TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

Local Riverside Community Advocate Kevin Dawson wrote the following email to the Riverside City Council with reference to a presentation by Chief Sergio Diaz on the Threat Assessment Team.  Dawson felt the presentation was somehow distorted by Diaz in order to reach a favorable result.  Dawson states, “I believe the Chief misused this video in a calculated effort to shock the Committee members into supporting his Assessment Team.”   Dawson has also been involved with bringing the issue of former City Attorney Gregory Priamos contracting outside legal services without contracts to the tune of $19.4 million.

Date: June 9, 2015 at 11:16:42 AM PDT

To: Andy Melendrez <asmelendrez@riversideca.gov.>, Mike Gardner <mgardner@riversideca.gov.>, Paul Davis Davis <pauldavisward4@aol.com>, Mike Soubirous <msoubirous@mac.com>, Jim Perry <jperry@riversideca.gov>, Chris Mac Arthur <cmacarthur@riversideca.gov.>, Rusty Bailey <rbailey@riversideca.gov.>, sadam@riversideca.gov, “John A. Russo” <jrusso@riversideca.gov>
Cc: Alicia Robinson <arobinson@pe.com>, Cassie MacDuff <cmacduff@pe.com>
Subject: Regarding RPD presentation on Threat Assessment Team

Dear Council,

This last week, I attended the meeting of the Public Safety Committee and watched a presentation given by Police Chief Diaz on RPD’s Threat Assessment Team.

First, let me say there was no staff report attached to this item on the agenda. While this is not an uncommon practice, it can be a technique by staff to discourage thoughtful analysis by elected officials and the public.  Decision makers can only make decisions based on information presented to them. Let me give another example that no report or incomplete report can cause. Last year, Parks placed an item to replace flooring in a community center. In the item staff report, there was no discussion on total square foot needed, cost per square foot being proposed, projected life expectancy of material being selected, or possible alternative choices.  The report was incomplete and should have been sent back to staff for revision.  We have professional staff, who are paid good money, and council/decision makers shouldn’t accept incomplete reports upon which council is suppose to make decisions.

At the Safety committee, the Chief made a presentation, during which he included a short video of an actual first shooter event at a school board meeting in Florida a few years ago. It was a very dramatic video which showed a disgruntled husband of a laid off school employee, pull out a hand gun, order everyone out except except the board. After a rambling discussion, during which the superintendent tried to reason with the gun man (by saying “if you are going to shoot anyone, shoot me, but let everyone else go”, a bad strategy as the gun man at that point level his gun at the man and fired).  The gun man, then fired at several of the board members, before someone from the left started shooting the gun man until he dropped to the ground, and the video ended.

It was a horrific video that left the committee members and audience with the impression that we had all just witnessed a horrific mass murder. And this is a problem.

I looked this event up and found that the only person shot and the only person to die that day, was the gun man himself.  As dramatic as the video seemed, with the superintendent falling over with the first shot, the gun man missed with every shot fired. While gun man was shot several times by a security guard, the gun man died from a final self inflicted wound.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Panama_City_school_board_shootings

I believe the Chief misused this video in a calculated effort to shock the Committee members into supporting his Assessment Team.

Living in Southern California and with modern media who live by the motto, “if it bleeds, it leads”, it’s easily for us to believe first shooter events are common and that we need to empower our local law agencies to take extraordinary measures to anticipate and prevent such incidents.  Certainly, at the Federal level, we have seen the creation of the NSA and the possible abuse of personal privacies.  But what are the actual statistics on first shooter events? What are the actual risks and what are reasonable precautions?

It turns out the FBI prepared a recent study addressing those exact questions and I think the results are worth consideration.

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW FULL STUDY OF ACTIVE SHOOTER INCIDENTS IN THE US BETWEEN 2000 AND 2013 BY DOJ

A quick view of the study, seems to indicate, shootings at non-military, governmental settings, for the entire U.S., between 2000-2013, was about 1.5 per year.  (I could be wrong, as I was looking at it late at night, half a sleep). Of the shootings covered, they broke down the reasons and situations, and such.  Bottom line, I don’t think the risks warrant approving our local police to engage NSA tactics against city employees or citizens.

It was bothersome, that the Chief’s presentation didn’t discuss stats on actual risks.  He mentioned the City Hall shooting from several years ago and the Dorman shooting.  Both those incidents were horrific, but statistically, they are anomalies.  They are not examples of everyday threats.

Should we prepare? Yes. We should do training and have policies in place. But should we green light some sort of surveillance program by our law enforcement agency, without safeguards and supervision by civilian side of government? I think this would be dangerous and open to abuse.

I think the Chief was being manipulative and should be called out for what he did.  We have a Chief who is known for his strong personality, and it is important for our council and City Manager to be be cognizant of this fact and to provide provide appropriate oversight and counterbalance.

I am concerned this Threat Assessment Team, under the right conditions, be abused to spy on and harass city employees and citizen critics of the city. We have seen evidence of spying and surveillance on recent past years by the City Manager.  Hudson admitted in a PE article, that he was reading council emails with a deputy city attorney (emails between his bosses and their legal counsel, an extraordinary admission).     I implore you to put in place safe guards.

Respectfully,

Kevin Dawson

Ward 2

Again Chief Diaz seems to miss the point, again leaving question of his hiring under former City Manager Brad Hudson who had a criminal background in reference to credit card fraud as a teen.

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “NEGATIVE,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “FILTHY,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “SLANDEROUS” “FIT TO BE VIEWED FROM THE REAR” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE!  TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE AT PUBLIC ACCESS SITES WITHIN THE CITY, THEN UNBLOCKED.  I GUESS YOU CANNOT DO THAT ACCORDING TO THE ACLU.  RATED ONE TWO ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS..  TMC IS NOW EXCLUSIVLY EXCLUSIVELY ON FILE WITH THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE (WE BELIEVE THIS WILL END SOON, SINCE THE FOCUS IS NOW ON THE IMPROPRIETIES OF MR. “Z”.  WE TRIED TO TELL YOU, BUT NOBODY LISTENED), AND DON’T FORGET WE ARE PROSSIBLY POSSIBLY ON FILE WITH THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE’S POTENTIAL SLAPP SUIT LIST… A STRATEGIC LEGAL MANEUVER THAT CAN BE DONE ONLY IN RIVERSIDE WITHOUT A CONTRACT… AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT!