Page 3 - Sanger Herald 4-4-19 E-edition

By Dick Sheppard
Ada Fisher died last Friday.
She would have had her 100th birthday on July 6.
She served her country as a military cryptogra- pher in both WWII and the Korean War.
A cryptographer, by the way, is a code breaker.
Dick Sheppard
a citizen – state law specifically allows the action to be kept private from the public.
In fact, under California codes many police records are confidential or severely restrict- ed, including disciplinary matters, investiga- tive records and complaints.”
Because of that veil of secrecy that exist- ed until this year many questions about an officer-involved shooting in Sanger that left Charles Salinas dead in June of 2012 have gone unanswered.
However, as the Los Angeles Times put
it in a Sept. 18, 2018 story, “Endorsing a dra- matic departure from decades of secrecy surrounding policing in the state, California lawmakers have moved to undo some
of the nation’s strictest rules keeping law enforcement records confidential, particu- larly involving officer killings of civilians. Legislators approved two landmark mea- sures, one that would give the public access to internal investigations of police shootings statewide, and another that would allow the release of body camera footage of those inci- dents.”
The new state law, endorsed by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, went into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
It was immediately challenged by the San Bernardino Police Union trying to keep the new state law from being retroactive. The California Supreme Court denied the request. So, all existing records fitting the criteria
for disclosure under the new Penal Code § 832.7(b) are now in play, including those from 2012 when the Herald was told separate investigations were conducted by the Sanger police and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. But those records were not available to the Herald at the time.
In spite of the many restrictions she faced, Jeanine’s story in the Herald, “Still wonder- ing why shots were fired” won top inves- tigative story honors at regional, state and national levels.
Maybe, finally with access to those inves- tigative records from Sanger and from
the sheriff's office we can finally answer Jeanine’s question about why those shots were fired. Let me be clear, we are not accus- ing anyone of misconduct. We are simply doing what we believe is our duty, to examine how our public employees conduct them- selves – especially in a case that involves a human life.
We're also curious about how the incident was investigated and why the outcome of the investigation was not revealed by the sher- iff's office until numerous queries had been made by the Herald.
We've waited this long to see how challeng- es to the new law would be dealt with by the courts - including the most recent challenge by Fresno PD, before filing requests to obtain documents involved in the investigation.
Courts in most cases have upheld the new law. But it, to some extent, is still bogged down in legal wrangling. I'm certain that when the courts have sorted out and dealt with all the challenges the long needed trans- parency law will takes its place alongside the California Public Records and the Freedom of Information acts.
Thebiggest problemIseeisthatiftoo much time passes the records from incidents several years ago could be legally destroyed.
Maybe that's one of the purposes of all the wrangling. So, the Herald will probably go ahead and file the requests, wrangling or not, and, if necessary, let the courts sort that one out too.
The citizens of Sanger have the right to know what happened.
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
Random thoughts A new transparency law is bogged down in legal wrangling ...
On her birthday last year I gave her a birthday card written in code.
She laughed.
I'm pretty sure she broke the code and laughed again by the time I had walked from her front door to my car.
She was a remarkable woman and part of "The Greatest Generation."
•••
I had a moment of anxiety when I looked
over today's city council agenda and saw more city documents were scheduled to be destroyed. But when I looked over the list of documents and saw nothing of interest, I ate a Snickers candy bar and relaxed.
Cities, nearly all businesses and many people shred documents on a regular basis.
The federal, state and county governments require many kinds of documents to be kept for a certain number of years. Before digital archiving those kinds of documents would pile up so fast and take up so much space many businesses and I suspect quite a few cities rented storage facilities for them.
So, just as soon they can, as soon as the law permits, cities like Sanger get rid of those old files.
There are some old files I don't want them to get rid of just yet.
The Freedom of Information Act and the California Public Records Act have given journalists and private citizens a way to access most documents generated by public agencies. Most documents.
But, until January of this year, not records kept by law enforcement agencies about offi- cer misconduct or officer involved shootings or beatings.
In 2015, when the Herald was looking into an officer involved shooting, Jeanine Fiser wrote, “In California, if a doctor receives dis- cipline for mistreating a patient, it becomes public record. If a teacher receives discipline for abusing a student, it becomes public record. If a government employee receives discipline for malfeasance, it becomes public record. But if a police officer is disciplined for anything – including killing or wounding
In my OPINION
We can no longer accept a dual system of law enforcement
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
We welcome guest columns at the Herald
By Fred Hall
Although it may seem
counter intuitive, the dedicat-
ed service of our police and
law enforcement officials is
all that stands between us
and chaos and anarchy. Yet,
it seems that politicians con-
tinue to pass inane legislation whicheffectivelyhandcuffs FredHall
law enforcement. Obviously California would be a primary example of that with Proposition 47 and 57 as well as making this a sanctuary state. Beside weakening or even neutering law enforcement, politicians have appointed politi- cal operatives to head up enforcement agen- cies instead of professionals.
Nothing undermines democracy more quickly or assuredly than the corruption of the laws and the enforcement of those laws which govern man's interaction. Sad to say, we are currently witnessing an acceleration of scofflaws and a double standard of justice at all levels of our society.
I'm not a young man, but my first recollec- tion of the perversion involves Ted Kennedy who killed Mary Jo Koepechne on a summer night on 18 July 1969 by driving his car off a New England bridge. Kennedy, who was alleg- edly drunk at the time left Ms. Koepechne in a submerged car to drown while he returned to his hotel not reporting the event to anyone who might have been able to render aid. Enter Joseph Kennedy Sr. a renowned scotch whis- ky bootlegger who built a fortune on the illicit trade - who put the powerful political machine to work, making the whole thing go away. We all know that Teddy's political fortunes weren't impacted as the people of Massachusetts looked the other way and he was continuously elected until his own death.
A double standard under the law? Com- mon sense surely offers the definitive answer to anyone open minded enough to examine the awful details.
Interestingly enough, the next example of political perversion of the law involves anoth- er Kennedy spawn. In 1975 Michael Skakel, nephew of Robert Kennedy, was suspected of the Pinseeker golf club bludgeoning death of 15-year-old Martha Moxley. Political influence on behalf of the Kennedy clan once again pre- vailed and charges were never filed. Charges were finally brought in 2002—27 years later— resulting in a 3-week trial in which he was con- victed of her murder. The verdict was over- turned shortly thereafter. Was that a double standard of the administration of law based on family clout?
On Good Friday, March 29, 1991 William Kennedy Smith was accused of raping a young woman in Florida at the Kennedy family com- pound. The judge would not allow women who claimed to have been previous victims of Ken- nedy Smith to testify. Once again, Kennedy political muscle prevailed. On 11 December 1991 a Florida jury, after deliberating only 77 minutes found Kennedy-Smith not guilty.
Not long thereafter, Roy Black, lead Kenne- dy-Smith's attorney married one of the jurors, Lisa Haller. Obviously no chance of malfea- sance being involved in that decision. Another member of a celebrity, political family escapes the reach of justice. Just maybe, that could there have been a double standard.
There is no attempt here to pick on the Ken-
nedy family. Politically powerful and people of celebrity have thumbed their nose at the law for decades. The Clinton (crime) family has ignored and skated around the law ever since they came on the public scene. They always seem to have minions in the press and on their staff who work on public opinion while lawyers on their payroll make things go away that you and I would serve serious jail time for their commission.
O.J. Simpson and his ilk from Hollywood have escaped justice repeatedly simply based on their celebrity status. Prosecutors who seem more interested in fame and fortune than in getting a conviction are often part of this ugly process with famous musicians and actors. Media and a selection of jurors from the Facebook generation are eager and willing accomplices to this travesty of a miscarriage of justice. If we weren't constitutionally guar- anteed a trial by a jury of our peers, perhaps we might take a look at feeding all the infor- mation into a computer and let it weigh all the evidence without any emotional attachment.
Most recent occurrence would be the Jussie Smollett mess in Chicago.
Smollett was indicted on 12 felonies by a grand jury after examining the evidence pre- sented by an exhaustive Chicago Police De- partment investigation. After all those hours of human endeavor, the entire thing was made to go away after a simple phone call from Mi- chelle Obama's former head of staff to Kim Fox, Chicago's State's Attorney. Not only was everything expunged but records were sealed as well. I don't believe I've ever seen anything like it.
Charges in the above cited were serious enough in the nature of accusations by Smollett that this could have resulted in civil disorder or even race riots.
In case you might have forgotten, Jussie claimed he was attacked by two white men wearing Make America Great Again Caps. Smollett is a gay, black man. Turns out the perps were two black men whom Smollett had hired for the job as a publicity stunt to elevate his profile and salary.
Although the examples are far from being a complete catalogue of the miscarriage of jus- tice through the years due to celebrity status or political power, they do lay the predicate for most of what we see happening all around us today. Entire cities and states escape Federal judiciary scrutiny over many of their inane declaration of sanctuary provisions for illegal aliens in their boundaries. This example is so brainless that the state actually shows a prefer- ence for the illegal over the legal. The actual safety of American citizens is jeopardized.
Only the American people hold the power to stop this perversion of justice! We can no lon- ger accept a dual system of law enforcement where the rich and powerful receive prefer- ential treatment nor where select groups are declared off limits to members of law enforce- ment. A country with dual standards and pref- erential treatment is hell-bent on becoming a third world country and it won't take long!
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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