Westside Relations with PD on edge

Westside Relations


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10:00 PM PST on Saturday, January 12, 2008

CASSIE MACDUFF

When it comes to human relations, perception is as good as reality.

If people perceive there's a problem, there is a problem.

Whether a misperception needs to be corrected, or a problem needs to be solved, corrective action is required.

So it's healthy that residents of the predominantly black Westside in San Bernardino have gone public with concerns about how police treat them.

A U.S. Department of Justice mediator has met privately with concerned residents, police brass and the mayor about the alleged inequitable treatment.

The mediator and a group of residents will present a list of issues and proposed solutions at a public hearing Tuesday night. Until then, police are tight-lipped about how the tensions arose and what might be done to alleviate them.

It isn't the first time a federal mediator has been brought in to ease tensions between police and Westside residents. After a series of police shootings of unarmed black men in the late 1980s, the Justice Department sent in a mediator.

Assistant Police Chief Frank Mankin couldn't recall the outcome. But he said no consent decree was imposed, as happened to police departments in Riverside and Los Angeles.

Many of the Westside concerns spilled out last week when the Human Relations Commission met to discuss perceptions that it takes longer for police to respond to emergencies on the Westside than elsewhere in the city.

A police commander assured commissioners that officers are dispatched based on the same priorities throughout the city. Unfortunately, he couldn't provide data on response times by geographic area, only citywide.

Confidence in the assurances may increase when district-by-district data are produced in 45 to 60 days -- if they're born out.

Westside residents also complain that police don't come when called unless callers say someone's being shot, Human Relations Commissioner Kenneth Wells said at the meeting.

When police do come, they arrive in force and sweep up innocent bystanders along with suspects, Wells said residents have told him.

When 25 residents held a candlelight vigil for a shooting victim last August, police swarmed the event, whose participants included women and children, alleged Linda Heart, among the residents working with the federal mediator.

Mankin said the incident remains under investigation and he's not at liberty to discuss it. That kind of response undermines community confidence.

Five months is a long time for an investigation. For example, it took Los Angeles police less than a week last year to demote two commanders in charge of officers who brutalized demonstrators at a May Day rally.

San Bernardino Human Relations Commissioner Carl Clemons, who also is a police commissioner, said it would help if police were more forthcoming. People who complain of police misconduct are told the department is looking into it but never hear back, he said.

Mankin disputed that, saying when internal probes are completed, complainants are given the conclusion in writing.

Clearly, relations between police and the Westside have deteriorated, since a federal mediator had to step in again.

But the department is taking the problem seriously, Mankin said, and looks forward to working with the community to fix it.

It isn't the first time a federal mediator has been brought in to ease tensions between police and Westside residents. After a series of police shootings of unarmed black men in the late 1980s, the Justice Department sent in a mediator.

Assistant Police Chief Frank Mankin couldn't recall the outcome. But he said no consent decree was imposed, as happened to police departments in Riverside and Los Angeles.

If I remember correctly the federal mediator was Vermont McKinney and shortly after issuing the decent decree against the Riverside Police Department in the Tyeisha Miller shooting, he was "promoted" to a spot in the justice department and shipped off to Philadelphia. I don't think he ever finished the investigation in San Bernardino if he was indeed the mediator. Anyway Assistant Chief Mankin was incharge of the sub-station which they opened on the Westside in the shopping center on Baseline and Medical Center way back. He was replaced by Jennifer Arragon who had some stroke but I don't know what ever happened to her. I expect this to die down just like all the rest of the shootings in past years. San Bernardino politics is pretty insular and the Justice Department don't have the same power it did before the Bush administration castrated em.

What up Ty Ty, its been a minute since we've had any one post as of late, came across this article the other day thought I'd post it up. Anyhow yeah, I don't see this as anything new or even worth bringing in the mediator. For what? Its gonna happen again anyway.

Man just keep postin. They watchin and waitin for the right topic to hop in and get it crackin again. You doing your thing here man don't give it up to E'z.