Quartzsite: AZ AG PR As Two Cops Fired

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AZ AG Seal

Quartzsite: AZ AG PR As Two Cops Fired

Quartzsite Mayor Ed Foster told me about this on the evening of July 29, 2011, by phone. We had known that the Attorney General was investigating the goings-on in Quartzsite, but could not say anything about that until the Attorney General’s office made the first statement, which they have now done.

It is out there now. It’s on the AG’s website as a press release. See for yourself please.

http://www.azag.gov/press_releases/july/2011/110729%20Open%20Meeting%20Law.html

It says in full:

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Press Release
For immediate Release
Contact: Amy Rezzonico (602) 542-8019
www.AZAG.gov

Attorney General Horne Finds Reasonable Cause to Believe Open Meeting Law Has Been Violated in Quartzsite

PHOENIX (Friday, July 29, 2011) – Tom Horne, Arizona Attorney General, today released partial information regarding the Attorney General’s Office investigation of events in Quartzsite.  Horne stated:

“Normally, we do not release the results of an investigation until it has been completed.  However, because this is a matter of unusual public interest, we are prepared to say that, based on review of a video of a July 10 meeting, there is reasonable cause to believe that there has been a violation of the Open Meeting Law, inasmuch as the public was excluded.  The meeting was held under the misconception that an emergency meeting can be conducted without the public present.  Independently of the question of whether the Town Council had a legitimate reason to hold an emergency meeting, even proper emergency meetings must allow the public to be present.  The exception is if there is a legitimate basis for an executive session, and the City Council did not attempt to hold a proper executive session during the emergency meeting.  The investigation of this and other alleged violations of Open Meeting Laws is ongoing.”

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This press release by AG Tom Horne is a bid for sanity and a blessing to Mayor Ed Foster’s and Jennifer ‘Jade’ Jones’ campaign for lawfulness in Quartzsite governance.

Jennifer’s war on corruption began some years before Ed Foster would drift in from the desert to take up the baton and run with it all the way into the Mayor’s chair. Both Jennifer and Ed are down to earth regular Americans with a passion for justice. Both are making valiant stands for accountability and transparency in their local government apparatus.

Both are drawing heat from the old-school powers who allegedly have the town of Quartzsite in their clutches when it comes to the exercise of raw power over the population.  Both Jennifer and Ed have been arrested multiple times. Yet both are making their moral stand on the law, for the law, by the law.

Remarkably, it is the law itself which intimidates and frustrates the Chief of Police and his pals on the City Council. For Chief Gilbert and the Council, the Attorney General of Arizona has just exploded a bombshell. For Jennifer and Ed, I’m sure the AG’s press release lightens much burden from their concerned brows.

But while Jennifer’s arrest at the town meeting is drawing close to receiving two hundred thousand downloads on youtube and tv shows are asking for her time, and while Mayor Foster has himself proved to be a resilient and resolute fighter for the cause of freedom in today’s government-crazed faddish statism, there are yet other heroes in this story, and, now, there are the first two casualties.

Officer Linda Conley and Sgt. William Ponce * gpoapresident@yahoo.com * have been fired from the Quartzsite Police Department.

William Ponce is the representative from AZCOPS for the Quartzsite Ten and is also President of the Quartzsite Police Officers Association.

These two officers are veteran cops for Quartzsite who stood up for what’s right and who formally alleged, in writing, misconduct by Chief of Police Gilbert. They have been fired. They are concerned for their certification, and that is where Americans from near and far can help. The government of Arizona needs to know that America is watching and watching closely. It is exactly that kind of public pressure, applied to government offices, which caused the Attorney General to divulge partial information from an ongoing investigation. Note above that his statement says:

“Normally, we do not release the results of an investigation until it has been completed.  However, because this is a matter of unusual public interest…”

When Mayor Ed Foster first called me back in mid-June, 2011, he had been in the Attorney General’s office. He called me while still in Phoenix, after seeing the Governor’s office and the Attorney General’s office to no avail. He was frustrated that he could not get any traction, despite having in hand a report drawn up by ten of Quartzsite’s police officers. That signed report contained allegations of corruption and impropriety leveled at Chief Gilbert, their boss. Ten of them signed the allegations. See:

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/07/28/quartzsite/

So ten honest cops became the “Quartzsite Ten” by stepping forward to allege problems within the Quartzsite Police Department.  And the Mayor of Quartzsite took their statements of allegation to the State capitol and could not get to first base. He was hoping that Oath Keepers could help. Perhaps we can help by sending the Quartzsite story outward to the American people while pointing out that this story is an encapsulated symbol of what Americans must now do nationwide. Ed Foster, Jennifer Jones, and the Quartzsite Ten are showing us the way. Oath Keepers can work with that kind of Americanism.

As we reported, the Quartzsite Ten were just days ago placed on “Administrative Leave” and were told that they faced an investigation.  That investigation has just fired the first two of the ten. Mayor Foster told me last night (July 29, 2011) that he thinks it likely that most or all of the remaining ten will receive the same or similar fate.  That they are being investigated at all is our sure sign of deeper problems within Quartzsite’s local government.

The town Council was willing to unlawfully have Jennifer Jones arrested at a town meeting while she had the floor and the microphone. The Council was surprised at the public outcry in the wake of their misadventure, and decided to go into emergency status, holding a city meeting which the Attorney General now says publicly may have been an illegal meeting. That meeting, were it’s conclusions allowed to stand, would increase the Police Chief’s power over the town and back him up when he needed to come down hard on the activists, tea partiers, and dissenters – and the Mayor – who have had enough of his style of police work and are pushing back. The Chief of Police is willing to investigate the ten and has now fired two of the ten. He is obviously willing to fire more.

What about the Quartzsite Ten? What can be said of them? Weren’t they honoring their Oath in bringing allegations against the Chief? Weren’t they protecting the rule of law by speaking out against their own Chief whom they’ve accused of acting unlawfully and abusing his power? Do they have families, homes to maintain, lives to live, and a yearning to work in public service as arms of the government dedicated to the once-noble obligation to “protect and serve”?

Are they Americans of conscience? Are they not setting the mark for honorable service and the traditional American integrity which once upheld the honor in the badge? Are they not setting the standard by refusing to continue to follow unlawful orders? Are they not now the classic example for other cops all over America?

I cannot think of adequate words with which to properly thank the Quartzsite Ten. America owes these good cops a ton of support. I lament the loss of their jobs as cops in small-town America, but I admire their courage to act on what they know to be right, and to oppose what they know to be wrong.  Especially at risk of losing their jobs, possibly their careers.

Fortunately, the Attorney General’s timely release of his office’s assessment of the “emergency” meeting of the town Council may be the nexus point at which a higher authority can return their careers and employment as cops to each of the Quartzsite Ten. And there still remains to be seen what the Governor may choose to do, now that the whole country is watching this. It takes a lot of noise to get a political figure’s attention, but the people, when motivated by this sort of blatant disregard for our Constitutional freedoms, can make a mighty noise.

As_we_shall_see.

Oath Keepers salutes Jennifer ‘Jade’ Jones, Mayor Ed Foster, Linda Conley, William Ponce, and the rest of the good cops of the Quartzsite Ten. Until your lives have been made whole, America shall grieve at the shame reigning in Quartzsite and work to restore your lives as good Americans living and working in freedom. You stood for us, we’ll stand for you.

- By Elias Alias for Oath Keepers

July 30, 2011

Special salutes to KGUN9 of Tucson for scooping the AG report.

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