Archive for July 5th, 2012

Battleship!

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

I believe I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big fan of museums. Especially little museums, and especially military museums. I’ve had a lot of fun visiting official Navy museums, like the one at the Naval War College in Newport and the Submarine Force Museum in Groton. (However, I am not biased; I’ve been to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB twice, and loved that both times.)

It isn’t just the official museums I like. I want to get back over to the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg soon. (I know, it is now the “National Museum of the Pacific War”, but I still think of it as the Nimitz Museum.) It isn’t even just the military ones; there’s a whole host of little museums in Houston, for example, that I’d like to visit.

(We visited the San Jacinto Monument a lot when I was a child, but I don’t remember ever touring the battleship Texas. Odd that. I also never got to eat at the San Jacinto Inn during the glory days of that establishment. Not that I’m bitter or anything.)

The purpose of this long digression is to point out an article in today’s LAT (I know, I know, but they come in waves, and the Cudahy articles were actually yesterday; I just didn’t have time to blog them) tied to the battleship Iowa docking in San Pedro.

The basic point of the article is that warship museums may or may not work out. Why? It depends on the location: thank you, Captain Obvious!

In San Diego, the aircraft carrier Midway has topped 1-million visitors per year. Another carrier, the Intrepid, is a must-see museum in Manhattan, especially with the recent arrival of the space shuttle Enterprise.

I’d suggest both of those are very special cases; San Diego has a strong naval presence, so I’d expect a warship museum to work well there. And the Intrepid is, to my mind, an atypical warship museum, what with the space shuttle and the SR-71 and the glaven and the HEY NICE LADY!

Sorry.

On the other hand, I’m not exactly shocked that the battleship New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey has trouble attracting visitors.

“Don’t assume you know what the public wants,” said Midway marketing director Scott McGaugh when asked his advice for the Iowa. “Don’t build a museum just for History Channel buffs and retired military.”

I’d also note Chumlee and Rick have a full work schedule at the shop and can’t be running off to every warship in the country, and the Old Man is probably too grumpy to be a good docent.

Posted in Clippings, History, Museums | 7 Comments »

And while we’re talking about municipal corruption…

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

…let us turn our eyes to the West, and the state of California. It’s like a whole other country! Specifically, like a third world banana republic.

On Tuesday, the mayor of Cudahy, David M. Silva, resigned.

Silva, Councilman Osvaldo Conde and Angel Perales, the former head of code enforcement, are accused of taking $17,000 in bribes from a marijuana dispensary owner who was working as an FBI informant. The officials allegedly took the bribes in exchange for their help in opening a store in the small blue-collar city, according to federal authorities.

I’m intrigued by the idea that the FBI was using a marijuana dispensary owner as an informant, given the tensions between California and the Feds over medical pot. But there’s more to the story:

In the Cudahy case, a 146-page criminal complaint indicates that the arrests were part of a larger investigation that includes allegations of election fraud. The complaint also refers to the possible involvement of a towing company and a sheriff’s deputy. The federal document, which includes about 130 pages of wiretap transcripts, paints a picture of unchecked power by officials who boldly plotted taking bribes and talked about accepting cash as a way to avoid public disclosure required for campaign contributions.

There’s a complimentary story in the LAT that goes into more detail about the alleged election fraud. Two men who ran for city council seats had their cars vandalized, rocks and bricks thrown at their homes, and then…

Late one night, a surveillance camera on Garcia’s home captured a car stopping nearby. A man crouched behind Garcia’s pickup and hurled a Molotov cocktail at the house.

By the way, remember Maywood? The Maywood PD also patrolled Cudahy. A former Maywood PD chief is quoted in the article as having concerns about Cudahy’s elections and the “aura of intimidation”. (As far as I can tell, that chief came in at the very end of the police department’s existence, and did not have anything to do with the circumstances that led to the department being shut down.) The “towing company” involvement is interesting as well; as you may recall, there were some questionable things going on in Maywood with a towing company as well.

More:

In one of the wiretapped conversations, a Cudahy employee, Simon Rojas, spoke about the lengths to which he would go to protect his boss, Conde. Federal prosecutors said the pistol-packing code enforcement worker described “his willingness to commit acts of violence against anyone who” meddled with Conde.

Tough town, if the code enforcement folks need to carry guns.

Related: “What you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard.”

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | 1 Comment »

Police watch: July 5, 2012.

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

There’s a town in Montgomery County, near Houston, called Patton Village. I have it in my head that Patton Village was one of the notorious Texas speedtraps up until a few years back, when The Ledge basically shut all of those down. (Edited to add: I hate using Wikipedia as a source, but it does seem to confirm my recollection with externally sourced links.)

Anyway, Patton Village is apparently trying to disband the city police department. I say “apparently” and “trying” because the mayor tried to hold a city council meeting yesterday. The meeting was posted at 8 PM on Tuesday.

This is a problem. You see, the Texas Open Meetings Act requires 72 hours notice for such meetings. (There is a “public emergency” exemption, but I gather the mayor did not declare such. And while I am not a lawyer or expert on the Open Records Act, I feel confident in declaring that the law strictly defines what constitutes a “public emergency”. Russian Chinese North Korean troops in the streets? Probably. Disbanding the police department? Probably not.)

Anyway, the mayor and two council members showed up for the meeting, but one of the council members walked out after declaring the meeting illegal. Shortly after that, the mayor apparently came out and told the police officers that she was shutting down the department and calling in the county sheriff. Shortly after that, when the media showed up, the mayor said there “were not enough there for the meeting and refused any other comment.”

But wait! The story gets better!

The mayor, two other city officials, and four police officers are under indictment!

A grand jury indicted [Mayor Pamela] Munoz on 10 corruption-related charges, ranging from abuse of official capacity to theft by a public servant.

(The others indicted are the city secretary, two court clerks, and the four police officers, who are named in the HouChron story.)

But wait! It gets even better! Why were these folks indicted?

The officials were accused of using police cars, bought with federal grant money, as collateral to get bank loans that they then dipped into for personal use, the Chronicle reported in March.

Somehow I missed this story when they were indicted. I must have been distracted by shiny objects.

Really, isn’t that just about the most stupid example of municipal corruption you’ve ever heard of? Using cop cars as loan collateral? And what about the banks? Don’t banks inspect the collateral before accepting it? I mean, I could see these folks claiming that they were personal vehicles, but I’d at least expect the bank to want to look at the title. (And I would assume the title would be in the name of  “City of Patton Village”, not “Pamala Munoz” or one of the others charged.)

Plus, you know, if I’m a bank officer, and I go out to look at the collateral being offered, and I see it has a light bar and sirens and a shotgun rack and a BIG FREAKING SEAL on the side saying “Patton Village Police Department”, I’m going to be asking some questions. Just saying. Perhaps I overestimate the intelligence of the average banker.

By the way, the HouChron story is largely (but not entirely) based on reporting by the Montgomery County Police Reporter, who the HouChron credits, and who I do want to provide a link to as well.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Politics | 1 Comment »