Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/aclu/)
The City of Anaheim is currently the only city in Orange County with a civilian police review board. Santa Ana City Council members this Tuesday will talk about joining those ranks.
Keeping the public out of the loop has become an extreme sport for our elected class as well as the greatest threat to our democracy. In recent times, we’ve seen efforts here in Orange County to illegally restrict public comment, destroy public documents, squash dissenting council members, delay release of police misconduct records along with the murky process of monitoring state harassment investigations or changing federal regulations.
After years of protest, the ACLU heads into superior court next month against the County of Orange seeking a court injunction against restrictive public comment rules. The hearing is scheduled for June 12 at 10 am in Dept. C25 in front of Judge Sheila Fell.
The ACLU, Thursday morning, issued a report highlighting unsanitary, unsafe and abusive conditions at three County run shelters as the County and all OC cities are scheduled to appear in federal court in less than three weeks over the shortage of shelter beds and homeless policies.
The lawsuit claims the District Attorney and Sheriff continue to use informants illegally as part of a long-standing snitch program, despite official claims that the illegal use of informants is the work of a few rogue deputies.
The Brea City Council tabled a controversial proposed protest ordinance until next month after receiving opposition from the public and a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that warned of potential First Amendment violations in the proposed ordinance.
A staff proposal for a new Anaheim police review board appears to be moving toward selecting members as soon as spring 2018.
Beefed-up citizen oversight of the Anaheim Police Department will be considered by the City Council Tuesday. A report by the ACLU found Anaheim to be among the nation’s worst cities for deaths at the hands of police.
From 2003 to 2016, 33 people died following use-of-force by an Anaheim police officer. The Anaheim Police Department is the ninth deadliest police force among 60 of the largest U.S. cities, the ACLU report states.
The camping ordinance is a revision of the city’s previous camping law, which only addressed sleeping in cars, campers, recreational vehicles and trailers. The new ordinance applies to individuals sleeping anywhere on public property in the city.