From the Napa Valley Register:
The Napa County Green Party supports the Poccia family’s request for an independent investigation into the fatal police shooting of Richard Poccia on Nov. 28 in Napa.
That shooting occurred during a house visit by Napa police. The police were responding to emergency phone calls from an unnamed friend, who was concerned about Mr. Poccia’s allegedly suicidal state.
The current investigation — with the sheriff’s office reviewing the actions of the police department — entirely lacks the regular checks and balances that are natural to our system of government.
Only through checks and balances between separate and coequal branches of government is public trust in our system preserved. At the state and national levels, the legislature and the judiciary review the executive branch. At the local level, the executive branch takes the form of our city police and county sheriff. So having the sheriff’s office investigate the police department is essentially asking the executive branch to investigate itself.
As citizens of this community, we should insist on a more impartial system of checks and balances. A permanent Napa Police Review Commission, either created by the Napa City Council or administered by Napa Superior Court, could play just such a role.
………. and on a BART platform in Oakland [California] ………..
“As citizens of this community, we should insist on a more impartial system of checks and balances. A permanent Napa Police Review Commission, either created by the Napa City Council or administered by Napa Superior Court, could play just such a role.”
Another idea would be to have the county grand jury automatically investigate all fatal police shootings. Civilian review boards are going to be populated by people appointed by politicians, who will pick whoever the police unions recommend. The regular county grand jury is much more difficult to ‘stack’ one way or another.
The pace at which police in this country brutally kill and assault its citizens is truly astounding. The fact that these thugs are so rarely brought to justice for their crimes makes them that much more shocking.
Americans are eight times more likely to be murdered by police than by terrorists.
The Great Recession claims local progressive light. For a couple of decades alternative weekly Napa Sentinel owner Harry Martin has been a thorn in the side of the local establishment and even spent time as a local council member.
Now his former employer, the boot licking daily, the Napa Register, is the main news out let. The former mayoral wanna be and low profile green is still a voice in the wilderness —- but with out the award winning soap box.