Police

How the Police Chief Q&A Went Wrong

UPDATE: Police Chief Chris Moore sent San Jose Inside his answers to the 10 questions Sunday evening. We will be posting them soon. Thanks for your patience.

A number of readers have asked what happened to the weekly Q&A series San Jose Inside rolled out in September. Well, not a whole lot. We waited for our third participant in the series, San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore, to respond to some of your questions. And then we waited a little longer. And then a little longer.

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City Losing Patience with Occupation

In response to the ongoing Occupy San Jose protest at City Hall, the city is once again changing its stance on where protesters are allowed to camp and asking the public to stop donating food to occupiers. A memo sent Thursday by the city manager’s office to Mayor Chuck Reed and the San Jose City Council says the city has stepped up its effort to remove Occupy San Jose, which is now nearing its 50th day.

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Occupy Oakland Strike Done for Now

After a day-long “general strike” in Oakland, which lasted well into early Thursday morning, Occupy Oakland protestors have removed barricades at the port of Oakland entrance. On Wednesday afternoon, a crowd of more than 3,000 people marched to the port of Oakland.

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Police on Alert for Hells Angels Funeral

San Jose police will commit more security this weekend to the funeral of a Hells Angels member who was shot dead two weeks prior in the same cemetery he is set to be buried. Reports now suggest that the slew of violence that has left two Hells Angels members dead and one evading the law stems from a violent squabble in January 2010 between the Vagos motorcycle club and Hells Angels at a downtown Santa Cruz Starbucks.

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Mayor Reed is Wrong about Murder Rate

Editor’s Note: Jim Unland is a sergeant in the San Jose Police Department and vice president of the Police Officers Association. He wrote this column for San Jose Inside.

Last week the nationally renowned criminologist Chuck Reed said, “There’s nobody that seems to think that there’s a direct connection between the number of officers and the number of homicides.” However, Mayor Reed has also said that gang homicides can be prevented. Every time he says that the number of officers doesn’t matter with regards to the homicide rate, he demonstrates his ignorance as to how the San Jose PD has kept its citizens safe for so many years.

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Protestor Scales Wall at City Hall

The first member of the Occupy San Jose protests to be cited at City Hall climbed a large wall in the plaza and was still there as of Monday morning. The man, identified by another protester as Shaun O’Kelly, reportedly climbed the wall in protest of other members of the movement being removed from city property.

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Occupy San Jose Persists Despite Arrests

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated from the original version. Occupy San Jose protestors did not relocate from City Hall to St. James Park. The standoff between Occupy San Jose protestors and City Hall resulted in the arrest of eight people early Friday morning. In response, protestors have vowed to continue airing their grievances with the nation’s financial inequalities.

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Shooting at Funeral for City-Employed Biker

For the second time in a month, a local Hells Angels member was shot to death in public. Steve Tausan, 52, was attending a funeral Saturday for the late president of the motorcycle club’s San Jose chapter, Jeffrey Pettigrew, who was killed in September in a casino shooting in Sparks, Nev. Pettigrew also worked as a city of San Jose employee.

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Teeter-Totter Salary vs. Pension

I was recently approached in my district by a married couple who told me that they hold “very liberal” perspectives on political matters, with the exception of pensions. When it comes to that topic, they said, they are in line with Rush Limbaugh. It is evident to me that whatever degree of pension reform is put on the ballot—and, yes, pension reform for current employees must go to the ballot since it would require a change to the city charter—will pass. But it will be necessary to reallocate a portion of the savings to increase certain salaries.

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Former SJ Police Chief Candidate Resigns

Some people said it was only a matter of time until Anthony Batts would leave his post as Oakland’s chief of police following his public and unsuccessful bid to become the head of the San Jose Police Department. Those people were right. Earlier this week, Batts offered the city of Oakland his resignation.

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Obama Slept Here

On Sunday, President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president in a decade to overnight in San Jose. That may placate some of the people who have been complaining that this president bypasses a city that overwhelmingly supported him and only spends time with the wealthy gods of social media on the Peninsula, who dispense $35,800 checks like ATMs. Truth be told, the only reason Obama was in San Jose was because he needed a place to crash.

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Exemption from the Pension Tax

It is clear that the budget deficit this year and in future years cannot be solved only by pension reform. Even if the city stopped matching the employee contributions at the current rate of 250 percent to the average employer match on a 401K of 3-6 percent, taxpayers would still have a multi-billion dollar unfunded liability from commitments to current and future retirees already vested. Why beat around the bush when we know taxes will have to be raised to afford the pension obligations and maintain bare minimum services laid out in the city charter?

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Negotiations Delay Emergency Declaration

Tuesday’s City Council meeting will feature a status report on the city’s general fund, but no action will be taken in regards to declaring a “fiscal and service level emergency.” Consideration of that item has been deferred until after Oct. 31.

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Here We Go Again

It looks like Palo Alto is about to follow in San Jose’s footsteps and is gearing up for a battle that could generate the same kind of acrimony seen last year during the Measures V and W election. The Palo Alto City Council approved a proposal this summer to put a measure on the November ballot that would repeal binding arbitration between the city and its public-safety unions.

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