PSO Protest

A bunch of PSOs from our Area Command, including Officer Melvin Bermudez, HarriOak's incredibly dedicated and responsive problem solving officer, have requested to be transferred to patrol. While we don't know the details, there appears to be a serious difference of opinion between Captain Anthony Toribio, the area commander, and the problem solving officers. HARPO, the HarriOak Alliance of Residents and Property Owners, has requested mediation. These officers have acquired deep knowledge of our communities and hard-won trust. Losing them will be a tragedy.

This is also another sign of the lack of leadership at OPD that Mayor Dellums needs to address or face a recall campaign this fall. Captain Toribio and his officers are being asked to do the impossible and they are being left high and dry by the mayor and city council. It is not surprising that the stress would escalate to this level. Meanwhile, residents who voted to pay for resources for the police force are being lied to on a daily basis while violence erupts all around them. They are paying through the nose to live on streets where liquor stores are allowed to sell alcohol openly to minors, restaurant diners are held up at gunpoint and people are robbed in broad daylight.

This is not okay, it is not sustainable and it will not be tolerated. A mayoral recall will become a reality if we don't get a new city administrator and a police chief who is willing to show leadership by early this summer.