Union support is not "Law Enforcement's Choice"

This was submitted to the  North County Times Community Forum
Encinitas Council Candidate's Claim Questioned.

Knowing little about Kristin Gaspar before attending the first candidates forum a few weeks ago, I checked out her web site.  When I met her there I pointed out that the most important section, "positions on issues" was empty. Rather than correct what she said was an oversight, she removed the entire section.  Now, with no explicit policy positions or legislative record, we are left with the headline on her signs seen next to allied candidate Dan Dalager, "Law enforcement's Choice."  It turns out this claim is based on the endorsement of one group, DSASD, "Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County." whose web site describes ttself as "the professional labor organization" of the county's Sheriff's deputies.

 Any public official who has too cozy a relationship with their government employee's union has an inherent conflict of interest, since it is his or her responsibility to represent the taxpayers in negotiating salaries and benefits. While this conflict is so clear that candidate Teresa Barth previously refused this unions invitation to be considered for its endorsement, in the case of a union representing those with police powers it is even more problematic
 
The pressure on elected officials who negotiate with law enforcement groups is rarely articulated. Few want to be the enemy of any organized well funded labor group, much less when its members carry badges and guns. There is a wide degree of discretion allowed in enforcing California's law. Almost everyone rolls through four way stop signs, so it is the deputy's decision who will get the expensive traffic ticket. A recent example of a more serious abuse of discretion was enforcement of a noise complaint at a political fundraiser in Cardiff last year. This possible infraction escalated to deployment of a helicopter and eight patrol cars, followed by the forceful arrest of three attendees.

 Law enforcement groups circled the wagons defending the deputy's actions, including an unprecedented letter by the DA blaming the homeowners. Now, in response to a lawsuit by those arrested, the truth has come out in a training manual released by Sheriff Gore in anticipation of conceding the validity of the suit against the department. This manual shows that every action taken by the arresting deputy was contrary to city, state and constitutional law. From his entering the premises without permission to demanding information from the homeowner, who properly refused to answer, there was a clear abrogation of law including the fourth and fifth amendments. This directly relates to the responsibilities of the Encinitas City council, which refused to revisit the noise ordinance, described by experts as unconstitutionally vague.
 
 The group, DSASD, that endorsed Kristin Gaspar is primarily a labor organization promoting the interests of its members who happen to engage in "Law Enforcement" Ms Gaspar, by her actions, has shown a lack of understanding of the complex challenges, conflicts, and obligations to taxpayers of an elected public official in this difficult area.
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Those interested in this issue may want to read this essay.  It is on the larger problem of Enciitas government, and my argument for a new charter. 

Note:  Readers please leave comment so I can have some feedback.
AR





 








Police action at Busby Fundraiser

This is the text of my article (pg A5) from The Coast News of July 2, 2009

Going forward after the fundraiser controversy

Last Friday a noise complaint against Francine Busby's Cardiff fundraiser blew up into a full scale police action -- complete with helicopter support, massive reinforcements, fire truck and canine squad. It ended with several people handcuffed, pepper spray discharged and the homeowner jailed for resisting arrest.

Had the police (represented by San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies) been raiding a terrorist explosive cache or a major drug cartel, this demonstration of force would have been warranted, but actually the nature of the meeting was quite the opposite. The gathering was an integral component of the democratic political process, a candidate expressing her views and asking for citizen support.

Political speech is not only tolerated in America, it enjoys special protection. This principle has been upheld in diverse settings such as protecting a march by a Neo Nazi party through a Jewish neighborhood to allowing publication of scurrilous satire of a conservative minister.

Yet, last Friday, rather than the local police protecting a peaceful political meeting from a neighbor's harassment, it responded to a noise complaint, unwarranted based on city law, and used it as an occasion to disrupt the most sacred ceremony of a secular democracy, political assemblage.

While a single deputy seemed to be the point man for this excess, the immediate response from the department spokesperson, which was to ignore the fundamental injustice and defend the actions of their officers, shows that there is a deeper pathology at work. It has been referred to in other settings as the "blue wall of silence," the cohesion of a group that protects its own even in the face of wrongful acts by its members.

Let me be very clear about one thing, there is no evidence, nor do I believe, that the San Diego Sheriff's Department that covers Encinitas is corrupt or incompetent. To the contrary, from my limited experience with this agency it functions at a high level of professionalism and integrity; And that is exactly the reason that this is the time to ensure that this continues.

The police action at Cardiff just so happens to parallel the cultural divide that exists in this country.....left against right, liberal versus conservatives....a culture war that permutes all issues into stark political extremes. The deputy whose behavior caused the escalation may have just listened to some vicious political accusations, such as the commentator on Fox national television who said the current president was plotting a dictatorship. Perhaps inflamed by such fevered rhetoric, breaking up a "cell" of such a "subversive" organization, the Democratic Party, may have seemed like a courageous patriotic act.

Democracy works in two directions, top down from the federal branches in Washington, but also bottom up, from local referendums and the decisions of city councils throughout the country. Under the best of conditions, any agency given the mandate and means of enforcing laws has a potential for systemic pathologies. This toxic brew of danger and power changes people, all people, along with their groups. This has been confirmed by psychological research and a long tragic litany of excesses. The dynamics within any such police group are pernicious as well as predictable.

In many ways Encinitas is lucky that this particular wake up call came with no deaths, no riots and no deeper disruption of inter-group comity. What would be tragic is if this were to be ignored and treated as an isolated incident, and not seen as a sign of something deeper. Waiting for an internal report of this incident is exactly what should not be done. This event was of the public, and the process of investigation should include those who are not a part of the closed system that went astray.

Creation of a Civilian Police Review Board may be one appropriate step at this point. It should be staffed by those with an understanding of the challenges, difficulties as well as the temptations of those whom we authorize to use force to maintain our laws. The time to initiate this is before it is needed, before cynicism and anger has displaced the original motivation of those who don police uniforms.

Local government provides a unique opportunity for the individual citizen to participate, to help shape the incremental steps that can become a model for other locales, and just possibly have an effect on the larger culture. Of course this only happens when the existing structures-- media, office holders and general public feel there is a possibility of success.

Those of us who live in Encinitas and other nearby environs are truly blessed. With all that we have going for us we should aim for the democratic ideal, rather than accept the cynicism that is so pervasive in our society. Let's hope that this flareup at Cardiff will supply the incentive, and the light to lead us in this direction.

Al Rodbell
Encinitas CA