UPDATE
11/21/2004: Responses are rolling
in. Not enough yet, some are going to be late, but enough to
comment on. Go to the
list of agencies at the bottom of this page (or
click here) and find the responses for each agency in red.
UPDATE
11/20/04: California
DOJ has released new county-by-county CCW statistics on their website.
I don't know if this is connected to my PRARs or not; I only had this data for 1997 and had
previously published this. I can now do the same statistics for
2003, the latest DOJ numbers and as expected, the racial disparity
is worse in
2003. Back in 2002, Cal-DOJ was claiming this was confidential;
they've released this with no public comment. (Note that the
numbers aren't 100% reliable, there are clear
glitches in Marin and Calaveras. This DOJ
report shows the total permits active per year, so that's all prior
issued, reissued plus new permits.)
(2003 would be worse than 1997
because a county with a large black population (Sacramento) dropped a
lot of permits when Chief Gene Byrd of Isleton PD was shut down, and
new Sheriff Carona of Orange County (low black population) became
significantly more reasonable. This doesn't necessarily implicate
any one agency or sheriff/chief in racism, but rather shows that the
statewide racial disparity is bad and actually getting worse.)
I'm also publishing this data in MS-Excel format for 1997 and 2003 so you can
check my formulas. You can also punch in numbers for any years,
although I *know* the Marin 2001 numbers are off by at least 1,000 and
Calaveras 2001 is also damaged. Sacramento 1999 is flat
missing. Everything else *looks* reasonable...but we can't trust
this 100%. (Which is a REAL good reason we need an answer from
DOJ on the CCW
PRAR I've filed with them.)
Last week, 25 local sheriff and
police agencies were hit with a Public Records Act Request (PRAR) for
documents related to the CCW ("Carry Concealed Weapons") process, and
the California Department of "Justice" got yet another. The goal
is
to organize the first systematic survey of the racism, corruption,
gender bias and illegal practices in this process, for a report to the
legislature and Gov. Schwarzenegger. If they won't listen, we'll
go to court and fix this garbage.
Here's the request that DOJ is going to have to deal with:
http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/prardojpublic.pdf
And here's the version 25 sheriffs and chiefs will have to swallow -
most were picked out as "worst of the worst" based on complaints to
this site going back years:
http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/prarccwlocal.pdf
These make reference to specific pages of the state-standard CCW
application form so to deconstruct that, here's the form.
While we were at it, we threw out a PRAR to San
Francisco's sheriff
on a completely different subject and one to DOJ referring to some
intriguing old documents.
The list of local sheriff/police agencies hit will follow at the end.
Why is this going to work? Because Proposition 59 (passed 11/2/04 with 83% in favor)
strengthened the Public Records Act. And we have
the support of the joint resources of the Second
Amendment Foundation and the Citizen’s
Committee for the Right to Keep
and Bear Arms.
But the big question is "why would Arnold and the legislature listen to
documented complaints"?
This last legislative session, Governor Schwarzenegger's staff DID
listen to us. Arnold vetoed almost enirely our way, caving in
only on AB50, the ban on 50BMG rifles. As bad as that was, he
probably figured it affected the fewest gunnies of all the various gun
control "let's test Arnold" bills the Dems came up with (true, in the
short term) and his wife probably has a degree of Kennedyesque
assassination paranoia.
But what Arnold and the California Dems have to realize is that
nationally, gun control is a losing issue. CCW in particular is spreading like wildfire
and isn't causing
problems where it does.
The evidence so far is
that the current California CCW system is a crock. Will
anybody pay attention to a professional, systematic report? We're
going to find out.
If not, we go to court.
I don't guarantee we're going to win this fight. But by God some
very crooked people are going to know there IS a fight, and one that
isn't going away.
Starting with these guys:
AGENCY / Attn:
California DOJ
They've responded
with a request for more time. Fine. Only thing is, they
don't mention WHICH request they need more time on. I'll call 'em
Monday.
Sacramento Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Lou
Blanas
No response so far.
Sacramento Police Department Attn: Chief Najera
No response so far.
Tracy Police Department Attn. Chief David
Krauss
Oh for...they admit
to not using the state-standard form until 2003. They were
legally required to use it starting 1999. So I have to re-draft
the request. Grrr. Some people just can't follow the
rules...
Pittsburg Police Department Attn: Chief Aaron L.
Baker
No response so far.
Walnut Creek Police Department Attn: Chief Thomas G.
Soberanes
No response so
far.
Concord Police Department Attn: Chief Ron
Ace
Properly phrased delay
request. Fine.
Fresno Police Department Attn: Chief Jerry
Dyer
Well at least they
responded. They didn't SAY they need more time...I'll call Monday.
Hawthorn Police Department Attn: Chief Stephen
R. Port
No response so far.
Los Angeles Police Department Attn: Chief
William
Bratton
Properly phrased
request for more time. Fine.
San Jose Police Department Attn: Chief Robert
Davis
No response so far.
Modesto Police Department Attn: Chief Roy W.
Wasden
No response so far.
Santa Clara Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Laurie
Smith
No response so far.
Contra Costa Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Warren
Rupf
Properly phrased
delay request. Fine.
Alameda County Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Charles
Plummer
No response so far.
Yolo County Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Ed
Prieto
Properly
drafted delay request. Fine.
Los Angeles Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Lee
Baca
Properly phrased delay
request. Fine.
Orange County Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff
Michael S. Carona
No
response so far.
San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff
Baxter Dunn
REALLY
screwed-up response deserving a "better
change your mind or we'll sue" letter.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office Attn: Sheriff Mark
Tracy
Adequate
response. They want a very modest copying fee. Fine.
Santa Cruz Police Department Attn: Chief Howard
Skerry
Absolutely
bizarre response involving a threat of counter-suit. Has
to be seen to be believed. Look for the post by me involving
a "Sgt. Lunnen".
Sonoma County Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff Bill
Cogbill
No response so far.
San Mateo County Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff
Don Horsley
No response so
far.
Riverside Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff Bob
Doyle
No response so far.
Watsonville Police Department Attn: Chief Terry
Medina
No response so far.
San Diego Sheriff's Department Attn: Sheriff William
B. Kolender
No response so
far.
San Francisco Sheriff's Department (on the non-CCW PRAR)
No response so far.
