LRPD CHIEF MIFFED ABOUT GETTING HELP FROM OUTSIDE AGENCIES - SKIPS GOVERNOR'S INITAL MEETING ABOUT LR CRIME EPIDEMIC

WHERE'S THE CHIEF?

At last night's meeting of the LR Board of Director's, several speakers called for the immediate resignation of LRPD Chief Kenton Bucker, and most of the city leaders in attendance.

Buckner became visibly agitated when board members suggest that he seek help from other law enforcement agencies, especially the Arkansas State Police.

Buckner addressed the city Board of Directors for 90 minutes Wednesday night on the gunfire, fielding questions from concerned officials and residents.

Few new details emerged from Wednesday’s board meeting. Buckner spoke generally about the gunfire and ongoing investigation.

The shooting is believed to have been sparked from a dispute and is likely related to a long-standing feud among two “rival organizations,” he has said. 

Memphis rapper Ricky Hampton, who performs under the name Finese 2Tymes and was present at the time of the shooting, was arrested Sunday on an aggravated-assault charge related to a shooting June 25 at Club Envy in Forrest City.

Hampton, 25, is considered a “person of interest” in the Little Rock nightclub shooting. No arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon.

While violent crime is up in Little Rock this year, the numbers are still well below those of the 1990s, the height of gang violence, according to police. 

Since Jan. 1, instances of violent crime — which includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — have increased 24 percent over 2016 figures. Nearly 1,400 cases have been reported so far this year.

Some Little Rock residents have attributed the uptick in violence to apathy on the part of city officials and what they perceive as racism against certain groups in the city.

City Director Lance Hines asked the police chief at the meeting — the board’s first since the mass shooting — whether state police could handle patrols in lower-crime areas to free up officers.

Buckner replied that he would rather not partner with the state on such efforts, noting differences in communities and a certain level of comfort with Little Rock police having “day-to-day contact” throughout the city.

Governor Hutchinson had requested that Buckner join him and attend a meeting of  a multi-agency effort targeted at aiding law enforcement officials in the state’s capital city, days after a shooting at a Little Rock nightclub left 28 people injured, scheduled to take place this afternoon.

Buckner refused to go and sent his underling, Assistant Chief Bewley.

At a press conference at the State Capitol this afternoon, Hutchinson said county, state and federal agencies will collaborate with the Little Rock Police Department as well as city leaders in addressing a recent uptick in gun violence, with agencies working collaboratively on information sharing as part of investigations.

"The urgent need is about safe streets and freedom from drive-by shootings and peace in our community," Hutchinson said.

Additional resources will also be offered through a joint investigative group utilizing the Arkansas State Police, FBI and Pulaski County sheriff’s office to enhance intelligence operations, target gang violence, provide greater enforcement of alcoholic beverage control laws, give more intense supervision of those out on parole and commit necessary jail space.

Among those present during Thursday’s news conference were Little Rock Assistant Police Chief Wayne Bewley, Arkansas State Police Director Bill Bryant, Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay, acting U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris and Arkansas Community Correction Department Director Sheila Sharp.

“The looming cloud of violence harms us all,” Hutchinson said, noting that the escalating violence in recent years “causes worry." He referenced Little Rock as the state's seat of government as well as a center for tourism, medical services and economic development.

"If Little Rock is not safe, then we cannot succeed in our goals as a state," Hutchinson said.

The governor also addressed a understaffing issue within the Little Rock police force. About 70 officer positions remain unfilled, leaving the agency unable, at times, to adequately address problems in the city, he noted. 

"There is a need for additional resources in targeting, investigating and responding to the current threats," Hutchinson said.

Still, the governor stressed, the crime challenges in Little Rock must ultimately be solved by the resources of local law enforcement. 

Bewley of the Little Rock Police Department's Investigative Bureau stressed that police already partner with other agencies. This new effort, he said, will allow the department to "increase that footprint and focus on those that need the attention."

"This [gives us] the ability to investigate much deeper ... to actually make progress and see a change in this violence," Bewley said.

Brewley's comment appear to contradict the statements his boss made the previous evening at the LR Borad of Director's meeting.

After Thursday's news conference, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola told reporters that while he wished recent gun violence hadn't happened, he believes that Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner has done everything he can to address the issue, a face saving measure to try and calm down the beleaguered Chief.

Buckner was set to host a public forum at 6 p.m. Thursday at Hall High School as part of the Police Department's Chat with the Chief series and had plenty of time to join the Governor and the other agency heads to discuss issues that directly affect his department.

Social media has exploded with comments that Buckner is on his way out and if Mayor Stodola is not careful, the Governor will declare Martial Law in the Capitol City and remove him and the Board of Directors and appoint a Governor General to head city government.

 

TV STATION SCHOOLS POLICE DEPARTMENT ON DETECTIVE WORK ON SOURCES OF VIOLENCE

It turns out that Fox 16 News has some of the answers citizens of the city of Little Rock and one member of the Board of Director's have been asking about for months of its inept police chief concerning the spike in violence.

Who or what is causing the "seige" of Little Rock?

Turns out one of the gangs, err.... "rival parties" involved is the family of Dallas Cowboy football player Darren McFadden. 

In a report aired on Fox 16 yesterday evening, the station reveal something
Chief Buckner, the mayor and city manager have not, the identity of one of the "rival parties" involved in recent drive-by shooting.

Some readers will recall that McFadden had his own problems being underage (he was 18 at the time) at a sketchy Little Rock club back in 2006.

And again in 2008 when he was 20, at another sketchy Little Rock club.

The citizens of Little Rock have lost what little confidence they had in Chief Buckner and his officers (officers that don't live inside the city limits of Little Rock - more than half of them at last count- mostly the white ones at that) and the leadership at city hall.

The public has a right to know, with the identity known of one of the groups that are involved in the spike in violence, why the Chief is not deploying or utilizing the unit he established back in January, the one which members drive various rental cars (via that $300K allotted in a recent board meeting) to sit outside McFadden's mothers home where the other half of that "rival party" is driving by and shooting at folks.  Maybe they could apprehend someone by doing old fashion police work and not blame the public for not doing something.

If LRPD would enforce the curfew, quite of few of the individuals involved in the violence are minors, perhaps they could curb some of the violence in the pocket of the city where it is occurring.

 

MAYOR STODOLA MAKES INCREDIBLY INSENSITIVE AND MORONIC REMARK AT PRESS CONFERENCE ON CLUB SHOOTING

The Arkansas Times posted a enhanced video of a clip from a televised news conference held on Saturday afternoon at LR City Hall in which Mayor Mark Stodola is caught making a remark that voters need to remember at the next election.

A reporter asks LRPD Chief Buckner why there weren't any fatalities during the shooting spree at Power Ultra Lounge on Saturday morning and LR Mayor Mark Stodola is heard saying "bad shots" while turning to look at the white City Board of Directors members standing behind him.

City Director's Erma Hendrix, Doris Wright and Ken Richardson were noticeably absent from the press conference and no explanations have been forthcoming.

Mayor Stodola's uncalled for remark caught Chief Buckner off guard and made him stutter and stammer for a few seconds.

When it was Stodola's turned to speak he made the comment that the individuals that had guns in the club were felons and were not supposed to have guns, even though LRPD had no idea who actually fired shots in the club and if any were felons or had any type of criminal record at all.

Still no word from the mayor when the task force he formed back in 2015 to deal with violent crime will ever have a report or finding of their efforts. 

Word of a petition circulating for Stodola's removal from office is popping up on social media. We urge all citizens to sign it if they have the chance.

LITTLE ROCK ERUPTS IN VIOLENCE - 12 DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS AND A MELEE AT A CLUB THAT ERUPTS IN GUNFIRE INJURING 28 PEOPLE

LRPD says 25 people were shot after gunfire rang out Saturday at a rap show at a downtown Little Rock nightclub, prompting pleas from top leaders to curb the growing violence in Arkansas' capital city.

Police said the shooting at Power Ultra Lounge was the result of a dispute among clubgoers and not an active shooter or terror-related incident. Little Rock police said Saturday that 25 people were shot and three others suffered unrelated injuries. All were expected to survive, police said.

Police early Saturday cordoned off the block as crime-scene technicians gathered evidence from inside and outside the club. Glass from the club's second-story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups.

Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters that "some sort of dispute broke out between people inside" the club and that there are "probably multiple shooting suspects."

 

"Some sorta dispute broke out..." LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner

A video posted online by a club patron, Darryl Rankin, showed a packed house for Finese2Tymes, a performer from Memphis, Tenn. About a half-minute into a break in the raucous concert, several bursts of gunfire rang out — more than 24 shots in an 11-second period.

RANKIN (on right) and rapper FINESSES2TYMES (on left)  IN A FACEBOOK POST IN OCTOBER 2016

Rankin told the Associated Press that he was recording the show on Facebook Live when gunfire erupted and that one of his friends is now at a hospital with a bullet "stuck in his spine."

The shooting follows a week in which there have been a dozen drive-by shootings in Little Rock, though there's no indication that the events are linked.

"Little Rock's crime problem appears to be intensifying," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement. "Every few days it seems a high-profile shooting dominates the news, culminating with this morning's event. I have spoken this morning with Mayor Stodola and I have offered both my heartfelt concern over this senseless violent tragedy and state assets as needed to address the continued threat of violence in our community."

"Little Rock's crime problem appears to be intensifying," Gov. Asa Hutchinson

The club's Facebook page promoted Friday night's show with a poster depicting Finesse2Tymes pointing a gun at the camera.

This is the original image used in the poster.

And a similar one from a different angle.

Mayor Mark Stodola said on Facebook that more information would be released at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

Don't expect to hear Mayor Stodola furnish a report by the task force he created several years ago to address violence in Little Rock.  It was only a PR move by a failed mayor to try and fool the public that he was actually doing something.

Back in January, Chief Buckner touted  a new permanent unit focusing on preventing violent crime in 2017, the new Violent Crime Reduction Team.

"The job for this unit is not sit on our heels and wait to be called but to proactively go into these historical hot spots and focus on these key violent offenders," said Chief Buckner at the time.

"I feel like we are a reactive police department. Right now, we do a great job of showing up doing a very thorough investigation, we get the bad guy more often that not when we have good information but we really don't have a proactive footprint." said Chief Buckner.

Chief Buckner hoped to change that with an intelligence led team allowing data to direct locations and people police focus on.

"If we're dealing with individuals we have a legitimate reason to why we stopped you," says Chief Buckner.

Then in a specially called meeting by the Little Rock Board of Directors to address what City Director Doris Wright termed  "a seige," Chief Bucker told board members that his agency would not increase patrols in the area were the shootings had occured and would not stop individuals and see if there were up to no good - the very function of the elite unit he established just a few months earlier.

Bucker spent most the the meeting touting his own performance, one that the Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission had determined was a failure after Bucker demand that they rate him and give him a letter grade.

Bucker stated at the special called meeting that LRPD can't do anything about the crime that occurs in Little Rock,placing all the blame on parents, citing a "lack of parenting" and  "a lack of involvement by the community." Bucker also remarked that his department would not waste time enforcing the curfew that the board enacted years ago.

The is not the first time Buckner has pulled those excuses out of his ass.  He used them when he was an assistant chief with the Louiville, KY police department. 

Turns out that LRPD officers were working off-duty at the club but were hanging out outside when the violence erupted and did not apprehend a single suspect.

At a press conference this afternoon, blame was placed on two rival groups - the city and police refuse to utter the word "gangs" and Chief Buckner decked out in uniform. Buckner hinted that the recent drive-by shooting might be related to these groups. 

  "I think when you get two groups from LR & Memphis together it is a recipe for disaster. " - Chief Buckner

  
We have a serious crisis in Little Rock stemming from a police department that will not enforce laws that they have sworn to uphold* and city leadership that has shown they are not capable of doing anything at all about the state of affairs in the city.

We need new leadership at city hall. It's time for Mayor Stodola, City Manager Bruce Moore and the Board of Directors to be replaced.

* Chief Buckner has stated that his officers will not enforce the juvenile curfew and a whole list of other violations that he says they don't have time for. He has also stated that his department does not have time to investigate property crimes, like residential burglaries.

CITY MANAGER BRUCE MOORE REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR DEFAMING EMAIL AND REMARKS ABOUT WELL-KNOWN MINISTER AND ACTIVIST

On March 17th, City Manager Bruce Moore sent out an email that was damaging to the reputation of the Rev. Benny Johnson, founder and director of Arkansas Stop the Violence.

 

Rev. Johnson had addressed the Little Rock Board of Directors during the May 16th meeting. a meeting from which Moore was absent, and introduced an anonymous letter that listed several concerns about LRPD and Chief Kenton Buckner.

Here is the video we posted in our May 22nd post:

 

Moore had received the erroneous and defaming information from City Attorney Tom Carpenter.

We posted about this and included a video of Rev. Johnson's remarks in this post:

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2017/05/city-manager-and-city-attorney-defame.html 

Then Moore spoke to the Little Rock Black Police Officers Association ("LRBPA") and made the same defaming statement that Rev. Johnson had made a false statement. 

Basically, Moore called Rev. Johnson a liar. And his actions of spreading false and defaming information expose him and possibly the city attorney to another settlement. 

WILL THE CITY HAVE TO WRITE A CHECK TO REV. JOHNSON?

It turns out that the LRBPA had received the same anonymous letter that Rev. Johnson had and they had given a copy to Chief Buckner and to Moore at least a month before Rev. Johnson provided it to board members on May 16th.

Rev. Johnson had a single copy of the letter and the city clerk took it, made copies and gave one to each board member at the May 16th meeting. Was Moore provided a copy of the letter already in his possession?

In fact, this anonymous letter had been making the rounds as far back as March.

It was posted on the blog, Corruption Sucks.

THE POSTMARK ON THE ENVELOPE IS DATED MARCH 2, 2017 - FROM CORRUPTION SUCKS BLOG

City Attorney Tom Carpenter admitted that he passed erroneous information to Moore regarding what Rev. Johnson had said at the May 16th board meeting.

At the June 6th board meeting, the publisher of this blog addressed the board during the Citizens Communication segment. He spoke about the illegal practice of the Little Rock Police Department not issuing tickets to police officers and especially to Chief Buckner in two recent incidents. He also stated that the city attorney and city manager owed a public apology to Rev. Johnson for their false and defaming statements about him. 

Neither the city attorney or city manager made any comments.

Buckner was involved in two traffic accidents, both his fault, and he did not receive a ticket for either accident.

CLICK TO VIEW LRPD INCIDENT REPORTS ON BUCKNER ACCIDENTS

LRPD FOI Officer Jonathan Prater stated that LRPD does not issue tickets to any law enforcement officer as a result of an accident.  

Then Rev. Johnson addressed the board about the defaming email and remarks City Manager Bruce Moore had made at a March meeting of the LRBPA.

City Manger Moore sat glaring at Rev. Johnson with his arms crossed. When Rev. Johnson's time slot ended, he went back to his seat.  Moore can been seen in the video turning toward Rev. Johnson and making comments.  Moore can be seen in the video getting up and heading towards Rev. Johnson.  All the time Rev. Johnson can be heard saying "he is harassing me".

Tom Carpenter, the city attorney stated that he had issued an apology to Rev. Johnson and did so again.  City Manager Bruce Moore said nothing.

We have been trying to get answers from Mayor Stodola, City Manager Bruce Moore, City Attorney Tom Carpenter and Chief Buckner since March about Chief Bucker and the accidents and they have yet to provide any documents that provide exemptions for officers to not issue tickets in accident to law enforcement officers or a response about the illegal practice.

Arkansas Code Annotated § 27-51-305 is clear about following a vehicle too closely.

Little Rock Municipal Ordinance 32-36 states that LRPD officers are to enforce municipal and state laws.

 
Back in 2014, several months after Buckner was hired as Chief of Police, LRPD
cracked down on individuals following too close behind another vehicle citing that was a particular cause of accidents:

Things at City Hall and the Police Department stink of corruption and mismanagement.



Changes are needed in the city government and they start at the top with the Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney and Chief of Police.

*****
Watch a video of a 2015 Board of Director's meeting in which Buckner claims no other police chief has done more than he has during his first year.

City Director Bruce Moore has to step in and rein Buckner back in before board members verbally tear him apart.

 

CITY LOSES APPEAL TO ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT - CITY ATTORNEY MADE SERIOUS MISTAKES THAT COST THE CITY $10,000

 

LR CITY ATTORNEY TOM CARPENTER RACKS UP ANOTHER LOSS

The Arkansas Supreme Court today affirmed a Pulaski County Circuit Courts finding that the city of Little Rock was in contempt of court for failing to timely pay a $10,000 penalty for its delays in defending a gender discrimination case.

 CLICK TO VIEW THE FULL OPINION 

We previously discussed this case in these posts: 

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2015/04/lr-deputy-city-attorney-latoya-austin.html

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2016/06/judge-levies-10000-sanction-against.html

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2016/11/little-rock-city-attorney-tom-carpenter.html

Circuit Judge Tim Fox had held that the city should pay $10,000 for inexcusable delays in responding to Tiffany Malone's gender discrimination complaint against the police department. Fox ordered the penalty paid in 10 days, which the city didn't do. The city was trying to appeal the penalty. Fox found the city in contempt for failure to pay, but said it could be cured by City Attorney Tom Carpenter attending education courses on law office management. The city appealed both the penalty and the contempt finding.

PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE TIM FOX

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on the penalty as moot because the city ultimately paid it voluntarily. 

 

It also said as to the remaining issue that it was indisputable that the city didn't pay on time. It lost any attempt to justify that by challenging the legality of the penalty order when it voluntarily paid the fine. That precludes a review of the order, the court said.

The City of Little Rock is in crisis, failed public school system under state control; crime so bad that more than half of the city's police officers refuse to live in the city; a racially divided Board of Directors that can't get anything done other that take trips on the tax payers dime and issue proclamations; a Mayor, City Manager and city attorney that have stayed in those positions way too long and need to be replaced.

This case and the false and defaming information city attorney Tom Carpenter passed on to Bruce Moore (and the rest of the world) about the Reverend Benny Johnson is proof enough that Carpenter needs to be fired before he does more damage.

The citizens of Little Rock are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.

CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY DEFAME LOCAL MINISTER IN EMAIL TO BOARD MEMBERS

City Manager Bruce Moore was not at the Little Rock Board of Directors meeting on May 16, 2017.

He was not present to listen to the Reverend Benny Johnson, founder and director of Arkansas Stop the Violence speak to Mayor Stodola and board members about his and the community's growing concerns about LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner.

Take a second and watch Rev. Johnson's remarks to the LRBOD.

************
This is the letter that was sent to Rev. Johnson and many other individuals in Little Rock.

This is the mailer that was sent to every household in Little Rock that features a uniformed Chief Buckner endorsing the failed funding measure of the state controlled Little Rock Public School district.

The group that paid for this mailer was headed by Gary Smith, who is a Little Rock businessman (Glass Erectors, Inc.), a former president of Bank of America, Inc. operations in Arkansas and a Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce executive.

Smith is often the frontman for Chamber backed initiatives.

Smith said the campaign for the millage extension had been funded with $1,000 contributions from himself and retired Central Arkansas Library System Director Bobby Roberts (he is featured in the mailer). 

No doubt a little of the $300,000 the Little Rock Board of Directors approved in April to subsidize Chamber operations, mostly political activities, trickled down to help support the sham committee Smith formed for the school funding issue.

Rev. Johnson also made reference to a little tiff Chief Buckner had with the city's Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission.  Buckner wanted them to give him a letter grade for his performance - he got an "F". We had a post that detailed that in April.  You can read it by clicking here.

************

The day after Rev. Johnson spoke about the concerns with LRPD and Chief Buckner, City Manager Bruce Moore sent out this email.  Remember, Moore was absent for the board meeting the evening before.

The source for Moore's "understanding" was none other than city attorney Tom Carpenter.

 

Moore's email was forwarded to Rev. Johnson and an unknown number of people. 

The allegation in Moore's email about Rev. Johnson were entirely false. 

The allegation is defamatory and places Rev, Johnson in a false light.

The allegation was made in an attempt to intimidate and silence Rev. Johnson and with its exposure to the public has placed Rev. Johnson in a false light and had caused member of the community to not know what to think and question Rev. Johnson's reputation.

The city better get it checkbook handy.

************

Changes are needed in leadership at City Hall and on the Little Rock Board of Directors.

This type of conduct cannot go unchallenged. Moore and Carpenter owe Rev. Johnson a written apology and they both need to issue an apology to Rev Johnson at a board meeting.

******

Take a look at another blog that deals with Chief Buckner's shenanigans.

http://publiccorruptionsucks.blogspot.com/2016/06/kenton-buckner-corrupt-police-chief-of.html