Busby Meets With Sheriff: "He Was Receptive"
Democratic House candidate Francine Busby (CA-50), whose fundraising house party last Friday night ended disastrously with a now-infamous raid by the San Diego Sheriff's Department, met yesterday with the county's new Sheriff William D. Gore, who was just sworn in yesterday, and she told me today that it was a constructive meeting.
The incident began after an unnamed person, believed to have been a heckler who reportedly shouted obscenities and anti-gay slurs at the event, phoned in a noise complaint.
"I congratulated him on being sworn in. We had a conversation about this incident. I told him that I'm going to be completely cooperative with him, because I think it's going to be so important that we find out how this happened, and why this happened, and make sure it doesn't happen again," said Busby. "And I told him that it's very important to me to find out that if there was political motivation behind the phone call, for two reasons. One, is these types of political meetings occur all the time for all candidates. It's important that people feel safe when they attend one of these, and it should be a protected right in our democratic process. And two, law enforcement should never be put in a position to be used in a political way."
Busby made clear to me that she believes the call itself was politically motivated -- the deputy who came to the house said the complaint was about a Democratic demonstration -- but she is not saying the actions by the deputies were based in politics.
"He [Gore] was receptive," said Busby. "He commented that he's already started the internal investigation, and they will do a thorough job on this and they will do it as completely as possible, because they want to find resolution on this as much as anybody. I said I regretted the incident, and he and his undersheriff both nodded and said everybody involved in it regrets it."
Busby did ask the department for the audio of the 911 call to be released, for the sake of full transparency. However, the Sheriff's Department is declining to do so because of their ongoing internal investigation.
The Sheriff's Department has not released a statement on the meeting with Busby.
Josh
Matt
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Brian
By the way, for people commenting in previous posts on this topic that they wanted evidence there is a steroid problem among law enforcement: 11 Boston police officers disciplined in steroid probe.
July 3, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apologies are very much in order. But that’s not enough. For the good of the community Ms. Busby should not allow herself to be just mollified by the sheriff. This deputy was out of control and exhibited the kind of prejudice and dangerous temperament that is going to cause some poor soul undeserved physical harm in the future. (And the taxpayers will have to pay for the damage.) I have looked at Deputy Abbott’s blog and noted his statement that “Guns r cool!” This is just not the kind of person who should be carrying a gun or in law enforcement.
As a college-educated, middle-aged white person with no criminal history and careful verbal skills I should probably have little to worry about with the police. Except for one time about 20 years ago --- when I was asleep in the house alone and the burglar alarm went off. A Berkeley policy officer responding to the call broke protocol and entered our home without waiting for back up and encountered me half-awake on the stairs. He inappropriately dragged me outside and the neighbors had to remind that I lived there. Several years later this same policeman (allegedly) unnecessarily shot and killed an unarmed, mentally ill young woman who had broken into the UC Berkeley’s Chancellor residence. It became a bit of a cause celebre because of his unnecessary use of deadly force. Ultimately this officer was quietly let go by the Berkeley PD but later hired by another nearby police department. A Google search will show that this officer has been the focus of repeated litigation and complaints concerning his continued use of deadly force and unnecessary physical harm.
July 3, 2009 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink