Aggregator
Here's the latest timeline and track for more snow, sleet and a wintry mix
Procol Harum frontman Gary Brooker, singer and co-writer of โA Whiter Shade of Pale,โ dead at 76
No bail for Rockwood School District employee accused of sexual abuse
Galloway audit identifies some accounting issues in St. Louis economic development agencies
LA Sheriff Threatens To 'Subject' City Council To 'Defamation Law' If They Won't Stop Calling His Deputies 'Gang Members'
The man presiding over a law enforcement agency filled with gangs and cliques would prefer city officials stop referring to his employees as gang members.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has stated that there are no gangs within the Sheriff's Department, a claim he is obviously unable to back up with facts, because the facts make it clear that the LASD has been (and apparently still is) home to multiple gangs composed of deputies. There's even a Wikipedia page dedicated to the gangs infesting the Sheriff's Department.
If you distrust the info on the anyone-can-edit Wikipedia page, there's also this comprehensive database compiled by journalist Cerise Castle for Knock LA -- one that pulls info from public records and court documents to list suspected and verified members of LASD gangs.
Sheriff Villanueva continues to claim there are no gangs within his department. He has also instituted a policy to address the problem he says doesn't exist, forbidding deputies from "joining any group that commits misconduct." You'd think this policy would forbid any deputy from being employed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, but I guess that's not how Villanueva reads his edict.
As for Villanueva's claim gangs and cliques don't exist within his department? Well, let's take a look at what his employees say:
Hundreds of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said they have been recruited to join secretive, sometimes gang-like cliques that operate within department stations, according to the findings of a survey by independent researchers.
The anticipated study into the problematic fraternities — which L.A. County officials commissioned the Rand Corp. to conduct in 2019 — found 16% of the 1,608 deputies and supervisors who anonymously answered survey questions had been invited to join a clique, with some invitations having come in the last five years.
Well, all evidence to the contrary aside, Sheriff Villanueva is no longer going to stand idly by while city officials continue to make accurate statements about his problematic agency. He's issued a… well, not really a "cease and desist" letter [PDF] to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors demanding (but not really) they stop saying his department has a gang problem. (h/t Adam Steinbaugh)
The letter is a fun read, even more so because Sheriff Villanueva definitely did not want his vaguely threatening fluff to be considered enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. Behold the semi-coherent wrath of a pissed off public servant.
As the elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County, I demand you and other elected leaders, as well as your appointees, immediately cease and desist from using the derogatory term “deputy gangs” when referring to members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (Department). This willful defamation of character has injured both individuals and the organization. It also serves no purpose other than to fuel hatred and increase the probability of assault and negative confrontations against our people.
So, it looks like a cease-and-desist (it even uses the words!), but the Sheriff has no power to make this demand. And Villanueva is hopefully using the phrase "defamation of character" in the colloquial, no-relation-to-the-legal-meaning sense of the words, because there's plenty of evidence out there that would make any accusations about LASD gangs "substantially true" and, therefore, not defamation at all. I know we (and by "we," I mostly mean courts) don't expect law enforcement officers to be legal experts, which is good, I guess, because they clearly fucking aren't.
The letter continues in the same vein: Villanueva bitching, mostly ineffectively, that it's unfair to his department when city officials say bad things about him and his employees. The next paragraph of the letter basically says the Sheriff's Department has all the heroes and the Board of Supervisors has all the hypocritical assholes.
My personnel routinely place themselves in harm's way while serving our community and ask nothing in return, other than a paycheck and maybe a little respect for the tough job they perform. Elected officials have no problem attending the funeral of a peace officer killed in the line of duty and often fight for the opportunity to speak at the podium, but the manner in which some have enthusiastically branded my personnel as "gang members” every opportunity they get is disgusting.
It is completely possible for officials to show their respect for an officer killed in the line of duty while still suspecting the law enforcement agency they work for is home to groups of officers who commit serious misconduct while engaging in gang-like behavior: violent acts, tattoos/clothing/insignias/etc., codes of silence, et al. You know, just like it's possible for officers of the law to recognize the War on Drugs harms more than it helps.
According to the sheriff's letter, the only reason board members might refer to deputies as gang members stems from a dismissed lawsuit brought by a former LASD deputy. The letter claims this is the only "evidence" anyone has ever had and that other research arriving at the same conclusions is completely undermined because a single source of information was declared to be untrustworthy by a court decision. That willfully ignores the years of data that shows deputies have formed cliques/gangs within the department. And while that may not be the sole contributing factor to large amounts of misconduct, it certainly hasn't helped neutralize the "us vs. them" mentality that is the root of so many casual abuses of rights.
From there it gets truly laughable, with Sheriff Villanueva again demonstrating his inability to understand speech-related laws before claiming that referring to LASD gangs is actually a form of bigotry.
Those who want to further undermine the perception of law enforcement use it as hate speech to promote their own agendas, such as defunding law enforcement and redirecting those funds to their own non-profit organizations, many of which are nothing more than sham corporations who operate with virtually zero accountability. Further use of the term will be evidence of your actual underlying intent, which appears to be a campaign to inflict harm upon the reputation of the Department and myself.
First off, calling someone a gang member or implying there are gangs in the LASD isn't hate speech. It's not even hate speech in the most ignorant sense of the word. Speech someone doesn't like is not hate speech, and that's all that's really happening here. The Sheriff and his deputies aren't a protected class, nor is being employed by the LASD an immutable characteristic that can trigger hate crime laws when derogatory language is used. The rest of this is no less stupid. "Further use… will be evidence of your actual underlying intent" to harm the Department. Whatever. This isn't legally binding and further use will be evidence of nothing.
So very stupid.
As the first fluently Spanish speaking Latino Sheriff in over a hundred years, who supervises a majority Latino workforce, I hope you can see the blatant racial inferences your conscious bias displays every time you choose to attack our Department with this derogatory term.
Um, people were saying the LASD was gang-infested long before you took office, Sheriff. That they're still saying it doesn't reflect on you or your multilingual skills. All it says is that the problem persists and it's now your problem, Sheriff.
Finally, the Sheriff appears to believe this somehow is a valid legal threat, despite the fact he's unlikely to prevail in a defamation lawsuit against city council members. Here's how the letter wraps up:
I openly challenge every elected leader, or their appointees, to provide facts to me and name individuals who they can prove are "gang members," as defined by California Penal Code Section 13670, and subject yourself to defamation laws if wrong.
LOL. Well, this shouldn't be too hard. Here's the relevant part of the California Code:
"Law enforcement gang" means a group of peace officers within a law enforcement agency who may identify themselves by a name and may be associated with an identifying symbol, including, but not limited to, matching tattoos, and who engage in a pattern of on-duty behavior that intentionally violates the law or fundamental principles of professional policing, including, but not limited to, excluding, harassing, or discriminating against any individual based on a protected category under federal or state antidiscrimination laws, engaging in or promoting conduct that violates the rights of other employees or members of the public, violating agency policy, the persistent practice of unlawful detention or use of excessive force in circumstances where it is known to be unjustified, falsifying police reports, fabricating or destroying evidence, targeting persons for enforcement based solely on protected characteristics of those persons, theft, unauthorized use of alcohol or drugs on duty, unlawful or unauthorized protection of other members from disciplinary actions, and retaliation against other officers who threaten or interfere with the activities of the group.
To sum up: the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is a gang associated with an identifying symbol that engages in all of the listed behavior. Therefore, it should be declared illegal under state law and disbanded.
There are few things more enjoyable than sternly-worded letters that are 50% bluster, 50% unintentionally hilarious. Recipients of this letter should take the Sheriff up on his dare and let him know just how many bad apples he's overseeing. If nothing else, council members should send Villanueva a "Thanks for the laugh. I really needed that." in response to his declaration of keyboard war.
Daily Deal: codeSpark Academy Sibling Bundle
codeSparkโs mission is to help all kids learn to code by igniting their curiosity in computer science and turning programming into play. The app is designed to teach kids 4 to 9 the foundations of computer science through puzzles, coding challenges, and creative tools. It's a great way for your kid to learn how to code, and it has no ads or in-game purchases. Kids learn concepts such as: sequencing, loops, conditional statements, events, Boolean logic and sorting, and, variables (coming soon). Get 3 months of unlimited access for 2 accounts for $18.
Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.
Appeals court declines to revive criminal case against St. Louis cop
Winter storm: Where the snow and ice is expected to fall this week
UMSL receives $1M gift from late philanthropist Helen Shopmaker
Forecaster: Two Waves Of Winter Precipitation To Strike Wednesday and Thursday
Ameren Missouri to acquire its largest solar farm to date
Despite plans to invest in its largest solar facility ever, it’s unclear whether Ameren Missouri will keep up with ambitious goals for investments in renewable energy over the next few years.ย Ameren is working to purchase a solar farm under development in southern Illinois for use by its Missouri customers. The electric utility, the largest […]
The post Ameren Missouri to acquire its largest solar farm to date appeared first on Missouri Independent.
Snoop Dogg coming to St. Charles this April
Alton brewery celebrates world's tallest man Robert Waldow's birthday
With a new name and partner, the restaurant group behind Vicia and Winslowโs Table plans to open multiple new concepts
2/22/22 Tuesday deals
'Paddington Gets In A Jam' Makes St. Louis Debut At Stifel Theatre This May
Snoop Dogg Is Playing the Family Arena, and Yes, You're Old
Trump's Truth Social Bakes Section 230 Directly Into Its Terms, So Apparently Trump Now Likes Section 230
When Donald Trump first announced his plans to launch his own Twitter competitor, Truth Social, we noted that the terms of service on the site indicated that the company -- contrary to all the nonsense claims of being more "free speech" supportive than existing social media sites -- was likely going to be quite aggressive in banning users who said anything that Trump disliked. Last month, Devin Nunes, who quit Congress to become CEO of the fledgling site, made it clear that the site would be heavily, heavily moderated, including using Hive, a popular tool for social media companies that want to moderate.
So with the early iOS version of the app "launching" this past weekend, most people were focused on the long list of things that went wrong with the launch, mainly security flaws and broken sign-ups. There's also been some talk about how the logo may be a copy... and the fact that Trump's own wife declared that she'll be using Parler for her social media efforts.
But, for me, I went straight to checking out the terms of service for the site. They've been updated since the last time, but the basics remain crystal clear: despite all the silly yammering from Nunes and Trump about how they're the "free speech" supporting social network, Truth Social's terms are way more restrictive regarding content than just about any I've ever seen before.
Still, the most incredible part is not only that Truth Social is embracing Section 230, but it has literally embedded parts of 230 into its terms of service. The terms require people who sign up to "represent and warrant" that their content doesn't do certain things. And the site warns that if you violate any of these terms it "may result in, among other things, termination or suspension of your rights to use the Service and removal or deletion of your Contributions." I don't know, but I recall a former President and a former cow farming Representative from California previously referring to that kind of termination as "censorship." But, one of the things that users must "represent and warrant" is the following:
your Contributions are not obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, violent, harassing, libelous, slanderous, or otherwise objectionable.
That might sound familiar to those of you who are knowledgeable about Section 230 -- because it's literally cribbed directly from Section 230(c)(2), which says:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable...
That's almost word for word the same as 230. The only changes are that it removes "excessively" from "violent" and adds in "libelous" and "slanderous," -- subjects in which Devin Nunes considers himself something of an expert, though courts don't seem to agree.
Hell, they even leave in the catch-all "otherwise objectionable," even as some of their Republican friends in Congress have tried to remove that phrase in a few of their dozens of "Section 230 reform" bills.
So it's not at all surprising, but potentially a bit ironic that the man who demanded the outright repeal of Section 230 (even to the point of trying to stop funding the US military if Congress didn't repeal the law) has now not only embraced Section 230, but has literally baked a component of it (the part that he and his ignorant fans have never actually understood) directly into his own service's terms.
It's so blatant I almost wonder if it was done just for the trolling. That said, I still look forward to Truth Social using Section 230 to defend itself against inevitable lawsuits.
There are some other fun tidbits in the terms of service that suggest the site will be one of the most aggressive in moderating content. It literally claims that it may take down content that is "false, inaccurate, or misleading" (based on Truth Social's own subjective interpretation, of course). You can't advertise anything on the site without having it "authorized." You need to "have the written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person in your Contributions." Does Truth Social think you actually need written permission to talk about someone?
There's also a long, long list of "prohibited" activities, including compiling a database of Truth Social data without permission, any advertising (wait, what?), bots, impersonation, "sexual content or language," or "any content that portrays or suggest explicit sexual acts." I'm not sure how Former President "Grab 'em by the p***y" will survive on his own site. Oh right, also "sugar babies" and "sexual fetishes" are banned.
Lots of fun stuff that indicates that like 4chan, then 8chan, then Gab, then Parler, then Gettr that have at times declared themselves to be "free speech zones," every website knows that it needs to moderate to some level, and also that it's Section 230 that helps keep them out of court when they moderate in ways that piss off some of their users.