Stop & Frisk: Ever been frisked by the cops?

Sheriff Arpaio offering $5K reward for damaged campaign signs

I think more than a few grifters ears poked up when they heard this news, a $700 fine for destroying the signs, but $5000 for reporting it to Sheriff Joe. That's $4300 profit if one doesn't mind some possible jail time or probation.

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is opening up his wallet to anyone who can help him find the people responsible for ruining his campaign signs.

Sheriff Arpaio has announced that he’s offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction for damaging his signs.

“My signs are being destroyed by these criminals causing us to lose a lot of hard earned money. Damaging political signs is a crime and I want these perpetrators prosecuted,” said Arpaio.

Chad Willems, who is managing Arpaio’s reelection campaign, said signs have been stolen, cut up, painted over with profanities, and burned beyond recognition. More than 200 signs have already been replaced at a cost of approximately $3,500.

“The campaign office gets calls every day reporting the damage done to the Sheriff’s signs throughout the county,” Willems stated.

Anyone with any information is being asked to first call local law enforcement and then the Arpaio campaign headquarters at 602-235-9320.

Defacing a political sign is a class two misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to four months in jail, a $700 fine, and two years probation.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Sheriff-Arpaio-offering-5K-reward-for-damaged-campaign-signs-164669326.html

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's campaign signs burned and knocked down across Phoenix

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's re-election campaign is feeling the heat, literally.
Someone torched one of his campaign signs.

“Sadly our political opponents out there that don't agree with Sheriff Joe's policies are resorting to vandalism,” said Arpaio’s campaign manager, Chad Willems.

Across the Valley 3TV found signs knocked over and ripped out of the ground.

This week Willem’s got a surprise visit from Tempe police officers.

“They brought six signs that a gentleman found behind his house that were just dumped there,” said Willems.

Someone also got creative with another sign and spray painted blue profanity all over it

“What we do know is it's not our supporters. So we don't know who is exactly out there doing it, but it's not our people,” said Willems.

Stacy Pearson is the spokesperson for Paul Penzone’s campaign.

Penzone is one of Arpaio’s political opponents.

Pearson said their camp is not behind the vandalism.

“Penzone's campaign has 400 volunteers committed to restoring integrity to the office. Destroying signs isn't a part of the game plan, we strongly discourage it,” said Pearson.

According to Pearson, Penzone's signs are disappearing too.

However, Pearson isn't surprised Arpaio's signs are being vandalized.

“I think when it comes to Arpaio it's a symptom of people being very frustrated with his administration,” said Pearson.

Willems said Arpaio’s signs aren't cheap, with each one costing $17.00.

According to Phoenix police, defacing a political sign falls under a class 3 misdemeanor and someone can be charged with a felony depending on the circumstances and the amount of the damage.

Testimony of fear, anger at racial-profiling trial

Two citizens who believe Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies pulled them over because they are Hispanic gave the most emotional testimony so far in the 2-day-old trial involving allegations that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's agency engages in racial profiling.

Daniel Magos, 67, and Velia Meraz were stopped more than 18 months apart by sheriff's deputies, and neither have been pulled over since then. But both believe they remain targets of the Sheriff's Office because of their race

Attorneys for the Sheriff's Office have asked the same question of all the alleged profiling victims as they end their testimony: Have sheriff's deputies pulled you over since the traffic stop that led to the profiling allegation? The answer is universally "no," but Meraz, who was a passenger in an SUV that was pulled over in March 2008, said her fear remains.

Dana: 2008 video contradicts Arpaio testimony

"Sheriff Joe Arpaio keeps saying it on national TV that he's going to continue what he's doing and that means these sweeps, these stops," Meraz told the court. "I believe it could happen again."
The case alleges that the Sheriff's immigration-enforcement priorities have resulted in discrimination against Latinos residents. Over the past six years, Arpaio has made immigration enforcement his trademark, but those efforts have been also met by accusations -- by citizens, activists and the U.S. Justice Department -- that his agency has engaged in racial profiling and discrimination.

Deputy Michael Kikes, the sheriff's deputy who pulled over the SUV Meraz was riding in with her brother, Manuel Nieto, took the witness stand earlier Wednesday. Attorneys for the plaintiffs pointed out contradictions between deposition testimony that Kikes gave earlier and his statements in court on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Murray Snow picked up on several of those apparent contradictions, questioning Kikes about his involvement with the Sheriff's saturation patrols and the instructions he might have been given before the operations began.

Kikes initially told the court that he recalled an instruction sheet for the March 2008 operation in the north Valley that included a specific warning against racial profiling.

"In bold letters, I remember," said Kikes, who was serving as a motorcycle officer during the operation.

Snow later had Kikes look at the instruction sheet, on which the deputy could find no such admonition. Kikes also claimed he was in a briefing before the operation began, but his name was not reflected on an attendance sheet that other deputies signed.

The contradictions in Kikes' testimony became more significant as Meraz and Nieto gave accounts of their stop and detention. Their recollections directly conflicted with Kikes' statements. Kikes claimed he never used force with Nieto after stopping the siblings' SUV at the request of another deputy. Kikes also said he never drew his weapon during the stop, but Meraz and Nieto testified that some deputies had their guns drawn.

Nieto and Meraz were stopped after they encountered a sheriff's deputy who had two men detained at a gas station in the north Valley during one of Arpaio's saturation patrols. The siblings claim they were about to enter the gas station when a sheriff's deputy ordered them to leave and threatened them with arrest for disorderly conduct. On their way out of the gas station, Meraz admitted to telling the detained men not to sign anything they did not understand.

Nieto admitted he initially refused to pull over when Kikes pulled behind his SUV, but said he was afraid of the sheriff's deputy and was on the phone with 911 operators expressing his concerns.
Nieto and Meraz were eventually released without receiving a citation.

Tim Casey, an attorney for the Sheriff's Office, asked Nieto if he had ever been pulled over again by Arpaio's deputies after that March 2008 stop.

"I have not," Nieto said. "But I do have fear."

Similar testimony emerged from a maintenance worker who was pulled over in south Phoenix in December 2009. He had been stopped because his work trailer obscured the license plate, according to the deputy who stopped Magos and his wife in a Ford pickup loaded up with landscaping equipment.

Magos, who has been a U.S. citizen for more than 45 years, was not cited for any violations. He believes the sheriff's deputy pulled his truck over for an entirely different reason.

"It made me feel angry ... worthless ... defenseless," Magos said, holding back tears on the witness stand as he described the stop. "After (the deputy's) apology (for the stop) he told me that stop had nothing to do with racial profiling. I told him that was exactly what it was."

Magos said he tried to report the incident to the Sheriff's Office, but never received a return call after family members left several messages. He said the complaint he filed with the American Civil Liberties Union was the first time anyone responded to his concerns. Magos said he has since spoken with investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice, which earlier this year filed a separate civil-rights lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office.

With no jury in the case, Snow will decide whether the Sheriff's Office participated in widespread discrimination against Latino residents, as the plaintiffs claim.

The lawsuit does not seek monetary damages. Instead, the plaintiffs want the kind of injunctive relief that the Sheriff's Office has resisted in the past -- a declaration that spells out what deputies may or may not do when stopping potential suspects, and a court-appointed monitor to make sure the agency lives by those rules.

The trial is scheduled to end on Aug. 2.

Peoria officer suspended for using slur disciplined 10 years ago

The Peoria police officer who was suspended for two weeks without pay for using a racial slur, had not been seriously disciplined during the past seven years, city records show.

But Sgt. Patrick Kief was disciplined twice a decade ago for verbal abuse.

Kief began his two-week suspension on July 7 after an internal investigation concluded he used a "racially derogatory term" to describe his frustration over the shoddy construction of a podium. The term is considered to be offensive to African-Americans.

Kief, who has been a police officer for 19 years, told a supervisor that he did not mean to harm anyone and had used the racial term growing up, according to the personnel files released Monday.
Kief was demoted from sergeant to officer. He had been promoted to sergeant in 2008.

Peoria City Manager Carl Swenson said in a statement that Kief's actions will not be tolerated.

Police Chief Roy Minter said Kief's conduct was against city policy, which states; "All employees shall conduct themselves in a professional and courteous manner and exhibit only that conduct which would exemplify the Peoria Police Department to both the community and other law enforcement organizations."

In 2002, Kief was suspended for a combined 10 hours for two separate incidents of verbal abuse. Once incident was acting out against fellow employee and the other was disrespecting individuals involved in a sexual assault case, the records show. He was reprimanded in 2001 for running over a stop sign.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/07/23/20120723peoria-police-officer-suspended-demoted-after-using-racial-slur-abrk.html

Hackers expose racism's underbelly: Driving while black, brown or red in Arizona

Driving, and living, while Black, Brown or Red in Arizona
Article and photo by Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photos: Arizona border victims by Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- When the ACLU released the report, "Driving while Black or Brown," exposing racial profiling by Arizona police, it came as no surprise to Native Americans who live in the state. When hackers exposed the racist e-mails of Arizona police officers last week, it came as no surprise to the Native Americans who are victims of excessive force by Arizona police in bordertowns.

When hackers exposed the fact that off-duty US Marine contract killers are patrolling the Arizona border with assault weapons, stalking migrants, it came as no surprise to human rights organizations in southern Arizona. When hackers exposed the fact that a school cop was reporting the diversity class at a Tucson high school to the Arizona Attorney General, that probably came as a surprise to many students and staff at Santa Rita High School. The district is engaged in an ongoing battle with the State of Arizona to save its ethnic studies programs.

What was a surprise when hackers spilled data from Arizona police files? The surprise was that they got caught. Arizona police, private security officers and white supremacists have carried out their abuse and crimes with impunity in the State of Arizona. The Governor, Arizona State Legislature and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have fueled the xenophobic attitude towards migrants and all people of color. This trio has attempted to create rule by white supremacists in a state populated by 21 American Indian Nations and diverse peoples and cultures.

"The good old boy" system crashed with the servers of the Fraternal Order of Police websites last week.

While the mainstream media fuels the racism, aiding private prison profiteers to fill their prisons with people of color, the media also paints Sheriff Arpaio as a colorful character, rather than examining the poisonous climate of hate he has injected into the region.

What was in those police e-mails hacked last week? There were racist chain letters forwarded by police about immigrants. There were insulting chain letters about President Obama. There was an e-mail praising torture from the police chief of Springerville, located near the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and White Mountain Apache Indian Nations.

The data exposed a registered sex offender who is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, and a stalker who was a potential candidate for police chief in Tucson in 2009. It also exposed that a Navajo police officer from Teec Nos Pos discovered Arizona state police were filing charges in state court, rather than tribal court, for crimes on Indian land. The Navajo officer was then targeted by his superior and discriminated against.

Although a group of the worst e-mails have been published, one e-mail was too vulgar to publish. The e-mail was sent to a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, who is a former employee of the private prison profiteer Corrections Corporations of America. The e-mail was vulgar sarcasm about what was actually down to the body of Osama bin Laden. It was sent by a person working at a lighting company in southern California. The same FPO member had an outgoing e-mail with too much profanity to publish.

The data exposed the fact that Arizona police are well aware of the white supremacists and hate groups in Arizona. There are few eyes to witness the murders and rapes in the Sonoran Desert. The victims who are people of color in Arizona are a low priority for Arizona prosecutors. When US Border Patrol agents have been charged with the murder of migrants in federal court in Tucson, they were not convicted.

The hacked e-mails show that Arizona police are well aware that their own data was used when the ACLU prepared the report, "Driving while Black or Brown." The report showed that Native Americans stopped by Arizona police are 3.25 times more likely to be searched than whites. The report says that these targeted searches were uncalled for, since whites are far more likely to be carrying contraband than Native Americans.

Here's a recap of stories from the e-mails and reports exposed by hackers during June, who sail under the names of Antisec, Anonymous and Lulzsec.

Hackers slam Arizona police a third time
Hackers slammed the Arizona Department of Police for a third time on Thursday night, exposing police e-mails with more racism directed at Arabs, anti-immigrant chain e-mails, and crude jokes about President Obama. The release, Chinga La Migra Comminque III, "Fraternal Ownage of Police," targets Arizona's Fraternal Order of Police. The Antisec movement said they are defacing and taking down their websites, on behalf of the rights of immigrants and working people. Read the worst e-mails:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hackers-slam-arizona-police-for-third.html

Tucson: Hackers reveal data targeting ethnic studies
TUCSON -- Hackers have once again slammed Arizona police, exposing racism and corruption.
In the second release of data on Wednesday, June 29, in the Chinga La Migra Dos files, Tucson schools public safety officer Robert 'Bob' Barry of Tucson, sent a letter to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne urging an investigation of studies at Santa Rita High School in May.
Barry tells the Attorney General that students at Santa Rita High are being "indoctrinated" because they are being told about the genocide of Native Americans. Barry calls a diversity speech "hate speech."

Read more:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/tucson-hackers-reveal-data-targeting.html

Hacked data reveals US Marines as contract killers, hunting migrants on the border
The hunting and murder of migrants by US Marines along the Arizona border was among the first facts revealed, after LulzSec hacked the Arizona Department of Public Safety on Thursday. The data exposes the fact that Arizona law enforcement officers were aware that migrants were being hunted by off-duty Marines patrolling the border with assault weapons. The information was in a report for the month of October, 2008, by Arizona's HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) Investigative Support Center.

"In other incidents reported in October, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered two subjects who claimed to be members of the Border Watch Group the Blue Lights based on the Caballo Loco Ranch. The subjects, armed with pistols and at least one M4 rifle, were dressed in full desert camouflage uniforms, similar to those of the United States military. They stated they were not members of the Minutemen, but paid contract employees who ‘get the job done’ and ‘were not just volunteers.’ They possessed valid United States Marine Corps identification cards."

Read more about this ranch near Sasabe, Arizona, south of Three Points, and alongside the Tohono O'odham Nation. The Caballo Loco is where Minutemen, Patriots, off-duty Marines and other white supremacists camp and stalk migrants:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hacked-data-reveals-us-marines-contract.html

Also see:
ACLU Arizona Racial Profiling "Driving while Black or Brown"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/59087728/Arizona-Racial-Profiling-Report-Driving-Black-or-Brown
Columbus, Ohio Police Target Native American Long Walkers, on Friday, July 3, 2011, and in 2008:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/07/columbus-ohio-police-target-native.html

About the photos
At El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson, the organization "No More Deaths," remembered "Descondido" and thousands of other migrants who have died along the border of the United States and Mexico. Descondido was found hanged near the village of Cowlic in 2005 and is among the migrants meeting with violent death after crossing the border.

At El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson, volunteers with "No More Deaths," remembered migrants who have died along the border during a prayer vigil at a shrine in Tucson. When each migrants' name was read, those present said, "Presente" (Present) to show that they had not been forgotten. Thousands of names of migrants, who died from dehydration, assaults and other causes, were placed at the shrine.

Shrine outside federal courthouse in Tucson for Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, from Morelia, Mexico, murdered by US Border Patrol agent. Agent was found not guilty.

Angie Ramon, Tohono O'odham, mother of Bennett Patricio, Jr, 18, stands where her son was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham land. Ramon sued the officers in federal court, alleging her son was murdered by officers when he walked up on Border Patrol agents transferring a load of drugs in the remote desert at 3 am. Ramon carried the case to the Ninth Circuit and found no justice.
================================================================
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 29 years, living on the Navajo Nation for 18 years and in Tucson for a decade.
Copyright Censored News. To request permission to repost, please contact the publisher Brenda Norrell, brendanorrell@gmail.com

Joe Arpaio Loses Again: Maricopa County Settles for $200K in Mora Racial-Profiling Case

Julio and Julian Mora, who today won big against Sheriff Joe

As Sheriff Joe Arpaio plots to humiliate Arizona by deploying a chain gang of illegal immigrants to clean up around Chase Field, where the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is scheduled to take place July 12, there's ample evidence Arpaio should be in stripes right along with them, cleaning the sidewalks of cigarette butts and soda cans.

Not only is Arpaio the subject of a federal grand jury probe looking into abuse of power allegations against his office, he's also guilty of racial profiling by proxy. And for all of you nativists out there, racial profiling is illegal, no matter how much you may cotton to the idea.

See, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona has just announced that it's reached a settlement in the federal lawsuit Mora v. Arpaio, one of the most egregious cases of ethnic and racial profiling to come out of Arpaio's campaign of Hispanic-hunting sweeps and anti-immigrant raids on local businesses.

Arpaio's lawyer Tim Casey today threw in the towel, essentially agreeing to a $200,000 payout to Julian and Julio Mora, the father and son zip-tied and held for three hours during a 2009 MCSO raid of the Phoenix landscaping firm Handyman Maintenance Inc., where the elder Mora worked.

Joe's boys-in-beige were after illegal immigrants that day, but Julian Mora is a legal permanent resident. His son Julio is an American citizen.

But all that mattered to Arpaio's goons was the Moras' skin color. Because they were brown, sheriff's deputies pulled over their truck as the elder Mora drove to work. They were zip-tied and laughed at when they asked to use the facilities.

Mora senior, who suffers from diabetes, was finally allowed to make water behind a parked vehicle. The junior Mora was allowed to go to the bathroom, but deputies refused to remove his zip-tie, and mocked him as he struggled to relieve himself.

The Moras had done nothing wrong, yet they were treated like criminals.

So they sued Arpaio and the other idgits involved, like the bigoted Barney Fife, MCSO Lt. Joe Sousa, the brain surgeon in charge of the sheriff's human smuggling unit, best known for telling elected officials critical of his jefe to "shut up" at a deputies' press conference in 2009.

Oh, if only the $200K could come from the pocket of an aggro idiot like Sousa. But, alas, as with all of the settlements and judgments that result from the misdeeds of Arpaio and his dull-witted minions, it's the county that has to pick up the tab for this Keystone-Koppery.

Interestingly, one reason the defense in this suit flopped on its face is that the MCSO's moronic administrators could not determine which MCSO goons in particular pinched the Moras. Flip to the word "incompetence" in Webster's Dictionary, and I can almost guarantee there's an illo of an MCSO badge.

In April, District Court Judge David Campbell ruled that the Moras' Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure had been violated.

"Julian had committed no traffic violation, and neither plaintiff was ever charged with a crime," Campbell wrote at the time.

"In short," he added, "the undisputed evidence shows that when the John Doe Deputies stopped plaintiffs, they had no suspicion, reasonable or otherwise, that plaintiffs were in violation of the traffic laws or engaged in criminal activity."

Campbell's April ruling practically guaranteed Arpaio's capitulation. On the Fourth Amendment claim, the defendants already knew they were going to lose.

Annie Lai, the ACLU's lead attorney on the case, warned the county that it will be on the hook for Arpaio's continued unconstitutional shenanigans.

"Sheriff Arpaio's deputies are not free to ignore the Constitution when they are enforcing immigration laws," Lai said in a statement released by the ACLU. "County officials should take heed that the Moras and hundreds of other Latino residents who have been detained in the raids without any evidence of wrongdoing have recourse in the courts."

Lai just left the ACLU this week, on her way to a teaching gig at Yale University. I interviewed her before she left, and she will be the subject of a future blog post.

Congrats to her, the Moras and all the lawyers at the ACLU and elsewhere who helped win this one. Occasionally, there's a little justice here in Sand Land, though I won't be satisfied till I see Arpaio suited up in stripes, working the side of the road, hopefully with all of his henchmen right beside him.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2011/07/joe_arpaio_loses_again_maricop.php

Free the Fonz! Fronzo West Jailed for Telling Authorities "Fuck the Police"

Why are cops afraid of The Fonz? A combination of camcorder and freedom of speech.

Phoenix civil liberties activist Fronzo West is currently doing time in the Maricopa County jail for exercising his freedom of speech rights as enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Folks like to say we have freedom of speech in this country, and in theory, we do. But in practice, it's a whole 'nother matter. West, 65, challenges that theory nearly every day of the week here in Phoenix by riding around in a car emblazoned with the slogans "Fuck the Police" and "Stop Police Brutality." He goes further than that. Everything he wears, from the cap on his head to his loafers also bears the same anti-cop messages.

For West, it's part of a self-appointed crusade against police heavy-handedness that dates back some 30 years, when "The Fonz" as he's known around town, was wrestled to the ground in downtown Phoenix by white police officers. The Fonz, who is black, was roller-skating -- his preferred mode of ambulance -- while carrying his child in a papoose. The Fonz's mixed race kid was white in appearance, and this is what led the cops to believe something was askance. The entire ugly incident was captured on tape by a local TV news crew, and watching it now is, to say the least, a surreal experience.

Since that time, Fonz has driven around town in a vehicle scrawled with his opinions about the local gendarmes. He also stops to videotape them whenever he spies them pulling someone over. But Fonz, a Navy vet who served this country during the Vietnam war, pays a price for his activism, and for expressing himself so boldly. That is, whenever cops of any stripe see his car or his garb, they harass him, pull him over, and find something to cite him on.

Fonz has no idea how many times he's been arrested, and a cursory check of court records does not reveal all of the times I know he's been collared after I first met him several years ago. (There are numerous jurisdictions involved.) But he must've been taken into custody scores of times since he began his mostly one-man "Stop Police Brutality" organization.

It should be noted that Fonz has a Gandhi-like approach to local law enforcement. When they begin to question him after seeing his clothes or his car, he remains silent. If they approach him and lay hands on him, he does his patented "Fonz flop" and falls to the ground, a textbook example of passive resistance.

As a result of doing this for decades, many cops know who he is, as do many judges and justices of the peace. As Fonz offers no threat to the community, and as his continued harassment by law enforcement does nothing but waste cops' time and taxpayer money, you'd think they'd just ignore him. But that'd be like a Spanish bull ignoring a red sash. And so, Fonz inevitably ends up in court on some pretty bogus charges, like "failure to obey" a police officer.

According to his longtime lawyer Steve Suskin, a former La Paz County Attorney who currently represents New Times in numerous matters, when Fonz ends up in Phoenix municipal court, the judges there, who are all lawyers, overlook his clothing, perhaps as a nod to the First Amendment issues involved. But in the justice courts, the Justices of the Peace are so disturbed by Fonz's attire that they frequently order him to remove his shirt or order him out of court altogether.

Fonz's predicament has resulted in some fairly amusing episodes. Once, when ordered to remove a shirt with an offending inscription, he did so, only to reveal another beneath it with the same message. In another incident I witnessed and wrote about in April of last year, JP C. Steven McMurry lashed out as soon as he saw the Fonz, sputtering, "I am not having that 'Fuck the Police' [shirt] in the court!"

Fonz left the courtroom, and later, McMurry apologized for repeating in court the very phrase he wished to forbid.

Fonz's appearance before JP Armando Gandarilla a couple of days ago was not so amusing. Before Gandarilla on lame charges of "unsafe lane usage" and "failure to obey" a police officer, Fonz was wearing his Eff the Po-Po uniform as always. Gandarilla held Fonz in contempt, and Fonz is currently in MCSO custody on a $500 bond until his case is heard Friday morning.

"I think the judge's thinking was, he'd be in jail the rest of this time," explained attorney Steve Suskin. "And when the sheriff's deputies brought him back to the court, he'd have a striped suit on. That's fine. You can have a trial with a striped suit on, but you can't have a trial with a `Fuck the Police' shirt on."

Keep in mind that Fonz's already spent several days in county after being arrested on the original charges back in March. If you take a look at the DPS reports generated by the March incident, you can see what a mountain the four -- count 'em, four -- DPS officers made out of this molehill. (You can read them for yourself, here.)

What was Fonz stopped for? According to Officer L.A. Lopez, it was because as Fonz was exiting I-17 at 16th Street, the car's "right front and rear tires crossed over the fog line by a full tire width." We all know this wasn't the real reason. Lopez and the other officers do allude to the real reason by stating at the top of their reports that, "the vehicle was also covered in red anti-police graffiti/slogans such as `Fuck the Police' and `Stop Police Brutality.'"

The remainder of the reports are like something right out of a script for Reno 911, save for the fact that it sounds like Fonz was moments away from getting gunned down. Lopez reports that, "The driver a black male immediately exited the vehicle pointing a silver object in my direction that was in his left hand as he stood in the roadway." The "silver object," of course, was Fonz's camcorder. A black man with a silver object in his hand? Fonz is lucky to be alive.

True, Fonz probably could have parked in a more convenient location for the patrolmen, and he was hardly what you call cooperative. On the other hand, Fonz should have never been pulled over to begin with.

The DPS officers go on to search Fonz's vehicle without his permission or any probable cause that I can see. They find what they call "burglary tools," basically a couple of slim jims. When having one of these became illegal is beyond me, but interestingly this one semi-serious charge is the one that's been dropped. There were no drugs or any other sort or contraband in Fonz's car. So this illegal search and seizure produced nothing of import. I should also mention that one officer's sinister suggestion that Fonz is an IV drug user is completely untrue, based on zero evidence whatsoever.

It's not the first time Fonz has gone to jail on petty charges, drummed up and enforced because those with authority don't like Fonz's message. Nor will it be the last. Fonz is not afraid of jail, and indeed, he seems to feel it's part of his duty as a citizen to be incarcerated for challenging unchecked police power. As we approach the Fourth of July, I would posit that Fonz is a true patriot, a Yankee Doodle Dandy wearing his declaration of independence on his sleeve, and every other part of his clothing.

Justice Gandarilla and the DPS officers involved should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done, in no small part because Fonz is a veteran who is not in the best of health. The last time he was in the hospital, his heart stopped and he had to be revived. As the police are hardly gentle with Fonz when they arrest him, I anticipate that he will one day die in custody, just because his eccentric devotion to certain constitutionally protected phrases ticks off those bearing badges and black robes.

UPDATE: The sheriff's office was supposed to deliver Fonz to JP Gandarilla's court Friday morning at 9 a.m., but did not do so. JP Gandarilla told attorney Steve Suskin that he would sign an order of release for Fonz.

I called down to the court, and am awaiting a call back from someone who works for Gandarilla to tell me whether or not this was done, and if Fonz has been released.

This farce will continue after the court reschedules the trial on these bogus misdemeanor charges Fonz faces. More as I get it.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/06/free_the_fonz_fronzo_west_jail.php

Mesa pays $2 million to settle police shooting case

by Nathan Gonzalez - Sept. 25, 2008 06:06 PM
The Mesa Republic

Mesa has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of James Deon Lennox, who was fatally shot in 2006 by a Mesa detective after Lennox fought with and threw a plastic chair at the officer.

The settlement, reached in June but just coming to light, comes more than a year after Lennox's family filed suit in federal court, alleging Detective David Kohler used excessive force when he shot the 35-year-old father of four.

"We feel vindicated," Lennox's mother, Joetta Cooper, said from her Sacramento home. "I'm glad he can now rest in peace and the family can now move on. Life cannot move on until you forgive. Your life will be at a standstill."

 

Deputy City Attorney Mark Ishikawa said the settlement, the second-largest in city history, is not an admission of wrongdoing by Kohler or the city.

"In an incident like this, just because something is settled doesn't mean anything was done wrong," Ishikawa said. "We just had a difference of opinion of the facts of the case."

The March 30, 2006, incident began after Lennox and his live-in girlfriend returned from celebrating his recent promotion. The couple got into an argument and police were called. 

Three officers, including Kohler, were on the scene when one used pepper spray to subdue Lennox, according to the family's lawsuit. He twice attempted to surrender to police. Kohler threw Lennox to the ground and the two began wrestling, the suit said.

"Several of the witnesses to the event stated the officer used an ethnic slur before the shooting," said Herb Ely, the Lennox family attorney. Police have denied that.

Lennox rose to his feet and flung a chair, hitting Kohler in the shoulder, the lawsuit states. Lennox then threw a second chair and Kohler fired twice, hitting Lennox in the chest and shoulder.

Kohler told investigators he fired at Lennox after the man punched him several times in the face, threw the plastic chair and was reaching for a metal chair.

Kohler was cleared of wrongdoing.

"The police officer should not have felt he was in danger," Ely said. "This was a lawn chair that weighed a few pounds."

The incident will be reviewed by the department's Use of Force Board, which will determine whether Kohler violated any policies or if additional training for officers is needed, said Sgt. Ed Wessing, a police spokesman.

"At the request of the city, they asked that we didn't do that review until the case was resolved," Wessing said.

Kohler, an 18-year veteran of the department, declined, through Wessing, to comment.

Chief George Gascón indefinitely removed Kohler from outside field work after the detective was involved in another shooting this year, Wessing said.

Lennox's mother said she no longer faults Kohler or the Police Department. She blamed lawmakers and policymakers who "allow police to shoot if they are in any way in danger."

"The laws they put in place allowed for this to happen," she said. "Back in the day, they had lynching for minorities. As far as I'm concerned, the modern-day lynching is a shooting by police officer."

The largest payout by the city was $2.4 million to Bruce Bellemore, who in 2004 fell about 10 feet from a tree and landed on his head after he was shot twice with a Taser stun gun by a police officer. The incident left him a quadriplegic.

Tempe pulls TV show, makes apology

By Nick Martin, Tribune
November 30, 2006

Six times a week during November, a television show produced by Tempe police aired on the city's cable channel showing a white police officer telling two black men they could get out of a ticket if they performed a rap.

On Thursday, Tempe's mayor and police chief apologized for the show, suspended its future production and the chief launched an investigation after black community leaders voiced outrage and
disappointment over it.

"On behalf of our city organization, I apologize to the entire community for this clear misjudgment and I will expect that we will perform at a much higher level," Mayor Hugh Hallman said late Thursday. "This video is unacceptable."

Both the mayor and Chief Tom Ryff were responding to ire from leaders of two minority-rights organizations: Rev. Jarrett Maupin, president of Arizona's chapter of the National Action Network, and Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of the Maricopa County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Both leaders were made aware of the video Wednesday by the Tribune. The chief and mayor both said they had not seen the show before Thursday.

The segment at issue of "Tempe StreetBeat," which followed several police on patrol, showed host Sgt. Chuck Schoville pulling over two men in August in the parking lot of the Arizona Mills mall. He first asks for a name and ID from the driver.

"You know how much the fine is for littering?" Schoville asks the men, who have stepped out of their car. "About 500 or so. Criminal arrest and all that other stuff."

The scene then cuts to Schoville's proposition: "No littering ticket if the two of you just do a little rap about — what do you want to do a rap about? Littering? About the dangers of littering. OK."

The two agree and each perform a short rap, laughing afterward. Schoville tells them to have a good day.

Before they go, Schoville says, "Raiders in the Super Bowl this year."

"You're right," the driver of the car said among other muffled words.

"You know I'm right. You know why you say I'm right?" Schoville jokes.

"Because I've got a gun and a badge. I'm always right."

All three laugh and rock music soon fades in.

Maupin, of the National Action Network, was wide-eyed after watching a DVD copy of the exchange.

"Do these individuals (in the department) know that they played into every negative stereotype of African Americans and the police?" he said.

"We don't all speak hip hop," he added later.

Maupin called for apologies from the mayor and chief and for an investigation into the show.

Tillman, of the NAACP, said apologies alone would not satisfy his outrage.

"I don't want your apology," Tillman said. "I want you to show me in your training and show me in your future" that things can change.

Both said that not only was the rap request stereotyping the men, but the joke at the end of the segment was dangerous.

"It's the most dangerous statement that a law enforcement officer can have at a time when we're looking at what happened in New York," where police officers this week shot an unarmed black man 50 times, killing him.

On Wednesday, police spokesman officer Brandon Banks, who was the credited producer of the show, defended it and said footage that was cut shows Schoville originally told the two they would not receive a ticket, then asked if they would rap for the cameras. Banks and a cameraman were with Schoville when the scene was shot. The extra footage was cut for time considerations, Banks said.

Schoville himself did not respond to a request made through the department to comment.

"Rev. Tillman and Rev. Maupin are the ones who are asserting that it's stereotypical and I don't see it as such," Banks said, adding later: "It was done in absolutely good-natured good fun and the people
involved were all in agreement."

No one previously came forward to complain and neither of the men complained either, Banks said. "They have the complete right and freedom to walk away at any point."

The two men could not be identified. Because they were not given a ticket, Tempe had no record of their names.

For now, the city's top officials are expressing regret the incident ever happened and that it made air.

An investigation will be conducted by the police internal affairs unit and city's diversity manager, Ryff said.

"I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to members of our community who may have been offended for our airing of this program as well as the conduct of our officers," he said.

When Maupin learned of the apologies and investigation late Thursday, he responded: "Thank God."

Tribune writer Garin Groff contributed to this report.