San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
Sgt. Bobby Lopez, the former San Jose police union president, ignited a firestorm last month when reports surfaced that he boasted of having a spy in the Independent Police Auditor’s (IPA) Office. Now he has hired an attorney and won’t talk.
Two weeks ago, the usually loquacious Lopez announced that he would run for his old job as president of the San José Police Officers Association (POA). Lopez said he believes George Beattie, his media-shy predecessor, is a weak leader.
District 2 Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. proved himself to be a gentle giant at this morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting, shedding more than a few tears over the controversial Arizona immigration law, SB 1070.
“I’ve tried to suppress my emotions, so hopefully they won’t come out,” he said in opening, but to no avail. Face reddening, the poor guy basically lost it.
In Sunday’s Mercury News, reporters Linda Goldston and Vinne Tong wrote, “Arizona’s SB 1070 allows police to stop and ask about a person’s immigration status when they suspect the person could be in the U.S. illegally.” Is that true?
The Center For Disease Control and Prevention mobilized and coordinated our global and national efforts to contain the deadly Swine Flu pandemic. So far the efforts seem to have paid dividends, although a third wave this spring is anticipated. Another pandemic we give lip service to once or twice a year in national news stories is school and cyber-bullying. Yet, we do not seem to have the same wherewithal to develop a comprehensive and systemic approach to its eradication. In my thinking, the efforts for the pandemic of bullying should be parallel to our efforts for H1N1
By Lou Alexander
Lou Alexander was the advertising manager of the Mercury News for 20 years, and retired in 2003. — Editor
A couple of people have asked me for my take on the announcement that the parent company of MediaNews has reached a deal with its senior creditors to carry out a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring. I doubt this bankruptcy will make much difference in the day-to-day work lives of people who work at the SJMN and other MediaNews newspapers, at least for the moment. The company’s material says there will be no layoffs as a result of this action. And the same guys will be in charge.
The city of San Jose issued a memo today threatening to shut down three pot clubs within the city limits if they refuse to stop selling medical cannabis for a fee.
The memo, released this afternoon by Joseph Horwedel, director of the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, stated that the department has received complaints and is in the process of investigating Pharmers Health Center Cooperative, Inc., San Jose Cannabis Buyer’s Collective and Medileaf Collective. UPDATED 5:27
Last week, by chance I saw some of the highlights of US Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the decision to move Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several other of the 9/11 terrorist suspects’ trials to a court in New York. During his testimony, Mr. Holder was asked a pointed question by Sen. Lindsey Graham that, to my surprise, went missing from the Bay Area’s major newspapers’ following day coverage.
A number of posts over the past week on ProtectSanJose.com, a blog run by the Police Officers Association (SJPOA), have effectively called into question a series of San Jose Mercury News articles about use of force by SJPD.
The Merc series started with the Oct. 24 posting of a cell-phone video that seems to show SJPD officers beating and Tasing a Vietnamese SJSU exchange student while he is pinned to the floor. The series culminated with a Sunday package a few days later, headlined “Mercury News investigation: San Jose police often use force in resisting-arrest cases.”
On Halloween night, a twelve year old was shot in the head and a thirteen year old was stabbed. The response on the part of the San Jose Police force was swift. Several suspects were taken into custody within 36 hours.
Days later, 150 people gathered together to protest these acts of violence. Big deal…there should have been 15,000 people marching, from all four corners of San Jose, demanding an end to “turf-related violence.”
UPDATED. The San Jose Mercury News posted a video on its website last night that shows San Jose police officers beating a San Jose State student with a baton and using a Taser on him during a Sept. 3 arrest. According to the accompanying article, the force was used “even though the suspect was on the ground, and apparently offering no physical threat to the officers.”
At the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, 24 staff members are about to get laid off—out of a total staff of 109. The decision, called “heart-wrenching” by Agency head Harry Mavrogenes, was the inevitable outcome of a state raid on the RDA’s funds in an effort to cover Sacramento’s own deficit. This year the state is grabbing $62 million; next year it plans to take another $13 million. All of this is in addition to the $13 million that the state took in 2008. The layoffs will save the RDA about $3.1 million.
Was Cesar Chavez a racist? No, I don’t think so. But today, people of every political stripe and ethnicity are labeled “racists” for espousing some of the same attitudes towards immigration and immigration law as Cesar Chavez did.
“From June 17th to 23rd of 2008, the blog they say I run posted eight times. What was I doing during this period? I was on my honeymoon,” Bump wrote on July 24.
District Attorney Dolores Carr today announced an unprecedented move in prosecuting gang violence in Santa Clara County, charging five people involved in the shooting of 18-year-old Larry Martinez with murder.
The California Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8 by a 6-1 vote, taking away the rights of gay people to marry in California. But interestingly, the court left a few loopholes.
A guest analysis by San Jose’s OutNow magazine.
The night she was arrested, Maria Castillo fit the description. A petite, 49-year-old grandmother and home healthcare worker, Castillo is Latina in San Jose – and that ethnicity, in that city, makes her the most likely person statistically to be charged with resisting arrest.
