Two agencies, two different responses to our public records request
By Dave Waddell | Posted December 30, 2019
photo by Karen Laslo
Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien
Last March, I spoke at a League of Women Voters of Butte County forum having to do with public access to law enforcement records.
That Sunshine Week forum, which included Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea and police reformers Emily Alma and Margaret Swick, gave me an opportunity to vent a bit about the most secretive public agency I’ve dealt with as a journalist: the city of Chico.
At the forum I said something that, if anything, is even truer today: Chico city government has no respect for the people’s right to know.
That’s been the case when liberals have controlled the City Council; it’s been true when conservatives had the majority. It was true before the city quit having an on-staff city attorney in 2014. But the secrecy has been taken to new dimensions since Chico began renting legal services from a law firm based near Los Angeles. The firm, Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin, is practiced at keeping what should be public information hidden from Chico’s citizens. One example I cited at the forum was the contrived City Hall secrecy around Chico police officers’ gun-buying — at public expense but for the private ownership of the officers — at a gun shop owned by two Chico cops.read more
On 'impeachment eve,' Chicoans join nationwide mobilizations
By Leslie Layton | Posted December 18, 2019
photo by Karen Laslo
A demonstrator at City Plaza Tuesday evening shows his support for impeachment proceedings.
More than 200 hundred people converged on Chico’s City Plaza Tuesday evening to support President Donald Trump’s impeachment, joining many thousands of people across the nation who mobilized.
Chico’s Jim Henson led a spirited series of chants as demonstrators waved signs, many saying, “Nobody is above the law,” until a man from a pro-Trump counter-protest that was also stationed at the plaza slipped into the middle of the larger group and raised a bright blue “Trump 2020” banner. Henson, who didn’t organize the event, then asked the pro-impeachment demonstrators to follow him to the City Council meeting and show support for sheltering the homeless; about half of the demonstrators followed him.read more
2017 Desmond Phillips vigil at Chico Police Department.
Zero. That’s the number of hate crimes that took place in Chico in 2018, according to reports to the FBI from the Chico Police Department and Chico State’s University Police Department.
That zero doesn’t reflect what happened to an African American man, who has said he was pelted with beer cans last year by several white people in a pickup truck who were using the N-word. He never reported the incident to police, but his girlfriend saw the bruises.
The zero also doesn’t reflect other unreported incidents, and it doesn’t reflect incidents that may have been driven by hate that didn’t surface in a police report or court hearing. And it certainly doesn’t reflect overt and subtle offenses that left people who were subjected to them feeling hurt and scared.read more
Chico PD victim’s life, new state law to be celebrated
By Dave Waddell | Posted December 11, 2019
Desmond Phillips
A celebration to both remember the life of Desmond Phillips and to ring in a new state law governing police killings will be held on the first day of 2020.
The Jan. 1 potluck will include music and speakers and be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Faith Lutheran Church of Chico, 667 E. First Ave. The public is encouraged to participate by the sponsoring Justice for Desmond Phillips group, said David Phillips, Desmond’s father.
Desmond Phillips, a 25-year-old black and Miwok Native man in mental crisis, was shot 11 times in his own living room by Chico police officers Alex Fliehr and Jeremy Gagnebin on March 17, 2017, just seconds after they entered the residence. Phillips was born on the first day of 1992, and, had he lived, would be turning 28 on Jan. 1.read more
