I still don't know why the Mountain View police need dozens of AR-15's and multiple armored vehicles that are basically tanks. We need a community-oriented police force, not a military equipped for a war zone.

Isn't it a pity that so many people can't take 'no' for an answer?

What does withholding funding for "parking enforcement and RV towing" have to do with concerns about bias and excessive force?

The Mountain View Police Department is ahead of most, and if advocates of reform can't get very far if they can't spot progress and allies.

I hope the police and city absorb this community concern by proactively modifying the existing spirit of police safety rules to reflect concerns brought by the community groups, including a ban of the use of tear gas and rubber bullets (never has been used in MV thanks to MVPD's proactive community policing). Given the police already agrees with the spirit of the requests, an easy victory can be achieved if all sides can put aside their emotional defenses, and sync their statutory language and safety commitments.

Thank you Council Member Hicks for seeking a delay, it may very well be that with time and internal reflection by the MVPD, it itself may find things closer to their existing community policing that need funding more than more guns. The police follow the goals of the city, so a directive by the city council to the police to find more ways to invest in community policing would be welcome.

I hope those who attended city council for the first time yesterday understand that the best way to influence city policies are via elections, rather than brutal activism that relies on intimidation. The very culture you seek the police to eliminate is the same culture activists must not themselves project.

I fully support the MVPD and their budget. There is a reason why MV has some of the best officers in the state and that is because we can afford them.

To respond to "militarized" questions, they need dozens of AR-15's because they have dozens of officers. Imagine only a select few being able to go into a situation that require them because there aren't enough to go around. That's like playing football with only 8 players because there isn't enough helmets. The other answer regarding the departments "tanks", they are in no way tanks since they do not have cannon. Best to call them a shield as that is what they are used for. Unlike in the movies, bullets go thru things like car doors.

Why defund a department that has a good relationship with the community? It is as if your car insurance went up because your neighbor was in an accident.

KEEP OUR OFFICERS FUNDED SO THEY CAN STAY SAFE AND GO HOME AT NIGHT

"Mountain View has quietly avoided discharging a firearm for 19 straight years" answers the question that MVPD does not need dozens of AR-15s.

we should get rid of our fire extinguishers too!

If council members are unwilling to do their job and are "reluctant to take up a line-by-line review of the police department's budget just weeks before approving the 2020-21 budget that had been in the works for months" they should resign. These are not small issues or even purely financial issues they are life and death issues. Fix it.

If you are buying 15 fire extinguishers I would say yes you should reconsider.

A perfect opportunity to also change to a defined contribution benefit plan (like a 401(k) that we all have) for all of the public safety officers to reduce costs.

I agree with Jake O.'s comments. We need to make sure that our police need to be able to protect us and themselves against criminals that are heavily armed.

More training and accountability are what is needed, not restraints. If you limit legally how the police are allowed to do their job, then you should also write a law that says that the criminal needs to give up when caught. No more resisting arrest, fighting to get away or firing weapons at our officers. Have you ever thought about what criminals do in prison? Not much, except to work out and lift weights, probably to be able to defend themselves while in prison. Now, when they get out of prison, our police have to deal with them so that we don't have to. I don't care to try to legislate them at that moment.
Mountain View police have a great record, as do most of our country's forces. Take away the immunity clauses from their contracts and make them accountable for their actions. Make prison time for them a reality if they mess up. Don't lessen their effectiveness to where we as citizens need to come up with other means of protection. Hello 2nd Amendment?

So with a police force of 100, slightly less here in MV but lets say 100, how many AR's should the department have?

I just sent the following to the Mountain View Voices for Peace and Justice discussion list.

The national uprising for racial justice and against violent policing is heartwarming, promising, and long overdue. It’s exciting to see so many people locally, particularly young people, taking to the streets in protest. But what’s next?

Many people are suggesting cutting the Mountain View Police budget and adding “8 Can’t Wait” principles to the Department’s policies. Those ideas are worthy of consideration.

I suggest, however, that we start with a thorough, independent fact-finding review of Mountain View’s police practices. Our police department appears to have a record, better than most, of not using unnecessary force. Yet there are complaints, many of which have not surfaced because people are afraid to step forward. We need to know what has really been happening.
Rather than create a new body to launch such an investigation, I propose that the Human Relations Commission be empowered and funded to carry out such a review, complete with opportunities for public testimony, with the goal of issuing a report this fall.

Furthermore, while the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have elevated policing to the top of the racial justice agenda, it’s important not to take our eyes off of the broad spectrum of injustice, including income and wealth inequality, health injustice (manifest in the disproportionate impact of COVID-19), climate and environmental injustice, and perhaps most significant locally, housing injustice.

Lenny
lennysiegel@sonic.net

Why hasn’t the MVPD stop racial profiling? How are they addressing the harassment of minorities in the community? Why is that the council members refuse to hear the concerns of the community? Change is coming and if you don’t want to be in the right side of history get out of the way. We voted you in we can vote you out.

I fully support the MVPD and their budget. MVPD is awesome!

Max Bosel’s comment about police “volunteering” is disingenuous. People choose to be and train (for far too little of a time) to become police officers. We are seeing that police are very well compensated in California. People volunteer for the PTA—not to be police.

His comments about how hard it is to be a police officer explain why there is still racial profiling by MVPD.

The fact that a firearm hasn’t been discharged is reason enough to not fund more firearms for MVPD.

It is exactly the time for elected officials to take this on. We can’t wait to demilitarize the police. Anyone who is acting as if we have crime riddled streets is following Bosel’s disingenuous tone. MV is one of the safest places and it’s not because of police thwarting violence. It’s because it is an expensive suburb with relatively little crime.

Our tax dollars would be better utilized increasing mental health, homelessness, and other social services. Invest in people, not police. End the racist profiling of Black and Latinx residents. And end the MVPD practice of using an external vendor like Lexipol.

While 8 Can’t Wait sounds like a great framework, it would actually increase the police budget. We can imagine better. 8 to Abolition is there for anyone who imagines defunding the police.

Great that protesters are turning to specifics and looking at local departments. Local police unions endorse candidates that support the police - including higher compensation and maintaining the lack of oversight. Not many officers across the country would engage in misconduct in front of a ride-along on or running for City Council. As to the case of George Floyd, wow, there are some amazing stories about the 19-year veteran officer who killed him. They knew each other. Stay tuned.

Soooo glad we moved out of that "woke" MV cesspool in 2012, to the East Bay.

How many of the suspects and arrestees end up being convicted of crimes? And then, what sort of crimes, ie. drunk in public, theft, rape, murder? These are relevant numbers not simple suspects and arrestees.
Perhaps rather than defunding additional training and tools could be deployed.

I'm impressed by the progress with the MVPD, and I think MV should continue to lead the way in public safety and emergency response. But, police are called in to deal with a diversity of situations that might be better addressed with CSA and other social workers with more appropriate training and tools. Excessive policing and regressive fines can harm the most vulnerable among us and make a hard life harder.

Can MV be one of the communities that leads the nation with innovative solutions, here going into the 2020's? By 2030, could MVPD be one of the examples that people cite as "here's how you do even better for the community *than just not shooting people* " ?

Can MV lead?

Oh, and #8cantwait isn't the solution, these policies are barely correlated. The 72% figure is statistical malfeasance. The better correlate of killings is arrest numbers, suggesting that reducing policing would reduce the chance of unfortunate escalation. Web Link

While I think all the talk of police reform is good, and I fully support it; however, it is still only targeting the symptoms of the disease which is generational racism and white privilege. Until we solve those issues with tangible action, we will remain in an endless loop.

What this means is that we have to address some of the critical issues in communities of color including: poor education, poverty, and the lack of opportunity.

One of the biggest issues is that white privilege is propagated generationally. Specifically, white families are able to provide their children with the best educational and life opportunities, and on top of that, they can pass on their privilege to the children through inheritance.

But why should children receive the gains earned through their parent's privilege without having done anything to earn it except being born into the privilege?

Contrast this to a family of color, where in many instances the children don't get anywhere near the same opportunities, nor do they get any form of meaningful inheritance.

A tangible way in which we can even the playing field is to end this generational propagation of privilege by imposing a 100% inheritance tax assets above a certain amount e.g. $500,000 (rules could be developed around exempting small family business etc.)

The proceeds would go towards funding opportunities in more impoverished communities through improving education, providing for broadband connectivity, building infrastructure etc.

This would achieve two goals: 1) It would tangibly improve the lives of the less privileged (2) It would even the playing field.

I suspect, this will be extremely unpopular because it actually means putting skin in the game. After all it is easy to make a sign and march in support of racial equality before going home to a multi-million dollar home in Los Altos. It's another to actually make a sacrifice to make it a reality

P.S. An even more radical proposal would be to impose a 25% wealth tax on all wealth above a certain amount e.g. $5,000,000. But I know that would be a non-starter!

Steve, what generational racism and white privilege in our area are you talking about?
Silicon Valley is not white and, for example, in my department we are all the first generation immigrants.
On other point I agree, income inequality is the real reason people are pissed off. There should not be such a huge difference between low and high paying jobs.
And corporations all are posting 'Black live matters' signs instead of increasing salaries for their workers, because it is much cheaper for them.

Want to reform MVPD? Remove some of the sources of their power and arrogance that fuel their egos. Light Blue uniforms with pink neckties. No crew cuts. No sunglasses when talking to citizens, small caliber weapons in neon orange for starters. Get rid of some of the militant leadership like Jaegar and Canfield. Put the rest of the leadership on weight control since, I'm sorry, most honestly don't appear to in any sort of shape to justify all the equipment they think they need to fight crime if they can't ever chase down a suspect.

@OK, Visit East Palo Alto sometime. I was also speaking of it on a nationwide level vs just locally.

I would still argue that inheritance tax should be at 100% above a modest amount.

Advantage should not be passed on intergenerationally. It leads to disparity based solely on the achievements of the parents. It concentrates wealth and privilege, and results in an unequal society

@minority vet, I’m assuming you’re being tongue in cheek with the uniforms etc. But more seriously, the city really doesn’t need the number of police (or fire for that matter) officers.

Just about all the crime is property crime, and quite honestly there’s no need for a substantial police force for that.

We most definitely don’t need a SWAT unit - when was the last time a legitimate SWAT call out happened?

In fact, why doesn’t the city just contract with the county for it’s Law Enforcement needs just like Cupertino and Los Altos hills do? A few deputies should be more than enough for our needs

@OK also Oakland, Richmond, and parts of San Francisco in addition to EPA. Then visit Los Altos, Hillsboro, Los Altos Hills, Pacific Heights, etc and tell me there’s no white privilege

Steve, go to any European or Asian country and you’ll find high concentration of rich in one ares and poor in other areas. And they will have the same skin color. This is not a race inequality, this is class inequality.

I have spent an extensive amount of time in Europe, and what you say is simply not true. Be it the West Indians in the UK, or North Africans in France, Italy, and Spain, it is people of colour who are by far and away stuck in poverty due to institutional racism and white privilege. The Europeans committed acts of atrocities against black slaves that makes slavery in the USA pale in comparison, and we know how bad it was here.

Your point that poverty being a key issue is correct. My point is that that poverty is disproportionately born by the black and other communities of color even in the Bay area. The reason for this is due to institutional racism that is exemplified by white generational privilege that is still being propagated today.

I still ask you: why should the wealth of wealthy parents be passed onto their offspring when they have done nothing to earn it, and doesn’t that propagation of inter generational wealth lead to a concentration of privilege?

Web Link
Steve, simply not true? Indians are doing better than “Other white” (not native English, e.g. Poles) in UK.

@OK, we are straying a little off topic here speaking about the UK, but this from a conservative UK news source:

Web Link

So we don’t completely hijack this thread, I suggest we respectfully agree that poverty is a root cause but disagree as to the reasons behind that poverty

The racial demographics of Mountain View are such that 85% of the population are white and Asian and only 2% are African American - so these statistics from MVPD are quite telling about the type of anti-Black community that Mountain View is:
"MVPD reports show that you are 5 times more likely to get stopped by MV police if you are Black than if you are white. Black residents are 9.2 times more likely to be arrested."

Truly disgusting and all white and Asian residents of Mountain View should feel shame about these statistics.

There was even this account of the racism in Mountain View reported in a USA Today article in November 2018 from a Black employee at Facebook who lived in Mountain View:
"Living in nearby Mountain View compounded his feelings of malaise. He endured racist confrontations with neighbors. Twice the police were called on him."
Web Link

Mountain View is a racist town.

@Steve
"I would still argue that inheritance tax should be at 100% above a modest amount."

So, my wife and I worked our tails off to pay our own way to college.
We have each worked for 40+ years.
Paid all our taxes.
Made various donations when we could.
We lived as cheaply as we could and saved our hard-earned money.
We bought an 800 sqft house to raise our child in.
Paid even more taxes for that.
We have managed to NOT commit crimes, NOT victimize others and NOT get arrested.
And when my wife and I die, YOU would take away our house.
YOU would give it to the government so we cannot leave it to our child who grew up in that house that we worked so hard for and paid so many taxes for?

"Advantage should not be passed on intergenerationally."

I see, so not only would you STEAL our house from our child, but YOU would also DENY us the ability to even pay for our child to go to college, because that would be an "advantage passed on intergenerationally".

"It leads to disparity based solely on the achievements of the parents."

So, WHY EXACTLY should I and my wife (or ANYONE for that matter) have bothered to work our tails off to afford college, worked for 40+ years each, paid all our taxes, obeyed the laws, etc?
Why shouldn't we have just sat back and let the government feed and clothed and housed us?
Why shouldn't we have become criminals attacking innocent people to steal from them?

"It concentrates wealth and privilege, and results in an unequal society"

The true meaning of "diversity" is that it takes all kinds to make a world and not everyone is the same, nor does everyone have the same abilities, nor does everyone behave the same, nor does everyone make the same choices in life.

Just because a person has inherited money or property from their parents does NOT mean that person wont just lose it all or even donate the bulk of it to worthy causes or spend their lives doing good works? Or maybe a wealthy person might just use their money to create JOBS so people have opportunity to EARN their way out of poverty.

In my family and my wife's family going back at least 4 generations, none of them ever actually owned a house until my wife and I. Our parents gave us nothing beyond basic parenting and a set of values and expectations about our behavior in society. Yes, I do realize that PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for our own actions is no longer a politically correct concept.

Our ancestors were poor uneducated laborers who came to the USA between 1880-1920 and I am not aware of any of them who were criminals either.

We EARNED everything we have by our own efforts, what justifies the stealing away a lifetime of hard work, paying taxes and living within the laws?

@ @TT
"... police ... here in MV ... how many AR's should the department have?"

Firearms are a deterrent to violent behavior, fired or not.
Total AR-15's should be:
#officers (+ some for repairs) at maximum or one in every police car at minimum.

Police have AR-15's for the same reason they have handguns.
To convince people not to get violent or to stop being violent.
The AR-15 is useful at longer ranges and is a more convincing psychological deterrent.

The popular media has drastically exagerrated the "power" of an AR-15, it's the lowest powered rifle ever deployed for police or military anywhere in the world.

The MVPD not shooting in 19 years, means 2 things:
First, our cops have good enough training and equipment to deal with everything they have faced without the need to shoot.
Second it means the people who find themselves faced with an MVPD officer don't behave in a way that gets them shot.

The MVPD cop that pulled his gun out on me, several years ago, had very good reason to come in "hot" and ready to shoot, but my behavior quickly convinced the cop he had been misinformed about what was going on.

When I saw him with his gun out coming at me, I just froze with both my hands in plain sight and waited motionless until he realized there was nothing wrong and put his gun away.
If I had run away, or reached for something, I assume he would have shot me, given the nature of the 911 call that sent him there.

Various people make various choices and get various results.

What did your child do to earn that house? How is it stealing from them when they have done nothing to earn that house?

Y’all are really on drugs if y’all think the police budget of 30% (an increase of 5% in comparison to last year’s) is justifiable during A PANDEMIC.

In the town y’all so claimed to be safe and civil, it is because most of y’all are willfully ignorant to the suffering and strife of many working families who have to deal with the increase of gentrification of housing AND business. To approve a budget increase during a time of great peril for the most vulnerable populations (low-income, brown and black, houseless, essential workers, etc.) is to imply that people are going to do crime and instead of addressing their needs, you approve the keeping of order over compassion.

There has been no shooting in Mountain View for years and there is no need for new AR-15s when the ones that needed to be replaced is, Bosel said, “old because lack of use.”

Take a budget cut with dignity like teachers always do, and if you want the people to trust you then redistribute the wealth to the people who needs it most. Find education and accessible social services.

Keep guns and police off of school campus.

The best way to not need police or guns on school campuses is remote learning - which can involve groups of students at houses or apts of parents. Less risk of traffic collisions and criminals and terrorists and coronavirus. But back to rules for police. On body cams, the November 30, 2016 article in the Voice I mentioned above had police reporting six complaints with only one acknowledged to have been captured on tape. That one tape cleared the police of any wrongdoing. That one. But all of the information was and is coming from the police department. A better way to complain is to the city council. That way, the police will need to respond and know that complaints may not always be "managed" in-house. The added benefit is that the city council then gets some direct information about incidents and concerns. Some councilmembers may not want to know anything. But they should find other work.

I turn to a vampire any time i want to, i become a vampire because of how people treat me, this world is a wicked world and not fair to anybody. At the snack of my finger things are made to happen, am now a powerful man and no one steps on me without an apology. I turn to human beings also at any time i want to, and am one of the most dreaded men in my country. I became a vampire through the help of my friend who introduced me into a vampire kingdom by giving me their email. if you want to become a powerful vampire kindly contact the vampire kingdom on their email worldofvampir@hotmail.com

@Grace. This article and thread is about racism and excessive force by police. Vampires are another creature: bats. I don't see the connection - unless you are also a police officer!

Police departments have to prepare for the world that exists, not the one that we wish it to be. The reality is that things like AR-15s are essential in this day and age. In my hometown in Florida, in the late 80s a man showed up at a grocery store at 5pmish with a semi automatic rifle and killed several people. He shot women, men, and a few cops. In those days, cops in many jurisdictions were still wearing 6 shot revolvers as was the case in my town. One of the police officers killed that day, was taking cover behind his car, trying reload his firearm and the assailant walked around the car and surprised him. He didn't have a chance. So the debate about what tools the police need to do their jobs should be left with the people who actually do that job.

As a black man, I have always had positive interactions with MVPD. I don't always agree with everything that they do and these officers are humans so they're not perfect, but they are extremely well trained. In fact, this department consults with many other departments around the nation. I agree that the best tool we can give our officers is more training. I think we can also spend more time talking to the PD about what we want them to do in our communities and how we'd like for them to do it. I think that's fair, having the department respond to the needs and wants of the community (within reason).

I'd also add that Capt. Saul Jaeger is a shining example of why our MVPD is one of the best departments anywhere in the country. He's a fine man, a great officer, and a fantastic resource to this community and we are all lucky to have such a person working on our behalf.

Cleave, thank you for removing all doubt that you worship authority and the status quo. As if your endorsement of Measure D left any doubt about that...

I just happen to come upon this article and wondered how thorough an officers background check is PRIOR to hiring them. I personally worked with a “police prospect” prior to his acceptance as a police officer. While working with him he showed extreme racial bias against me while I was a newly hired dispatcher assigned to his team. He basically abandoned his duties as my senior trainer, lied to me about when my training would start, refused to assist me with anything while offering assistance to my white coworker, played a racist video that used the “n word” throughout the movie during my shift and sabotaged my efforts to pass my probation and earn a six figure income. While he was sabotaging my efforts, he was completing his background investigation to become a police officer!!! I was a new black employee in an office with only one other black employee who was retiring. I would have been the only black employee in the center IF I was given an “equal opportunity” to obtain permanent status before it was derailed/sabotaged. The idea that this man is an officer is jolting after he treated me with such disdain because I am black! While he abandoned his duties in training me he felt it was appropriate to share his “concerns” about me to our manager. Institutional and systemic racism in law enforcement is not just among police officers, public safety dispatching centers are also rife with racism. Very few agencies that I visited and did sit-alongs in had more than 1 black employee. The pre employment process I completed was laborious and very time consuming. Passing it was an accomplishment in itself. To experience discrimination by a group of white and Latina employees who decided my right to a “livable wage” job/career was not acceptable to them has confirmed how systemic racism is prevalent in too many areas of black peoples lives, employment included!! The VP of the dispatchers union posted a note on her cubicle wall that read: “Coworker: Good morning! Me: Who hired this bitch?”
Only the new white employees were successful in passing probation for the past several years. It concerns me that a man who showed racist behavior towards me is now policing black and brown citizens in Mountain View. He doesn’t deserve the role or the honor in my opinion. Too bad checking “potential officers” for racial bias BEFORE they are selected/hired isn’t part of the hiring process. To my knowledge, SFPD has instituted a program to do just that since the murder of George Floyd. I believe ALL police departments should include this process. It may save black and brown peoples lives!!