Thanks for publishing this article. Police misconduct is rampant, this is just the tip of an iceberg.

OMG Aisha! When did you get out?

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

In the decision made by the SCOTUS in Castle Rock vs Gonzales, THE POLICE DOES NOT HAVE TO PROTECT ANYONE!
The norm across the country is to say " I feared for my life, so I neutralized the situation ". This is given as the usual killings by cops. This statement has been a "get out of jail free " card by many LEOs. This has been said even after the proof is given by independent cell phone video. It looks like the PAPD is not above using these kind of tactics. Shining a bright light into faces is one such tactic. It ESCALATES, instead of de-escalates a situation. If there were no witnesses, this might have turned into a murder scene.

The really bad news: looking at aggregate statistics, when plotting a graph, his trend is rising with an accelerated rate in this year.
the situation is at dangerous levels.
I was hoping the PAUSD did not use these tactics. I was wrong.

Sounds like a reasonable arrest, blocking police cars is an extremely poor decision. On a side note, how much money did the city waste hiring outside auditors (who monday morning quarterback from an air conditioned office somewhere) and outside investigators to review these incidents? What a massive waste of time and money. Sounds like PAPD leadership is a swamp that needs to be drained. I hope the new Chief can make some serious changes. Seems like there’s no money available to fix the pavement on my street, but we can waste money on this kind of nonsense. What a mess!

Punnisher needs to re-read Castle Rock vs Gonzales.

Seriously.

Lets see: The incident involved Kidnapping by the spouse, murder of the children by the spouse, the victim having a VALID COURT ORDER that protected the victim and the children. She had already contacted the Castle Rock police department about a possible kidnapping of her children by the spouse and the Castle Rock Police department did NOTHING to enforce the COURT ORDER. Yes, the spoused DID kill the children AND tried to kill her too. The spouse was in fear for her life and the spouse started a gun battle in front of the Castle Rock Police building. Try to spin those facts.
< this may get removed> This is why many LAIRS ( pronounced LAWYERS ) are despised by the regular community. Life was better without lawyers and far less complicated too. I raise a half of a victory salute to you and your ilk.

> The criminal charges against the two people were ultimately dropped after the Santa
> Clara County District Attorney's Office reviewed them and concluded that their
> interference with the officer was "minimal at best." The auditors concurred with this
> conclusion, even as they noted that the group of people was "unhappy about the
> drunkenness arrest" and that their presence "undoubtedly created an undercurrent of
> tension that complicated the situation for the officers."

I sympathize with officers having to handle large groups of aggressive people who do
not seem to understand they have a job to do .... even if they do make mistakes. In
these cases mistakes should be learning opportunities for all - but later, not in the
heat of the moment.

My question if anyone can give me an answer, is that I was told, by a police officer,
by over the phone, that any interaction with the police force is logged and never deleted.

Even if arrests are or can be eventually expunged, these "notes" ... and I do not know
what form these logs, or incident reports take, they never go away.

I would like to know:

1. If anyone knows if this is true?
2. What form these incidents?
3. Who or what agencies have access to these files?

Thinking about the folks here who had charges dropped ... what record remains
of this and under what law or authority is it kept? Can someone find out about
this and report to the public on it. Palo Alto Online??????

Tim, the police and justice process has overhead costs ... they are not a waste.
What is a waste is not understanding that and trying to make an issue of it.

the_punnisher, you know what else is rising?, if the self-righteous grandstanding
by people when they interact with police that does no one any good and causes
tension and uncertainty.

Do you think if you see your buddy arrested for drunkenness that you have the
right to riot and oppose the police decision at that time in real time with threats,
interference or force? That is not how the system works.

That said, there are abuses by the police that should be discussed ... this is a
grey zone and barely qualifies. That is why even when police do things wrong they
"get a pass" ... because they are doing a tough job that includes having to manage
their stress and threat level and no human being can get that right all of the time.
They are human and charged with and given the right to use force to resolve situations
when needed.