Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Water hogs' lament
Don, director Roman Polanski's masterpiece in noir cinema was *Chinatown* (1974), a story about the corruption involved in bringing water to the 1930's San Fernando Valley so that it could be developed from a network of orange groves to a highly populated grid of residential and business communities that it has been for several decades now. Although the account (written by Robert Towne) was fictional, I have always thought there may be some general truths in the story of corruption that were applicable to Los Angeles and maybe to San Diego too. Any thoughts?— July 16, 2014 7:02 p.m.
Faulconer moves to privatize city email archive
I'm surprised the City does not already have its email system set up to only keep email messages that can be used in more scams to frame the public and automatically delete everything else. That would be consistent with the abusive way this City operates.— July 15, 2014 11:54 a.m.
City attorney Goldsmith fights to keep his emails private
Jan Goldsmith and his accomplices in the city attorney's office make their livings out of defaming people with frivolous lawsuits, hiding or providing legal protection for a variety of government scams, and defending criminals in government. Goldsmith indeed has a lot to hide.— July 15, 2014 8:01 a.m.
Sue me
It is interesting when characters like city attorney Jan Goldsmith and his minions, who have lengthy records of misusing tax dollars on frivolous lawsuits, on framing people, on protecting government scams, and on hiding their sordid activities, get self-righteously indignant when someone shines light on their dishonesty.— July 15, 2014 7:39 a.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
"Ken Harrison", there is far more to the story than *The Reader* article had room for. That is why I revealed more information in comments. Mr. Deegan was not "used". I gave him my account, answered his many questions, and turned over supporting documentation. Another of *The San Diego Reader'*s senior staff members also interviewed me. My account of the events has not wavered. It was up to Mr. Deegan and his editors to decide whether to report on this. When wrongs occur, it is easy to complain without making effort to inform people in authority. The individuals mentioned ("Lansdowne, Zimmerman, Dumanis, et al", as you put it) were contacted or closely involved. They have had ample time over the past 15 months to respond and to, per their duties to us in the public, do their best to repair the wrongs. None have done anything of the sort. That fact is an important part of the story that readers deserved to hear. Small claims court was not an adequate forum for this case. The maximum civil penalty (actually $10,000) would hardly address the damages and expenses incurred, the discovery process available in higher courts is not at all the same in small claims court, and the police report would *not* have been turned over to me. (Even if the SDPD agreed to give any part of the report to the *court*, names and contact details of the perpetrators and witnesses would have been blacked out). If anyone in the "court of public opinion", as you put it, wants to disbelieve my story, that is her/his decision, but it will not be because s/he was denied information about the extent of the corruption. When public officials engage in wrong or fail to intervene in it, they deserve to be exposed. Corruption eventually harms all of us in various ways.— July 10, 2014 11:30 a.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
...continued 4) FALSELY CITING A VICTIM. *Felony battery* is the wilful, unlawful infliction of force/violence that causes serious damage to physical condition. Police did *not* cite/arrest the male-female team of perpetrators with felony battery for the acute bodily injuries they caused me. Instead, consistent with a pattern of hate, the SDPD cited me for misdemeanor battery and then secretly raised it to felony battery. No reason was ever provided to me for either citation. The custom of issuing bogus citations must end. Police should be obliged to quickly supply the accused with a written, specific basis for a citation or they should suffer the maximum penalty their false accusation deserves. With baseless accusations, the district attorney’s office rejected the case against me and no charges were filed in court against me. SDPD deliberately citing the victim in this case served two depraved purposes: a. It kept police and the perpetrators of my beating from prosecution, as Oscar GARCIA (deputy district attorney) said my being cited made all other facts irrelevant, and then ended the call; and b. It denied me access to the legal system of assistance normally due a victim. On this, Cynthia CHARLEBOIS, who heads the victim assistance unit in the district attorney’s office, said that I was not a victim in my horrific beating. Internal Affairs stated likewise on its falsified Complaint Control Form (shown in Deegan's article), while admitting possession of photographs (including those taken by police at the scene and a nurse at Sharp Memorial Hospital that night) of severe injuries to my head, face, eyes, and body from the beating. I asked Charlebois if she would say that to a *woman* who was raped before bystanders and who police watched with glee being raped. Charlebois ended the call. Paul AZEVEDO, chief of the district attorney’s special operations division, backed Charlebois and was silent when faced with the same question. Investigatory work is arduous. It demands an unbiased style, rejects premature conclusions, carefully seeks all evidence, and examines evidence with a desire for truth. It does not try to force evidence to conform to assumptions. It should not be about laziness or bigotry. SDPD’s [...] Ken DAVIS (#4319) and his accomplices (Eric COOPER #6523, Geraldine TAITAGUE #6151, Kristopher SPENCER #6811, Stephen SHEBLOSKI #5317, Adam WELLS #6204, Addam ANSARI #6865) who comprise the Gang of 7 showed no interest in legitimate investigatory work. Add Internal Affairs’ cover-up artists Tim SALENS and Shawn TAKEUCHI to that list. Yet, these actors operate with the blessings of Kevin FAULCONER (mayor), Todd GLORIA (city council president, past interim mayor), William LANSDOWNE (past police chief), Shelley ZIMMERMAN (police chief), Bonnie DUMANIS (district attorney), Jan GOLDSMITH (city attorney), and others in the crooked San Diego power structure who claim to be “public servants”.— July 9, 2014 6:49 p.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
Regarding "Murphy Canyon Mystery", 1) STEREOTYPES/PREJUDICE. Society is deluged with perceptions that females are always victims and males are always villains. These stereotypes must end. The acceptance of females falsely accusing males and police presumptions of male guilt also must end. There are numerous examples of innocent men imprisoned until their convictions were overturned due to DNA and other evidence and help from the Innocence Project or other. Many cases involved females fabricating/embellishing stories or instigating violence and then playing a victim (with self-inflicted harm). Violence against males by female aggressors occurs far more than is reported, but research exposing this is beyond the political agendas of most governmental, educational, and private entities. These abuses are treated as funny by entertainment media instead of decried. 2) MENACING WITH DEVICES. Cop KEN DAVIS [...] indicated that a man who moves a device of a dangerous woman from his face deserves to be killed. None of the rest of the SDPD Gang of 7 objected to Davis’ hateful comments, nor did they stop Davis from citing me. It stands to reason, then, that cops should welcome people shoving devices in their faces, taunting them, and being menacing, right? See this link for an SDPD cop beating someone up for doing far less and the cop calling a phone a “weapon”: [link text][1] 3) POLICE MISCONDUCT/COVER-UPS. The legal system allows cops to falsely cite anyone and protects them under “qualified immunity”. The system assumes an accused person from the non-elite is likely guilty, and police are given a wink to go on running the streets however they wish. Police tampering with, planting, or ignoring evidence, beating people, lying, extorting, committing sexual attacks, and murdering are protectable acts by police unions. An example is the police execution of Kelly Thomas: [link text][2] The idea that police have stress and so they need to commit crimes defies reason. On that basis, iron workers, tax accountants, and others should be so privileged. Far too many police are hot-tempered and treat the public as subservient to them. In reaction, some in the public assume the role of sycophant. To say it is ok for police to lie for each other to cover up crimes also lacks reason. Almost anytime we in the public interact with government, we are forced to sign our names under penalty of perjury. Meanwhile, those in government are not required to do the same, and can lie with impunity. Cover-ups by cops and prosecutors to protect cops who commit domestic violence was investigated by Frontline: [link text][3] [1]: http://californiainnocenceproject.org/blog/2013/0… [2]: http://www.infowars.com/kelly-thomas-verdict-cops… [3]: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/criminal-… continued...— July 9, 2014 6:47 p.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
Note: The first (and only) time I ever heard anything about the female attacker supposedly having a broken wrist was in the 2013-09-16 letter (referred to in the Reader article) from the district attorney's office. The same letter (unsigned and lacking the name of its author) from the Special Operations division of the DA's office says nothing about my injuries (at least two of which are permanent), says nothing about the fact that the female attacker instigated this whole matter, and says nothing about the multiple crimes that her male accomplice and she engaged in during the events leading to and involved in this police-approved attempted murder. In the hospital, while I was on a gurney with an orderly in a hallway awaiting an examination room, a woman on a gurney was wheeled past me. At that time, I heard its female occupant talking aloud about her man being a martial arts expert, but I have never said that I heard anything in the hospital about "Christine" supposedly having a broken wrist. Noteworthy is the extent to which police discouraged me from having my severe injuries examined and treated. At the scene, I was denied any medical attention for about an hour (according to times recorded on various documents) despite an ambulance being on the scene and despite my repeated requests from the time that the first of SDPD’s bigoted Gang of 7 members arrived. That was a violation of basic human and civil rights. After the first ambulance left, I had to continue asking for medical care before one cop finally relented and summoned another ambulance. When it arrived, cops persisted in “advising” me to NOT be seen by any medical personnel before finally allowing me to struggle on my own to get from the police car to the ambulance. One cop actually volunteered his assessment that I did not have a concussion. Upon my inquiry, he admitted that he was not a medical professional. That the conduct of the cops was saturated in hate is confirmed by SDPD Internal Affairs falsely stating on its 2013-08-02 Complaint Control Form that I was never injured in this matter.— July 7, 2014 8:10 a.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
"elvishasleftsandiego", thank you for your comments. Another reader made the same suggestion, that the male perpetrator may be a cop himself. If true, it is easy to envision other cops taking pleasure in watching one of their own in the process of murdering an innocent person and then lying to cover for that colleague. I do not know whether the male attacker was a cop. I do know that the uniformed cops who arrived made no effort to urgently intervene in the vicious beating, during all of which I was face-down flat on the pavement. There were no sounds of screeching police cars, no sounds of cops identifying themselves, no sounds of cops shouting to the perpetrators to stop, and cops did not yank these people off of my person. To police, this apparently was quite entertaining.— July 5, 2014 5:53 p.m.
Mystery assault in front of Fry's Electronics
“klsandiego”, thank you very much for commenting. The woman (Christine) should have been cited and arrested for assault, felony battery, slander, arousing a mob to commit murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and hate crimes. Her male accomplice should have been cited and arrested for assault with a deadly weapon (vehicular hit), felony battery, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and hate crimes. Instead, the bigoted SDPD Gang of 7 cops praised these two for their crimes and covered for them by citing me. The SDPD and district attorney’s office have worked in concert to cover this up. This kind of thing happens a lot, only the public rarely hears about it. Since the courts are prone to protect cops, attorneys thus far have been unwilling to take the case. Moreover, an innocent man getting horrifically beaten apparently does not garner the public empathy that a woman in the same (or far less serious) circumstance would -- even worse for a dark-skinned man. I have been asking for the videos for over a year. Police and prosecutors are not interested in them because they will show that the male-hating woman (Christine) started all of this and lied about what occurred.— July 5, 2014 11 a.m.