McDade Shooting Report Consumes Public Safety Meeting

 

A discussion regarding the independent investigative report on the 2012 Pasadena Police Department shooting of 19 year-old Kedrick McDade took over most of the Monday afternoon meeting of the City Council Public Safety Committee.

Members of the Northwest Pasadena community, along with other residents and members of Black Lives Matter Pasadena, commented, sometimes noisily, on the Pasadena Police Officers’ Association’s (PPOA) plan to ask a judge to block the release of an independent investigation into the shooting. The two officers involved in the shooting—Officers Jeffrey Newlen and Mathew Griffin —were legally cleared in the case, and have returned to patrol duty on the force. McDade’s parents received $1 million from the City in a settlement last year.

An independent review of the shooting by the Office of Independent Review was finalized for to the city in 2014, but the PPOA was granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the release of the report to the public.

Since then, the Court of Appeals for the second Appellate District has rejected previous attempts by the PPOA, as recently as September, to block the report’s release. The PPOA plans to file a last-minute Ex Parte application in court Tuesday morning to once again block the release of the report.

“Practically everyone on the City Council, to the Council staff and the City Attorney’s staff, has said they want this report released to the public to the maximum extent allowed by law,” said civil rights attorney Dale Gronemeier, who represents McDade’s mother, “but right now the City Attorney’s office is acting to subvert that process.”

Gronemeier said that he would appear in court Tuesday to oppose the application to block the report’s release, and asked members of the Council to join him.

Michelle White of the Pasadena office of the ACLU also spoke against the PPOA, saying, “We are always being told that there is never enough money, especially for affordable housing, but instead we’re using our resources in a way that will prolong our rightful access to this report. We have been asking for this report for over three years.”

“What is it about this report that you can’t release?” asked Michael Williams of Northwest Pasadena. “If this is about privacy, why not just leave out personal things like addresses and phone numbers, and release the report? This is not about protecting private information, this is about covering up a murder of a young man who was killed by police officers here in Pasadena.”

Public Safety Committe Chair Councilmember Kennedy responded to Williams, saying that “The Mayor will address this directly, but the City Council as a whole has said publicly that we would like the release of the report, consistent with the protections that are required, and consistent with the rulings of the court.”

Jasmine Richards of Black Lives Matter Pasadena, then delivered a rambling demand to the Committee, saying “There has been a blunt disregard for black lives in Pasadena, not just by the systematic oppression, but the blunt disregard for life.”

Richards then outlined a list of demands which included the “de-militarization of parks” and the firing of Chief of Police Phillip Sanchez. She also demanded the creation of a “community oversight board [for the police] with the power to hire and fire…” She also asked for reparations for “all those victimized by the Pasadena police.”

Richards continued to speak past her time limit, refused to stop when told her time was up, and sat down only when she was threatened with arrest. She later accused a Pasadena police officer of pushing her as she left the Council chambers, creating a disturbance in the adjoining hallway as she refused to leave City Hall. She eventually left without further incident.

PPOA spokesperson David Yanez said later, in response to the various criticisms, saying, “We want the report to come out, but it has to go through due process. We ask the community to be patient, and to respect the rights of not only officers, but individuals and employees of this great city. We stand behind officers Newlen and Griffin 100%, and we support Chief Sanchez, and we support this committee.”

Owing to the time taken up by the non-agendized McDade report discussion, the committee only briefly discussed the Body Worn Cameras issue, asking to receive a report on the use of such cameras in other local cities which were mentioned in the evening’s public comments.

The committee then voted 3-1 to direct the City attorney to prepare and return with an ordinance within 30 days, that would add new sections to Chapter 6 of the Pasadena Municipal Code prohibiting the cultivation and delivery of medical marijuana in the city.

The committee tabled discussion on this week’s emergency preparedness drill, as it readied for a closed session of the full City Council.