Police "Reform" Recommendations // Are Fresno County's Coronavirus numbers fudged?
Fresno enters the Red Tier, the Police Reform Commission proves chaotic and disappointing, and a long awaited review finds that the police officer did indeed use excessive force against teenager
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☀️Good morning, Fresno! It is Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020.
October really started off with a bang, huh? That was a great day, for non-specific reasons. It was a great day that’s not related to any world leaders getting a certain virus. It was great.
But alas, that was just a quick respite from the hell that is 2020. Lots and lots going on and honestly, it’s basically all coronavirus and cops. I’m always surprised that the things I put in this newsletter happened THIS week. Like… how??? Anyways, here’s what happened last week in Fresno.
-Ram 🧡
Fresno By Five
🏥 Coronavirus Updates: We in the Red
As of Sept. 25, the most recent data available at the time of writing, there have been a total of 28,855 total confirmed (+1,079) cases and 399 (+17) deaths in Fresno County. Currently, there are 97 (+17) hospitalized. A total of 18,204 people have recovered.
Under the new color-coded system to reopen California, Fresno County is now Red tier, with a positivity rate of 4.9% for the past two weeks. This means more businesses can open indoors with 25% capacity or less than 100 people.
BUT Corrin Hoggard and ABC30 pointed out that Fresno County and the state’s numbers do not match up. Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County Interim Health Officer, says that how the state handles the data and the transition between tiers isn’t very clear. He says that other health officers agree that the numbers aren’t matching up. But we just gotta trust the state. I guess…?
What’s open now in Fresno County? All but gyms, fitness centers and dance studios can operate at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is less:
Restaurants
Movie theaters
Museums and Zoos (indoor sections)
Weddings
Higher Education Institutions for indoor lectures.
Dance Studios and Gyms can operate at a maximum of 10% capacity. Retail stores and shopping malls can now operate indoors at a maximum of 50% capacity.
What do we have to do to get into the next tier? Fresno County must have 1 to 3.9 daily new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 2% and 4.9%. Additionally, an equity metric must be met. This requires counties with more than 106,000 residents to reduce infection rates in communities that are hit the hardest, including essential workers, Black people, and Latinos. This metric also requires counties to provide better testing, contact tracing and additional resources. This will go into effect on Oct. 6.
Testing is available around Fresno. Visit lhi.care to set up an appointment. It’s free even without insurance. If you have insurance, you can also try these other testing sites here.
🚒 Creek Fire Updates
As of Oct. 3, the fire is now 49% contained.
It has burned 312,063 acres and is now the 6th-largest wildfire in California history. The cause is still under investigation.
More areas of the fire are lifting evacuation orders. Check out this map to see zones that have lifted their evacuation orders.
A new fund has been created to aid residents and create better forest management for the future. It’s called the Central Sierra Resiliency Fund and the council in charge of it hopes to partner with the Forest Service, local tribes and other agencies to create long-term help for residents and solutions to mitigate future wildfire disasters.
The date for full containment is still Oct. 15.
🚓 Police ““Reform”” in Fresno
The Fresno Commission for Police Reform is a mess. It had its second to last meeting on Sept. 29 and they had to vote on the recommendations that they will present to the Fresno City Council. This meeting in particularwas a mess. It was 5 hours too long and many of the recommendations were presented only to be pulled back and voted on again. On top of that, the recommendations do nothing. Below is a thread from Mariah Thompson on the ““reform”” happening. If you were of the thought of defunding, it is definitely not happening. Like not even a recommendation to reduce the budget??? Not even that??
Remember that police report independent reviewer John Gliatta withheld? Yeah, so he released it, and the report found that the police officer who repeatedly punched 17-year-old London Wallace was definitely using excessive force. Well, punches four through seven were excessive use of force. Punches one through three were good. In Gliatta’s words: “It is in my opinion punches four through seven were not within policy, however only the sixth punch actually made contact with (Wallace’s) chin.” Glad to know our police officers can beat the shit out of you as long as it’s within policy. Cool! (Also… Todd Frazier who is president of the Fresno Police Officers Association and is also on the Fresno Commission on Police Reform disagreed with Gliatta’s decision saying that, “Officers are human beings. They have to react on training, experience and their instinct.” Also very very cool!)
Seven (7) candidates for Fresno’s next police chief have been interviewed.According to GVWire, one of these seven men will be the next police chief of our city:
Mark Salazar, Fresno Police Department deputy chief
Larry Esquivel, former police chief of San Jose and Tracy
Larry Satterwhite, Houston Police Department assistant chief
Chris Davis, Portland Police Bureau deputy chief
Malik Aziz, Dallas Police Department major
Jason Lando, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police commander
They were interviewed by different community panels through video teleconferencing. Some examples are City Manager Wilma Quan, Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias, executive director with Every Neighborhood Partnership, Fresno Barios Unidos’ Joseph Velasco and more.
Okay,,, one last distressing thing about police: Sheriff Mims is opening a new sheriff substation. Sheriff Margaret Mims and other local officialsbroke ground on the construction for the new $17 million substation that will be replacing the current Area Two substation at Shields and Clovis. This will be located on Armstrong and Harvey and will be the central hub for all patrol operations around the area. Hey, to all those sad that this is not what we the community wanted, we can hang out in the community meeting room that Sheriff Mims is very proud of. It’s set to be completed by Summer 2021.
"This building will be built with technology in mind, with the community in mind, it will have a community meeting room in it. It will house detectives, patrol deputies, office staff as well as training.”
-Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims
🙃 And a Trump parade is happening as I write this
A Trump Vehicle Parade happened yesterday at 10 a.m. and damn… That shit sucks lol…
🚒 Other Stories Around Town
You won’t longer need to make reservations to visit Yosemite. [Fresno Bee]
Fresno Students are already falling behind, teachers say despite good attendance [Fresno Bee]
The Clovis Unified Trustee Race and Who’s Running. [GV Wire]
This one I’m including because it’s so laughably bad and we continue to show the SJVSun’s laughable reporting. [SJVSun]
If you would like something added to the Community Board, email us at contact@fivebyfivenine.com or DM us on social media @fivebyfivenine
📌Community Board
Free Grocery Food Distribution
Free groceries will be distributed at Heaton Elementary, 1533 N San Pablo Ave, on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It will be drive-thru with no contact.
Submit Public Comment to keep Fresno PD Out of Middle Schools
Fresno Barrios Unidos is asking community members to submit public comments to urge Fresno Unified School District to reject the $830,000 budget to keep Fresno Police officers out of FUSD middle schools.
Submit a public comment by emailing publiccomment@fresnounified.org
Subject Line: [Name], Item A-8
Or you can leave a voicemail at (559) 457-6222.
🎧 On the pod this week
If the Clown Shoe Fits: A Presidential Debate Special
The boys watched the debate so you didn’t have to or you're coming here to have a non-participatory group therapy session after the debate. Tommy thinks it was depressing and messy. Ram thinks you should buy a gun for some direct action. Does Biden have the juice? Will Trump ever come up with a nickname as good as Crooked Hillary?
A completely unhinged episode.
Listen to the episode on these other podcasting platforms:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts
Also pls give us 5 Stars on Apple Podcasts 🥺 👉 👈
This newsletter was written by Ram Reyes (@vibesradiator) and edited by Tommy Tribble (@tomiiwrites) | Follow Five By Five Nine on Instagram & Twitter