While the public has a right to know what the agencies that enforce the law in their name are doing, the agencies themselves often don't respect laws supposedly guaranteeing that transparency. Here, P-E reporter Brian Rokos discusses his personal battle as a journalist to wrest information from the clutches of Sheriff Stan Sniff. He links to a pdf of the letter Sniff sent him in which he attempts to justify withholding the information:
In addition to uncovering older cases from referrals and from research, members of CWIE also have files from prior to our founding. These will be going up as well, in hopes that this website can become a single source of information about police violence and misconduct in the IE. When they are old cases, I will try to let you know in the title of the blogpost. This is a case from my files that I recall standing out to the use of the undercover unit.
Man Dies After Deputies Zap Him with Taser
The man's father calls the death "murder."
KTLA News
2:06 p.m. EDT, May 12, 2011
LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. (KTLA) -- Family members are outraged after a 43-year-old man died shortly after being Tased by San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies.
The CPRC got involved in this case, and hired an expert to give his opinion about the incident. As reports of what he said come in, I will post them here. We'll start with this one:
