Tag Archives: LAPD

What Homeless Problem? Leaders Scapegoat the Poor Instead of Tackling Development’s Filth

05 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by in Homeless, Los Angeles, Poetic Blog, Political, Politics

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-by Bill Watkins 10/27/2021

The problems of “Los Angeles” run deep, as deep as the rivers and lakes that used to bless this land before the great European conquest.

It used to be a land of many names to many tribes.  By any name naturally sweet, especially when compared to what we industrialists have done to it.  Litter spews out of sidewalks’ cracks, asphalt trying to make all accessible to earth-burning cars, elected leaders in suits meeting in grand halls making and spending money…

Then we are appalled “at that bum on the corner.”  At all the trash, the smell of urine, RV’s mounting months of rentless stays, providing homes to some and eyesores to others – those enclosed in business attire at stationary houses, nine to five jobs shaking their heads…  “Let’s have a meeting about the homeless!!” they hurl, as the trash mounts.

Did anyone ever think we should just pick up the trash?  Daily?  And not just in gas-guzzling trucks, but on foot?  Los Angeles has forgotten how to walk!  LAPD, since the 1960’s, has even decided to police by helicopter!  Never mind the noise, the sound of war…  There they are because you forgot to lock your deified car, someone stole it, and now we add the second crime of noise pollution from above to stop the theft!

I call for a return to Otsungna.  Yaangna, or whichever the names were before the Spanish and their guns stole land and branded it angelic with their bibles.  We have failed.  We have desecrated.  We have polluted…  And now it’s the fault of poor people?  People who look to a blessed outdoor life?  Sleeping under the stars?

In this formerly peaceful, natural space the conquerors called Los Angeles I don’t see a homeless problem.  I see a filth problem, and lazy leaders getting rich in suits who haven’t the slightest idea how to get out of their SUV’s, put on some work clothes, go out on foot –

and solve it.

Lethal Force Argument Fails in Big Picture

02 Tuesday Nov 2021

Posted by in Nature, Poetic Blog, Police

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***

I recently spent some time with an LAPD officer, who went over a variety of potentially lethal situations he and his fellows face while on the job, trying to protect and serve.  He was surprisingly convincing, had me on the edge of my seat, and I was close to renouncing some of my religious views—the main one with relevance being the Sixth Commandment of the Jewish Torah:

Thou shalt not kill.

The officer was convincing with the set of conditions in front of him, as a lethally trained cop, but…  After a few days to meditate, I recalled the big picture.  Stolen Native American land… Guns and more guns rationalized by bibles, then the forced industrialization and development of this once thriving wilderness turn New Europe.

In the insanity civilization has created, the normalization of fast cars, planes, and even the loud war machine helicopters above us claiming law enforcement:  one could argue that indeed some people need killing.  An insane notion made almost palatable on the concrete and asphalt of this city:  law officers speeding around in fancy cars burning earth, flying around over our homes burning more earth—

Showing up mid-conflict… someone draws a knife, or a gun, or a machete… and now?  The police officer called in with few facts and limited knowledge of a crime scene shows up to make a life or death decision with his or her lethal firearm.  They trained to kill, trained to shoot for the largest mass on the human body—the torso, the chest, the heart… to kill.

And given all of that, all that touring around in fire-burning vehicles across this once natural area turned polluted metropolis:  they are out of touch.  Their boots are not on the ground.  They don’t know the suspect nor the suspect’s family.  They often know only a little about the community they enforce, and what they do know they know driving at high speeds or worse yet, flying loud metal choppers from above us.

Lethal force in policing is always wrong, I still assert.  Even after an LAPD officer’s impassioned plea to me and set of scenario explanations…  Why?  Because the concept of “America,” land theft and the forced industrialization of this land has created the insane situations they experience that only seem to justify the taking of human life on the job.

I reject lethal force.  I reject lethal force training.  But well before that, I reject “Los Angeles,” the “United States of America” and any other concepts deriving from a racist, criminal theft of land some like to call a romantic conquest so they can keep benefitting from sin.  Putting down our guns may not be the first step toward proper amends, but it is one. 

It’s time to question the founding of this New Europe on stolen Native American land, where gun use is too often justified in the loud, polluted insanity industrialization has created here.

Hollenbeck C-PAB Welcomes Back Live Meetings

21 Thursday Oct 2021

Posted by in Community, LAPD, Police

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-by Bill Watkins 10/20/2021

Every third Wednesday at 6:00pm Hollenbeck Division Headquarters on 1st Street in Boyle Heights welcomes the Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) to facilitate an exchange of information and advice.

New Hollenbeck Captain Germán Hurtado co-chaired the meeting with C-PAB community Co-Chair Mark Overstreet of University Hills.  The board is five strong but is actively open to new recruits who want to serve their communities as a liaison between the LAPD and the streets.  The captain opened with a crimes report, reflecting a slight surge in numbers and high concerns over the “homeless situation.”

Also present and contributing were Neighborhood Prosecutor Cynthia Gonzalez, Hollenbeck Detective Commander Chris Mayberry, area LAPD Lead Officers, two representatives from CA Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo’s office, the board members mentioned and about twenty members of the community.  Interested members brought their concerns, among them:  gang activity and crimes in areas with high homeless populations.

Commander Mayberry stressed the importance of having experts on gang activity among Hollenbeck’s force, as “a strong nexus exists between the gangs and certain kinds of crimes.”  Neighborhood Prosecutor Cynthia Gonzalez with the City Attorney’s office, committed to Hollenbeck Division and communities they serve, spoke at length on her work, from trying to educate folks on keeping public spaces safe and accessible (L.A. Municipal Code Section 41.18) to advising those present of a “Safe Parking Program” that exists out of Council District 1 in Glassell Park.  The program attempts to assist in safe parking for RV’s in this area.

Lead Officers contributed their reports, with Officer Oscar Casini receiving special recognition for his outstanding work.  Officer Huerta of Lincoln Heights, Hermon, and Rose Hills communities spoke of extra attention on Debs Park of late, while Officer Frank Dominguez mentioned more concerns about homeless populations.  All of the lead officers requested community help and involvement.

For some that involvement could be membership in the C-PAB board, for others captaincy with Neighborhood Watch.  Officer Casini passionately pitched for community support, knowing that without it—LAPD will not be as successful as they could be.  It’s through community watch programs and support that quality of life can rise to new heights, a community member even presenting an idea to introduce non-lethal foot patrols to get ahead of crimes in the area.

Opinions at Wednesday’s meeting expressed that far better than reacting to crime is to put eyes on the street and avoid them altogether.  Together, Wednesday night’s C-PAB meeting seemed to say, we can create the kind of community we want.  See you at Hollenbeck Division Headquarters (2111 1st Street, Boyle Heights) on each third Wednesday, the next meeting scheduled for November the 17th at 6:00pm.

Old Science Can’t Justify LAPD Choppers

17 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Helicopters, Poetic Blog, Police

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Bill Watkins 9/17/2019

According to the LAPD website, a NASA study found that “The citizens of Los Angeles accept helicopter patrols as a necessary part of the City’s police system and strongly favor their continuation.”  There are two major problems with that statement.  First, the referenced study took place over fifty years ago, so could not possibly be considered current.  Second, the quote is misleading and inaccurate, extracted from a report on test results from a small sample of citizens in only two geographic areas of Los Angeles.

The actual quote from the last page of the 1970 NASA report is: “The residents of the test areas accept the helicopter patrols as a necessary part of the police system and strongly favor the continuation of the patrols.”  The test areas used were the West Valley Division and University Division, the first centered in Reseda, the second called Southwest Division today, centered near USC.  The study was narrowed to track the effectiveness of LAPD’s fleet of four helicopters in the late 1960’s at reducing and controlling crime.  Quality of life, integrity, ethics and honor were not a part of the study, as would be needed today to test LAPD Air Support Division’s effectiveness in carrying out the department’s stated mission:

It is the mission of the Los Angeles Police Department to safeguard the lives and property of the people we serve, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve their quality of life. Our mandate is to do so with honor and integrity, while at all times conducting ourselves with the highest ethical standards to maintain public confidence.

Several years ago, LAPD stopped pursuing complaints by the public regarding “low-flying airships,” putting in question their commitment to “working with the diverse communities to improve their quality of life.”  In the highly dated NASA report on LAPD helicopter use, the word “noise” appears several times—first on page twenty-six, in the public opinion section: “The most undesirable feature of the helicopters, to residents, appears to be noise.”  Noise is mentioned twice on page twenty-eight, as well, but is left out of LAPD’s History of the Air Support Division webpage.

Perhaps it’s time for a new survey.  One that takes in not just crime-stopping, but quality of life issues like disturbing the peace.  What price are L.A. residents willing to pay to go after suspects?  Is putting a spotlight over a property thief worth the noise?  Is it worth the cost of fuel?  Could this city be not just safe against crime, but peaceful?  How can these warlike tools, first brought in to assist traffic safety in 1956, ever be a part of a long-term vision for peace?

Today LAPD Air Support boasts a war chest of twenty choppers, up sixteen from the last time NASA checked into their effectiveness and popularity with residents.  LAPD has misrepresented a fifty-year old NASA report on their website, and they have disallowed formal complaints by L.A. citizens against their noise.  Some day, citizens who love peace must stand up and circle around this perpetual war perpetrated by LAPD and other paramilitary forces across this land, demand silence in the name of nature and its native inhabitants, whose land we violently stole.

One LAPD pilot called their choppers a “force multiplier” in a recent phone conversation. A sad concept for a devolved, hard place.  Is this what we want, Los Angeles?  A constant war?  I do not, and plan to move out of country soon, but while here, I will offer my pen as a hopeful peace multiplier.  Let’s rise above a war begun in 1492 against nature.  I ask Native America back.  Please help us, and excuse our pollution.

Where’s the Peace?

25 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by in LAPD, Poetic Blog, Police

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by Bill Watkins, Land Thief, 8/25/2019

LAPD are the loudest entity on my block.  Consistently loud, abusive and rude.  They damage the peace routinely, which is at odds with the concept of Peace Officers.  LAPD’s supposed mission:

…to safeguard the lives and property of the people we serve, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve their quality of life.  Our mandate is to do so with honor and integrity, while at all times conducting ourselves with the highest ethical standards to maintain public confidence.

Was “peace” and “keeping the peace” something that was considered in our mission statement?  Something impossible to do with the abusive use of loud, polluting helicopters!  What “quality of life” is increased with war machines killing the peace in a ten mile radius?  How is a bad situation made better by making it worse?

“There’s a suspect in this region, so add the crime of noise pollution, and send a chopper?”

I don’t want the LAPD’s war on our communities.  Do you?!?!

Arrest by Anger

22 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Blogs, Criminal Law, Law, Police, Political

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An LAPD Favorite

-by Bill Watkins 5/22/2017

Police Corruption

CPC 236:
False imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another.

CPC 832.5 (a) (1) Each department or agency in this state that employs peace officers shall establish a procedure to investigate complaints by members of the public against the personnel of these departments or agencies, and shall make a written description of the procedure available to the public.

BPC 6068 Attorney Duties:
(a) To support the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state.
(f) To advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or witness, unless required by the justice of the cause with which he or she is charged.
(g) Not to encourage either the commencement or the continuance of an action or proceeding from any corrupt motive of passion or interest

***

Once I posed the dangers of involving anger in police work to a Sergeant at LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division headquarters.

He answered back with enthusiasm:

“Anger helps us.  I believe it is good for officers.”

I’ve personally been arrested by LAPD twice without evidence or probable cause.  The arrests were made when I stood on the Constitution, asserted my rights…

And they got mad.

***

For both arrests, by the way, I swiftly went to court and proved my factual innocence to a judge, and am still awaiting City of Los Angeles reimbursements for the troubles they caused me, financially and otherwise.

The total personal financial cost of LAPD mistakes to me:

$2500 in bail money.

Twenty total hours lost in actual time in my life; about fifty total hours of affect, as I lost two days due to a sleep-deprived jail stay in one of those illegal arrests.

If one wondered, the criminal code for arresting and detaining a California citizen illegally without probable cause is CPC 236, spelled out above.

But practice and code are two different things, and one would be very hard-pressed to find any filings of charges against police officers in this state for a CPC 236 violation.

Unfortunately, police—including the LAPD, are protected in a biased perversion of another big code: CPC 832.5.

That is the code used and abused by City and District Attorney offices to keep a corrupt cycle of “police investigating police” whirling and swirling.

The wording is key: “complaints by members of the public against” police officers…

Complaints.  Okay, “They were rude.”  “Unprofessional.”  “Made me feel bad.”  “Made me feel scared.”  “Did not say ‘please’ or ‘thank you.”  “The officer was discourteous and ordered me around too much.”

What about Criminal Charges???

“He hurt my shoulder.”  “They had no evidence, got mad, then roughly cuffed me and arrested me.” “They shot and killed my son.”  Those are crimes, if true.  CPC 240 Assault, and CPC 236 Illegal Detainment.  187 murder, degrees of it or manslaughter.

Shouldn’t a differentiation be made between “complaints” and “criminal charges?”

Shouldn’t an independent investigator without ties to police officers investigate all criminal complaints against police?

If there is a professional standards issue, by all means—832.5 plays, and the Internal Affairs process can have their way, decide if officers did wrong.

But with criminal charges:

We need to budget and acquire a way to independently investigate a police officer—like any other citizen—of culpability in that crime.

Nixon was not above the law.  Trump is not above the law.  Neither should cops be above the law, and neither should city and district attorneys claim them as “clients” to create even more bias in the process.

The Attorney’s Oath must be followed.

The Old Argument

07 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by in Gun Control, Police

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I had to kill him because he had a gun.

Did you?

What if you used a non-lethal weapon
to disable him?

Could that perpetrator do any harm
from the ground, where they lie
writhing in pain?

“I had to kill.”

“I had to point my gun into their
torso, and fire a bullet.”

I disagree, and so does Science if
your goal is to stop a killer from killing.

You would claim that their heart must
STOP.  I claim not.

Can an unconscious person kill?

As a scientist, man—this is not
even “thou shalt not kill,” this is
a question of physics not religion—

So put your heart into your answer,
stop for a moment your longstanding
justification for murder.

No, an unconscious person cannot kill.

Is it right to Kill a killer?  It is wrong to
kill, but wait.  We get to kill someone,
don’t we boss?

If you want a nice community:  no.

If you want to be on level with society—
no.

“But what about the gang bangers?  The
crooks, the crazies going for suicide-by-cop?”

Duck, get the heck behind a wall, and wait it out.
If you have the range to use your
non-lethal arsenal—use it.  If not, be cool,
and take cover.

Two wrongs will never make a right.

It is wrong to kill—that violent criminal,
waving and shooting a gun… Wrong!!!

But it is even more wrong to stand on
a pedestal with your healthy attitude,
and spit down to wipe that Wrong person
off the face of the Earth.

Stop playing God, serve others and
Enforce LAW, Mr. and Mrs. Police
Officer.

You can go from a Scary to “Helpful” group.

You can stop justifying wrong and
Scientifically poor statements like
“I had to kill him, he had a gun.”

Just drop ‘em, or wait
‘em out, save a soul—theirs, yours,
let’s convert some crooks to
citizens today.  Love our fellow
man or woman—especially when they
need love the most!!!

Put down our arms, Risk injury
and join the right side of the fight—

Never kill and do right.

Non-Lethal

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Military, Police, Politics

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Born we never hurt;
vulnerable, loving, wondering…

We get scared once, twice, grow
up scared so many times, you make
a pact with the Devil to take
revenge on big bullying small,
justify to yourself and others when
you buy a gun, get trained in uniform
to KILL, throwing out a thought the
Bible or Torah instilled in you to
be “good” and turn the other cheek
to evil… forgive.

We may get hurt in this life; some
are confused, have walked too far away
from the infancy of innocence, forget
that the whole journey is about
staying young, fighting for innocence.

Our Anger is Devil-born, is from Evil,
and so a community is wise to stop
justifying it and its guns—bent on killing,
taking revenge for the pain, the fear felt,
preempting threats with shots through
the torso, awaiting a friend-in-Evil,
Satan beating that drum, calling it all
“Justifiable homicide…” What a game,
you think you win when you lied,

But oh the turns that take, as you
lie awake, the face of the murdered in
yours, you know there is a heaven, even
if only Peace of Mind, knowing
you did your best.

You could have believed in your fellow
man or woman, sought some good out
even in their worst moment.

You played God and not only judged
them as not worthy but killed.

And now they return to you in
nightmares and visions, God’s way of
saying: “Thou shalt not kill…” Your crime
has a punishment whether courts find
you guilty or not.

Two roads diverged in the heat
of a Los Angeles day: kill the apparent
killer or forgive.

One road to heaven, the other to Hell,
make up your mind now; I hope you
make it well