Darren Hunt, car crash reporter for Channel 7 news, KVIA, was arrested by El Paso Police Department Sgt. Raul Ramirez this week. Hunt was arrested but not charged. There was KVIA videotape of the arrest which documented Darren Hunt on the side of the freeway in the emergency lane trying to get the story on, you guessed it, a car crash, being told by Ramirez to leave. While Hunt was moving toward his vehicle, he was mouthy and verbally challenging to Ramirez. Ramirez was then rough with Hunt, pushing him against the chain link fence, cuffing and arresting him. Police Chief Allen said today that the station commander let Hunt go; thereby allowing Hunt to avoid the booking process (prints, mug shot, permanent arrest record, etc.). The videotape of the arrest has been played and the community has taken sides. Some are for the cop and some are for the reporter. Chief Allen has placed Ramirez on desk duty.
This case shows what is wrong with the press in El Paso and what is wrong with the police department. It is a perfect confluence of events that shows what happens when two boobs not doing their jobs properly, each one thinking he is above the law, meet up on the side of the freeway.
Today there was a forum at Kinley's Coffee House. Invited to participate were former 2nd in command of the El Paso Police George DeAngelis, KVIA news director Brenda Swann aka Brenda DeAnda, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen and Police Spokesperson Javier Zambrano. KFOX news anchor Israel Balderas was the moderator. Members of the audience got to ask questions.
At the meeting, much discussion focused on the behavior of the police sgt. and the fact that he has a history and was suspended last year. What the media, especially Brenda DeAnda, were unwilling to discuss is the behavior of car crash reporter Darren Hunt and that he too has a history of being abusive with the public. In fact, Darren Hunt's behavior is a matter of public talk. El Pasoan Gerald Miller, who organized a petition to place on the May election ballot the initiative to move the Storm Water District from out under the PSB to the city, called the Barbara Perez 1150 am talk show on Wednesday, April 23, 2009, to talk about how he, as citizen, was publically, and verbally accosted by Darren Hunt at City Hall. He said that Hunt was so verbally abusive toward him that he was stunned. Miller says that the police witnessed Hunt's behavior and told Miller that it is not the first time Hunt has behaved this way. Miller's crime: Apparently Hunt did not like the fact that Miller was petitioning his own government and criticizing City Hall.
Gerald Miller complained to KVIA management Kevin Levell who said that he would take care of it. Miller was willing to leave it at that until another person told him some weeks later that Hunt was "cussing" him (Miller) in public. (Note how Hunt wasn't "cussing" members of city counsel, or Ed Archuleta at the PSB who wants complete control of all the public land in El Paso and draws a salary as a govt. employee of $508,000 per year.) Miller then pulled his $10,000/month advertising account with KVIA. To make matters worse, Hunt went on to do a slam piece about Miller's petition. So much for Hunt acting as a watch dog for the community.
What has also been noted publicly are Hunt's very slanted interviews. Publicly discussed is Hunt's friendliness toward PSB supporters City reps. Steve Ortega and Suzie Byrd who vehemently oppose Miller and his citizen petition. Byrd has even threatened Miller with criminal charges as she has done to other critics of her policies.
For the record, Darren Hunt once came to my office ostensibly to interview me. He was so hostile I was taken aback. When he did not like my answers, he started yelling at me and creating a scene. He could be heard down the hallway which is a public space. I told him he was to leave and that he was under no circumstances ever to step foot in my office again. That is the way Hunt's behaves when he is on the job.
Yesterday, in the courthouse, a woman discussing the video tape said the following, "Hunt is an asshole. He has always behaved like this." She then had some other choice things to say about him that if not true would be deemed slander per se.
What was also completely lacking from this morning's discussion is the need for the media to be introspective about its behavior in public, its view of its role in what led up to these events and what it can do better to prevent what happened from happening again. The culture of corruption and violence at the El Paso Police Department is a long one and well documented. The New York Times did a huge story on it on June 4, 2004. This culture at the police department has been allowed to flourish because the El Paso media has turned a blind eye to it. Citizens have taken to going to city counsel to directly inform their reps during public counsel meetings what the police have done to them. The complaints include the following: Rape, beatings, death, brutal illegal searches of homes without warrants or permission. One man appeared who had been placed in a wheel chair permanently by the cops. He was pulled over by the police and at that moment had had a stroke. When he was unable to obey the police commands, i.e. put your hands on the steering wheel, they threw him out of the car and put his arms behind his back and cuffed him. They then picked him up by the cuffs and kept dropping him on the ground. After kicking him around the side of the freeway for a while, they took him to the hospital when it became apparent that he was ill. While at the hospital the police STILL tried to charge him with "Resisting." Darren Hunt did no story on that horrible case. Perhaps he was busy chasing a car crash story on the freeway. Nor did Darren Hunt do a story about the man whom the police sodomized with a nightstick. The city paid out a $250,000 settlement and then promoted one of the cops to be a trainer on the Westside.
Nor has Hunt done a story on the millions the City pays out on lawsuits because of police abuse or on the millions in lawyers' fees spent by the city on these cases.
What I did hear a lot of at the meeting is that the media believes that it should be treated differently from the rest of the population by its government, i.e. police. Brenda DeAnda did not want to discuss why or how it is that Hunt's case did not follow the arrest procedure. She did not want to discuss the much debated DIMS arrest procedure that Hunt was able to bypass.
The media said that the meeting was to discuss media access to the police and what is reasonable force to be used by the Police Department. The El Paso police have used the kind of force we saw used against Hunt for years against the average citizen. Judging by Hunt's silence on the abusive force I assume as long as it was not directed toward him it was "reasonable."Now that the same force was used against him it is a matter of discussion as to whether it was "reasonable." Where were the discussion and the outrage by Hunt when that same police force was used against the thousands upon thousands of Joe Blows out there? Answer: There was none. And therein lies the answer as to why cops in El Paso feel they can treat people the way the cop treated Hunt. It is SOP. Hunt and Ramirez are a perfect match. It was love at first sight.
This case shows what is wrong with the press in El Paso and what is wrong with the police department. It is a perfect confluence of events that shows what happens when two boobs not doing their jobs properly, each one thinking he is above the law, meet up on the side of the freeway.
Today there was a forum at Kinley's Coffee House. Invited to participate were former 2nd in command of the El Paso Police George DeAngelis, KVIA news director Brenda Swann aka Brenda DeAnda, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen and Police Spokesperson Javier Zambrano. KFOX news anchor Israel Balderas was the moderator. Members of the audience got to ask questions.
At the meeting, much discussion focused on the behavior of the police sgt. and the fact that he has a history and was suspended last year. What the media, especially Brenda DeAnda, were unwilling to discuss is the behavior of car crash reporter Darren Hunt and that he too has a history of being abusive with the public. In fact, Darren Hunt's behavior is a matter of public talk. El Pasoan Gerald Miller, who organized a petition to place on the May election ballot the initiative to move the Storm Water District from out under the PSB to the city, called the Barbara Perez 1150 am talk show on Wednesday, April 23, 2009, to talk about how he, as citizen, was publically, and verbally accosted by Darren Hunt at City Hall. He said that Hunt was so verbally abusive toward him that he was stunned. Miller says that the police witnessed Hunt's behavior and told Miller that it is not the first time Hunt has behaved this way. Miller's crime: Apparently Hunt did not like the fact that Miller was petitioning his own government and criticizing City Hall.
Gerald Miller complained to KVIA management Kevin Levell who said that he would take care of it. Miller was willing to leave it at that until another person told him some weeks later that Hunt was "cussing" him (Miller) in public. (Note how Hunt wasn't "cussing" members of city counsel, or Ed Archuleta at the PSB who wants complete control of all the public land in El Paso and draws a salary as a govt. employee of $508,000 per year.) Miller then pulled his $10,000/month advertising account with KVIA. To make matters worse, Hunt went on to do a slam piece about Miller's petition. So much for Hunt acting as a watch dog for the community.
What has also been noted publicly are Hunt's very slanted interviews. Publicly discussed is Hunt's friendliness toward PSB supporters City reps. Steve Ortega and Suzie Byrd who vehemently oppose Miller and his citizen petition. Byrd has even threatened Miller with criminal charges as she has done to other critics of her policies.
For the record, Darren Hunt once came to my office ostensibly to interview me. He was so hostile I was taken aback. When he did not like my answers, he started yelling at me and creating a scene. He could be heard down the hallway which is a public space. I told him he was to leave and that he was under no circumstances ever to step foot in my office again. That is the way Hunt's behaves when he is on the job.
Yesterday, in the courthouse, a woman discussing the video tape said the following, "Hunt is an asshole. He has always behaved like this." She then had some other choice things to say about him that if not true would be deemed slander per se.
What was also completely lacking from this morning's discussion is the need for the media to be introspective about its behavior in public, its view of its role in what led up to these events and what it can do better to prevent what happened from happening again. The culture of corruption and violence at the El Paso Police Department is a long one and well documented. The New York Times did a huge story on it on June 4, 2004. This culture at the police department has been allowed to flourish because the El Paso media has turned a blind eye to it. Citizens have taken to going to city counsel to directly inform their reps during public counsel meetings what the police have done to them. The complaints include the following: Rape, beatings, death, brutal illegal searches of homes without warrants or permission. One man appeared who had been placed in a wheel chair permanently by the cops. He was pulled over by the police and at that moment had had a stroke. When he was unable to obey the police commands, i.e. put your hands on the steering wheel, they threw him out of the car and put his arms behind his back and cuffed him. They then picked him up by the cuffs and kept dropping him on the ground. After kicking him around the side of the freeway for a while, they took him to the hospital when it became apparent that he was ill. While at the hospital the police STILL tried to charge him with "Resisting." Darren Hunt did no story on that horrible case. Perhaps he was busy chasing a car crash story on the freeway. Nor did Darren Hunt do a story about the man whom the police sodomized with a nightstick. The city paid out a $250,000 settlement and then promoted one of the cops to be a trainer on the Westside.
Nor has Hunt done a story on the millions the City pays out on lawsuits because of police abuse or on the millions in lawyers' fees spent by the city on these cases.
What I did hear a lot of at the meeting is that the media believes that it should be treated differently from the rest of the population by its government, i.e. police. Brenda DeAnda did not want to discuss why or how it is that Hunt's case did not follow the arrest procedure. She did not want to discuss the much debated DIMS arrest procedure that Hunt was able to bypass.
The media said that the meeting was to discuss media access to the police and what is reasonable force to be used by the Police Department. The El Paso police have used the kind of force we saw used against Hunt for years against the average citizen. Judging by Hunt's silence on the abusive force I assume as long as it was not directed toward him it was "reasonable."Now that the same force was used against him it is a matter of discussion as to whether it was "reasonable." Where were the discussion and the outrage by Hunt when that same police force was used against the thousands upon thousands of Joe Blows out there? Answer: There was none. And therein lies the answer as to why cops in El Paso feel they can treat people the way the cop treated Hunt. It is SOP. Hunt and Ramirez are a perfect match. It was love at first sight.
on April 26, 2009, 2:17 pm
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