 | The Secret Policemen's Ball [Arcata Eye Editorial] |
March 1, 2004
You won't find any knee-jerk cop haters at this newspaper. As children, we were taught that the police are our friends and protectors, and we've seen little so far about the nearly-noble Arcata Police Department and the crime-bustin' Blue Lake Police Department to contradict that childhood impression.
Venture beyond Arcata or Blue Lake's borders, though, and the presumption of citizen-friendliness by police has to be leavened with well-earned caution and skepticism.
Last week, Dave Morey of the Humboldt Deputy Sheriff's Organization (HDSO), strenuously attempted to separate his group - and by association, the Sheriff's Office itself - from the Pacific Lumber Company, parent company Maxxam Corp., directed by you-know-who.
It was at a press conference that Morey flatly denied any connection with Hurwitz/Maxxam/PL. That conference was announced not by his group, but by the Maxxam/PL-funded Safety Yes! Recall Paul Gallegos Committee. So, for starters, we have Morey denying any Maxxam/PL connection at a Maxxam/PL-announced event. Immediate veracity plunge.
Actually, the Wednesday press conference was the second Maxxam/PL-friendly fete involving law enforcement in less than a week. The previous Thursday, some area police had gathered at the Scotia Inn with Maxxam/PL executives and Maxxam/PL hireling Rob Flanigan. Calls to Morey and the Fortuna Police Officers Association for details about the secret policemen's ball were unreturned.
The event was announced - after the fact - by Flanigan, who, attempting to create the impression that the recall is a grassroots effort instead of a corporate scam, trumpeted the $31,000 he claimed was raised at the exclusive affair, saying it was "from law enforcement officers, educators and other community leaders."
But who, specifically, was in attendance? Flanigan, the recall campaign's supposed spokesman, isn't telling because "that was not my group." He admits attending the discreet gathering, but diverts further inquiries, saying, "It was a fundraiser that the cops put on. They did the inviting. I actually had nothing to do with it."
So, the recall spokesman places police - who've been led by the HDSO in supporting the Maxxam/PL-purchased recall - at the Scotia Inn, whose invited guests included PL President Robert Manne. All perfectly legal, of course, so why deny and stonewall about the chumminess with Maxxam/PL?
Again we see revealed the culture of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, which never misses an opportunity to cozy up with industry against the interests of mere citizens and their families.
An illustrative side-story: In 2001, the Sunny Brae/Arcata Neighborhood Alliance fought for public safety measures to be added to the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) for Sierra-Pacific Industries-owned land east of Sunny Brae. One issue was the hours of the harvest operation. If, as happened before elsewhere in Sunny Brae, the THP-specified hours were violated and harvest work with rumbling log trucks continued into the evening, who would citizens call? The logging area was just outside Arcata City limits, so the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office would be the logical choice. Nope, said then-Sheriff Lewis, call the California Department of Forestry. But CDF's Fortuna office is closed after business hours, so that wasn't an option for evening enforcement. This left those "extreme environmentalists," the families of Sunny Brae, entirely at the mercy of the logging crews and truckers. There was one circumstance that would bring Sheriff's deputies, though: if anyone were to lie down in front of an after-hours logging truck or otherwise try to thwart the neighborhood-wrecking activity, they'd meet a deputy in short order. Fortunately, the harvest was called off - but not before the HCSO had shown its true colors. Again.
Contrast the secretive, privileged, police/industry pro-recall fundraiser at the Scotia Inn with the fundraiser the anti-recall group put on at the Bayside Grange the following night. A true community effort, the event was well-publicized in advance and open to all - even Gallegos opponents. And yes, there were democracy-friendly police officers in attendance, too. All other things being equal, which attitude would you rather see in the DA's office? Closed, secretive, elitist and deceptive, or open, welcoming and participatory?
It's unfortunate that some of the police have lost confidence in the district attorney, but it doesn't appear to be based on anything substantial that we can discern - and we've tried. Under questioning at last week's Maxxam/PL-sponsored press conference, Morey admitted that he doesn't know what the overall crime trend is in Humboldt County, and whether or not it's true, as Gallegos asserts, that criminal filings have increased under his administration. Morey also admitted that his group had simply singled out a few high-profile cases to publicize, and he doesn't know if they represent the norm.
So, according to Morey, he really doesn't know whether Gallegos is an effective DA or not.
(Another thing: Why does Morey continue to mispronounce Gallegos' name as GOLL-egos? If he can't even get the name right, what else is he confused about? Besides, it's just plain boorish to lazily mispronounce ethnic names.)
Best we can divine, the anti-Gallegos animus stems solely from the DA's lawsuit against the police's Scotia Inn cocktail party buddies. Gallegos sued PL/Maxxam/Hurwitz for fraud. Hundreds of millions of dollars of financial fraud allegedly perpetrated against the people of Humboldt County, against California and against the United States of America. White-collar crime ruins lives, as do rapists, robbers and reckless drivers - 68-year-olds have had to re-enter the work force (read Wal-Mart greeter) after losing their life savings to Enron. But this kind of criminal activity appears to be of little concern to Morey and company. Quite the opposite, in fact - the HDSO's impulse is to shelter the Scotia execs and their Texas overlord at all costs.
One thing we agree with the anti-Gallegos police about is that the DA-law enforcement partnership is important. Police deserve to be heard and respected. But that respect has to be earned and deserved.
Also important are educators, doctors, students, grocers, mechanics and farmers. Everyone should be listened to, and everyone deserves equal protection - and prosecution - under law. Neither police nor distant corporations enjoy super-rights.
Like all police, it is undeniable that individual deputies risk life and limb on the job every day. But through their union, they've gone off on a bizarre, extremist political tangent. Our differences with the Humboldt Deputy Sheriff's Organization begin with their not-so-secret alliance with a criminal defendant against the citizenry they are sworn to protect.
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