The death last month of Kelly Thomas, the schizophrenic homeless man who was severely beaten in a confrontation with Fullerton police, has sparked protests, investigations and political turmoil. Last February, Thomas was arrested in Tustin without incident. Tustin police responded after a shopping center security guard reported a man behaving strangely and refusing to leave the premises. As in the Fullerton encounter, cops found Thomas at a bus stop. Tustin Police Chief Scott Jordan said Thomas was “very cooperative,” gave his name, produced an ID, was arrested on four outstanding warrants and taken to the OC Jail for booking “pretty much without incident.” Details of what happened in Fullerton have yet to be revealed. But the Insider notes a management contrast in the two police departments. In response to the controversy, Fullerton has installed a new acting chief and retained an outside consultant, in part to review department policies and procedures. Last month Tustin became only the second OC city to be accredited by the national Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. (Garden Grove was accredited when Jordan was the chief there.) CALEA sets industry “best practices” for police work, including training standards and guidelines for dealing with the mentally ill. Tustin police also work closely with the OC Rescue Mission and Salvation Army, both of which are located in the city …
One other OC entity has been accredited by CALEA, ironically, Cal State Fullerton …
Add OC Congressmen Ed Royce and Dana Rohrabacher to the list of GOP hawks willing to cut the defense budget to help reduce the nation’s debt. On “Inside OC” they also said that President Bush’s invasion of Iraq, which they voted to authorize, was a mistake. Royce: “I feel it was a blunder.” Rohrabacher: “It was a mistake for me to go along with the president.” Two more U.S. reps, John Campbell and Loretta Sanchez, appear on “Inside OC” this week … EE RR shot an 80 at Augusta—Augusta Country Club in Maine …
In 20 years they’ve become OC icons—Broadcom Corp. and Fifi Chao’s OCBJ dining column …
Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer, Ayres Hotel Group GM Susan O’Brien Moore and Newport Beach real estate investor John Saunders (along for the ride) were visiting Inner Mongolia last week to meet with officials from prospective Costa Mesa sister city Ordos. “Just became wealthiest city per capita in China, surpassing Hong Kong,” Righeimer e-mailed, adding, “I paid my own way.” Relative wealth isn’t Ordos’ only OC-like characteristic. It’s also suffering from a homebuilding bust massive even by SoCal standards. A five-year-old “new town” built for a million people sits virtually empty because almost none of the 1.5 million residents in the old part of the city have moved. Time magazine dubbed Ordos “a modern ghost town.”
