Thread: "Escondido's ugly face surfaces yet again" S.D.U.T

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Escondido's ugly face surfaces yet again

2:00 a.m. March 28, 2009

Escondido's ugly face once was portrayed by three majority council members. Now, alas, it is borne by the city's Police Department.

The face of nativism, of ethnic tension, of class repression was once that of Sam Abed, Marie Waldron and Ed Gallo. The region came to recognize that face only too well, through an unconstitutional rental ban, an overnight parking permit system proposed only for the inner-city, and council-member calls to cross-train police officers as immigration agents.

Gallo was rejected by the voters in November and Olga Diaz made history by becoming the city's first true Hispanic policy-maker. Abed and Waldron can still make divisive statements, if they choose, but the ruling triumvirate is no more. Moderates Diaz, Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and Dick Daniels carry the day.

But Escondido's Police Department has not received the message that a new day has dawned. In a city 45 percent Hispanic, many perceive the police as the enemy. Why? Escondido provides space at the police station for an immigration agent. Escondido stands alone in the frequency of its driver's license checkpoints, a policy driven not by the council but by the police chief. Escondido has mailed a reprehensible union flier that has opened old wounds.

As Escondido's other employee unions were acquiescing to pay cuts or losses in benefits because of hard times, the Escondido Police Officers' Association was coming across as a pack of spoiled brats. Police were being asked only to accept a pay freeze, and the department's budget, the biggest slice of the city's pie, was left almost intact by a council too timid to offend a public safety union.

Against this backdrop, POA President Michael Guerrero inexplicably decided to risk considerable political capital to try to gain very little, just to preserve future experience step increases and training incentives. A militant law firm was hired, and the flier, the very offensive flier, was crafted.

The union's militancy failed miserably. No member of any other municipal union supported the police at a council hearing. No Hispanic citizen spoke up for the force that represents the city. No council member praised the POA for offering budget alternatives as the union presented none. The vote was 4-1 to declare a negotiating impasse, freeze police salaries and move on.

The effects of the union's unfortunate rhetoric, of fostering a climate of fear based on unfounded or twisted statistics, of promoting stereotypes with images of tattooed young Hispanics seemingly straight from Central Casting, will linger. That rhetoric will slow efforts to bring the community together.
Now police, or at least the Guerrero-led POA, are threatening civil disobedience against the public they are sworn to serve and protect.

Guerrero has said he wants police to respond to burglary incidents by canvassing the entire neighborhood, to request backup on every call. That is a major work slowdown for a department with 12 vacancies and tasked with standing at the curb and examining driver's licenses every time the chief so demands.

Police Chief Jim Maher finally has chosen to speak up. In a commentary published today, he sets the record straight about crime statistics. But there is so much more the chief could and should do. He has fostered an environment so permissive of ethnic tensions that his own rank and file feel safe in sending out a hateful flier. He has created a climate where his own employees talk openly of rebellion in the form of a work slowdown. He has continued an atmosphere of distrust so strong that many Hispanics are too afraid to give the police information or even report crimes.

The corrosive atmosphere in Escondido must be changed.

Yes, the chief has promoted bilingual Leticia Garduno to do outreach to community groups. At the end of the day, however, all understand that it is not Garduno, but Maher who sets department policy.

The chief must end the checkpoints that so split the population. The union leader sees nothing wrong with them, particularly if detectives instead of patrol officers are used. The mayor, however, sees them for what they are: “Why are they taking cars away from people who don't have a driver's license when all they are trying to do is go to work?â€

The new owners of the S.D.U.T. will take over in a couple of months

and hopefully the ugly face of the S.D.U.T. will never resurface again.

Hopefully the new owners watch Fox, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck every evening.