Police calling the shots in Vallejo (Sacramento, Oakland: daycare, house, transfer to)

[Cida]

Forgot that I meant to post this a while back.

Disturbing cautionary tale.



How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City
After years of impunity, the police in Vallejo, California, took over the city’s politics and threatened its people.
According to data collected by the anti-police-brutality group Campaign Zero, the V.P.D. uses more force per arrest than any other department in California does. Vallejo cops have shot at people running away, fired dozens of rounds at unarmed men, used guns in off-duty arguments, and beaten apparently mentally ill people. The city’s police records show that officers who shoot unarmed men aren’t punished—in fact, some of the force’s most lethal cops have been promoted.
In the hope of avoiding collapse, Vallejo hired a new city manager, Joe Tanner. To Tanner, the source of Vallejo’s financial problems was clear: three-quarters of its general fund was going to police and firefighters. Gomes led an effort to reduce their pay, but the unions defeated the city in arbitration, forcing it to limit street repairs and to eliminate funding for the senior center and the library. “Every citizen of Vallejo works to pay the salaries of the police and fire unions,” a resident wrote to the local paper. “All we talk about is cutting services to feed the greed and avarice of the public safety unions.”
In May, 2008, Vallejo became the largest city in California ever to declare bankruptcy.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...e-ruled-a-city

[Ruth4Truth]

YIKES! Your local tax dollars at work!

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Cida

Forgot that I meant to post this a while back.

Disturbing cautionary tale.



How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City
After years of impunity, the police in Vallejo, California, took over the city’s politics and threatened its people.
According to data collected by the anti-police-brutality group Campaign Zero, the V.P.D. uses more force per arrest than any other department in California does. Vallejo cops have shot at people running away, fired dozens of rounds at unarmed men, used guns in off-duty arguments, and beaten apparently mentally ill people. The city’s police records show that officers who shoot unarmed men aren’t punished—in fact, some of the force’s most lethal cops have been promoted.
In the hope of avoiding collapse, Vallejo hired a new city manager, Joe Tanner. To Tanner, the source of Vallejo’s financial problems was clear: three-quarters of its general fund was going to police and firefighters. Gomes led an effort to reduce their pay, but the unions defeated the city in arbitration, forcing it to limit street repairs and to eliminate funding for the senior center and the library. “Every citizen of Vallejo works to pay the salaries of the police and fire unions,” a resident wrote to the local paper. “All we talk about is cutting services to feed the greed and avarice of the public safety unions.”
In May, 2008, Vallejo became the largest city in California ever to declare bankruptcy.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...e-ruled-a-city

And that article just touches on it... Vallejo probably should have been unincorporated and make part of the county decades ago. It it the most poorly run city I've ever seen. Imagine cops bending their badges when they killed someone and wearing it that way as a badge of honor.

And here's a story for you, Vallejo cops decided to claim that a young woman who was sexually assaulted and kidnapped from her home 'made the whole thing up' with no evidence at all to support that claim, The city ultimately settled the lawsuit over that fiasco for 2.5 million dollars. https://openvallejo.org/2021/12/15/d...ce-department/

[MechAndy]

Vallejo is a dangerous town.
The bad parts of it rank right up there with the bad parts of Stockton, Richmond or Oakland.
I wouldn’t want to be a cop there.
I think the cops there see and deal with a bunch of bad things and are hardened by that.
They then act out like bad police officers (because they probably are not getting counseling) and the cycle continues.

Vallejo has always been a dangerous town since I can remember.
Bad towns all have something in common….they all have bad leadership.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

Vallejo is a dangerous town.
The bad parts of it rank right up there with the bad parts of Stockton, Richmond or Oakland.
I wouldn’t want to be a cop there.
I think the cops there see and deal with a bunch of bad things and are hardened by that.
They then act out like bad police officers (because they probably are not getting counseling) and the cycle continues.

Vallejo has always been a dangerous town since I can remember.
Bad towns all have something in common….they all have bad leadership.

There is no way to excuse the behavior of those cops, they are not fit to be police officers, but don't believe me - go read some of the other articles on Open Vallejo or Pro Publica. And the Police Union always has their say in who the Chief will be because just like in Sacramento and pretty much every other city or county in California the Police Union is the largest source of donations for mayor and city council, so there is always a quid pro quo.

[MechAndy]

I wasn’t excusing those cops.
I was giving my point of view on why they act like that and to point out that bad leadership is to blame as well if not more.

[Valley Boy]

This isn't really different than most departments in the ghetto. The corruption, nepotism, and general stupidity of management makes for a poorly run agency.

[mattja]

How about the Oakland cop who was basically pimping a teenage girl?

Teen testifies Oakland cop coached her how to be good prostitute
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article...e-11157469.php

Or the head of the Contra Costa County drug task force arrested for stealing and selling the drugs they confiscated?

Former Contra Costa County drug task force officers indicted
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2011/08...cers-indicted/

They are many more examples.

[Valley Boy]

The police are a quasi-military organization. As such, bad leadership will make for bad employees. We lost our way as a society, when chiefs started becoming political appointees to help push an agenda versus the old days when chiefs were people who knew how to manage cops.

When you hire a chief because they check the right boxes, those chiefs come in and do nothing other than promote friends/family and put their people "on game".

So what do you think the Captains do? The useless middle management does the same thing. Not much but promote their people and make sure their people get the big assignments/details/tac teams etc.

Now if the captains are doing this, how do you think the LT's, Sgt's are behaving? That's how departments get "cliques" of officers who can run around doing whatever they want with near impunity. Don't get me wrong, body cameras help when they are on... but still... It all becomes a matter of "who you know" .

On the east coast they call it 'having connections', in Chicago 'having clout'. Out west it's the "good ole boys club". But it's all the same thing. An officer who gets jammed up for trying to do their job is not in the club. An officer who gets away with literal crime, is in the club.

[Valley Boy]

Keep in mind this: At 100k a year you have to work long hard hours, in one of the worst cities. Childcare at $1500-2000 a week, per child, means you will not be able to afford daycare.

This means your spouse has to stay at home. Maybe you are lucky and they have a part timer or a side hustle. They gross maybe another 20-25k per year.

That's probably just enough to afford a modest 3-4bedroom house in Vacaville, where you commute into Vallejo for work. Not exactly living high on the hog...

You can go the Stockton route and scale back benefits and pay. But your department will be like Stockton PD. A training day department. Where 75% of officers have less than 5 years experience, and the lead homicide detective is 33 years old. This is per an article in the LA times a few years back. Everyone there gets that golden 3 to 5 years experience, then makes a lateral transfer to better agencies. Agencies that will go to hell and back, for their retirees.

Which means you have a largely inexperienced department trying to work one of the toughest towns to be a cop in. Trust me, paying cops less will not improve the situation.