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March 11, 2012

Chronologically, this is how it went down: On Saturday, February 18, Peter Cukor found Daniel DeWitt trespassing at his home in Berkeley. Cukor ordered him to leave twice and DeWitt did so. Cukor called the police non-emergency number. Then Cukor walked to a nearby fire station to get help, but the fire fighters were out on a call. When Cukor got back to his house, DeWitt bludgeoned him to death.

Cukor's wife, Andrea, then called 911 and Berkeley Police showed up in 4 minutes. Berkeley PD have said that no one came in response to the first non-emergency call because officers were being kept on standby for an expected Occupy action.

Since then there have been questions about how the police handled it, so on Thursday evening, March 8, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan and other city and police officials came to a community meeting at Northbrae Community Church to discuss the matter. Reporter Doug Oakley of the Contra Costa Times/Oakland Tribune attended the meeting, which ended around 9:30 PM, after which he wrote and filed his story.

Going back to 11:21:44 PM on Thursday night when Mr. Oakley's story was put online: Mr. Oakley had gone to bed for a comfortable rest...for little more than an hour. At 12:45 AM Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, Berkeley PD public information officer, came knocking at Mr. Oakley's door. Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan had ordered her to go to Oakley's home. "'She didn't want to be here at all,' said Oakley. 'She was really apologetic. She was told to go.'" She told Oakley that the Chief had been unable to reach him by phone or email [well duh!] and he wanted errors in the story corrected before the Tribune hit the streets. Mr. Oakley explained that it would be impossible to change the story until 7 AM when real live people showed up for work at the Tribune.

The important error in the story was that Oakley had written that the Police Chief had apologized for not responding to Cukor's first call, when in fact the Chief had apologized only for not getting information out to the community quickly enough.

So, the story of the day on Friday was not about the community meeting, but about the Police Chief sending an officer to a reporter's home in the middle of the night.

The Chief has since apologized:

I sincerely apologize for my actions on Thursday night. The Berkeley Police Department has a good, productive working relationship with the Oakland Tribune and its reporters. I have apologized to the reporter personally and I take full responsibility for this error in judgment. I was frustrated with the Department's ability to get out timely information, but that is no excuse. My actions do not reflect the values of the Berkeley Police Department. I deeply appreciate the importance of an independent and thoroughly informed media, and how they assist us in making our community aware of important events and information. I am committed to ensuring that the Police Department continues to have a trusting and professional working relationship with the press and to make sure that happens, I am planning for an independent review of the Department's policies and practices regarding release of information to the media.

Also, Interim City Manager Christine Daniel has released a statement: "There was no justification for contacting the reporter in this way and the Chief understands that the more appropriate response to his concerns about inaccurate statements in the article should have been to wait until the following day and make contact by phone or email. The Chief has acknowledged his lapse in judgment and assured me that nothing like this will happen again."

Thus endeth the sideshow.

Filed under Libertarianism | permalink | March 11, 2012 at 10:40 AM

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