
Police officers are seen, most of the time wrongly, as people that are filled with some kind of rage issues. Authority problems. Yes, color of authority problems as well.
I am certain more will come out of this incident and that may explain more of how the situation deteriorated.
In the meantime, its a total WTH moment, isn't it?
*WTH-What The Hell
Apparently there was a territorial dispute between the California Highway Patrol officer on the scene and a firefighter.
According to this account in U-T San Diego, the CHP officer asked the firefighter, employed by Chula Vista, to move the fire engine out of traffic lanes. The firefighter is the engineer, or driver of the fire engine. He said that he had to go to check with his captain as they follow a chain of command. The CHP officer did not like that as Chula Vista fire chief, Dave Hanneman, relayed this quote from the officer according to the firefighter:
"No you need to move now or you'll be arrested."
Again, WTH?!
As Chief Hanneman noted, the fire engine was parked behind an ambulance that was loading people involved in the accident inside. That is done because as Chief Hanneman said:
"Our firefighters are trained to use the engine to protect the scene. Our number one priority is the safety of our firefighters and patients."
According to Chief Hanneman, this is the first time that he has heard of such an incident in San Diego county but he has heard of such territorial disputes in other parts of California.
But that is not even the topper of this tale.
The officer proceeded to cuff the firefighter that he was talking with and put in in the back of his squad car. And the officer also ordered a fire-rescue crew from the city of San Diego to leave the accident scene.
For a third time, WTH?!
When supervisors from all departments arrived, the officer did release the firefighter.
Of course the job of the firefighter and the police officer are different and overlap at an accident scene. Usually the firefighters are there to ascertain the situation and determine if any of those involved in the accident need to be treated at the scene or hospitalized. In that case an ambulance or paramedic truck would be called to remove the people and get them to a nearby hospital.
The officers arrive to also ascertain the situation, investigate as much as they can about the possible cause, speak with those that can speak and very importantly to make sure that the scene is secured enough so the firefighter and rescue personnel can do their job.
The authority should be shared not one over the other.
But a clearly testosterone-infused CHP officer decided he would be the one to be in charge and show that he was the boss. He was so impressed with himself that he decided to handcuff the firefighter and put him in the back of his squad car. And to top it off, he decided to chase off other firefighters in a show of brainless he-man.
It is incidents like this in which the public will quickly and rightfully take sides. I can almost guarantee that most will take the side of the firefighters. And count me in on that.
There is no reason whatsoever for this to have escalated the way that it did.
The fact that supervisors have to be called in to referee this territorial dispute shows how absurd the situation got.
I am thinking that, God forbid, if this was a real emergency situation such as an earthquake and there was more than what happened in this particular would this have happened?
I should like to think not.
But this should make clear that the firefighters were correct to protect the other emergency personnel doing their job. It should also make clear that all personnel should work together and not with some pointless agenda.
The other takeaway from this is that firefighters are just more respected on the whole than police officers. Especially the California Highway Patrol.
Firefighters are seen as people that will do anything to save a building in a fire. Rescue people. Even rescue animals.
Police officers are seen, most of the time wrongly, as people that are filled with some kind of rage issues. Authority problems. Yes, color of authority problems as well.
I am certain more will come out of this incident and that may explain more of how the situation deteriorated.
In the meantime, its a total WTH moment, isn't it?
*WTH-What The Hell
Monday, October 14, 2013
Is Your Dog A RAAAAAcist?!
Remember dear readers, there are always five r's in raaaaacism!
But the question, sadly, is a serious one.
At least if you believe this story in the London Independent.
Yup, the Los Angeles county sheriff's department has a bunch of raaaaacist police dogs.
The article cites that in the following period from 2004 to 2012, eight years, dog bites on Hispanic suspects went from 30 incidents to 39, an increase of 30%.
OK, that is a total annual average of, rounding up, five whole incidents each year of the reporting period.
So, based on this beyond flimsy "evidence", we are to assume that police dogs are raaaaacist?!
Now the article also says that during that period, police dog bites on Blacks increased 33% but did not cite the actual number as it did for the Hispanics.
This is all according to a non-profit group known as Police Assesment Resource Center which studies such things and is supposedly interested in advancing effective and accountable policing.
After a cursory look at the website linked above, it is pretty much into finding such things and creating problems rather than solving problems.
But here is something helpful if you go to the actual report here. According to to a chart on page 10 in which highlight LASD dog bite incidents by race (Asian, Black, Hispanic, White and other races), it is actually going down from from highs in 2009.
Too bad that the article did not mention that.
But the report overall blasts the use of police dogs because they are supposedly deployed in minority areas.
Shockingly, a lot of crime happens in these areas.
And police dogs are not always used in the majority of situations in which police have to report and take action.
So how does a dog become raaaaacist?
Well, nothing in the report and or the article really explains. But in the article it reported that a police dog in Pennsylvania in 2004 named Dolpho was suspended for his propensity in biting Blacks.
In my experience as a dog owner, usually there are signs that a dog is anxious around certain people that have nothing to do with race.
Our dog the late Scout the Wonder Dog, did not really like strange men in hats. Did not matter the race. She would bark not menacing but out of fear. Master Barney is very young and while exposed to many people does not seem to have any anti-race tendencies. Mr. Cashew, he does not exhibit anything that could be construed, by a huge stretch, not liking people who are of different races than ours. He doesn't like full-grown bulldogs, so I guess that makes him a breedest, right?
Well, maybe in training a police dog. But again, even in training police dogs, there is no way that a dog can be trained to focus only on one race. A dog is trained and follows commands.
AHH! Can it be said maybe, again by a stretch, that it is not the dog at all but the trainers and or handlers?
Once again, it is not like they will say "Attack the fill-in-the-blank race group!" The commands must be specific and very short. Even and especially police dogs have short attention spans.
What is needed to ascertain is each situation rather than such generalizations.
Often times police dogs are used in car chase situations. And sometimes it is a member of a minority group that is being chased. And while many end up with the driver getting out of the car after a chase, falling to the ground, being handcuffed and put in a police car. But sometimes police dogs are used and are very effective in catching fleeing suspects.
But the implication that somehow dogs are raaaaacist is so over the top it is total theater of the absurd.
It is strange people foisting human foibles on animals that have no concept of racial animosity for they have no clue what the hell it means.
So people, no your dog, my dog, police dogs are not raaaaacists. It is a helluva a lot of projection in a report that is very flawed to begin with.
But the question, sadly, is a serious one.
At least if you believe this story in the London Independent.
Yup, the Los Angeles county sheriff's department has a bunch of raaaaacist police dogs.
The article cites that in the following period from 2004 to 2012, eight years, dog bites on Hispanic suspects went from 30 incidents to 39, an increase of 30%.
OK, that is a total annual average of, rounding up, five whole incidents each year of the reporting period.
So, based on this beyond flimsy "evidence", we are to assume that police dogs are raaaaacist?!
Now the article also says that during that period, police dog bites on Blacks increased 33% but did not cite the actual number as it did for the Hispanics.
This is all according to a non-profit group known as Police Assesment Resource Center which studies such things and is supposedly interested in advancing effective and accountable policing.
After a cursory look at the website linked above, it is pretty much into finding such things and creating problems rather than solving problems.
But here is something helpful if you go to the actual report here. According to to a chart on page 10 in which highlight LASD dog bite incidents by race (Asian, Black, Hispanic, White and other races), it is actually going down from from highs in 2009.
Too bad that the article did not mention that.
But the report overall blasts the use of police dogs because they are supposedly deployed in minority areas.
Shockingly, a lot of crime happens in these areas.
And police dogs are not always used in the majority of situations in which police have to report and take action.
So how does a dog become raaaaacist?
Well, nothing in the report and or the article really explains. But in the article it reported that a police dog in Pennsylvania in 2004 named Dolpho was suspended for his propensity in biting Blacks.
In my experience as a dog owner, usually there are signs that a dog is anxious around certain people that have nothing to do with race.
Our dog the late Scout the Wonder Dog, did not really like strange men in hats. Did not matter the race. She would bark not menacing but out of fear. Master Barney is very young and while exposed to many people does not seem to have any anti-race tendencies. Mr. Cashew, he does not exhibit anything that could be construed, by a huge stretch, not liking people who are of different races than ours. He doesn't like full-grown bulldogs, so I guess that makes him a breedest, right?
Well, maybe in training a police dog. But again, even in training police dogs, there is no way that a dog can be trained to focus only on one race. A dog is trained and follows commands.
AHH! Can it be said maybe, again by a stretch, that it is not the dog at all but the trainers and or handlers?
Once again, it is not like they will say "Attack the fill-in-the-blank race group!" The commands must be specific and very short. Even and especially police dogs have short attention spans.
What is needed to ascertain is each situation rather than such generalizations.
Often times police dogs are used in car chase situations. And sometimes it is a member of a minority group that is being chased. And while many end up with the driver getting out of the car after a chase, falling to the ground, being handcuffed and put in a police car. But sometimes police dogs are used and are very effective in catching fleeing suspects.
But the implication that somehow dogs are raaaaacist is so over the top it is total theater of the absurd.
It is strange people foisting human foibles on animals that have no concept of racial animosity for they have no clue what the hell it means.
So people, no your dog, my dog, police dogs are not raaaaacists. It is a helluva a lot of projection in a report that is very flawed to begin with.
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