FACED WITH SQUARING OFF WITH BLOGGER IN COURT THE CITY REVERSES THEIR POSITON ON FOI REQUEST DENIAL

The pen is mightier than the sword.  That old metonymic adage is an appropriate one to use in the matter we have been posting about the last few days.

Apparently Little Rock city attorney Tom Carpenter read the post made late last night (as have thousands of others) and made a wise decision. 

DID THE FESTERING ISSUE OF DECEIT PLAY A PART IN CARPENTER'S FLIP-FLOP OF DECISION? 

Or perhaps beleaguered Mayor Stodola or worn out city manager Bruce Moore directed Carpenter to comply with our request.

Our guess is that Carpenter, who has come under fire from the Little Rock Board of Directors over the way his office has mishandled numerous cases, could not risk losing a case again, especially to one filed by a Pro Se litigant.

A Pro Se litigant that has taken on the Arkansas Attorney General's top litigator and used his own exhibits to win the case.

A Pro Se litigant that won FOI case by a directed verdict (subject of FOI request filed lawsuit to prevent release of documents and lost).

A Pro Se litigant that called out the city on its shenanigans and stood on principals of law and open, transparent government.

Whatever happened, an early morning email from LRPD was an unexpected one. Here it is:

We shall see if this change in position remains long enough for us to view or obtain the video footage from the camera that is fixed on and recording activity at a religious organization. One that is partnered with churches of every denomination through out the city to provide meals to our homeless citizens.

The city of Little Rock is at a crossroads. Dissatisfaction with our city leadership and police department is at an all time high.  At the last count there have been 45 murders in the city this year. Every day you read or hear about another shooting, or someone being robbed while going back to their car from buying groceries.

The mayor has given himself and "A" for a plan that he recently promulgated.  Actually he deserves a "F" like Chief Buckner received last year from the Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission.

Several years ago Stodola spent a year researching what other cities were doing to combat crime. At the end of the year he he was talking to a tv reporter sitting at his desk patting a large stack of papers. He said he did not have any answers as to how Little Rock could combat rising crime. He announced that he was forming a task force. That task force was created a couple of years ago and has yet to make a report. We pressed Stodola about that before the mass shooting at the Power Bar and Stodola stated one was coming out in a matter of days.

Weeks have passed and that task force has yet to produce anything.

Changes are needed in city leadership and we need a new mayor, city manager and chief of police.

Make you votes count next year. Send a loud and clear message.

#CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL


****UPDATE - 8/24/17 2:30 PM*** 

City attorney Tom Carpenter sent a couple of emails after we received the one from Sgt. Prater at LRPD.

We responded:

Stay tuned for updates. #CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL 


***UPDATE 8/24/17 - 3:00PM***

Apparently we got under ole Tom's skin with our response to his email.
He fired back with this:

To show you how out of touch poor ole Tom is, that book in its 6th edition (we have the 5th edition in our resource library).

And the publisher of this blog can't wait for ole Tom to invite him to have lunch at the 1836 Club and hear all about that committee.  

He might bring along his 5th edition copy of that book and let Tom autograph the pages that he is mentioned on.

#CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL

BLOGGER VS. LRPD - BATTLE OVER RIGHTS UNDER THE ARKANSAS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT INTENSIFY

 

COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU IN SEVEN DAYS

In a post yesterday, we detailed Little Rock Police Departments refusal to provide information we requested via a Freedom of Information request.

If you missed it, you can view it by clicking here.

As revealed in yesterday's post, LRPD denied our request to view and copy video from a camera they have pointed at From His Throne Ministries, a hop, skip and jump from their downtown office. 

SGT. JONATHAN PRATER  - LRPD FOIA UNIT

 

 

Then LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner circled the wagons.

Not to be left out, city attorney Tom Carpenter chimed in.

Carpenter is an excellent litigator and has a fantastic track record of tremendous, wonderful victories for the city. A great attorney whose sound judgment is beyond reproach. The best. No Kidding. Really. 

http://badlittlerock.blogspot.com/2017/06/city-loses-appeal-to-arkansas-supreme.html

Carpenter's email is full of nonsense. 

Carpenter states that the camera video is recorded on tapes.

Lets get that knocked out the the way right now.

Here is a series of photos of the LRPD camera and speaker that was recently installed on a utility pole on the northwest side of the W. Markham & Ringo intersection.

 

The camera and speaker are connected to a Comcast/Xfinity connection box.  Wires for electrical power are running from the camera/speaker and end up inside an electrical box attached to the exterior of the Trivia Marketing building.

That's the building that houses the business of Michelle Hastings, the homeless hater.  You can read our post about her by clicking here.

You will notice that the box that the camera/speaker power lines run into is not the same color as the other boxes attached to the wall. Did LRPD install that electrical box? If so what did that cost the taxpayers?  Who is footing the electric bill? 

Rest assured there are no video tapes used with this system. This is a digital system that has video recorded onto a DVR (digital video recorder), server or computer.

Viewing recordings made by this camera will not require shutting down the entire system as Carpenter claimed. And it is a simple process to download images and or video and burn to a disk, DVD, or thumb drive.

Usually the video that is downloaded from a system like this comes with its own self-executing player.

That ridiculous excuse is done with. Now lets go to the legal stuff.

Carpenter states that the city is not relying on a exemption provided by the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, rather the request was "unreasonable."

Dear readers, the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act does not have the word reasonable anywhere in it.

In fact the AFOIA is very clear in that all public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizen of the State of Arkansas during the regular business hours of the custodian of the records.

It also states that the request shall be sufficiently specific to enable the custodian to locate the records with reasonable efforts.

We asked for all recording made from this camera. You can't get more specific than that.

We sent a response to Carpenter's email.

The documents referred to in this email were included in yesterday's post and we will not repost them here.

We also sent these short messages.

Carpenter then tried another tactic. Caught in a lie he had too.

He counters that the recordings are made in different formats and goes into the dash cameras in police cars, which was not part of our FOI request.

What happened to the video tapes?  Pure shyster shenanigans.

Then he sent another email.

Our response to that email:

And another from Carpenter:

There should be no cost or fees whatsoever as we were going to provide the drive on which the video could be placed.

It is important to remember the AFOIA states that the agencies like LRPD has to provide reasonable access to public records and reasonable comforts and facilities for the full exercise of the right to inspect and copy those records shall not be denied ant citizen.

The AFOIA also states that a citizen may request a copy of a public record in any medium in which the record is readily available or in any formation to which it is readily convertible with the custodians existing software.

It also states if agencies acquire computer hardware or software it shall be in compliance with the requirements of the AFOIA so to not impede public access to records in electronic form.

The publisher of this blog has taken thumb drives to the Arkansas Secretary of State to obtain a copy of the voter records that office provided to the Presidential Commission recently.  That same thumb drive has gone to the city of Fort Smith to obtain copies of documents relating to Sen. Jake Files and his illegal conversion of GIF monies. It has been used at many other agencies to obtain responses to other FOI requests.

The publisher of this blog has also taken a laptop and compact scanner to copy files at many local and state agencies.

Then Carpenter adds a new wrinkle.

 

There was no discussion about me providing a new, unopened thumb drive. 

Carpenter makes an incredible statement that the requirement of a new thumb drive is due the the "integrity of the system". 

This was our response.

That is where this matter stands at this point in time.

LRPD and the city of Little Rock is doing everything that can, even lying, to try and prevent the release of information.

This has turned into a matter of principal and the law.

We will post about what happens when we attempt to view the video tomorrow morning.

*********

This evening as we went back to the 1100 block of W. Markham to take additional photographs for this port we observed individual's loitering in the area, standing outside Doe's; by the back of a pick-up truck on Ringo, etc. None of these individuals were homeless and the LRPD Officers, getting paid overtime were just sitting in their SUV in the parking lot of the Gary Green Law Offices, looking at their phones.

What a waste of valuable resources. 

Changes in leadership are needed at Little Rock City Hall. Elections are coming.

#CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL

 

LRPD AND CITY OF LITTLE ROCK REFUSE TO COMPLY WITH FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST CONCERNING VIDEO FROM CAMERA POINTING AT RELIGIOUS GROUP THAT FEEDS HOMELESS

LRPD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE WHAT THEY SEE

The City of Little Rock and the Little Rock Police Department are refusing to provide access to view or provide a copy of video recorded on a camera that has been placed on a utility police and the intersection of Markham & Ringo that were requested in a Freedom of Information request.

The city has provided conflicting information concerning the recordings of the some 50 odd cameras that they might have in place at any time.

First they claimed the recording were on video tape and that you would have to go to each substation to view the tapes and that would require them to shut down the system.

Then they claimed they did not keep tapes. Who uses video tapes in the 21st century???

Records requested and obtained from the same FOI request clearly indicate that access to the video can be granted to anyone that has access to LRPD data connections. 

The publisher of this blog has extensive experience and expertise in installation, operation and monitoring CCTV systems. In fact he regularly provided LRPD with images from various bank branch locations to accompany police report he filed.

Based on what he has observed these cameras appear to be connected to Comcast cable connection boxes on utility poles and use the same technology customers use to monitor security cameras in their residence and businesses.. LRPD has the capability of viewing images from the cameras in real time and using a speaker to covey sounds and voice. Clearly this is a digital system and the video can be viewed from multiple computers without having to shut down the system.

What are they afraid of?

The answer is that they are probably violating some rights of the individuals that they have captured on video and don;t want to be called out for doing so.

SUITABLE LOCATION MEANS ACCESS TO COMCAST BOX

It is clear that one individual has made up a lot of stories about homeless near her business and that the city is spending a lot of time and resources to placate this individual.We posted about her recently.  

Paying officers overtime to be on the street to run off homeless individuals, or any other individual that might be strolling along on downtown streets enjoying our compassionate city,

Who will they target next?

A city that is rated one of the highest in crime and one of the worst in its treatment of the homeless.

source: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/summary.html

It is time to hold our city leadership accountable and to clean out the trash at city hall. 

#CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL

Lilttle Rock Police DepartmentDocuments concerning overt and covert cameras by razrbak on Scribd

CITY OF LITTLE ROCK TARGETS HOMELESS NEAR CITY HALL AFTER RECEIVING COMPLAINTS FROM A LOCAL BUSINESS, BUT IGNORES VIOLATIONS OF CITY ORDIANCES BY THE COMPLAINING BUSINESS

TRIVIA MARKETING - VIOLATING A CITY ORDINANCE BY HAVING AN ILLEGAL SIGN

Michelle Hastings, the owner of Trivia Marketing, who is a constant complainer about homeless individuals obtaining services from two nearby Christian organizations is a law breaker herself.  As the old saying goes - People that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Little Rock Municipal Ordinances prohibit bow flags, like the one that Hastings has placed on the sidewalk in front of her business.

By the time you are reading this, LR Code Enforcement has made a visit to Trivia Marketing to apprise them of the violation.  

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. 

At the LR Board of Director's meeting this week, City Manager Bruce Moore (who by the way has finally apologized, albeit privately,  to the Rev. Benny Johnson for spreading false, defamatory information about the good Reverend) made reference to a memorandum he had given to board members that dealt with complaints made by Hastings about From His Throne Ministries, and the Salvation Army, which are located across the street from Hastings business (SEE BOTTOM OF POST FOR THE FULL MEMORANDUM).

A reasonable person looking to locate a business where Hastings placed hers would take into account the closeness of the Salvation Army, which has been at that spot on West Markham since 1960, and consider that there might be some foot traffic from transients, the homeless and others needing the help and services the Salvation Army offers and take that into consideration when considering that location.

We suspect that Hastings wanted to piggy-back on Doe's fame as it is across the street as well and being near it might draw attention to her business.

LRPD has responded to approximately 243 calls to the area in the last seven months.  Half of those calls were unfounded or non-police incidents.

Apparently Hasting has a lot of time to kill and has a vivid imagination.  

One of her complaints alleged that she had observed prostitution going on.

LRPD SGT. VAN WATSON - DID NOT OBSERVE ANY HANKY PANKY

Hastings also blamed the homeless folks for graffiti, which is usually attributed to gangs marking or tagging their area. 

She also blamed the homeless for breaking a flower pot when it was actually a drunk fellow that lived nearby that was walking home.

LRPD also noted that Hastings was willing to complain but not willing to take suggestions of its officers. 

We got the impression that LRPD considers Hasting a nuisance but due to her social standing and pressure from city leadership they have to  kiss her ass and target the homeless. Especially with a mayoral race next year.

HASTINGS AND HER HUBBY - NOT FEEDING THE HOMELESS

LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner, unable to do anything about the 43 murders and daily shootings, has taken out his frustrations on the poor unfortunate homeless and directed his officer to run them out of the area.

Even Mayor Stodola took time from his busy schedule to get involved.

LRPD had a video camera and speaker installed on a utility pole next to Hastings business. The video is monitored by 911 dispatchers and select LRPD personnel and they can use the speaker to yell at individuals that may be exercising their constitutional right to be in public places. They have around 58 of these cameras that can be placed all over the city should the need arise. 

CAMERA WITH LRPD WRITTEN ON IT AND A SPEAKER DIRECTLY BELOW IT

LRPD has also placed this area on special patrols and will have officers walk the street to run off the homeless.

It seems that these resources could be put to better use in the areas that shooting and murders are happening.

Maybe some group will get a permit and protest on the public sidewalk in front of the homeless hater's business. 

#CLEANOUTLRCITYHALL

****

Alert readers will notice that the date on Moore's memo is dated April 17, 2017.  That is a mistake.  Take a look at what city attorney Tom Carpenter had to say about the shenanigans city manager Bruce Moore tried to get away with.

Moore wanted to "correct" an original document.  We wonder how often he does that when a FOI request comes in.

****
 

1100 Block of West Markham by razrbak on Scribd