Friday, October 4, 2013

Les Miserables and The City of Pacific



An open letter to Pacific Mayor Leanne Guier

Dear Mayor Guier, 

It’s my understanding that more than 60 million Americans have seen the musical Les Miserables, so it’s a pretty good likelihood that you know the story:  A desperately impoverished Frenchman, Jean Valjean, steals a loaf of bread to feed his family, and for that he is imprisoned 19 years and then paroled.  Parole is a “scarlet letter” that subjects him to abuse, so he abandons it and starts a new, respectable life. But throughout that life he is hounded by a fanatical Inspector Javert, who compensates for his own low beginnings by becoming a super cop, unrelenting in his quest to dominate and enforce.

I mention this because of two court cases which have recently been resolved in Washington State involving undocumented immigrants. The decisions essentially say that stopping people for a bad tail light doesn’t give police authority to ask about immigration status. You can read about these decisions at http://www.nwirp.org/  (See Settlement Reins in Border Patrol Stops on the Olympic Peninsula and Court Rules Law Enforcement Can't Prolong Stop to Question an Individual About Immigration Status.

We could interpret these rulings as a comeuppance for the City of Pacific for its racial profiling policies in the recent past. However the cruel truth is that the damage has been done and the victims are not likely to be made whole. People suffered and lives were destroyed by the Pacific police because of unconstitutional, illegal policies that even drew the attention of the governor’s office. Under the claim of law and order, the City of Pacific broke the law and made people’s lives miserable, and for no good reason other than the gratification of some misguided and sometimes malevolent public officials.

Allow me to give you an example of the mindless ways in which this city can destroy lives. And let’s forget about the immigration issue and just focus on income status – a big factor in Pacific, because of the demographics of the population here.

 I have a large rental house in Pacific. In one instance there were two families sharing the ample house. One of the men living there was driving within a few blocks of the house one day when he was pulled over for a traffic infraction. The detaining officer discovered he had an expired New Mexican driver’s license, due to failure to provide child support to an ex wife. The driver’s brother-in-law was in the vehicle and had a legitimate license. But rather than allowing him to drive the vehicle the few blocks home, the Pacific police impounded the vehicle. It went into storage at $200 per day. My renter didn’t have the funds to pay the impound and storage fees, which grew swiftly after only a few days, until the charges were greater than the value of the vehicle. Normally, car theft is a crime, but the City of Pacific and the towing company have figured out how to take your car without committing a criminal offense. The towing company enjoyed a tidy profit. My renter no longer had a vehicle and therefore could not maintain employment.

Perhaps, Madame Mayor, you can explain to me how this man was going to be able to pay child support for his past marriage and put food on the table for his current wife and children when he has been rendered unemployable? How exactly does this policy protect and serve?

Following a memorandum drafted by Sergeant Jim Pickett of the Pacific Police Department, your officers detained people who were undocumented, a practice that was illegal. In fact, the memorandum instructs police officers that individuals questioning the legality of the immigration questions should be detained for asserting their rights. Is this policy still in effect? (I would like to point out that, until she was 29 years old, my mother was undocumented. She was born at home in Idaho in 1915, and didn’t have a birth certificate until she was 29; she obtained it with the help of a 1920 census record. Being undocumented is not a crime.)

Latinos were threatened with incarceration and deportation. Families were broken up; lives were destroyed. When Latinos planned to stage a protest march they were illegally threatened with arrest. The threat was delivered to Pastor Mark Gause of New Hope Lutheran Church by Lt. Edwin Massey of the Pacific Police department. It was announced in a news release by Mayor Richard Hildreth. Police from other jurisdictions were summoned for backup. Only when the American Civil Liberties Union advised the city attorney that Public Safety Director John Calkins and Mayor Hildreth were violating federal law did these two bullies and lawbreakers back down. But several months later, Lt. Massey invaded a meeting at New Hope Church to issue the same threat when Hispanics were planning to protest the expropriation of the Cinco de Mayo celebration by the City of Pacific. The city was planning a party to which Latinos were not invited. And across the street from the church a fleet of vehicles sporting American flags was prepared to launch a counter demonstration – a sort of message that Americans could celebrate Cinco De Mayo and those unamerican Latinos could just lump it.

I’m prompted to mention this not only because of the court decisions, but also because of the Amazing photograph immediately below this paragraph. The photo shows you flanked by two lawbreakers, John Calkins and Ed Massey. Mr. Massey, you may recall, was Johnny on the Spot when Mr. Calkins was stopped for drunk driving. He showed up almost immediately to make sure Mr. Calkins’ car wasn’t impounded. He also served as a convenient witness to contravene the arresting officer in court. And Lt. Massey was the officer who twice violated the law by pressuring Latinos not to exercise their civil rights.

 Mr. Calkins deserves special attention, because he is a civilian impersonating a policeman. As I understand the law, I don’t need a permit to wear a handgun on my hip, as long as it is not concealed. So if I show up at a city council meeting in a police uniform with a pistol on my hip, would that be OK, or is it only Mr. Calkins who may be extended that courtesy? He is not the police chief, even though he has claimed to be so, and is frequently referred to as “chief.” Before Mr. Calkins, Pacific had a real police chief. He was a retired State Patrolman who pulled duty with his subordinates. Mr. Calkins is only a pretender.

Immediately below is another photo of Mr. Calkins, taken at a White River Lions party. This was taken some time after he testified at his drunk driving trial that he didn’t drink beer. I don’t know what was in that schooner in front of him, but an educated guess, and comments made by people who were at the event, suggest that there was beer in that glass. So what is the implication of sworn testimony that he doesn’t drink beer? And by the way, as a recovering alcoholic (Auburn Reporter story) who was photographed at the party, do you have any idea what might have been in that glass? Perhaps Cathy Roppo, the city’s court clerk, who was sitting with Mr. Calkins, can clarify this.


There’s a third photo I’d like to share with you. This is Mr. Calkins' famous DWI booking photo in which he is wearing a T-shirt honoring police brutality, with the slogan, “we kicked your father’s ass, and now it’s your turn.” When I put that photo on a T-shirt that I wore to a city council meeting, your senior council member, Clint Steiger, (chair of the public safety committee) drew a laugh by complimenting Mr. Calkins on the likeness. I guess when a public official drives drunk or is drunk in Pacific, that is a source of good natured mirth.

Here’s my message for you, Mayor Guier. I don’t enjoy holding people up to ridicule. It grieves me to do this to you. It’s stressful and unpopular. But I’m going to do it, if that’s what it takes to keep reminding current and future city officials that they are here to serve, not dominate. What I’ve said here merely scratches the surface of the stories to share about the tawdry nature of Pacific politics and government. I’m fully prepared to share the stories such as the mayor who was found hiding in a vacant lot after making the mistake of starting to undress in the wrong house; of the public safety director who was caught witness tampering; of the crony who vetted Mr. Calkins and, what that crony  didn’t tell the council. And how he covered for Mr. Calkins over the years. 

And then there’s the story of how Pacific combined police and fire departments into a single public safety department headed by a former private eye, whose incompetence was demonstrated by the almost immediate need to hire a fire chief to do his job for him. When the Regional Fire Authority finally provided professional fire protection service for Pacific, half of Mr. Calkin’s job disappeared, but he’s still employed by the city. 

There are many more stories to tell, and I’m going to be tempted to share them again,  every time I see you using the power of your office to honor a bully and a lawbreaker whose bloated salary means starvation wages for honorable city employees. And, I would like to add, this lawbreaker is the individual who put into writing Pacific’s policy of cash register justice – writing traffic citations not to improve public safety, but to raise revenue. That’s the reason I call this blog Speed Trap City.

If you want to honor a real policeman, I suggest you start with Sgt. Michel Bos, who also appears in that photo at the top of today’s blog. I’m not a genius. I have average intelligence, which means that at least half the people in Pacific know what I know – that Mr. Calkins should have left a long time ago; and if they knew Sgt. Bos, they would know who should be the police chief of this town.  They also can understand how easy it would be to eliminate the position of Public Safety Director, re-create the position of Police Chief, and then hire someone with the character and expertise to do the job right. I don’t know whether Sgt.  Bos is a knight in shining armor, but he’s a damned site more professional and humane than the individuals who compromise your command staff. He knows what it means to serve. I can’t imagine him telling people they don’t have the right to protest unfair policies.

Here’s a promise from me: Just as John Calkins and company were the inspectors Javert for the Latinos, I am the Inspector Javert for the City of Pacific. I know the history of this town for the past 14 years and more.  It shouldn’t be dismissed as old news. The same people are around doing the same things. Every time the city tries to sweep its sordid past under the rug, I’ll be there to lift that rug and shine the spotlight. I hope this encourages others to speak up as well.

Robert Smith

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