I was thinking about the lack of a big, civic celebration in “Downtown Orange County” to ring in 2008, when I got a strange phone call from a friend who was at Bistro 400, on New Year’s Eve.
My friend was out on the patio of Bistro 400 when he saw half a dozen S.A.P.D. squad cars speed into the adjacent parking structure at Birch and Third, at a quarter to midnight. Had the Santa Ana City Council decided to throw an underground New Year’s Eve party? Can you only imagine Councilman Tinajero eyeballing the cop’s donut table? AYE DIOS MIO!
No one else showed up to the party, not even the City Council’s biggest SAPD fan, “Crazy” Claudia Alvarez. The cops stayed until just before midnight. Then they left. Why did they meet at the parking structure when their HQ is only a few blocks away? Did Debbie McEwen and Tim Rush call them to investigate a food truck in the parking structure? They sure responded with a lot of force, sans the usual sirens and lights.
Perhaps they needed to unwind from their last call, “At 10:54 p.m., police responded to a call of shots fired at 1001 E. Camille St., which is west of the railroad tracks near South Standard Avenue and East First Street.” According to the OC Register, “A Santa Ana man was fatally shot late Monday in the alley of an apartment complex.”
What a way to end the year in Santa Ana. Bottoms up policias!
Seriously Art, you’re stooping to a new low. If I wanted to read this garbage, I’d watch Geraldo.
What’s your beef with Debbie McEwen anyways? One could interpret your words as slander.
What a way to start the year for the Orange Juice.
So you have no idsea what the cops were doing, but instead of the rational conclusion that they were responding to a call, you have somehow fabricated this conclusion they were partying in the parking lot?
That’s beyond stupidity!
Art;
In all fairness you should look a little further before you write a story like this one. It has been standard operation practice for police officers to seek a protected area just before midnight New Years eve to avoid falling bullets coming through the roofs of their squad cars. Once it quiets down officers resume patrol duties. This is strictly a tactical and safety issue that has been common practice for over 20 years.
And really that picture is about as old. SAPD or any cops have not carried revolvers in years. Those hand radios are also almost 20 years old as well. This looks like you found a photo 2 decades back when there were some shall we say questionable incidents reported within Santa Ana PD. This is really an unfair slant against Chief Paul Walters who has done a pretty good job of making SAPD one of the most professional police departments around the county.
I believe the officer in the middle of that picture has been retired for at least 5 years. So, this is just a fishing expidition? Or, just stirring the pot?
art, this is why this blog is losing credibility.
#3/Chief Walters, as Art’s post says, isn’t the SAPD HQ only a few blocks away? Is the SAPD HQ’s roof less safe than a parking structure?
As for SAPD, brag about them when the senseless murders are reduced to the levels of Irvine. In the meantime, pull your head out of the sand.
I think Art was drunk when he wrote this
#6
I’m probably the last one to defend the senseless shootings in SA or the cops who deal with it.
What I’m saying is this story is not what it appears to be both by use of a 20 year old picture coupled with a lack of information about what was going on in that parking structure.
One thing you do not want are all the cops in the main station at midnight on New years Eve. Cops will find shelter throughout the city so they will be available to respond from various places in the city once the lead rain stops. It’s not perfect but that is how it is.
If you want the senseless murders in Santa Ana reduced to the level of Irvine then you need to get your head out of the sand. Cops are dealt the population they work with. Is it really required to compare the difference between the population of Santa Ana and Irvine?
#8/Chief Walters, there was no “lead rain” on New Year’s. The cops should have been out patrolling the streets, not partying in a parking structure before midnight.
Are you saying that the Santa Ana Police Department can not stop the senseless murders because of the “population they work with”?
There are differences between the population in Santa Ana and Irvine. Unfortunately, there are also differences in government in Santa Ana and Irvine. One is inept and backwards and the other is successful and progressive.
I think we all agree this was just an idiotic post.
No #10, we all do NOT agree that this was an idiotic post. Chief Walters, and the rest of Santa Ana City Hall, read this blog all of the time. Perhaps the Chief or someone else in SAPD could explain why so many SAPD officers were hanging out in a parking structure in the absence of “lead rain”.
Idiotic post.
Ok #12/Chief Walters.
Poster 3,
Why did they leave the structure before 12 midnight, if they were trying to hide from bullets?
If they were on an emergency call, why did they not use their lights and sirens?
Why were there four cops in one of the squad cars?
Why didn’t they meet at their HQ?
What the heck were they up to?
We may never know…
Art
I certainly can’t answer your questions since I was not there. But come to think of it, neither were you. Nowhere in your original article did you mention 4 cops were riding in one car and I admit if true that would be curious.
If these guys were goofing off it needs to be reported but are we just going to assume what we don’t know? We all do know what “ass-u-me” means. How about trying to dig a little and find out from someone other than a friend who may have been partying himself at the Bistro and didn’t understand what he was actually seeing. It may be he was right or it may be something else.
It’s your blog and you can make it as credible or incredible as you wish.
We can speculate until next New Years on what they were doing but before jumping to any conclusions perhaps it might be prudent to inquire further.
SAPD Chief Walters reads this blog. Why doesn’t he clear things up here for us?
Art “La Chismosa” Pedroza
Chief Walters, we are waiting…