Billboards in Baltimore

In another beleaguered blue-collar city, police have taken to the billboards to move public opinion. In early August a Baltimore police officer (They’ve heard of us!) posted on the Support Stockton Police Officers Facebook page a link to the Baltimore Sun’s crime beat blog. The post’s headline: “Union billboard bashes mayor and council.” The billboard in question reads:

Welcome to Baltimore
Home to a Mayor and City Council who
turned their backs on our Police and Firefighters

According to the Sun, the city of Baltimore took money from firefighter and police paychecks to cover a shortage in their retirement fund, the result of a budget deficit.

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Critical Mass

A few people who rode in Stockton’s Critical Mass on Friday night have emailed to complain about what they call abusive behavior by the police.

In an email, Critical Mass rider Jay Nelson wrote:

“As we were heading north on Pershing, a southbound SUV attempted to drive through the middle of the group on a yield left turn. When he was stopped, he exited his vehicle and stood chest to chest with a participant before flashing his badge. He then began to follow the group. Finally, on the corner of Hammer and Thornton, 4-5 police vehicle arrived by speeding through traffic, screetching tires, and announcements over the loud speaker. All the while some of the participants where parents riding with their children. With Stockton Police claiming to be under staffed, how is it possible for 5 police vehicles to arrive and treat the participants like criminals? Why do they insist on endangering the lives of all those involved during an event for bicycle safety? Stockton has a bad bicycle friendly reputation, it won’t get better if belligerent officers treat cycling as a crime.”

Another, Steffan Randle, wrote:

“The scene was ridiculous. Several cop cars pulled in on the one person whom prepared for a scolding. Bystanders recorded as he got a ticket whereas others whom had their hands behind their heads were violently thrown to the ground, knees in their backs, were arrested. This just shows their boredom and abuse of power.”

At least two videos of Friday’s Critical Mass have been posted to YouTube. The first is a recording of the encounter between riders and police. Unfortunately, it’s shaky, and doesn’t really show much:

The second shows a group of cyclists riding north on Pershing, unimpeded. The atmosphere seems merry. There doesn’t seem to be any tension between drivers and riders. However, at 2:40, the riders run a cold red light at Rose Marie Lane. At least one person stopped his bicycle in front of westbound traffic, to allow the rest of the group to ride through. That’s illegal.

It turns out Lincoln and Pershing is a four-way signaled intersection, with guarded left turns for northbound and southbound traffic. I called Randle, and he said the Critical Mass riders had actually violated the right-of-way.

“We just kept on going through the red light,” Randle said. “I understand he had the right of way.”

Still, he said, the off-duty cop’s reaction was excessive, and so was the response by police. Officer Pete Smith, a spokesman for the Police Department, said the riders had become a “pretty serious traffic hazard.” He said they refused to cooperate with police, and were openly defiant. Smith said one, Caleb Mize, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery of a peace officer.

Smith said police weren’t inherently hostile to the Critical Mass riders, and haven’t had problems with them before.

“Most Critical Mass stuff is fairly peaceful. We had a little different energy in this one,” he said.

For their part, some riders said police were needlessly aggressive. One, Melchor Sahagun III, wrote in an email that, “One teenager was taken to the ground and, upon telling the officer that he had recently suffered a concussion, was responded to with a stern “F*** you,” from the policeman.”

Randle said the Critical Mass group is meeting soon to discuss the next ride, and one of the things it would be discussing is whether it would change its approach.

And now for a disclosure: An old army buddy of mine, Christopher Long, was involved in what is arguably the most infamous interaction between police and Critical Mass riders. That’s on YouTube, as well:

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Crime Log 8/31/2010

There’s a rather long gap in the logs now. I fell behind on vacation and never caught up. I’m not going to write log posts for any of that, but I will begin to quietly update the map with crimes reported since Jan. 1. That will go slowly and take a long time.

8/29/2010, 4 p.m., 1600 block of East 8th Street: A woman told police she was sitting in her car, with her daughter in the back seat, when she heard several gunshots. Her car was hit once; no one was injured.

8/29/2010, 5:34 p.m., 300 block of West 4th Street: A disturbance was reported in the 300 block of West 4th Street. Callers also reported seeing a woman with a gun. When police arrived, they saw the woman throw a gun over a neighbor’s fence. The gun, reported stolen, was recovered, and the woman was arrested.

8/29/2010, 8 p.m., American Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard: Police stopped a vehicle searched it and found a .40-caliber handgun and three full magazines. The gun’s serial number had been altered. A 20-year-old man was arrested.

8/30/2010, 11:50 a.m., El Dorado and Castle streets: A detective spotted a robbery suspect driving in the area and tried to stop him. The suspect, a 17-year-old boy, did not stop and police chased. At Commerce and Park streets, the boy drove his car into a tree, then got out and ran. He was found hiding in a garbage can and arrested on suspicion of robbery, probation violation and traffic violations.


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This is not the greatest live chat in the world…

…this is just a tribute.

Below is an archive of today’s chat, for those who weren’t there. (Those who were got a T-shirt.)

Posted in Administrative, Stockton Police Department | Tagged | 0 Comments

30 on Thursday: Crime

I have been working long and late in the past week, and have fallen a bit behind on the crime log, but I will be answering questions, or trying to, during tomorrow’s live chat. It starts at noon. The subject is crime in Stockton, but I won’t necessarily dismiss questions that range from the subject or the region.

A link to the live chat’s page is here.

Posted in Administrative, Stockton Police Department | 0 Comments

Blood (not so) Simple

I wrote a story yesterday about Tracy’s (now-defunct) practice of having its firefighters draw blood samples from DUI suspects. Under California law, it turned out, firefighters are specifically disqualified from taking these samples.

It’s not clear what effect that will have on the 100 or so DUI arrests the Tracy Police Department made while this practice was still going on. Deputy Public Defender Lois Keenan has filed a motion to have a firefighter-drawn blood sample thrown out as evidence against her client, but Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau says the law — CPC 23158 (k) — doesn’t undermine the integrity of a sample drawn by a firefighter, nor a firefighter’s competence.

My colleague Craig Sanders sent me a link today to a story in the Indianapolis Star, about a police officer who had been charged with drunk driving and reckless homicide, until a blood sample was thrown out on the grounds it had been taken by a technician not certified under Indiana law to take such a sample. The DUI charges were dismissed.

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Mayor’s Live Chat: A Policing Question.

[Comment From JohnJohn: ]
There is a rumor going around that the police department might be disbanning their narcotics unit. Is that really an option?
Wednesday August 18, 2010 12:55 John

Mayor Johnston:
John: The chief of police and his staff determine what their priorities are in the Police Department given their budget. I know the chief is doing everything he can to keep minimal levels in all of the special units.
Wednesday August 18, 2010 12:56 Mayor Johnston

Mayor Johnston:
You can be sure that additional dollars coming into the city will be put back into restoring police services in these specialized units.

It’s no rumor. The narcotics unit is shutting down. That was originally scheduled for Aug. 22/23, but is now scheduled to happen in early September.

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“Money talks so come have a convo wit me…..”

That’s the last message posted on a Twitter account belonging to a Fauzia Fields.

There are many messages on that Twitter account that mention trips to Stockton, where she has women “in strip clubs & the blade,” to get “$$$.” (The Blade is Wilson Way.)

One Fauzia Nabeela Fields, 26, was arrested Tuesday, accused of murdering Lou David Lynch. The message was posted around 10:30 p.m., about 13 hours before Lynch was shot, in the 2600 block of Monroe Street.

At a MySpace profile belonging to a Fauzia Fields, the profile’s owner asks, “$$$MIRROR MIRROR ON DA WALL WHO’S DA FINEST, MOST BALLIN OUT OF CONTROL GROWN A$$ WOMEN, TAKE CARE OF HERS, BY HER FINE SELF, OF DEM ALL……”

There’s a Fauzia Fields on Facebook, too.

Posted in Homicides, Tracy Police Department | Tagged | 0 Comments

Crime Log 8/13/2010

8/10/2010, 11:30 p.m., El Dorado Street at El Campo Avenue: Three men were robbed at gunpoint by a man who drove up in a black four-door Honda Civic.

8/11/2010, 10:20 p.m., 400 block of McCloud Avenue: Four men were having a party in a back yard when two other men approached, one of them pointing a black semi-automatic gun at them and ordering them to the ground. Two of the victims ran away, while the other two were searched by the suspects and found to have nothing of value. The suspects then drove away, police reported. A witness told police a gray, four-door Lincoln was seen leaving the area.

8/12/2010, 1 a.m., 800 Boulder Avenue, Lathrop: Callers reported gunshots heard in the 13600 block of Onyx Court. Deputies didn’t find anything, but around 6 a.m. a residence in the 800 block of Boulder Avenue was found with several bullet holes.

8/12/2010, 8:40 a.m., Motel 6, 1625 South Turnpike Road: A 35-year-old man told them that around 8:40 a.m. Thursday he agreed to drive two women he met at Wilson Way and Fremont Street to Motel 6, at 1625 South Turnpike Road. At the motel a third woman ran up, brandished a knife and demanded the man’s money; he surrendered the $870 cash he had in his wallet. There was a struggle when the man tried to recover his money and the woman cut the man, causing minor injuries to his nose and hand. Police later found the women in a room at the motel and arrested them.

8/12/2010, 2 p.m., Market and Grant streets: A 39-year-old woman told police that she was walking when two men grabbed her, accusing her of having robbed one of them the night before. One threw her to the ground and held her down while the other cut at her with a broken bottle. The woman was able to escape with minor cuts.


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Posted in Crime Log, San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, Stockton Police Department | 0 Comments

How was your day?

A man told police that on Monday night he got into a fight with his neighbor about something and that his neighbor fetched a revolver, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger, twice.

It didn’t fire.

The man grabbed his neighbor and held on until police arrived to arrest him. The revolver was found with five empty shells in its cylinder.

Posted in Stockton Police Department, Uncategorized | 0 Comments