Guilty until proven innocent?
A rush to judgment often results in the blameless facing blame
After long years of reading newspapers, I’ve come to rely on what I call an “itch,’’ a feeling that something is not right in the official version of events.
It goes without saying that this applies to an array of stories coming from the Trump White House. But two local stories this week incited the itch deeply.
The first dealt with the city of San Jose’s flawed attempt to enforce fireworks regulations. The second involved three San Jose police officers who beat up a Spanish-speaking construction worker. What linked them was a rush to judgment.
The fireworks story, written by reporter Eric Kurhi, centered on the case of Amy Guzules, 50, who lives in southeastern San Jose. After the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship on June 12, Guzules was hit with a $500 fine for a fireworks violation.
Here’s the problem: Guzules doesn’t know the difference between a Roman candle and a cherry bomb. She says she doesn’t know who shot off the fireworks near her home — though she did post a note on NextDoor saying that people should expect noise.
The evidence against her was flimsy at best. An unnamed neighbor had reported that her house was the source of “several high fireworks.’’ There were no pictures or video.
Even worse was the process, part of a new online fireworks reporting system. To appeal the citation, Guzules has to put up the $500 in advance. If she is found not guilty, she will get a refund.
“I’ll follow the process, but I would rather not have to put out the $500 to find out who said I did it,” Guzules told Kurhi. The city, alas, did not give her any choice.
The police beating of Eliel Paulino, which occurred in August 2015, was a far more serious rush to judgment, this time by cops.
In federal court on Monday, it resulted in a $350,000 judgment against the city, plus another $100,000 that the city attorney’s office agreed to pay to avoid punitive damages.
The police had stopped Paulino, now 27, about 2 a.m. near Winchester Boulevard and Cadillac Drive in west San Jose. A video shot by a neighbor shows they patted him down and let him stand without handcuffs for about eight minutes near a patrol car.
The officers’ attitude changed after Paulino, who does not speak English, told his father in Spanish to lock his truck if he was arrested.
When he did not respond to their English commands to stay quiet, they slammed his head against the patrol car and beat him thoroughly, striking him at least 15 times.
The officers later explained that they were worried about their safety, in part because the stop occurred at 2 a.m. in the parking lot of an apartment complex in a Sureno gang neighborhood.
The District Attorney dropped charges against Paulino and the federal jury in the civil case did not buy the officers’ version. “Civil rights belong to all of us, regardless of where you may live,” Paulino’s attorney, Jaime Leanos, told reporter Tracey Kaplan.
What’s the common thread? It’s an assumption that people are guilty until they are proven innocent, a dangerous credo in any bureaucracy.
It’s more easily fixed in the case of the fireworks than in the matter of the police beating. But fixed it should be. It’s too expensive and too onerous to treat people this way.