...And Then, Raw Anarchy

I am informed by credible sources that 911 callers in Claremont this morning were refused government services. Apparently they were told by the dispatcher that officers are no longer available, as Claremont is to be policed by armed citizens from now on, like a "rural Kenyan village."

A sad state of affairs. Why would people not listen while there was still time to save the community?

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The above is a guest post by a longtime observer of the Claremont scene. We are so confused by the concepts of truthity and falsity that we have no immediate comment.

Fatal Accident

You've probably heard by now about that fatal motorcycle versus bus accident at Foothill Blvd. and Mountain Ave. on Monday afternoon. According to the Daily Bulletin, the Foothill Transit bus involved had no passengers at the time of the incident.

The Claremont PD hasn't released the driver's name yet. Here's what the City's website had:

Fatal Traffic Collision

Claremont Police Department received numerous 9-1-1 calls around 3:18 pm reporting a collision between a Foothill Transit bus and a motorcycle at the intersection of Foothill Bl. and Mountain Ave.

Responding officers found the rider of the motorcycle suffering from wounds to the head and legs and rendered first aid until LA County Fire personnel arrived on scene. The Foothill Transit bus had no riders on board at the time of the collision. The Foothill Transit driver was not injured. The motorcycle rider was transported by ambulance to Pomona Valley Hospital for treatment. The victim later died from his injuries. His name is being withheld at this time until notification of next of kin. The LA County Coroner's Office is handling those notifications. The Claremont Police Department is currently investigating the collision.

Gottuso Home from County USC

This from a friend:

Vince came home today from County USC. It seems the hospital menu didn't include Italian cuisine! :)

Seriously, he's got a long road to recovery ahead, but while he's extremely beat up physically, the Vince we all know and love lives on from the inside out!

Our Best Wishes!

See here for the story.

More on Claremont 10th Street Beating

This morning's Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has a Melissa Pinion-Whitt article on the beating of 61-year old Vince Gottuso of Claremont inside his home on the 700 block of west 1oth Street.

Ms. Pinion-Whitt says that Robert Jones, 20, living on the 400 Block of east Foothill, and a 16-year old who is unidentified because of his age were confronted by Mr. Gottuso Tuesday morning as they were burglarizing his home.

More details of the crime as information unfolded can be found here, here, and here.

The arrest came after police found a stolen item in the possession of one Kenyata Harris, 32, of Pomona, who was then arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property. Nothing in the article about what the stolen item was, how police connected it to the burglary, or any other details. We are thinking, "Pawnshop", but could be wrong.

The arrest of Harris led police to arrest Jones and the teenager, who were acquaintances. Sounds to us as if he gave them up after being plied with treacle and warm tea with milk at a party arranged in his honor just for the purpose.

Tony Krickl said yesterday that the Claremont PD conducted surveillance, interviewed witnesses, and processed forensic evidence on their way to nabbing Jones and the teenager.

Jones is now living at the Claremont city jail and the teenager was booked into a juvenile facility.

Jones will be arraigned Monday in Pomona.

Krickl also reported yesterday that Gottuso was doing better but that there would be a long road ahead to recovery. We wish him well. As of yesterday, he was still in intensive care, but the family was expecting--hoping--that he would be home within a week.

10th Street Assailants Caught

Beating Victim Expected to Recover

We'd love to hear it officially*, but word on the street (and from a couple of sources) is that the two guys who robbed and beat a resident on West 10th Street have been caught and copped to the crime.

Our original correspondent tells us that the victim has stabilized and is expected to recover, which is good news if true. We wish him well. The authorities say that this is the most violent crime to have occurred in Claremont in a long time, with "an amazing amount of spilled blood".

A bit later...
We see that a real reporter has taken up this story. Read the best and most complete set of details on Claremont Courier reporter Tony Krickl's Courier City Beat blog. He reports that 3 men were arrested by the Claremont PD, and that the victim's name was Vince Gottuso.

*Nothing on the Claremont PD website as of 5 p.m. Thursday; maybe City Manager Jeff Parker plans to take credit for it in his City Manager's Update tomorrow.

Sunday Mailbag

A reader wrote in with some tips on how motorists ticketed by the Claremont Police Department for honking in support of anti-war protesters should deal with the citations. Like us, the reader didn't think using the First Amendment as a defense would get very far when it comes to Claremont:

Traffic court judges rubber-stamp everything that makes it into the courtroom -- traffic court is principally a revenue-production factory, and anyone walking in with constitutional arguments about freedom of speech is going to be cut off about three seconds into their comments. But I beat an illegal Claremont speeding ticket by paying $350 to a lawyer to file a demurrer -- it makes victory much more likely, and pays for itself in stable insurance premiums. A demurrer is a claim that even if you did what the police say you did, it wasn't illegal, so the matter shouldn't be before the court. The judge takes it up outside the regular traffic court session, and the city has to respond in writing and send a lawyer if they want to prevail. I went to Antonio Bestard, across the street from the courthouse. My bet is that these folks will lose without a lawyer, and win with a lawyer. FWIW.

Oh, and trying to get the city to agree to dismiss an unlawful citation? No. I still have a letter from what's-his-name, the last police chief (whose name I tended to forget even when he was still on the job), acknowledging that the citation I had received had been issued contrary to the provisions of the Vehicle Code. He suggested that I tell it to the judge. They don't give fine revenue back out of the kindness of their hearts. Hire a lawyer.

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And Planning Commissioner Tom Lamb wrote in with his take on some housing developments in Claremont, including the Base Line Rd. affordable project. Lamb says he wouldn't have voted to approve two condo developments on Base Line if the information from the affordable housing Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the USC School of Medicine study about the effects of freeway pollution on children living within 500 feet of housing had been available.

Lamb went on say that our interpretation of how policy decisions are made in Claremont didn't include the significant changes that have taken place since former Claremont City Manager Glenn Southard left town for the city of Indio.

Lamb says the commissions he has worked on (Planning and Traffic & Transportation) have been much more open to independence than that in the Southard days. We think that's a fair assessment, but would like to point out that some city commissions, most notably Human Services, continue to function as a political arm of the Claremont 400. Witness the full-page ad in support of the Base Line Rd. affordable housing project taken out in the Claremont Courier by the Human Services Commission and the Claremont League of Women Voters.

Also, Planning Commissioner Bob Tener was one of the Claremont 400 throwing his weight in along with Human Services Commissioner Andy Winnick in favor of the Base Line Rd. project.

Lamb also has an interesting proposal for the Padua Ave. Park site. Here is Lamb's letter (the name is used with his permission):

As a Planning Commissioner, I voted to approve the two recently permitted condominium complexes along Baseline Road. I did so partly because the initial study submitted by staff indicated no major environmental concerns. I do not fault staff for this, the Affordable Housing EIR and the USC study were not available to us at this time. Had the EIR been available, I know that I would have demanded an EIR for the other projects and I feel that the Commission as a whole would have as well.

In passing, each of these projects also include an Affordable Housing component in accordance with the City Code. 15% OF THE UNITS ARE DESIGNATED AS AFFORDABLE.

With regard to the Baseline Affordable Housing Project now under consideration, I am opposed to it principally because of the stigma placed on families who would reside there--it would be a "Project" rather than an integrated residential development. The other, and from my perspective, the most compelling argument against the development is the fact that the site is not a good one from a planning perspective.

Logically, the best site would be the Padua Park area. Perhaps dividing the 20+ acre site in two with half retained as a neighborhood park and the the other ten acres developed into an integrated residential development.

And, lastly, not all commissioners, in fact, I suspect less than you might believe are blindly following the party line. Since the departure of Glenn Southard I have seen a collective effort on the part of Commissioners, at least in the two Commissions of which I have been a part, to question the staff and to challenge their assumptions and recommendations in an effort to achieve the best for the City, rather than to accept everything as a fait accompli.

Tom Lamb

Claremont's Finest

Centinel over at the Foothill Cities Blog noted that the Claremont PD was hard at work this past week.

Centinel picked up on a Daily Bulletin article about the Claremont PD ticketing motorists who honked their horns in response to anti-Iraq War protesters at Indian Hill Blvd. and Arrow Hwy. last Friday.

According to the article:

Each Friday afternoon since the 2003 start of the war in Iraq, about 20 people - most holding signs with anti-war slogans - have congregated at the intersection to protest U.S. foreign policy.

The protesters are often encouraged by passing motorists who honk their horns or wave in support.

On Friday, police ticketed three of those motorists, alleging excessive honking.

Police say the honking was creating an unsafe environment. The protesters dispute that it posed any danger, with vigil coordinator Jim Lamb claiming that "police cars racing out" in order to ticket motorists was more hazardous.

"I was kind of amazed that they saw the reality there - that we'd been living with all this time - as suddenly a dangerous situation," Lamb said.

Claremont police Capt. Gary Jenkins said police responded to the intersection Friday after officers were flagged down by a person who felt the situation at the intersection was "becoming dangerous and unsafe."

Police issued tickets only to drivers who laid on their horns through the intersection, not those who beeped briefly in support, Jenkins said.

"Our focus is on the traffic safety," Jenkins said. "We are not focusing on any group or cause. It's completely irrelevant."

A reader also sent us a link to the Bulletin article, saying:

What! The Claremont police don't have enough speeders to contend with so now they have to ticket honkers? [Claremont Police Chief Paul] Cooper is a joke!!

The Claremont Courier also had an article on the ticketing. One question: What constitutes excessive honking? Sounds like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of hard-core pornography: "I know it when I see it."

Or in this case, hear it.

According to the Courier's article, by Tony Krickl, some of the motorists plan on fighting their tickets in court:

Duane Welsch also received a ticket for excessive honking. She was told that complaints had increased about the noise and that honking posed a safety hazard for students wanting to cross the street.

“It wasn’t apparent that there was a safety hazard,” Ms. Welsch said. “It just seems ridiculous to me.”

Those who were cited hope to work out an agreement with city officials to get the tickets rescinded. If no agreement is reached, they plan to fight the tickets in court because they believe that the citations violate their freedom of speech or were unclear on defining the terms of “excessive honking.”

Good luck challenging the tickets using the freedom of speech defense. This is the Grand Duchy of Claremont, not the U.S. We've all seen how much respect the city and City Attorney Sonia Carvalho have for the First Amendment.

CPD to the Rescue

A reader wrote to point us to a quote from City of Claremont Information Systems Manager Steve Senkle on the website of a company called Laserfiche. Laserfiche is the company that provides the city´s online archive service - you know, the one where the employee pay stubs were publicly posted a while back.

Turns out that Laserfiche asked Senkle, the one in charge of Claremont´s stellar IT department, to give them an endorsement. Here's what he wrote (see page 4):

“Our Laserfiche document management system was working so well for City Hall we decided to try it in the Police Department. It took half an hour to get Laserfiche working with the law enforcement CAD/RMS system.”

—Steve Senkle,Information Systems Manager, City of Claremont,
California

Odd, no mention of the city having to shut down their archive access or City Attorney Sonia Carvalho ending up with egg on her face trying to quash the posting of the information Senkle made available with the help of Laserfiche´s system.

Knowing Claremont´s record of placing competent people in key positions, you´d think that Senkle had his Ph.D in electrical engineering and a long history in the tech industry or some such equivalent level of education and expertise. Guess again. Senkle came to us courtesy of the Claremont Police Department.

All of which prompted our reader to comment:

The real question is was the guy ever qualified to get a $126k+salaried IT job being his only background appears to be working as apolice officer in the City of Claremont. I doubt he has any degree in the field, nepotism being his only qualification. Moreover, he is making more money that most people I know who work for tech leaders Yahoo! and Google in their Los Angeles offices.

All of which makes us wonder where the real crime is in town. At least it´s good to know we´ve got Barney Fife watching over our sensitive tech issues.