Others feel wrath of police unions

By: Steven Greenhut 10/29/201

FULLERTON, Calif. — Many people were outraged this summer after a private investigator, with ties to a law firm that represents 120 police unions in California, made an apparently false police report that a Costa Mesa councilman stumbled out of a bar, appearing drunk, and was weaving all over the road as he drove home.

When police showed up at his door, Councilman Jim Righeimer was found stone cold sober. The clear goal of the phony call was to embarrass a lawmaker who had been leading the charge in his city for public employee pension reform, outsourcing services and other cost-saving measures.  Subsequently, officials in other cities revealed similarly disturbing tactics from their police unions.  To Read More.....

 My Take - As I read this my first thought (by the way it gets a lot worse as you continue reading) was where is the Mayor and the Chief of Police, or Safety Director?  I have to believe this is a much more massive problem than appears on the surface.  I appears that there is a war within the city government between the City Council and everyone else, and apparently that includes all the police unions and their hired lackeys in the state. 

Quite frankly it appears to me as if this town is being run by public employees that have taken on all the earmarks of organized crime.  It would also appear to me that somewhere in all of this someone is violating federal RICO statutes.  I think the Feds have gone after people under RICO for less; as an example this is the law the Feds charged Blagajevich with.  Below is what RICO is and the section that I think applies

“The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization………

(Here is the section I think applies. RK)

There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers". The plaintiff must prove the existence of an "enterprise". The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise: either the defendant(s) invested the proceeds of the pattern of racketeering activity into the enterprise; or the defendant(s) acquired or maintained an interest in, or control over, the enterprise through the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conducted or participated in the affairs of the enterprise "through" the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conspired to do one of the above. In essence, the enterprise is the illegal device of the racketeers. A civil RICO action, like many lawsuits based on federal law, can be filed in state or federal court.

It is clear to me that they are deliberately intimidating honest citizens, corrupting the system and making false charges in order to destroy people’s reputations for personal gain.  What is going on here is criminal extortion.  However....this is California and I have difficulty feeling sorry for these people since they brought this on themselves due to their failure of courage, intelligence and common sense over decades.....and it is now coming home to roost.  Yet even now when they are going broke the citizens are still too stupid and cowardly to stand up and say enough is enough.  And this is the state the lefties point to as the examplar of civic responsibility.   Is it any wonder that the sane are leaving this lunatic asylum in droves? And taking their taxes with them!