CM PRESS # 266

JIM RIGHEIMER'S COLUMN ABOUT THE DUI CHECKPOINT TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT
Link
Be sure to read to the end of Righeimer's column. He gets into a few eye opening details about the salaries and benefits that are bankrupting Costa Mesa and which we guess most citizens of Costa Mesa don't know about but which they may now wish they could also get.
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COSTA MESA CITIZEN WANTS CITY SALARY INFO POSTED
[Here's an email the CM PRESS received today]

Friends,

I encourage all of you to contact the Costa Mesa City Manager's office and demand that they post the salary information (WITH BENEFITS) on the Costa Mesa website. This information was promised months ago but it's not been forthcoming.

Given the tenor of Tuesday's City Council meeting and the recent accusations by our Police Union, it's time the residents of Costa Mesa got the FACTS about what our public safety folks really make. I'm concerned that in light of the current happenings with the Union, the City will drag its feet further on providing this information.

Thanks.

[Name Withheld by CM PRESS]
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VOTING RIGHTS OFFICIAL CALLS DISMISSAL OF BLACK PANTHER CASE A 'TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE'
Link

More racial pecking order double standards as Justice Department ignores civil rights cases that involve White victims.
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SAG NEWS
Link
My union.
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LET'S RESTORE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE IN THE CMPD BY GETTING THE DEPARTMENT OUT OF OUR LOCAL POLITICS





CMPD=COSTA MESA POLITICAL DEPARTMENT ?
Here's the mailer that was sent out by the police union in a recent election. We wrote about this in CM PRESS # 265.

Right below the photos of the two candidates--who voters later rejected--is this line (which is hard to read on this small image of the mailer):

"Paid for by the Costa Mesa Police Officers PAC, ID #1244504, 99 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

As you may know, 99 Fair Drive is the Costa Mesa Police station. It is owned by all the citizens of Costa Mesa. It is not owned by the police. It is not owned by any political party.

Did you authorize the use of your property so the Costa Mesa Political Department could try to elect two people to the City Council that you may not have approved of? We know we didn't authorize it and we resent the fact that our taxes are being used by those with a liberal agenda that we don't agree with.

When you mix politics with policing, you end up with a situation like we're seeing now in Costa Mesa, where a concerned citizen, Jim Righeimer, who is also running for city council this year, and who questioned the political police about the wisdom of holding a DUI checkpoint where it was backing up traffic on the 405 Freeway during rush hour, is being attacked by the political police in the press and even at the last city council meeting.

How dare a citizen speak out! Haruuummmph! How dare a citizen question the political police! How dare a citizen actually try to avoid traffic problems and accidents! How dare a citizen be proactive! Doesn't that citizen know that he must shut up and let the political police (most of whom don't live in Costa Mesa) do something that may be questionable?

And, what about the attempt by the political police to intimidate the City Council by showing up from their far flung homes to fill the City Council chambers while all wearing the same white T-Shirts?

The next time you get a traffic ticket from a member of the Costa Mesa Political Department, will you wonder if the cop was just profiling you because of his or her politics...or yours?

Maybe you had a political sign on your lawn for a candidate that the political cops don't like? Is that why you got a ticket? Maybe you've spoken out about government abuse and the high salaries and benefits that are bankrupting Costa Mesa. Is that why you got the ticket?

In addition to your political views, maybe the cops don't like your religious, philosophical or social views? Is that why you got a ticket?

When the police get involved in local politics up to their eyebrows, as some are in Costa Mesa, it has a corrosive effect on citizen trust in the whole department; not just on the few cops who are pushing a narrow political/social agenda.

Below is a comment that is now appearing in the DAILY PILOT (LINK) from a person calling himself "bigdawg." He implies that he's a CMPD officer. Let's assume that bigdawg really is with the CMPD and let's take a quick look at his comment. The CM PRESS's comments are in red with brackets [].
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bigdawg at 10:03 PM September 22, 2010
I'd like to give some insight into the concerns CMPD officers have with Righeimer beyond this incident. CMPD has always been a very proactive department beyond DUI enforcement. Something like 450 parolees live in the city at any given time and the numbers of probationers easily double or triple that. [In logic, this is called the fallacy of an appeal to fear and it's also a red herring. It has nothing to do with the present situation, but, okay, let's just say he's setting the stage for his further comments.]

Around 2003, word came down from the then Chief that "quality of life" issues were to take precedence. Issues such as shopping carts, loud music, vendor trucks and carts, etc.
[Actually, we don't think the Chief at that time (Chief Hensley) said they were to take "precedence." If a bank were being robbed, no one would expect the cops to prioritize quality of life calls over the bank robbery call.

But, the reason the Chief told the cops to start being more proactive was because citizens--and some city council members--were complaining that the police weren't doing anything to enforce laws against some lawbreakers who were ruining the quality of life of citizens. Citizens would call the police and ask that they do something about laws being broken in their neighborhoods and the cops would ignore them. These little laws just aren't as sexy as bank robberies. As a result, Costa Mesa was starting to look and feel like one large Third World slum and the crime was also increasing. Why? It's the broken windows syndrome. Turn a blind eye to the "little" quality of life issues and the criminal element quickly takes over a neighborhood because they see it as a safe zone.]

Officers were forced to cut back on proactive enforcement of gang issues, drug sales and use issues, stolen vehicles, etc. [Nonsense. Crime has been going down ever since citizens started demanding that Costa Mesa be treated like a First World city. Check the crime stats. Funny thing is that the police take all the credit when the crime rate drops, but this guy, bigdawg, says the cops can't be proactive. Which is it? Is crime down or not? Here's the answer: It is, and this has happened, at least in part, because proactive citizens started complaining about the cops ignoring citizen calls. Proactive citizens are the ones who get involved and help a community improve for all citizens, even for the ones who are too lazy, too stupid, too timid or just not interested in getting involved.]

One Sergeant went so far as to prepare a matrix of quality of life issues that officers were to deal with each day. [Good, he was doing what he was supposed to be doing--following department policy, which is set by the Chief--which is apparently unlike what the four cops who talked to the press about the Righeimer incident seemed to be doing. And, also apparently unlike the Costa Mesa cop who used a GPS device to stalk a woman (see the next story below). By the way, who let this guy use a CMPD GPS device in this manner? Are the political police a law unto themselves and do they just do whatever they want with no supervision? Are political cops also using CMPD GPS devices to put on the cars of their political opponents? Are political cops using other CMPD resources for their political agendas? Are they using department computers to post comments and for other purposes?

What was the source? Mansoor moved to town and did not like what he saw. [If bigdawg actually lived in Costa Mesa instead of commuting in to pick up his pay check from the citizens of Costa Mesa, and then punching the time clock to go home to his own city to spend our money there, he might realize that Mansoor didn't "move to town," he's been here almost all his life and even went to Estancia High School. Furthermore, if memory serves, Mansoor got involved in local politics because he and his neighbors at that time couldn't get the CMPD to stop the lawbreakers who were ruining the neighborhood in which he was then living.]

Quality of life issues have their place, but not at the expense of proactive law enforcement and putting crooks in jail. [Again, the crime rate is down. Also again, the broken window syndrome is a reality. Let a neighborhood go to pot and it starts a downward spiral that continues on and on. And, please, look up "proactive." Acting on the "little" crimes is proactive, by definition.]

This is what concerns line officers. If Righeimer is already throwing his weight around, what will he do if elected? What pet projects will he impose on the department? [ A citizen asking questions about what appeared to be an ill advised and dangerous checkpoint is throwing his weight around? No. It's just a concerned citizen being proactive (and there's the correct use of that word). Our guess is that most citizens want people on the City Council who will be proactive (there it is again) and who will work to improve Costa Mesa. Jim Righeimer seems to be a proactive (again) type of guy. He also seems to be someone who wants to be proactive and control the spending of our local government instead of letting the red ink get even worse--and it is this last proactive stance of Righeimer that seems to be what has the political police upset the most.]
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The CM PRESS believes that some cops are hurting the relationship between citizens of Costa Mesa and the police department by getting too involved in local politics and by trying to influence voters in our elections.

And, these local elections in Costa Mesa are ones in which the vast majority of Costa Mesa police officers can't even vote because they don't choose to live here, but, instead, apparently choose to live with their spouses and children in safer cities; maybe in cities with police officers who don't see themselves and citizens in an us versus them light.

The City Council and the police brass should try to restore trust and confidence in the CMPD by asking officers to stay out of politics if they don't live in Costa Mesa. If they want to get involved in politics, then they should try to influence politics in the cities in which they actually live and where they can vote.

Let's support our local police and help them get out of local politics so they can do the professional jobs they were hired to do.
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COSTA MESA POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF HIDING A CMPD OWNED GPS DEVICE IN WOMAN'S CAR
LINK
This is a story from April that we referenced in the previous article above.

Given the political nature of some (not all) cops in the CMPD, and some over-the-top hateful comments from some anonymous commenters, who sound as though they may be cops--including one commenter who called Jim Righeimer "a pig," one has to wonder if some of these political police are doing something similar or if they're using their positions of authority in other ways to try to affect our local elections.
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Those are our opinions. What are yours?