Strong talk
Pasadena residents say next police chief needs to be racially sensitive
By André Coleman 11/25/2009
Several people attending a community forum on replacing former Pasadena Police Chief Bernard K. Melekian at the Jackie Robinson Center — less than a mile from where two officers shot and killed an African-American parolee in February — told city officials that the next chief must be racially sensitive.
“We need somebody that can get along with everybody,” said community activist Georgia Holloway. “Not somebody who has black people laying face down in the street every time you look up or has people pulling us over for no reason.”
Others called for a consensus-builder who could work among the city’s organizations and continue the policy of community-based policing established by Melekian.
“We have to have open lines of communication with the police chief,” said former City Council candidate and Northwest Commission Chair Charles Nelson. “This man — or woman — has to be trustworthy, a team- and consensus-builder. It has to be somebody that can build morale. We are talking about community policing, which is a tough job.”
City leaders will use those comments and others to find the right candidate to replace Melekian, who earlier this month left the chief’s post after 13 years to take a job with the US Justice Department in Washington DC. Meetings like the one at the Jackie Robinson Center were scheduled in various parts of town to allow input from people from around the city.
As expected, Thursday’s meeting had a different tone than a previous one at City Hall, due largely to the negative views many minorities living there have of law enforcement. City Manager Michael Beck stood in front of the crowd of about 60 people — he sat in the crowd at the City Hall session — and tried to keep the conversation on the qualifications for a new chief.
“I have been aware of sensitivities in the Northwest community regarding race relations and the Police Department and I had previously been working with Chief Melekian — and now Interim Chief [Chris] Vicino — to help identify and bridge these gaps and create mutual understanding,” Beck told the Weekly.
The city is paying a firm $23,600 to conduct a national search for qualified candidates.
NAACP President Joe Brown said that the new chief would have to understand the budget process and the political structure of Pasadena. “He has to understand how to work within a tight budget,” Brown said.
“Beck will make the final decision on the new police chief after the conclusion of a nationwide search sometime early next year. The new police chief will make between $169,612 and $212,010 per year.
Many residents in Northwest Pasadena expressed a distrust of police officers in a 2006 survey, “Assessing Police-Community Relations in Pasadena, California.” That survey of 1,600 people revealed that African Americans averaged three police stops a year and Latinos experienced two stops a year, compared to an average of one for whites. Black and brown residents also complained they were the victims of racial profiling. About 11 percent said that excessive force was a problem.
Those feelings surfaced again last year when police shot parolee Leroy Barnes 11 times — seven times in the back —on Mentone Street and Washington Boulevard (about a mile from the Robinson Center) after he allegedly aimed a gun at an officer during a traffic stop. Residents were infuriated after police initially claimed that Barnes shot first and later admitted that he never fired his weapon. An investigation by the LA County District Attorney’s Office cleared the officers, but a second investigation took the department to task for the way it handled the situation, stopping short of calling the shooting unjustified.
The reports were issued just days before Melekian stepped down.
“Tolerance is very important to us,” said longtime resident Helga Kuhn. “It’s not just about working with the nonprofits or the community leaders. It’s about working with people and listening to minority officers. There were so many ways to avoid the Barnes incident, and the next chief needs to look at that incident thoroughly from beginning to end.”
Beck named Deputy Chief Vicino interim police chief while the nationwide search is conducted. Vicino, who is in the running for the chief’s job, and his former partner Jim Ballestero made headlines in 1982 after a call to the Community Arms apartments went awry, resulting in a near riot and leaving former Black Panther Michael Zinzun blind in one eye after Ballestero struck him in the face with a flashlight.
Zinzun won a $1.2 million settlement and Vicino was cleared of any wrongdoing. His partner was fired, but got his job back after suing the city.
Pasadena officers are not attending the forums, according to Janet Pope-Givens, who said that the department did not want to give the appearance that they were attempting to interfere in the selection process.
“We don’t need a chief that has a racial bias,” said youth advocate Tim Rhambo. “We’re talking about community policing and we are going into the 21st century. We need somebody that can keep the peace out on the street while they take into account the history and culture of our community.”
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Comments
Once while walking to work a cop pulled up to me. I asked "What seems to be the problem officer. He slammed me on the hood, cuffed me and threw me in the back of his squad car. He told me "You know what you did."
I said "I'm just going to work, your making me late."
He said, "Sure, your days of robbing houses are over...guys I got him."
Two more squad cars showed up.
All of them agreed I was their man, even when I told them I was going to catch the bus to work. He read me my rights in the back of the car. (I was handcuffed the whole time.)
One minute later someone announced on the police radio they caught the real guy red handed in a backyard. They let me go with no apology.
"Get out of here," is all the cop said.
Most cops I ever confronted have been insulting, and hard headed, (right even when they are wrong.)
Another thing.
Have you ever had a gun pulled to your face for warming up your car in front of your house before work? I have!
I got no criminal record, not even a traffic ticket.
Me and my friends, black, white, mexican...we all got stories on our so called protectors.
Why is it that the Pasadena City Manager and the Counsil always listens to so called leaders of the Black community and they get all the press? I worked for the PPD for 30 years and it has always been this way. Same song and dance, different time. They don't want police stopping them, even while they commit crimes or infractions. They want gun wielding criminals a chance to shoot first before officers can react. Even then they blame the police! It's time to get back to basics and get a chief who will fairly police all people and not just a particular race of people. PPD officers are among the finest in the Nation and need support, not restraints.