Today, the private sector only has to pay 8 or 10 dollars an hour for someone who's training isn't any better than an Andy Frain usher - usually someone with a psychological profile unsuitable to a city police department. If the business needs a real officer in full uniform, they will appear at no charge. If your car is hit while parked in a private parking lot, what will you be told when you try to have even an obvious offender ticketed? You will be told that since it occurred on private property it is a civil issue and the police do not have jurisdiction. If it's in a shopping mall, all you need to do is carefully read one of the signs where they post a standard disclaimer that they are not responsible for anything that happens to your car.

The New Developers of the New American Century somehow have the pull to have their cake and eat it too: they can get a significant percentage of the local police department to show up in advance of a peaceful protest to augment their security staff in it's illegal activities (illegal: this mall has been successfully sued over the same issue of suppress free speech)

This is nothing other than corruption on a grand scale.

I know for a fact that police officers have been fired for this type of behavior, and it has nothing to do with constitutional or civil rights. It's corruption plain and simple. No, they are not available for what amounts to pre-emptive security for private concerns. My father was a fireman, and was around long enough to achieve public recognition. In his day, police were looked down upon when they would even accept as part time work what the Capitola police above perform at no charge: except to the taxpayers.

In Capitola, the police department is continuously complaining that they are understaffed, inadequately prepared for emergencies, and unable to pay the prevailing wage for officers in the area. So how do they happen to have extra officers and equipment to augment the private security force of the Capitola Mall?

My conclusion is this: the owners of the mall should be made to pay the full cost of the call made by the officers, including desk support and vehicles. Then the officer who made the decision to deploy them should be brought up for a investigation, and possible discipline. Finally, there is a civil rights issue at stake that cuts even deeper than the 1980 decision mentioned in the previous Indymedia report: equal protection under the constitution. This would be an excellent test case to challenge a practice that has become commonplace throughout the country.

David Roknich

DOGSPOT