[Updated] City Manager Miguel Márquez told Pasadena Now he looks forward to working with the Community Police Oversight Commission, and also said the approach to accountability has to be balanced.
“I think it’s a good form of democracy to help us get concurrence on the kind of police department we all want to see,” Márquez told Pasadena Now. “As much as we want to hold our police department accountable and try to build the kind of police department we want, we have to recognize the inherent dangers that they face every day and they have every right to go home to their families as anybody else who’s reporting to work. So it’s got to be a really balanced approach that recognizes all of those essential parts of what policing is about.”
After years of unproductive discussions, the City Council voted unanimously to start a Police Oversight Commission in the wake of the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis.
Márquez cited an incident in El Monte that left two officers dead earlier this summer as an example of what officers face on the job.
“That just breaks your heart,” Márquez said.
The City has to keep communities and police officers safe and put in best practices, he said.
“I think the bigger issue is actually guns,” Márquez said.
He referred to a report which, as he recalled, showed in 2011 there were 88 guns for every 100 Americans but by 2022 that number had grown to 122 guns for every 100 Americans.
“That’s a crazy statistic,” Márquez said. “And you just say, come on, there’s just way too many guns out there. If you look at so many of the issues that have driven this community to come out and be vocal, it has a gun somewhere in the story.”
Locally, the Pasadena Police Department took 288 guns off the street in 2020. About 10 percent of the recovered weapons were ghost guns.
Ghost guns can be assembled by unlicensed buyers from legally purchased kits. The LAPD reported that a polymer 9mm ghost handgun takes between 30 minutes and two hours to assemble.
The unfinished parts are inexpensive and not currently required under federal law to have serial numbers or a background check to purchase.
The City Council recently passed an ordinance prohibiting the possession of ghost guns and ghost gun kits, unserialized firearms, and does not provide a “safe harbor” if, before January 1, 2024, users have applied for a serial number for their (presently) unserialized firearm.
Pasadena police shot and killed an armed carjacking suspect late last month after he drove at them in a stolen vehicle in the parking lot of a strip mall on Orange Grove Blvd. near the intersection with North Lake Avenue.
At one point the suspect had a gun to his head.
On Wednesday, a police spokesperson told Pasadena Now that an administrative review regarding a fatal police shooting in August, 2020 is pending.
In that incident, police shot and killed Anthony McClain during a traffic stop on Raymond Avenue near La Pintoresca Park.
McClain, who was a passenger in the vehicle, fled after he was asked to step out of the car. A Pasadena police officer shot him as he fled the scene.
The officer said McClain was armed.
McClain’s DNA was later recovered from a weapon found at the scene, according to the Pasadena Police Department.
District Attorney George Gascón has cleared the officers of wrongdoing. The administrative review is being conducted to determine if the police officers adhered to departmental policy.
“So the gun issue is not going to go away. Our U. S. Supreme Court has said that you can regulate guns under strict scrutiny, but I don’t think they’ve ever seen a regulation they said is okay,” Márquez said. “And so I think the government is very hamstrung in being able to effectively regulate guns and guns can be used to kill people. And we have to keep struggling to find better ways to address our gun epidemic, not just in Pasadena, but in our country.”
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