Law Enforcement

Commentary: Council Cuts To Police Oversight Put Community At Risk

Commentary: Council Cuts To Police Oversight Put Community At Risk

By David GreenwaldJune 25, 200910 comments
landy_blackWas it really just three years ago that the city of Davis was on the brink?  The city was making regional even national news in a bad way.  The case of young Halema Buzayan punctuating a string of complaints against the Davis Police Department. 

For those not familiar with that case, it should have been a simple case.  The then 16-year-old Buzayan was arrested in June of 2005 for an alleged hit-and-run.  Whether or not the teen was driving the vehicle or the vehicle made contact with the other car are in doubt.  What is not in doubt was a decision to go into the family’s home at night and arrest the girl in her pajama’s.  The family then alleged a series of civil rights violations followed from that point in time, the most serious the allegation that the officer involved ignored pleas for an attorney.  That case is still pending before federal court.  It is moving slowly but depositions have or will shortly begin.

Chief Black Responds to Former Chief’s Disparaging Comments of DPD

Chief Black Responds to Former Chief’s Disparaging Comments of DPD

By David GreenwaldMay 15, 200921 comments

landy_blackChief Landy Black’s first inclination was to let the past be the past in response to comments by Former Davis Police Chief and current Antioch Police Jim Hyde in the magazine 110°.

The Vanguard quoted extensively from these comments on Wednesday.  Among other things, Chief Hyde accused the Davis police department of fabricating crime statistics and compared the department and personnel to that of the fictional comedic buffoons of Reno 911.

Former Chief Offers Insulting Depiction of DPD

Former Chief Offers Insulting Depiction of DPD

By David GreenwaldMay 13, 200925 comments

hyde_clipart

Former Davis Police Chief Jim Hyde is back in the news, this time as a feature story in a May edition of a local Contra Costa County indy magazine, 110°.  110° Magazine is self-described as a publication that personalizes the community by focusing upon the people, places, and businesses of Contra Costa.

The article on Jim Hyde is bound by a picture of him aiming his weapon towards the reader with a caption that reads:

Commentary: City Needs to Enforce Current Ordinances Not Make New Ones

Commentary: City Needs to Enforce Current Ordinances Not Make New Ones

By David GreenwaldApril 5, 200914 comments
citycatToday has been one of those days where I have several good ideas for a column, but no great ideas for a column.  For example we have now had two horrific killings of police officers one of course down the road in Oakland and the other in Pittsburgh.  There is not a great local angle on that fortunately, but it is pretty tragic, especially I guess some of the political biproduct that has crept into the latter incident.

There is some interesting legislation that finally looks at tackling runaway state salaries.  Assemblymember Anthony Portantino has introduced legislation that looks to freeze salaries, benefits, overtime, and compensation for those who make over $150,000.  One group not directly addressed in this are UC Employees.  The numbers are staggering at the top end.  Well publicized is President Mark Yudof getting an annual salary last year of over $800,000.

Noise Issues Persist With Little Help From City

Noise Issues Persist With Little Help From City

By David GreenwaldApril 3, 200932 comments

The Vanguard has acquired records dating back to 1994 that show that the neighbors living on Cezanne Court in Davis have had to put up with an inordinant amount of noise from their neighbor, the privately owned, for profit, Montessori Day Care business located at 1811 Renoir Avenue in Davis.

Frankly, the Vanguard should have raised the community’s awareness of this problem long before it has.  However, the event that served as inspiration was Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor’s move to place an exemption to the noise ordinance on the Council Agenda as an item submitted by a councilmember.  The council has agreed to hear it as a full item, but the item was pulled from the last agenda.

Council Backs Off New Tobacco Ordinance

Council Backs Off New Tobacco Ordinance

By David GreenwaldMarch 21, 200915 comments
When a business that sells among other things, tobacco related paraphernalia moved to the prominent location at Second and G in the corner space of the Anderson Bank building some members of the council responded by considering an urgency ordinance to create a conditional use permit prohibiting such businesses from that location.  However, it became clear that this would not affect the current occupant who moved to the new location in an expedited manner.

As the staff report reads:

Inside the Numbers: A Further Examination of the DPD Turnover Rate

Inside the Numbers: A Further Examination of the DPD Turnover Rate

By David GreenwaldFebruary 18, 200913 comments
imageCity of Davis

Yesterday’s Sacramento Bee ran an article that found that Citrus Highets and the Davis police departments have the highest staff turnover rates among other law enforcement agencies in the region.

To add fuel to the fire, the Bee recessitates old charges that the climate in Davis involving complaints of racial profiling and the Halema Buzayan case were the prominent if not primary culprits for this turnover rate.

“High-ranking officials from the two departments blame a variety of factors ranging from a new department’s normal break-in period to the way a racially charged incident was handled.”

The Bee quotes Assistant Chief Steve Pierce discussing issues involving the arrest of Halema Buzayan, then 16 in 2005, along with accusations of racial profiling.

Davis Police Officer Arrested In Sacramento

Davis Police Officer Arrested In Sacramento

By David GreenwaldNovember 17, 2008311 comments
imageCity of Davis

Davis Police Officer Antoine Feher, 26, was arrested on the evening of Friday, September 12, 2008, outside the Park Ultra Lounge Night Club in Sacramento for a violation of California Penal Code 647(F), public intoxication.

The officer on the scene described Feher in a police report as having slurred speech, being unsteady and belligerent, while having a “strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath.”

Officer Feher was asked numerous times to leave the premises by security guards and officers, but he refused. He remained belligerent and argumentative and was taken into custody for public intoxication.

Cell Phone Laws Hands-Free Restriction–Are people Complying?

Cell Phone Laws Hands-Free Restriction–Are people Complying?

By David GreenwaldSeptember 12, 200852 comments
imageCity of Davis

Back at the end of June the public was bombarded with news stories on television and in the newspaper that a new law was coming. Drivers would be fined if they are caught using a phone without some sort of hands-free device while driving. The first offense carries with it a $20 and that increases to $50 for subsequent violations.

On the other hand, despite being a clear public safety risk the DMV would not assign a point on people’s driving record.

On Rememberance and the Celebration of Life

On Rememberance and the Celebration of Life

By David GreenwaldAugust 16, 200876 comments
imageCity of Davis

Just over two years ago, I started this blog out of a sense of disempowerment, a sense of frustration. I had a real sense that something was very wrong in our community. Our government was at times out of line and when a government is out of line it tramples on the rights of individuals everywhere. Not just those individuals whose rights the government’s actions directly impact, but all citizens and residents.

From the holocaust we learn the price to be paid for inaction, as the Pastor Martin Niemoller learned all too late. One by one each group that the Nazis came for was greeted with inaction and indifference by the rest of the population. The realization of doom lays in the last lines of the Pastor’s sequence: “Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak out for me.”