EMERGENCY MEETING CALLED AT CITY HALL - LRPD CHIEF SUMMONED TO APPEAR AT A SPECIAL SUNDAY AFTERNOON BOARD MEETING TO ADDRESS SKYROCKETING VIOLENT CRIME

In an unprecedented move, Little Rock's elected officials have scheduled an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon with police chief Kenton Buckner to discuss the spike in gang violence. 

The meeting is set for tomorrow at 3:00 P.M. in the board room at city hall. The meeting is open to the public. 

According to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, there have been 12 more homicides so far this year that in the same period last year, with 19 recorded as of Thursday.

The story also reported that there were 71 people who received nonfatal gunfire injuries  as of Thursday, a 92% increase compared with the 37 recorded in the same date last year.  Officials stated that at least 16 of those shootings involved a victim who was participating in gang activity, a drug deal or some kind of crime.  One in five victims refused to cooperate with police.

Both LRPD and Bruce Moore the City Manager have used the term "rival parties" instead of gangs in interviews.

As we reported last Tuesday, at the March 21st city board meeting, Director Dorris Wright asked City Manager Bruce Moore to have the Little Rock Police Department provide information about what was behind a rash of shootings in the city, especially in her ward which encompasses  parts of central and west Little Rock.

The report, which by the way took LRPD a month to create and forward to Moore, did not have much to offer.

Then to throw fuel on the fire, the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police posted this on their Facebook Page.

The LRFPO  blames Moore and the city board for not filling roughly 70 officer vacancies and not keeping officers equipment updated.

We guess that the approximately $400k that the city spent on riot gear for all uniformed officers doesn't count.

Or that huge, state of the art two-story police building building on 12th Street.

Or the $350K the city spent this year for emergency lights and equiptment for first responder units (includes police cars).

Or the nearly half a million dollars the city is spending to lease new police vehicles. Last year an audit found the city spends nearly three million dollars a year on patrol cars that are considered past their service life. The audit also showed the fleet department was overstaffed and inefficient. 
 

And we don't need to bring up the fact (but we will) that over half of all uniformed police officers are not resident's of Little Rock. What business do they have trying to hold the board of directors responsible for anything when they are not voters anyway?  

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2015/06/majority-of-little-rock-police-officers.html

The department is authorized to fill those vacancies, but too few graduating recruits each year paired with retirements have kept the vacancies consistent.

Even a $5,000 signing bonus is not helping get recruits.

 

That FOP post lit a fire under Director Lance Hines.

Hines said the staffing shortage can't be used as an excuse.
 

"We're short-handed, I understand that. But we have the police force we have, and we're going to have to do the best with what we got," he said.

"I just think the community-policing effort, until we are fully staffed, needs to be put on the back burner. We need to go back to the old-school police tactics and do zero tolerance for any criminal activity, whether that's panhandling on the corner or littering or anything," he said.

"We should have a top 25 hit list of most wanted gang members, and if they spit on the sidewalk, litter, jaywalk, we ought to be running them in. We need to put the word out that we are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior on our streets."

"It's time to stop playing hug a cop and start being a cop,"  Hines said, referring to the department's community-policing initiative, which focuses partially on officers building relationships with community members.
 

Hines said it's common knowledge "on the street" that the slain toddler's father is a gang member.
 

"They know who the suspects [in the toddler's death] are, but won't cooperate with police. The rest of the shootings have been retaliations," Hines said.

HINES KNOWS A "G" WHEN HE SEE'S ONE

Stodola said Buckner will give city directors an update Sunday on what the department's Violence Reduction Unit is working on. He said the city also has been organizing a group of ex-felons who might have some "street credibility" and be able to reach youths potentially involved in crime.

"The recent retaliatory shootings in Little Rock have justifiably upset our community," the mayor said. "We are committed to finding answers to bring a stop to this violence and we want to let the public know what the city is doing about it."

MAYOR STODOLA SAYS WHILE THE GROUPS COULD BE DESCRIBED AS GANGS, THEY DON"T NECESSARILY FIT THE USUAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A GANG

Stodola came under fire a while back for taking over a year to research what Little Rock could do about the ever rising crime rate, after the city was ranked number one for crime for a city of its size.

Stodala couldn't come up with anything and formed a task force to tackle the problem.

Nothing more has ever been said about that task force since then and we have not heard about any findings or recommendations they made.

Chief Buckner has had his own problems, missing handgun, failing marks from a city commission.

What?  You haven't heard about the failing marks?

Last year was rough for Kenton. The board on multiple occasions raised all kinds of a stink about his officers not wanting to live in Little Rock because of the crime and the schools. 

Various groups accused the chief of doing nothing to help the black community in their efforts to stop black-on-black crime.

The chief often posted where he had eaten lunch or went to church on the LRPD Facebook page. Not so much about what he was doing to fight crime.

Most of Buckner's posts have been deleted from the LRPD Facebook page after certain individuals brought him to task about those posts.

Those individuals were blocked from being able to post comments or even see the LRPD Facebook page.  So much for free speech.

LRPD FURNISHED A PARTIAL LISTING OF BLOCKED INDIVIDUALS

In March 2015, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran a story about claims LRPD made about a 4.9% drop in crime. 

 

Buckner's remarks in the article caused the Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission to request a meeting with Chief Buckner. 

Buckner, who often losses his composure when challenged, demanded that the RCD evaluate his performance and give him a letter grade.

They honored his request and he got an "F".

One thing you can bet Chief Buckner will not discuss is the special treatment police officers receive from LRPD when involved in a traffic accident.

Back in March, Buckner was following a vehicle too close and rammed into it causing damage to his city owned vehicle and the vehicle he struck.

Buckner was not issued a citation even though it was obvious that he was in violation of the law. Not to mention the accident was his fault.

Then in April, he had another accident, again his fault.

Stay tuned for a post about these shenanigans.

If you are planning on attending the Emergency Meeting tomorrow afternoon you better get there early.  

The board room will be packed with news media and seating is extremely limited.

CITY BLAMES RECENT SPIKE IN SHOOTINGS ON "RIVAL PARTIES" - A CODE WORD FOR GANGS

"IT'S LIKE WE ARE UNDER SIEGE" - DIRECTOR DORIS WRIGHT

At a city board meeting back in March, Director Dorris Wright asked City Manager Bruce Moore to have the Little Rock Police Department provide information about what was behind a rash of shooting in the city, especially in her ward which encompasses  parts of central and west Little Rock.

It took LRPD an entire month to provide City Manager Moore a paragraphs worth of information.

 

 

The paragraph about crime statistics was the easy part and probably took a couple of minutes to look that information up.

Why the city is afraid to speak plainly and admit that the shootings were gang related and instead used a euphemism that appears less dangerous is just as alarming as the ever increasing crime.

Just yesterday there were four shooting in less that five hours.

Here are some crimes that have occurred, all over the city in the last few days:

- A man armed with a large pistol forced two Little Rock Waffle House employees inside the business, which he then robbed.
 
- A man was struck with a gun and robbed by two men who approached him in a vacant lot near a Little Rock club where he had parked his car.

- A 63-year-old Little Rock man who was chopping wood outside his home Saturday afternoon was robbed at gunpoint by two men

- After a robber made off with an 81-year-old woman's purse outside a west Little Rock store Monday afternoon.

- The only one of these four publicized that was solved so far is the last one. Not by LRPD, but by a man who witnessed the crime who then chased after the assailant and recovered her stolen property of the 81 year old victim.

A story about this memorandum, which appeared on the front page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today, relates that violent crime is on the rise in Little Rock and there has been a 16% increase in violent crime from January 1, 2017 through April 17, 2017 compared to the same time period last year. 

No word from the task force that Mayor Stodola formed quite some time ago to take care of the crime problem in Little Rock after spending a year or so doing research on how to reduce it himself.

Changes are needed in Little Rock municipal government.  Just go to a Board of Director's meeting or watch videos of the meetings on the city's YouTube channel and it won't take you long to realize what those changes are.

WARD 2 DIRECTOR KEN RICHARDSON FINALLY SHOWS UP FOR A VOTING MEETING - BUT HE SNEAKS OUT EARLY PROVIDING A HUMOROUS ENDING TO THE BOARD MEETING

DIRECTOR RICHARDSON MAKES A RARE APPEARANCE AT A VOTING MEETING, WITH A HUGE BUMP IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS FOREHEAD

We previously posted that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran a story recently about Ken Richardson, the Ward 2 Board member, having missed almost half of the city board of director meetings since January 2016 where voting occurred.

This creates serious concerns about his ability to effectively represent his ward and impacts the ability of the board to take care of business for all citizens of the city.

Due to recent coverage of his many absences or to the fact that he had nothing better to do, Ken made a rare appearance this past Tuesday and actually showed up for a board meeting to vote on important issues - with a big bump and cut smack dab in the middle of his forehead.

Did Ken have a little too much to drink again and fall flat on his face?  Did someone give him a good smack with a frying pan?  Did flashing lights trigger a seizure and he fell? Your guess is as good as ours.

A few minutes before the meeting was was over, Richardson is sitting in his chair talking with Vice-Mayor Kathy Webb.

Then he quietly left the meeting during the Citizen Communication portion of the meeting.

At the end of Citizen Communication's,  Mayor Mark Stodola, unaware that Ken booked out early, stated, "Director Richardson, ahhh, do I hear a motion to adjourn from you?" Hearing no response, Mayor Stodola looks over to where Richardson had been seated and notices he is gone and then says, "Oh, he's not here anymore!" and loud laughter erupts. Then Mayor Stodola spreads out his arms and exclaims, "He vanished on me!" 

Who knew that a Little Rock Board of Director meeting could provide so much entertainment? 

Our previous post pointed out the fact that Richardson has a history of drinking and driving and he has admitted to having an issue with liquor. According to some accounts he also suffers from seizures for which he takes medication.

But his admission to being a dangerous drunk driver and driving when his license was suspended is just the tip of the iceberg.

Our research into Richardson's legal issues uncovered a little known matters.  

Back in 1986, Richardson was charged with burglary in San Jose, California.  Apparently he hotfooted it from the land of fruits and nuts and sought refuge from the law back in Little Rock.

According to the San Jose County Criminal Court Clerk, they issued a fugitive arrest warrant for Richardson, but he never stood trial for the criminal offense.

We found that he was actually arrested on the fugitive warrant once he returned to Little Rock, but due to the passage of time there are few records of what transpired once he was arrested here on the California fugitive warrant.

Richardson refused to answer questions we posed to him about the disposition of the criminal charges from California.

We found some information about Richardson's time in California in an article the Arkansas Times published about gang activity in Little Rock.

Apparently Richardson left California due to the burglary charges and came back to Little Rock and subsequently obtained a job with the city.  As previously stated, Richardson was never in court for the charges as California couldn't find him.

Richardson was a big player in getting that monstrosity of a building on 12th Street for LRPD and retail businesses.   

It opened in 2014 and the retail space on the ground floor still sits empty.

The city has paid a consultant a huge fee to help fill the empty space with tenants and as of this date none have been identified. 

There have also been questions about the non-profit agency he worked for, New Futures for Youth -  now defunct, that received thousands in tax dollars and  grants and any influence he might have exerted to receive funds for it from the City of Little Rock.From 2010 through 2016 the City paid $1,403,008.36 to New Futures for Youth.

Richardson needs to man up and answer questions we posed to him.  The citizens of Little Rock have the right to know the truth about city officials.

 

 

WARD 2 CITY DIRECTOR KEN RICHARDSON HAS MISSED ALMOST HALF OF ALL VOTING MEETINGS OF THE CITY BOARD SINCE THE BEGINNING OF LAST YEAR

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Ken Richardson, the Ward 2 City Director has missed 40 percent of all voting meetings of the city board since January 2016, making him the most frequently missing or absent board member. 

Richardson has missed the past four voting meetings of the Board of Directors, making it to only one so far this year. 

Since January 2016, he has missed 13 of 33 voting board meetings. The next-highest number of meetings missed by a city director during that time was four.

Richardson has also has the distinction while also racking of having the highest amount of expense reimbursements for trips.

Since January 2016, the city has reimbursed his costs for three trips, totaling $7,702.76 , again more than any other city board member. 

Richardson is also the most frequent board member to be arrested.

Watch the LRPD traffic stop of an incoherent Ken Richardson on September 2, 2015. 

Officers didn't see or smell alcohol and didn't perform a sobriety test. They also didn't run a license check. Had they run a license check, they would have discovered that Richardson's license had been suspended. He told officer that he was meeting with the police union the next day and claimed a relative lived in the home where his car was stopped in the middle of the street (if you watch the video, you will find the homeowner was question by LRPD and did not know who Richardson was).

In fact, Richardson was driving with a suspended license back in January 2015 when he was involved in a DWI arrest (not his first one either). 

Patrol officer Zachary Hardman's report said he began attempting to stop Richardson, 48, in the 4100 block of South University. He said he had to drive 65 mph to stop the northbound vehicle he was following. It changed lanes without signaling and was swerving, he said. It swerved further in making a turn into a Wendy's parking lot in the 3900 block of University and ran into a shrub before stopping.

A field breath alcohol test gave a .174 reading. A test at the Pulaski County jail gave a .187 reading. He was ticketed and released to his mother on his own recognizance. The 2002 Honda Accord car he was driving, listed as being owned by Carlton McClinton, was impounded.

You might wonder what happened to that DWI case?  

It was dismissed.

Shenanigans.

**CORRECTION**

Our initial response from the Pulaski County District Court by phone was that the 2015 DWI charge against Richardson was dismissed. That information was partly true, the charges filed in Little Rock District Court - Traffic Division were dropped, but the case was transferred to Pulaski County District Court and we received documents from them on March 22nd.

Richardson only had to post a $100 bond and was fined $1,125.  Shenanigans. 

THANKS IN PART TO BRYAN DAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF LR PORT AUTHORITY USING THE ASHLEY MADISON WEBSITE, ARKANSAS NETS $52,830 IN SETTLEMENT

The owner of dating site Ashley Madison has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission investigation and state charges related to the 2015 data breach, the FTC announced Wednesday.

Twelve states, including Arkansas and the District of Columbia, were part of the settlement. Arkansas will receive $52,830 as part of the deal, according to the attorney general's office.

"While I do not condone the activities of those who joined the Ashley Madison website, it is my job as Attorney General to take action when Arkansans' data is breached," Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement Wednesday. "The false actions taken by this corporation were wrong and exposed countless members to potential fraud."

The Ashley Madison hack was notable in part because the site aimed to help people discretely cheat on their significant others, yet the data breach left personal information about its users exposed. Hackers who called themselves the Impact Group posted a large cache of data stolen from the site online, which was quickly turned into a searchable database that wreaked havoc on some users' lives.

Thanks to the hackers, we learned that  Bryan Day, Executive Director of the Little Rock Port Authority was listed in the hacked data as being a member.

BRYAN DAY - REVEALED AS AN ASHLEY MADISON MEMBER

According to a spokesman for the AG's office the funds will be used for consumer education.

Be sure and thank Day for helping us get this windfall!

BTW - Turns out most all of the female profiles on Ashley Madison were fake. A fool and his money are soon parted. LMAO

http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944

https://www.eteknix.com/99-women-profiles-ashley-madison-fake/

LR BOARD OF DIRECTOR JOAN ADCOCK LONE DISSENTING VOTE IN RESOLUTION TO REMOVE ROBERT E. LEE HOLIDAY OBSERVANCE - "KEEP MY NAME OFF IT" SAYS ADCOCK

In keeping with her support of southern heritage (some say racist beliefs), Little Rock Board of Director Joan Adcock was the only board member to refuse to support a resolution to ask Arkansas legislators to repeal the state's dual celebration of Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee and only keep the King holiday observance on the third Monday in January.

Adcock also voted against changing the name of Confederate Boulevard last year.

The resolution from the Little Rock Board of Directors, passed 8-1, requests that the Little Rock delegation try again during this year's legislative session.

City Director Joan Adcock was the only director to vote against the resolution and made a special request that any letter sent to the legislature did not include her name. Her excuse, as reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was, "I feel like we have enough problems in the city without trying to tell the state what to do. I don't feel like we need to tell them what to do. ... I feel like we need to solve the problems of Little Rock."

Not to let Director Adcock spoil the effect of the resolution, it was cleverly drafted so that a casual reading of it gives the appearance that the entire board was fully behind the resolution.

 CLICK TO VIEW THE RESOLUTION

We suggest that Director Adcock do the only honorable thing and immediately resign her position to show that she is truly a daughter of the South.

This would remove the old fart from the board and give a fresh new face a chance to improve the city and be a step to remove those with racist and divisive attitudes from city government.

LITTLE ROCK CITY ATTORNEY TOM CARPENTER ON COLLISION COURSE WITH CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE TIM FOX

LR CITY SHYSTERS CARPENTER, BETTON & FIELDS WITH CITY MANAGER BRUCE MOORE

Little Rock City attorney Tom Carpenter has once again rubbed Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox the wrong way.

JUDGE TIM FOX - PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT 6TH DIVISION

  

Readers will recall the post we made back in June in which we detailed problems Judge Fox had with one of Carpenter's deputies,  Latonya Austin.

 CLICK TO VIEW JUNE POST 

In review... back in April, Fox fined the city of Little Rock $10,000 for not being prepared to go forward on a trial in a 2-year-old lawsuit brought by a fired police officer who is suing over her termination.

When city officials did not pay the money by the deadline set by Fox or post the bond required for an appeal, the judge ordered the city manager to court to explain why his ruling had neither been followed nor appealed. 

Fox also ordered Carpenter to undergo six hours of training in managing a law office.

Fox said Carpenter could not justify the trial delays with the explanation that only one of his deputies was assigned to the case.

The issues in that case are complex enough to require the city assign two lawyers to handle it, the judge said.

 
Carpenter has appealed Fox's sanctions to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Which brings us to the present situation.

Fox directed the parties to participate in mediation sessions. Carpenter sent two deputy city attorneys, Amy Beckman Fields and Alex Betton, who were not empowered with negotiating authority.  Bad move Tommy boy.

AMY BECKMAN FIELDS & ALEXANDER BETTON

      

Fox told news media that Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter regularly disregards court orders so the mayor and city manager must participate in mediation sessions to try and resolve a lawsuit against the city. 

Carpenter has an ever-increasing track record of "flouting or avoiding" orders, Judge Fox added.

The judge's ruling comes in response to the complaint of an attorney suing Little Rock that the city is refusing to abide by Fox's orders to attempt mediation as a tactic to "grind [my client] into dust, using its superior resources."

The judge said he is considering requiring City Manager Bruce Moore and Mayor Mark Stodola to attend mediation proceedings in every lawsuit against the city that comes before his court.

Moore said he would do whatever the judge wanted, and Stodola, a former elected prosecutor who's been a lawyer since 1974, said he would be pleased to represent the city in litigation meetings.

Fox also said he might relent on requiring the officials' attendance if the city guarantees to send a representative with negotiating authority to participate in the mediation.

Both sides are ordered to attempt arbitration within a month or face sanctions. For the plaintiff, those penalties could include having the lawsuit dismissed, and for the city, its defense could be annulled in part or whole by the judge.