Pat Flannery Assaulted & Removed In Front of DA and Sheriff
by Rocky Neptun
San Diego slid ever further into a police state last Thursday, as independent journalist and blogger, Pat Flannery, was assaulted and thrown out of a press conference at the Westgate Hotel.
Under the eye of San Diego Sheriff William Kolender and apparently directed by the District Attorney herself, a county official grabbed Flannery, without warning and shoved him out of the room. While the corporate media stood by, Flannery was ejected from the public invited, open, press conference as he filmed DA Bonnie Dumanis endorse fellow San Diego Oligarch, Judge Jan Goldsmith, for City Attorney.
Flannery, who has been critical of the DA’s heavy-handedness and unethical dealings with a Chula Vista businessman, also runs a blog [Ed: click here for Pat Flannery’s Blog] where he exposes the good ol’ boy network downtown which depends on wealthy CEO’s and developers for slush funds.
Judge Goldsmith hopes to become the newest member of the San Diego oligarchs who run the city and county; which, in addition to tainted politicians like Dumanis and Mayor Sanders, include the Sheriff and Police Chief William Lansdowne (who refused to enforce a court order to protect a former insider, Tom Story, of Sunroad fame.)
It is also obvious this pack of goons will do anything, and everything, to get rid of City Attorney Michael Aguirre. From the get-go, Aguirre has not be afraid to investigate or question the corporate ownership of public officials. When the City Attorney wanted to investigate illegal activities and actions by Sunroad officials and the Mayor’s office; this gang of “enforcers” joined ranks, leaned on judges and subverted justice. Criminal activities at city hall were protected, covered-up and allowed to continue. The San Diego Renters Union will be asking the City Attorney to investigate how any person, much less a journalist, can be assaulted in public? Who was the attacker? And, on whose orders the attacker attacked? Also, why wasn’t there a simple request to leave? Or was this a warning move against all independent, free thinking, free lance journalists to “stay away from the big guys (and one DA gal).?
The violence against a fine, muck-racking, investigative journalist is, indeed, an attack on the freedom of the press and open government. It also shows that local law enforcement has become a protections racket for wealthy developers and CEO’s. The power and arrogance of those who run our city and county depend of your individual sense of hopelessness and apathy. If taxpayer paid goons can attack a journalist, doing his job, in full daylight and without censure or investigation; then, truely, we now live in a third world country. And it’s all downhill from here on……
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, thanks for the Flannery blog link :)
Pat Flannery has written about his recent adventure at the Westgate. See his blog article from 2/15/08. The link is above in the 3d paragraph.
Flannery probably deserved it! Why can’t the DA of a large county like ours, plus the sheriff of the same county – both elected officials- get together, make a public statement of who they support without some gadfly with a video cam putting it in their face – did you see Kollender’s expression? Functionaries can’t function when citizen journalists get too close. So, yeah, Flannery deserved it – he was getting just too damn close! Now if he had moved to the back of the room, and been polite, maybe he could have stayed.
hey that last comment sounds like its from one of the Building ndustry Lobbyists that was there. Flannery is the greatest thing in SD. He is on top of everything. They booted him because he has revealed alot of corruption w/ Dumanis and Kolender. Goldsmith was the mayor of Poway–look at how that adorable small town became a developer behemoth and you think Goldsmith didnt facilitate that? This guy is dangerous. If you care about your city at all re-elect Aguirre!