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Friday, February 16, 2018

Emeryville Police Excoriates E'Ville Eye Blog

Police Officers Release Letter Refuting 
E'Ville Eye Editor

A recent smear campaign directed at the Emeryville City Council and the Emeryville police from the E'Ville Eye blog has prompted the Emeryville Police Officers' Association to release a letter defending the rank and file against the attacks on their officers, what they refer to as "negative posts" made by Rob Arias, the editor of the blog, and several of his readers.  The letter released to the Tattler late Friday evening refutes claims made by Mr Arias that the EPD is being manipulated by the Emeryville City Council, an alleged conspiracy he says that is responsible for what he calls a spike in crime, caused by the City Council members directing the police away from enforcing the law. 
E'Ville Eye Editor Rob Arias
Alleges the City Council is
manipulating the police.  The police
deny Mr Arias's "negative posts".

Mr Arias has directed the E'Ville Eye, Emeryville's pro-business news blog, in a conspiratorially minded direction with a recent flurry of stories blaming the City Council for driving businesses away and driving up crime because of their support for Emeryville's Minimum Wage Ordinance.  At the same time he is also asserting that back room dealings by the Council have laid plans to stamp out what he calls "police instincts" to quell law enforcement.  Without offering evidence, Mr Arias has informed his readers the Council wants Emeryville's police to be councilors for criminals instead of law enforcement agents because he says the City Council has made an  agreement that arrests are not necessary, rather "criminals will self-rehabilitate if we give them enough chances."   He has called upon the City Council to "stop undermining the force and let them do their job.", a charge specifically refuted by the police officers in their letter.

Any private agreements among the City Council members as Mr Arias suggests would be a violation of the law owing to the California code known as the Brown Act that requires public business to be conducted in public.  The Brown Act, also known as the 'sunshine law',  is clear, especially where a quorum of elected officials occurs behind closed doors as would necessarily be the case if Mr Arias' claims of conspiracy to manipulate the police were true.

The Emeryville Police Officers Association (EPOA), the public service union that represents the rank and file at EPD, is a natural adversary for Mr Arias it should be noted, who has long used his blog to rail against unions, including specifically Emeryville's public service unions.

Here is the letter received from the EPOA:

February 16th, 2018

Emeryville Police Officers' Association Supports Elected Officials

It was recently brought to the attention of the Emeryville Police Officers' Association Board off Directors that certain social media posts attributed statements to unidentified members of the Police Department which in some respects were critical to the relationship between the Emeryville Police Officers;' Association, the Mayor, and the City Council. 
While we continue to build upon our excellent relationship with the City and the community, we are not insensitive to the fact that members are always engaging in conversation with members of our community on various issues.  Some members of the community have their own set of beliefs that may influence their account of contact with our members.  We believe that our members exercise great restraint and discretion in engaging in conversation on topics that may be controversial.  It is our belief members will avoid disparaging our City government or the Police Department. 
Although we do not have any specifics on what was actually said or who may have said it, we have reached out to all our members asking them to be judicious and respectful in conversations about our Police Department and the city's elected officials.
Our police officers have always had a great relationship with and support from our elected city officials.  The police officers, sergeants and elected officials of Emeryville share interest in the safety of the community and are committed to working together to fight crime.  In a small City like ours, EPOC membership has a unique opportunity to make a significant contribution towards a better quality of life for our residents.  It is only in continued cooperation and collaborative effort between the Mayor, City Council, and the Emeryville Police Officers' Association that we will be able to realize Emeryville's true potential.  It is in this unified effort that we believe: Our size is our strength.
Finally, we want to acknowledge that our membership has thousands and thousands of contacts with citizens each year.  These recent negative posts represent a fraction of the number of comments made by citizens about us.  By far and away the majority of our contact with our community is very positive and social media reflects the professionalism and integrity of our members.
We look forward to working with residents, Mayor and the City Council to continue growing the quality of life in Emeryville.
Emeryville Police Officers' Association 

34 comments:

  1. How can this summarize Rob Arias’ position, without a link to what was actually written in the E’ville Eye? It seems a flawed article because readers are expected to receive this as credible; such a detailed explanation as to what Rob’s position is, without directing the readers to interpret his words on their own.

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    1. You are free to go to the E’Ville Eye on your own to read Rob’s stories and comments I quote. You can easily use Google or any other search engine to get you there. I don’t feel it’s responsible for me to direct Tattler readers over there via direct link because of all the hyperbole, misinformation and sociopathy on display at that right wing blog. I feel queazy directing my readers there and so the brave ones such as yourself are instructed to venture forth on their own. But I recommend caution. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

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  2. Speaking of hyperbole: "Mr Arias has directed the E'Ville Eye, Emeryville's pro-business news blog, in a conspiratorially minded direction"

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    1. Hmmm....what seems like hyperbole to you? Is it that I identified the E’Ville Eye as pro business? That’s an epithet Mr Arias would self apply. Is it my reporting on the planning by the City Council Rob alleges that is designed to hamstring the EPD resulting in higher crime? Again, Rob himself says that’s what is happening.

      It’s understandable that when someone reports accurately on over the top allegations like this, it can seem like hyperbole. That’s what one would suppose when this sort of bizarre thinking is taken out of the dark recesses of Rob’s blog and brought out into the greater public: charges of exaggeration. Again, his own words are the source material. These charges made by Mr Arias, were shocking to the EPD as well as you; so much so that they felt compelled to release the letter to the Tattler so I could present it to the rest of Emeryville. This letter defending themselves is not something this police department has done in the 37 years I’ve been here.
      The police here feel their professionalism is under attack by the E’Ville Eye and they want to set the record straight: the City Council is not directing them to go soft on criminals nor are they doing it of their own accord. It’s all made up by Rob Arias all using…..wait for it….hyperbole. My words accurately describe the thinking of and actions of this man.

      Rob has positioned himself to use his blog as a source of revenue for him. You should remember Christopher, Rob materially benefits by making outlandish claims in his heavily monetized blog. Each click earns him money. He said it himself, he’s trying to make enough advertising money (as well as business community payments for favorable stories) on his blog to quit his day job. Do you think there’s any temptation for Rob to bump up this month’s haul by use the click bait of these kinds of explosive allegations?

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  3. Ya, without the article in question, this article is flawed. I looked on E'Ville Eye, and I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

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    1. Well Dana, the flaw is not with the Tattler. Again, reporting these allegations are proving to be shocking to the community. You should look a little harder at Rob’s blog (difficult, I know):

      “we’re at this moment where local politicians want our cops to be counselors first and enforce the laws second. Any ‘police instincts’ are considered bias and we’re witnessing an ideology play out that insists criminals will self-rehabilitate if we give them enough chances”. -Rob Arias Feb 13 4:29 pm

      “My personal stance is that City Council needs to stop undermining our force and let them do their job. The EPD was the shining star among forces in the East Bay for a long time. It wasn’t broken and it didn’t need to be fixed”. -Rob Arias Feb 14 10:52 am

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  4. The Tattler is truly worse than Fox News. Your headline is 100% false. It is a shameless, stupid lie.

    It's not even a good lie or a nice, careful shading of the truth.

    All anyone has to do is read the letter to realize how badly you misrepresented what occurred. You compete with the EvilleEye. We get it. Get over it.

    Your headline is "Emeryville Police Excoriates E'Ville Eye Blog".

    1) There is nothing in the letter from EPOA that "excoriates" anyone.
    2) The letter doesn't criticize the E'ville Eye Blog at all
    3) The letter is entirely about "social media posts [that] attributed statements to unidentified members of the Police Department". It is referencing comments made by the public in the public comments section and suggests such comments may be influenced by the views of the people who wrote them. Duh.
    4) If the letter is critical of anyone, it's questioning its own police officers for lacking discretion in talking to the public about "controversial" issues.

    In other words, what absolutely did NOT happen is "Emeryville Police Excoriates E'Ville Eye Blog"

    The EPOA seems to have confused "controversial" issues with criticizing public policy decisions which, by the way, police officers have an absolute First Amendment right to do under Pickering v Board of Education and more recently and in an almost identical situation, Liverman v City of Petersburg whether they are controversial or not.

    We have truly come full circle when the police are using a "progressive" blog to promote a gag order on their officers to discourage them from criticizing public officials and to stifle and repress dissent.

    EPD Officers: PLEASE KEEP TALKING WITH THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE PROBLEMS YOU SEE IN THE DEPARTMENT.

    When the EPOA says "It is our belief members will avoid disparaging our City government or the Police Department", we understand exactly what they are trying to do.

    Thank you to all of those officers who have the guts to speak truth to power and who speak out rather than remaining silent.

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    1. Ahh yes…Fox News! You’re calling me Fox News. Well to that I say I know you are but what am I?
      I love how in the Bay Area, it’s so deep blue, nobody wants to admit they’re right wing so the universal epithet thrown at adversaries is ‘Fox News’ or ‘Rush Limbaugh’. In Texas, if you call somebody Fox News they’ll likely thank you for it. Out here it means precisely nothing since both the left and the right use the FN insult. It’s a nice way to give the impression you’re not a right wing loon: “the Tattler is all Fox News Sean Hannity, isn’t it folks? Now that we’ve got that settled, let me tell you why we need to reverse Emeryville Minimum Wage Ordinance…. “

      Hows it going over there in upside down right wing world Mr Anon where lies are truth and truth are lies? Seems like you guys are all perennially pissed off with all these non silenced libtards spouting off but you really shouldn’t be. It’s really nice to be in upside down world. It’s nice because when the police write a letter defending themselves from attacks by Rob and his minions saying they’re being manipulated by the City Council, the police insisting Rob is wrong, you can just claim it isn’t so…the letter is a chimera. So “negative posts” becomes nothing but air…no substance. In fact this whole letter really isn’t anything. The cops are just wishing everybody in Emeryville to have a nice day and they wrote a letter to the Tattler to tell it to the world. And the fact that Rob hasn’t reported on this letter from the Emeryville police he loves so is just because it’s not newsworthy, right? I mean if they’re really just typing for the sake of typing, why should Rob report that?

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  5. This needs a big “Opinion” label on it. It’s definitely not reporting.

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    1. So the Emeryville police are just imagining all of this? That’s why they wrote the letter, right? It’s their opinion but the opinion of the police is not anything the residents want to know, right? Hey Emeryville cops: opinions are like assholes; everybody’s got one. I got your “Emeryville cops support elected officials” right here!

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  6. It's no exaggeration to call the EVille Eye right wing. Rob is into every right wing conspiracy and the comments section has turned into Emeryville's cesspool. Now he has gone and pissed off the cops. That was probably not what he wanted but they don't feel like playing a role in the drama Rob is creating.

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    1. I think you're right; Rob is trying to use the police to sell his crackpot ideas to discredit the City Council and they (the police) don't want to let him use them. Can't say as I can blame them.

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  7. Some of the post CTV by individuals you don't seem to grasp the reality, history of our corrupt across the United States.

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  8. I'm going to cut straight to the chase and say it straight out. Department of Justice dirty as the Rampart Division in La is far as I'm concerned. I know for sure that the police department, the city, and the school district are all in bed together.

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  9. Rob's trumpocracy of solipsist followers exhibit the same myopic vision as their leader. If Rob Arias had been alive in Dante's time we would find him in the 10th Circle of Hell as a 'stirrer up of strife': "Perch'io parti' cosi giunte persone, / partito porto il mio cerebro, lasso!, /dal suo principio che'e' in questo troncone."

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    1. Ahh yes, the tenth circle. I thought I had witnessed the basest of all sinners. So who are these figures I now see? Do my eyes betray me, or are their heads fully absorbed in the derrières of others? And who are these individuals whose bottoms are swollen due to the immense size of the heads there immersed?

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    2. Ah Brian,

      no, that's the 20th Canto. I was quoting from Canto XXVIII, lns.139-141: 'Because I severed persons thus conjoined, / severed, alas, I carry my own brain /from its starting-point here in my body."
      One sees a lot of ones contemporaries here in these circles...

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    3. The Tattler is thus refuted and found lacking.
      So many verses are apropos.

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    4. Bob, unfortunately you botched Dante. That’s the Eighth Circle.

      (Expert tip: If you're guessing, always choose a number lower than ten. It gives you a better chance since Dante only had Nine Circles of Hell.)

      It’s generous of you to throw Rob in the same pit where Dante threw Muhammad. A subtle comment on your opinion of Islam possibly? Or a generous nod to the prophetic nature of the EvilleEye?

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    5. "Anonymous" - Thanks for the correction. It's the 9th of the TEN malebolge. Curiously, upon checking, you've also uncovered another error. My edition of the Hollanders' translation's outline(p. XV) erroneously gives Canto XVIII instead of Canto XXVII from which I cited the quote mentioned above. Thanks for the exchange.

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    6. Malebolge? That's a new one on me. Tattler readers: a very lettered bunch. There's not too much Dante quoting going on over at the other blog. More the myopia of subjective idealism as Bob aptly pointed out.

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  10. Have you ever thought that this letter may also be talking about you? I can think of many instances where you have written negatively against them. Anyways, who cares if the police criticized the council, they deserve it.

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  11. I know you have a feud going on with the E'ville Eye guy, but are you really siding with the POA on this? Take the Black Lives Matter sticker down from your sidebar if you're going to go to bat for the people who killed Yuvette Henderson.

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    1. Because it’s not possible for anyone serious to believe Rob on this, I am “siding with” the POA in this case . I am reporting that Rob Arias, the editor of one of Emeryville’s two news blogs, reported the City Council secretly directed the EPD to go easy on criminals, a charge they deny. It’s obvious Mr Arias is making stuff up out of whole cloth because he doesn’t provide any evidence for this alleged conspiracy never mind the ridiculousness of it all. The fact that the Emeryville police are not going soft on criminals as Rob insists, is immaterial to the Yuvette Henderson case and so I don’t understand your point.

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  12. You two need to just go get a room. The Tattler? More like the Tattle Tale.

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    1. tat·tle
      ˈtadl/
      verb
      1.
report another's wrongdoing.



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  13. Wait. Aren’t you relate to a council member? His brother, I believe?
    No bias here.

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    1. Well, you’re quite observant; no bias. It looks like you read the Tattler often. I can say that with confidence because as you’ve noted, the Tattler has no bias that would benefit, in this case, Council member Donahue. In fact the Tattler has been Mr Donahue’s biggest critic (use the search bar to check that claim). But we don’t stop there; we’re also quite critical of Council members Bauters, Medina, Martinez and Patz (Medina and Patz have gotten a lighter touch probably because they’ve stayed out of the news more than the others…so far). And this insistence on accountability is directed towards Council members that are RULE endorsed. Because that’s the way the Tattler rolls: when the elite screw up, we’re out there telling the world about it, regardless of their endorsements or last names.

      Thanks for the comment.

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    2. “Elite”? In Emeryville? Hahaha.
      btw - I’ve read your posts, and I’ve been subjected to you in town and at Town Hall meetings. There’s always one.

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    3. Elite
      noun
      1) a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group.
      I’m not sure why you find this funny.
      And as to being “subjected” to me…yeah, it’s you AND the elite (business and government) that find themselves subjected to me….BTW it’s called ‘accountability’. All who fail in their duties as elites find themselves eviscerated by the buzzsaw that is the Emeryville Tattler.

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  14. Crime, History & Archive, News & Commentary
    A former Emeryville Police Officer convicted of rape in 1989 is set for a Parole hearing after spending the past 27 years in prison.

    Hey Emeryville finest! You sure you're not going to rehire this fuck? I'd love to see some of your jackets and emails and texts.

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  15. Hey Miss anthropology! I wish that it can be said that there is only one of you but unfortunately we have so many ass kissers for these corrupt assholes that it's mind-boggling

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