I was recently downloading classic songs on my iTunes from the late ‘70s, two of which were Bob Welch’s “Ebony Eyes,” and Player’s “Baby Come Back.” iTunes is great because I can choose the specific songs I like rather than having to purchase the entire album.
Those of us who are a certain age probably remember when we had to buy the whole record/cassette/8-track to listen to that one song we really liked. In fact, back in the day, when these gadgets were the only ways music was shared, there was the “A” side and “B” side—with the A side home to the selections that were thought to be the top hits. So we took the good songs with the bad; we did not have the luxury of picking and choosing what we liked and did not like.
While downloading my songs, I was thinking about how we choose our politicians. Unfortunately, we don’t get to pick politicians the way we do music, although I bet most of us would like to. It would be great to choose the top characteristics of the best candidates in a race and then take those skill sets and create our own perfect politician. However, when it comes to picking our elected officials, we are forced to do it the old fashioned way, we elect the whole package—we must purchase the whole album and then concentrate on the good parts.
Interestingly enough, however, sometimes the B side of an album produced the top hits, to everyone’s surprise. Likewise, sometimes when we vote for candidates, their qualities that weren’t considered great may turn out to become the things we like most about them. Conversely, we may have thought that the one song we bought the whole album for was awesome, but then, after purchasing the album, that one song soon gets on our nerves and we are left wondering what we liked about it in the first place.
At least when we bought an entire album, we knew what we were getting…its not like the album changed it’s tune after we purchased it…unlike some elected officials do once they are elected.
We live in a world where we have many choices. We get to choose what we really like in most things and leave the rest. However, at the same time, we have to remind ourselves to balance the freedom to choose when it comes to judging elected officials. Do we expect too much from elected officials or do elected officials describe themselves unrealistically to lead us believe they can do miracles? Or both?
Have you been let down when the politician you wanted to win didn’t, only to be pleasantly surprised with the person who did win? Have you supported a politician who won, only to be let down?
On another note, last week on this blog it was asked: Do San Jose City Council members get benefits when they retire? The short answer is: No. After serving eight years (two four-year terms maximum) council members are not eligible for lifetime medical. Councilmembers are allowed to put a portion of their paycheck into a 457 plan, which is like a 401K or 403B plan. They get to keep this when they leave, much like anyone else in the private sector does when switching jobs.
However, members of the County Board of Supervisors do receive lifetime medical once they finish their 12 years (three four year terms maximum) and make approximately $50K more than San Jose city council members. Members of Congress also receive lifetime medical. I do not know about our state legislature.
Actually, iTunes is a good metaphor for politicians. As any audiophile knows, iTunes songs are crippled in functionality, since they are compressed. In other words, iTunes music is missing data in order to keep the file size small. While they give an appearance of normalcy, they are not normal. If iTunes were a reputable music store they would provide uncompressed music files, or at least files in the Apple lossless format.
But, iTunes wants their music files to be like politicians; missing information, and only providing a semblance of reality.
Pierluigi,
I believe you are mistaken. I watched a Council Meeting, prior to Linda Lezotte leaving, in which the Council voted on this very issue. Also please tell us what a 457 plan, which is like a 401K or 403B plan is exactly. Do you guys take that out of your own salary, or is that just a perk? How much does the City contribute to it? I mean we tax payers…
Pierluigi,
Why did you refuse to sign the POA pledge, besides on principle? What are your thoughts on SJPD and supporting our Officers, and on allowing Neighborhood Association members and Task Force member’s more involvement on City and Police issues? And finally, what are your honest thoughts about the way Raj of De Bugged has conducted himself on the Task Force, in Council Meetings, and in the press, as well as his numerous Public Information Requests being subsidized by taxpayers via non-profit fee waivers?
Elected Officials Signing Labor Union Pledges?
Sounds problematic and business as usual politics. Good he did not sign it as it shows Oliverio is not bought and paid for by Interest Groups.
The 457 plan is a type of tax advantaged defined contribution retirement plan that is available for governmental and certain non-governmental employers in the United States. The employer provides the plan and the employee defers compensation into it on a pre-tax basis. For the most part the plan operates similarly to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan most people are familiar with in the US.
Good golly, I had completely forgotten about that pain in the arse, Raj. I guess he doesn’t contribute to SJI any longer… I don’t miss him one bit.
In 2007 the Sunnyvale City Council voted 6-1 to continue provisions that give council members lifetime health benefits. Under the plan adopted, members can get lifetime benefits if they serve five years.
Also in 2007 when the issue of establishing the same benefit was suggested by San Jose Councilwoman Linda LeZotte, it was shot down.
Kathleen and others—
P.L. Oliverio’s refusal to sign pledge is not a matter of principle it’s a policy.
There’s no principle involved.
If he is saying it is such, the councilmember is demonstrating his weak grasp of the Queen’s English.
Mr. Oliverio is not telling the whole truth.
Why does the Council receive a 457 Plan and other city employees don’t?
Say, P.O., what happened to the old Alpha Beta/ Lucky’s space @ Bird & Minnesota? They seem to have finished construction weeks ago, and it all stopped dead. It was some British market chain, I thought. Did the usual anti-business SJ building dept. stop it in its tracks?
Paycheck Watch:
Maybe the council gets a different retirement savings plan since they are not city employees as they are elected and are not civil servants or union members.
As to the blog I regret my votes in favor of my current state assembly rep and state senator.
#4 Long Term Debt in Winchester,
If you bothered to read the pledge Mr. Oliverio did not sign you will find it only has to do with a pledge to public safety, nothing to do with wages etc. Here is a recap from protectsanjose.com of the pledge and who did and didn’t sign it.
“One week ago on this blog, San Jose Police Officers’ Association President Bobby Lopez posted a challenge he issued to Mayor Reed and the entire City Council. He asked that our city leaders sign a pledge to:
• Return San Jose to the rank of “Safest Big City in America” within the next five years;
• Support our officers by refraining from knee-jerk reactions to activist complaints, particularly from those who lack expertise; and
• Involve more neighborhood leaders on committees and task forces regarding public safety.
We noted that not every member of the Council had signed or committed to sign the pledge. In the comments that followed Sgt. Lopez’s post, our readers asked that we reveal the names of councilmembers who had not signed on. In the interest of sunshine and open government, we feel it’s only fair to do so:
Signed pledge
Mayor Chuck Reed
Vice Mayor Judy Chirco
Councilmember Pete Constant
Councilmember Ash Kalra
Councilmember Kansen Chu
Councilmember Nora Campos
Councilmember Madison Nguyen
Councilmember Nancy Pyle
No response
Councilmember Sam Liccardo
Councilmember Rose Hererra
Other
Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio responded to our request to say that he does not sign pledges as a matter of principle.”
Pierluigi asks, “Do we expect too much from elected officials?”
I believe we do.
The nature of the arena of politics is that it attracts people who want government to act- always be doing things. It tends not to attract people who don’t want Government to do too much.
We should lean toward the rare candidate who would prefer that Government do very little.
Physicians are taught, “First do no harm”. Would we choose a doctor whose solution to every ache or pain is to perform major surgery? No. Well we should be just as skeptical of politicians whose solution to every perceived societal ache and pain is a new Government program.
Any truth to the rumor that Pierluigi has developed an application for I Phones and is getting a commission for every subscriber.
NAH!!!!
The voters are sheep. We elect the person who promises us the most with no sacrifice. If a candidate tells the truth then they lose since they are not overflowing with a positive vision. So yes we expect miracles from our politicians and that is the wrong expectation.
Inner Four Inc., a Tampa, Fla., company that has 150 programs in Apple’s App Store, usually devotes a couple of months to create a major app. But its biggest success so far has been one that one engineer spent just one hour on.
More from WSJ.com:
• Tech Today: Apple, RIM Outsmart Phone Market, Studios Rethink Redbox, More
• Leaks Grow in World of Blogs
• Studios Rethink Redbox
The ad-supported free app, called Mirror “Free, is essentially a black empty screen framed by a picture frame. If a user peers closely into it, the reflection off the screen can create an effect like a mirror. By Inner Four co-founder John Swartz’s own admission the app “doesn’t do anything.” But the app has been a breakaway hit, dominating the top spot in the App Store’s free app rankings for the better part of last week”
Wow, good call, Oliverio. You were one of DiSalvo’s students, weren’t you?
Long Term Debt in Winchester,
We have less than 1,360 Police Officers to protect 1 MILLION citizens. Our Police Department has been under staffed for at least a decade. Other cities have twice as many Police Officers with fewer citizens. It is time our city starts putting public safety and the well being of its citizens, the lives and the families of Police Officers first. Criminals out number the amount of Police Officers we currently have by like 10 to one for God sake.
I did not vote for Mayor Reed in the first round however I have been happy with him.
Long Term Debt brings up a good point. Kathleen you are saying there are 13,600 criminals living in San Jose?
Where will the money come from to hire more police if we can’t afford the current pensions?
Steve
“Return San Jose to the rank of “Safest Big City in America” within the next five years”
Sounds like code word for increasing the current police force to a much larger number which benefits the police union since those new police officers will pay union dues. Of course San Jose would have to match what ever the highest paying city is in California for police salaries. Let’s not forget about those pensions that will balloon till every library and park is closed to pay for it all.
Long Term Debt (#4),
Rather than look for code words or sinister motives from Bobby Lopez, you might want to consider how San Jose residents suffer due to understaffing and how they would benefit from a responsibly staffed police department. Of course, it may well be that you have no way of knowing these things, since our elected leaders have never shown any inclination to keep the public informed.
Every day, on every shift, in every division, our police department sends out onto the streets district teams short one or two officers. In other words, one or two officers fewer than the department’s own professional analysis recommends. The ramifications of this are considerable, consider:
—Fifteen to twenty percent of our neighborhoods are not patrolled: no police car driving by reminding the kids in the park that stupidity can have consequences, no officer to catch the idiot with the Harley blasting down the street, no one to notice that a particular car doesn’t belong or how the guy going door-to-door fits the description of a burglar, no one cruising the parking lot of the mall where purse snatchers and other crooks do their business, and no one making the routine stops and contacts that provide detectives with a starting point for solving their cases.
—Response times suffer. In an uncovered beat, the officers responding will do so from a greater distance, often lacking the specific knowledge of the streets and traffic that quicken a response, and seldom knowing anything at all about the dangerous individuals residing there. It is interesting to note that of all the problems caused by increased response times, the only one thus far addressed by police command is the political liability caused by having priority calls go pending, this solved by a new dispatch strategy that automatically assigns the closest in-service units even when those units are so far away as to be all but devoid of any life-saving/apprehension credibility. In practical terms, Chief Davis and our city leaders would like you to be comforted by the fact that when your deranged, hatchet-wielding neighbor tries to bust down your door in Almaden, your immediate peril will be satisfactorily addressed by dispatching an officer from downtown—an officer who, even with lights and siren, is going to be responding only as fast as he can negotiate unfamiliar streets while reading his GPS. In reality, this first responder will not get there; closer units will almost always find a way to break free and respond sometime in the fifteen or twenty minutes that will tick away before the downtown officer even gets close. The priority dispatch system is a farce, one that, when all is said and done, is aimed at giving the chief and city hall something with which to fool the public.
—When the department disregards the importance of the beat concept it negatively impacts the working cops who will often be forced to spend their entire shift handling calls in uncovered beats and spending zero time in their own. What this means is that even if your neighborhood is covered your officer may be too busy handling calls in the uncovered neighborhood—too busy to look for the burglar working his way toward your house, too busy to check on the stop ‘n rob where your wife buys her paper, too busy to make himself seen and maybe write some tickets at that dangerous intersection where your kids cross, too busy to be anything less than curt and impersonal with anybody—even a good citizen like you.
—Burglars, robbers, and rapists have something in common: they travel between where they live and where they commit their crimes. They walk, ride bicycles, take the bus, and drive in cars to get back and forth to their crimes, and it is during this transit when our police officers have the best chance of intercepting them. Catching professional criminals in the act is rare, thus making it imperative that a police department field enough officers, and give them the necessary political support, to saturate high crime areas, patrol well-known corridors, and follow-up on suspect and vehicle descriptions. Deprive them of the critical components of manpower and political support, and I don’t care how well they are paid, trained, or praised, the citizens will suffer.
I salute the police officer’s association for their attempt to recruit the city council in the effort to make San Jose safe.
#16—yeah, that story was all over Yahoo today.
Many of our politicians are like that app—they do nothing, yet people keep re-electing them. They ought to name that app “Politicians”
19 – You make some good points but public safety is not just how many cops you can hire. When the city went into housing overdrive and built development after development it stretched its resources too thin. You can’t keep building housing further and further from the city center and expect to have enough of any services to adequately cover the community. If people would demand that we build only what we can properly serve, that would help the crisis we are now in.
#18-Jake said,” Kathleen you are saying there are 13,600 criminals living in San Jose?” Jake to you have any concept of how any child molesters are probably living on your block? Do you have any idea of how many drug pushers, gang bangers, thieves, vandals’ live in SJ alone? Do you have any concept of how many crimes are being committed as you are reading this post? If not you might want to start doing some research on it because while you are busy crying about retirement benefits that our severely under staffed Officers are getting, if they live to collect them that is, one of your neighbors house is getting robbed, or car is being stolen. Unions pay a lot of their salary into their OWN benefits but the Murkey News never reports that!
Wake up and smell the coffee Jake. Real life is going on while you are pinching pennies, and under stating the seriousness of the problem. Better yet Jake, go ask a murder victim’s family how they feel about the fact that we are so short staffed on Police Officers and investigators that no one has been arrested for killing their loved one.
Well said Fin Fan!
Planning said, “If people would demand that we build only what we can properly serve, that would help the crisis we are now in.” People do and no one is listening. We have water shortages, and they keep building. As always I guess it will take something even more horrific to happen before our greed driven world wakes up to the reality of what needs to change~
Planning,
I agree. This city has a long history of increasing its size (by annexation) and population (by expanding housing) without demonstrating a willingness to pay for the added strain on services, especially in the police department. Presently the city is annexing large sections of the Burbank district, neighborhoods challenged with gang, drug, and illegal immigration-related problems (which are considerable), into a police district that was understaffed prior to the first annexation. This district, which includes the Rose Garden, Valley Fair, and Santana Row, has in the past months seen a spike in home burglaries, a very disturbing number of armed muggings, and a robbery/shooting at an elementary school. How many patrol hours and investigatory stops do you imagine are being made by the officers in the district? Damn few, I’m sure. They’re so busy playing catch-up to calls for service that I have yet to hear of a single arrest connected to this recent crime wave.
The Rose Garden, if I’m not mistaken, is in Mr Oliverio’s council district. Perhaps he can share with us some reason why his constituents should feel they’re being properly served?
Pierluigi how old are you? Those are songs I grew up with!
To your point I really wish I could choose the best aspects of candidates and blend them into the perfect one. I think we all want someone like ourselves but that does not seem possible. Please continue to advocate for school crossing guards. Thank You.
Kathleen,
I am aware from reading this blog and your statements that you know it all however my question is, how do you pay for it? Share what you would cut. Most of the budget is spent on public safety today. So what would you cut or which taxes would you raise? I bring up pensions since elected officials make promises they can’t keep to the unions so they can be in office but after the politicians are gone the taxpayer must pay the bill.
Kathleen, you are too much. I’ve read your posts before and in your eyes, the police can do no wrong, and every person they arrest is guilty upon contact. Jake asked you a question, which you didn’t even answer. Instead you went on a rhetorical rant. Your tunnel vision is so narrow that reason and logic have been squeezed out your path. And you have the nerve to ridicule those who call for accountability for the police department.
Even the police themselves acknowledge wrongful arrests. Check out what just happened to Henry Louis Gates – a renowned African American professor arrested for entering his own home because the police thought he was a burglar EVEN AFTER HE SHOWED THEM HIS ID. One or two days later, all charges were dropped because the police made a mistake.
There’s no conversation with you.
Pierluigi,
Regarding #19: how would residents of San Jose know if they are getting proper police coverage in their neighborhood? Does SJPD ever publish the number of officers on duty in each district and beat for all shifts? Are officers evenyly distributed throughout the city or is priority given to troubled regions, especially on weekends?
#26-Jake,
Do your research and stop smoke screening the issue with money. Public safety is vital to our community like shelter, food; medical care is for you and your family.
Calling me “a know it all” is bad sportsmanship Jake, and doesn’t encourage much in the way of conversation.
The City has always grossly under funded the Police Department. Here’s how I’d pay for it, I’d cut waste, and the fat Jake, something our Council won’t do. They have used funding for a big, ugly, over priced City Hall, which we do not need. Millions of dollars have gone to art, and in a most recent case a million dollar art project, at the McEnery Center, was ripped down only to be replaced by more costly art. We have golf courses that are costing a fortune that need to be sold. They have spent thousands of dollars on NETS! They keep dumping millions into DT, the Mexican Heritage Center, and a dozen losing projects. They pay consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars for advice, or they pay hundreds of thousands for computer for phone systems! The list of wasteful programs, special interest favors, and bad financial decisions by the Council is endless Jake. It is a no brainer for me.
Priorities Jake is what it is about. You and I sit down with our paycheck and plan a budget. We budget for priorities. We don’t use the money to buy friends, go golfing, and purchase art we can’t afford while our children starve right? Well the City needs to do the same thing.
Too bad we can’t delete a politician like a song we just bought in itunes after we realized it wasn’t the song we actually thought it was or just got bored with it because it stopped doing what we needed it to do…… Huh, Pierluigi.
Have a nice day….
#27-Carl,
Obviously you have a selective comprehension disability. I never said the Police walk on water, are perfect, and never make mistakes. I never said everyone who is arrested is automatically guilty either Carl. You are making that up because you are blinded by your own dislike of me, and because you are angry that I don’t share your tainted view of the Police.
“And you have the nerve to ridicule those who call for accountability for the police department.” No Carl, to be clear, I have the nerve to call out people who behave like thugs depriving others of their rights, and who want control over the Police to make decisions over policy that they are in no way educated, experienced, or trained to do. There are plenty of neutral legal, qualified groups, and agencies to oversee the Police Department. The Civil Grand Jury is one of many, but you and your buddies want “Task Forces run your way, with your agenda, “citizen oversight committees,” IPA’s that you can run around by the nose. And even when you get what you ask for you still aren’t happy!
You said,” There’s no conversation with you.” I think the same can be said of you Carl because twisting someone’s comments, and accusing them of saying things they never said certainly doesn’t encourage thoughtful conversation for me either. If and when you want to have a factual conversation Carl, I’d be happy to “conversate” with you!
Kathleen you said,
“Stop smoke screening the topic with money”
Money is what pays for things. Money is the central conversation for government on how do we distribute the money/resources. The New City Hall decision was made almost 10 years ago and that money as well as public art comes out of capital funds that cannot be used for salaries since it is restricted. So now that this is off the table what would you cut instead?
To simply cry waste is a candidates song running for office. Cities hire consultants for 3rd party review, have expertise that is not in house and to avoid hiring more full time people with benefits and pensions.
What you would you cut instead?
Carl,
Here is an article I think you should read.
“This article, “Consider this before crying ‘racial profiling,’” first appeared in The Grio.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32085686/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/
It is balanced and very well written by a young, obviously intelligent and articulate African American student. The difference in class and financial status IS one of the biggest issues of discrimination left to be confronted.
Jake,
Lets not play “Move the Shell” game here Jake. I am not running for office. I gave you several examples of what I would cut. Pierluigi has written numerous columns on SJI citing cuts that need to be made, and where. He has also written about poor financial decision being made by the Council since he has been on the Council.
The new City Hall decision will affect us for years to come, so you don’t get to wipe that dumb decision a way that easily. The SAME people who made it are STILL running for public office, and some of them are still on the Council, all though not for much longer!
They had a choice 10 years ago just as we do now to stop shopping with a credit card we can’t afford to pay off. High consultant fees, golf courses, over paid “At Will CITY” employees, feel good programs, the Mexican Heritage Center were given to you too Jake as just a small handful of wasteful things that are occurring now. And the arts are not ONLY funded as you have cited. They get grants, and loans, and a whole host of other tax payer monies. Do some research Jake! You can start by going to Protectsanjose.com, and reading Ed Rast’s columns. He has done a very decent job of giving stats and figures that should help enlighten you on this topic.
Now you walk your talk. What would you cut to ensure that the City provides us with vitally needed public safety services?
I called the police a few months ago to report a suspicious character. They arrived within 3 – 4 minutes. Three cops.
One of the cops was a pretty nice guy, and very talkative. He looked to be maybe 41, 42. Said he was retiring later this year. I mentioned that he looked way too young to retire. He said the pension benefits were too good, and he could always get another job to supplement his retirement. I asked him what kind of pay he was currently getting. He said about $110,000.
Now, I know this is a higher cost area. But $110K plus juicy benefits is TOO MUCH to put on the backs of taxpayers.
If the city advertised police jobs paying a top scale of $75,000 a year, plus benefits commensurate with the private sector, there’d be a line of applicants from City Hall to Gilroy. So the reason for their excessive pay and bennies can not be due to supply and demand [unless the system is being gamed by the H.R. department; always a possibility].
Kathleen is a one-trick pony, always taking sides against the hard bitten taxpayers. The police and firefighters are grossly over paid. Grossly! [And they’re not the only ones].
If the City Council had any backbone, and was doing its job representing the ciitizens [lookin’ at YOU—-> Oliverio], they would inject some balance into the situation by at least trying to see this from the point of view of the taxpaying citizens.
But they never do. No citizen has a chance, when weak-kneed council members represent special interest groups like the police, or out of town, big money developers [Oliverio, again] or high priced garbage collectors, against the taxpaying citizens. They’re ravenous hyenas, fighting each other to see who can get their greedy paws deeper into the taxpayers’ pockets.
The sad thing is that the council members are so very easy to corrupt. A little money here, or the promise of some votes there, buys them and keeps them bought. The citizens are the losers.
Don’t think we don’t see what’s going on.
#33-I want to make a correction to my post. The writer is not a student or young. He is African American. I misread his statement that he was the 17-year-old son….
So Obama thinks the cops “acted stupidly” in the Gates case? Interesting. Now, for clarification, was that Obama the chief executive officer of the country, the man who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, a constitution that established the USA as a nation of laws—of due process and the balance of power? Or was that Obama the legal scholar who enjoyed the benefits of the best educational institutions in the nation, such as Harvard, whose motto is “Veritas” (Truth)? Or was that Obama the living god, who believes his knee-jerk reactions trump due process (“I don’t know all the facts”) and his personal power transcends the obligation that he remain objective and demonstrate a respect for the high office he holds (“I may be a little biased here”)?
What an absolutely disgraceful performance. What a revealing peek behind the carefully-constructed, tightly-controlled, wholly artificial talking head we elected to lead our nation. I wouldn’t expect such irresponsible leadership from a small town mayor, let alone the president of the United States. If Obama thinks the cops acted stupidly (in the heat of the moment) he should reflect on his own conduct (while comfortably in command of a press conference) in condemning the Cambridge police officers. What he did, in front of the entire nation, was to inform the public that police racism should rightly be presumed in their dealings with African-Americans and Latinos. What other conclusion was there to draw? The case was one in which Obama admitted not knowing the facts and acknowledged his own bias, yet still felt comfortable enough to pass judgment on the incident, in large part, based upon his interpretation of the “long history” of disproportionate, race-based law enforcement.
In his handling of this particular question, when given the rare opportunity to speak extemporaneously and reveal his true feelings, our president demonstrated all the composure and wisdom of a rioter brandishing a brick. Small wonder Mr Gates, the pipsqueak friend of the great and all-knowing Obama, felt so empowered by the color of his skin that he pursued the departing police outside to the street so that he could scream and challenge them for all to see. What an embarrassment to Harvard.
For anyone interested, here are the arrest reports (note: the backup officer is Latino) and a profile of the presidentially-sealed racist who made the arrest.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police report on Gates arrest.PDF
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/23/officer_at_eye_of_storm_says_he_wont_apologize/?page=1
Kathleen,
I was calling you out because you jumped on Jake and judged him instead of answering his question.
But here’s another question, although I suspect you won’t answer it.
If you’re judge and jury, explain then what happened to Henry Louis Gates, before you throw some Black man who tries to voice HIS own opinion and you yourself, guilty of your own racism, try to hide behind a Black man who says why he doesn’t feel sorry for Mr. Gates. You just showed how racist you yourself are—by insinuating that because a Black man wrote it, it can’t be racism what happened to Mr. Gates.
So, i got some white writers too who say white people just don’t acknowledge their own privilege in a racist society. Does that mean they speak for all white people? Are people of color not entitled to a difference in opinion?
Again, you are too much. And PLEASE don’t run for office. Protect San Jose.com—I went on that site to check it out. Please, and you tell Jake to go read it. why? So Jake can read the 3 people that write on it (including yourself)????
Hey Kathleen..
Uh oh…Obama thinks the cops acted “stupidly” in the case of Henry Louis Gates. And he’s a “young, obviously intelligent and articulate African American”—in your words.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32092814#32092814
Does that mean he’s a thug?
#45
The only “tightly-controlled, wholly artificial talking head” is the motor-mouth know as “frustrated finfan”.
Bye bye.
#19 Fin Fan
You are 100% correct. Beats are going unmanned for months. Officers spend hours on reports and even more hours away from the beat if they have to go to VMC (that could take up to 6 hours). I don’t know the facts on response times or increased time frame for pending calls but I can only imagine they are grim.
#27 Carl
Yes people make mistakes. This is true. It is also true that Henry Gates got what he deserved. IMO. There is no room for racism.
“NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY” (read link)
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20090723colorblind_test_failed_its_henry_gates_who_plays_race_card/srvc=home&position=recent
#45 Finfan,
Well said….the president was out of line commenting on the police action without knowing the facts. He demonstrated racism towards the white officers by assuming what they did was because they were white officers. What a double standard we have.
#35 Eye on
I’ll try to keep this comment civil but it won’t be easy. But first let me say that I believe that SJPD officers make good wage and good retirement. (as they should)
So lets see. You call the police because of a “suspicious character” and you get not one, not two but three officers in 3-4 minutes. And one is a “pretty nice guy”. Wow not bad. Imagine that.
Then instead of saying thank you in your posting, you go on to bitch that he makes too much. Take care of the “suspicious character” yourself next time. Now wonder why he is retiring early. Those applicants standing line…well when they are standing in Morgan Hill and Gilroy I hope they are smart enough to realize that Morgan Hill and Gilroy and every other agency in the Bay area pays more than $75, 000.
Can you tell me of that $110,000 how much goes to paying their own retirement? Can you tell me why SJPD can’t find enough qualified applicants? Paying them $75,000 will definitely help. I got it, let’s continue to not hire any police and just have one officer responded in 8-10 minutes for your “suspicious character”. Maybe if you’re lucky the “suspicious character “ will just leave in the mean time. (without your car stereo). And then when the “cop’ shows up he/she will be 20 years old, not “pretty nice” with a gun on their hip.
Good times. Safest Big City……#5
Ah Carl you let me down again.
First off, I doubt that someone as intelligent as Jake seems to be needs you to fight his battles for him.
Having said that, I find it sad that you have reduced the article I posted to give you a differing view, to my supposedly hiding behind a Black man to conceal some kind of perceived racism on my part. I guess you missed the whole point of the article and have again chosen to get personal instead of holding an intellectual conversation. What exactly do you do for a living that makes you such an expert on racism, and racial profiling?
You were the one who posted this case on the blog first, in an effort to prove that ALL Police Officers are racist. When I countered your post with a differing point of view, you decided to equate any type of arrest of a minority to racism, and call me a racist for challenging your flawed perception. To refuse to acknowledge educated points made by the commenter such as, the Professor might indeed have let his ego run his mouth, and to ignore the possibility that classism might actually superseded the claim of racism, only further demonstrates your unwillingness to look at things with an open mind. Rather you seem to enjoy playing the victim, and instead seeing racism behind everything the Police do or say.
As to your comments about Protectsanjose.com, since Jake wants to get facts and figures on costs and waste, I directed him to a man, Ed Rast, who serves on City Commissions, and Task Forces. Ed Rast is well known for his incredible knowledge of the budget and stats.
Carl, your inability to hold a conversation without making ignorant statements like in post #38 only prove my point of how deeply challenged you are in your ability to comprehend and accurately repeat points made without editorializing them with your bias included. As to the President’s comments on this issue, just because he is the President doesn’t make him right. He has one view of the situation and I have another. (And yes Carl, I not only VOTED for him, I donated money, and campaigned for him. Did you?)
Eye on the Council,
You said, “Kathleen is a one-trick pony, always taking sides against the hard bitten taxpayers.” That is certainly one way of viewing my stand, however it is inaccurate to say the very least. Just because I don’t have a problem about the retirement benefits Police Officers and Fire Fighters get does NOT mean I “always take sides against the hard bitten tax payer.” I am a taxpayer and I’m as pissed about the way politicians run things as you are! I know that these two groups pay a LOT of money into their pensions themselves and invest wisely. You never hear about that though because the Murkey News never reports it.
I do agree with everything else you’ve said though.
if you’ve got a disagreement with finfan’s post, try arguing against what he said instead of just dismissing him with 3rd grade name calling. I guess there’s no merit to your point of view.
#37-To answer your question:
“If you’re judge and jury, explain then what happened to Henry Louis Gates.” I’m not judging this situation because I wasn’t there, and haven’t met face to face with both of the men involved. But I can give you my point of view on what might have happened.
I think there are several contributing factors that need to be addressed here. One, a neighbor in an effort to protect the property of a man, Gates, she knew was on vacation, saw TWO men going into Gates home from the BACK without a KEY, called the Police to report what she perceived as a robbery attempt.
The Police get a call over the radio telling them a “ROBBERY” is in progress. They gear up for a fight, as they are trained to do because firearms or some type of weapon could very well be in these two suspected robbers possession. They go to the home and surprise the two men. Then they separate Grant and his driver and question them. The driver tells the Police one story and the Professor tells another. The Police ask to see Grant’s ID and he gets angry and indignant that his character is being questioned. After all, he is a well known and respected member of the community right?
I do believe he popped off at the mouth, and if you’ve ever been around some of these professors you’d know they have huge egos regardless of race. Secondly, Grant’s profession and course of study has been in racism, so I think he assumed he was being harassed because of his color. I do not think he stepped back and realized that he BROKE into his home with another man and just might need to give the Officer a break here. I think in turn, the Officer, like the professor hates to be questioned or challenged and arrested Grant for his unwillingness to corporate and partly due to ego too. I think the charges were dropped to save the City embarrassment. Politicians often throw Cops, staff, or others under the bus to avoid losing votes, or donations.
As the editorial said, I do not think racism is behind every corner Carl. I think we judge things through our own bias and life experience, and that sometimes we just might be WRONG in our perceptions of what is really going on.
Your turn Carl, please enlighten us as to your side of the story~
Well said Fin Fan. Thanks for the info.
Steve,
I agree 100%. Reverse discrimination doesn’t seem to warrant the same up roar when it comes to whites being violated does it? Discrimination and racism are just that, regardless of which race is being violated.
Our President should have simply said he didn’t know the entire situation and would not comment until such time that he did. I doubt that the press would have let it go that easily, but he should lead by example. I think HE owes the Officer and the PD an apology. He is after all in a position to bring about open, honest discussions to the forefront and even able to change the old guard, folks like Grant’s, view of what is going on in the US to a better place. I find it very sad that he chooses to be ignorant and stereotypical about it. I guess we will live in the ignorance of the past forever on this issue~
Hugh,
Well said. I’ve noticed a lot of kindergarten attacks on here lately. Why the Editor is allowing these off topic personal attacks on here I don’t know. I guess personal attacks are the only thing they can resort to when they can’t argue the truth in an intellectual way. By being allowed to be anonymous while doing it only enables them to as offensive as they want to be without being held accountable for their actions. You know the kind, cowards.
Here’s James Taranto’s take on the Gates case:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306162620043236.html
“Cop who arrested Gates has taught profiling class.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-23-cop-gates_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno
Well said finfan,
I noticed during his stint at the All Star Game, that Obama, without His script and His teleprompters, came very close to revealing who He really is, so his handlers got Him out of there before He said something really stupid. They must really be kicking themselves now.
How can any person who has reviled Raj for his writings about police racism on this site, now reconcile that with their continued support of this President?
I am glad Obama called the police stupid. Now we know who we are really dealing with and that Obama is a closet racist and not too bright a guy for saying what he said in front of a national audience. Obama needs to go.
An interesting fact that has just been exposed. Obama received 17 parking tickets from the Cambridge Police Department which he only bothered to pay when he decided to run for a major office.
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_parking_tickets/2009/07/23/239549.html
#41, Eye on Me:
Your reading comprehension isn’t too good, so I’ll try to use smaller words. ‘K?
First off, I wasn’t referring to what Gilroy pays <strike>police</strike> cops when I made my comment. I said that if SJ offered $75K/yr, plus good benefits commensurate [sorry] with private industry, there would be a line of job applicants from Gilroy to SJ City Hall.
And if it’s hard to recruit cops in this economy, you can be certain that H.R. deliberately sets the bar way too high, with a wink and a nod, in cahoots with the union.
I commented about the number of officers [3], and the very short time after I made my call that they arrived. I pointed those things out because they clearly contradict the union’s claim that the public is suffering from long response times. Turns out that’s not true.
Police are either stretched too thin, or they’re not. It appears they’re not, and that the department has ample manpower. You didn’t get my drift when I said it the first time. Can you hear me now?
Your lame attempt to re-frame the pay/benefits discussion by claiming that I’m trying to cut the pay of one single cop didn’t work. My point was that these ‘public servants’ are overpaid. OVERPAID! Now do you understand?
When a cop or firefighter [or any similarly overpaid bureaucrat, from the arrogant, self-dealing Katy Allen on down] can retire at 42 with full benefits and 95% of working pay, and still keep their hands deep in the pockets of the city’s hard-bitten taxpayers for the next FORTY YEARS, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that this will lead to either bankruptcy or huge additional taxes.
As a result of the city’s irresponsible giveaway, we are paying double: just about full pay, plus 100% gold-plated medical benefits, for a 40-something retiree—plus the same amount for their replacement! And in twenty more years, we will be paying for TWO retirees and one worker, to do one job. You folks are either total economic illiterates, or you’re thoroughly corrupt. Take your pick… could be it’s both.
It is a slap in the face to SJ taxpayers when the council agrees to such outrageous pay/benefit packages. It’s like paying a McDonald’s employee $25 an hour and top benefits, and promising them retirement in 20 years at the business owner’s expense. That particular McD’s would be bankrupt in no time. Is the city exempt from the same laws of economics?
The city needs to STOP IT! Local government is like a ravenous hyena when they make these deals at taxpayer expense. There are gun-toting, licensed security guards who make less than half what city cops make. I can not see what would be much different, if a private security company took over most law enforcement duties. [And BTW, I don’t need to call the cops to run someone off. I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself. But that’s what cops are overpaid to do. They can’t eat donuts 24/7.]
When the people in charge irresponsibly shovel our money hand over fist into the pockets of these special interest groups, at enormous expense to city residents, they are acting exactly like the thieves and white collar criminals the cops are sworn to protect us from.
Don’t believe me? Let’s have the question put on the next city ballot. Ask the taxpayers if they agree with these compensation packages: Yes/No.
You would find out that the vast majority of city residents make about half of what these gold-plated tax suckers take home on average—as a result the voters will not have much sympathy for their really excessive cost. We know that the retirement scam is a compound interest time bomb waiting to explode: NO city can continue to promise grossly excessive pay/benefit packages like this.
But you jamokes on the council would do everything in your power to avoid a referendum allowing the citizens to vote on whether you are being irresponsible with your misappropriation of public funds. So a question like that will never be allowed on the ballot. About all that city residents can do is point out that you sold out your integrity—and sold out the city’s residents—by pouring such lavish pay and benefits into the pockets of the special interest cronies who promise you their votes and campaign contributions. [And thanx a lot for doubling our garbage rates, too. Wide open competitive bidding is just SO 1990’s, isn’t it?]
There may well come a day when you see a crowd with torches and pitchforks approaching. Until then, it’s enough that the taxpaying public realizes you’re using our hard earned money to feather your own nests.
#54,
You made a call to the police department and 3 officers quickly show up to help you out. You then extrapolate through your anecdotal experience that there is no manpower shortage. I wonder what you would have thought if no officer was to have come, or their response time was too long. It seems most people would be pretty happy with the service you received. That is like going to the grocery store, getting great service, and then complaining about the prices because there was an adequate amount of checkstands open.
Also, this was probably not the SJPD you called. You have refered several times that officers can retire at 42 with 95% pay. SJPD officers can retire at a minimum age of 50 with a minimum of 20 years service and that gets them a 50% pension, not 95%.
You lose credibility when you throw around of bunch of numbers that would seem to support your position, but the numbers you put out are completely inaccurate. That is the same thing the politicians you rant about do too.
FF #19 bemoans the fact that :“Fifteen to twenty percent of our neighborhoods are not patrolled: no police car driving by reminding the kids in the park that stupidity can have consequences, no officer to catch the idiot with the Harley blasting down the street, no one to notice that a particular car doesn’t belong or how the guy going door-to-door fits the description of a burglar, no one cruising the parking lot of the mall where purse snatchers and other crooks do their business, and no one making the routine stops and contacts that provide detectives with a starting point for solving their cases.
FF, you must know that RAJ and his cohorts would call what you describe “racial profiling”.