Chula Vista Star-News, 19 Jan 1967

Towaway Scheme Vexes Resident

EDITORS:

Believe in signs? Revel in this integrity of the budinessman? Ever hear of the fast-buch game? Well neighbor, lend me your ear!

The sign clearly states: "Private parking for doctors, patients and tenants - all unauthorized cars will be towed off at owners' expense."

Our friend is a regular patient of this residing doctor. However, she made the mistake of going directly across the street to pay a phone bill before going to her doctor. Result? While paying the bill, a tow truck was backing up to her car parked in this reserved area fro patients, etc. 

Her plea of innocent was lost on a rock-hearted apartment manager for lack of an appointment slip which she was on her way to make. The tow-truck operator had no choice (his words, not mine) but to charge the lady $10.50 for towing off her car which he did not tow off. 

The "Force de Frappe" (that's French for something like "Ace in hole") seems to be a towing authorization headline "the National City Police Department," with which the manager was wall supplied. Neat? Well, the parking lot address is 732 G and the towing service address is 731 G. 

Please, before apoplexy claims some irate victim, will anyone allay all suspicions. This may indeed be a misusage of authority with an unintentioned assist from the police. 

EDWARD B BODGE
1315 First Street
​National City

Chula Vista Star-News, 28 Dec 1961

Hiding the Truth

The news that the Palladium Ballroom in National City has become the scene of teen-age mayhem is bad enough.

But even more serious, we feel, in its long-term implications were the attempts of the National City police department to suppress the news that this rioting was taking place. 

Two riots erupted in this juvenile joy hall before even a word was breathed to the press and public about it. It was only because City Manager James Bird presented a report on the riots to the City Council that the news leaked out. By this time a third gang battle had taken place - and seven people ended up in the hospital. 

By what right does National City Police Chief Walter Cagle Suppress News that is of such significance to the people who pay his salary and that of his department?

What other information has the National City police department been sweeping under  the carpet?

We think these are legitimate questions in view of Mr. Cagle's suppression of information in the Palladium case?

***

BY LAW, public documents are as the name implies - open to the public - and this is generally interpreted as meaning most types of police records too. However, it is a physical impossibility for reporters to search out information on every single police case unless they know what they're looking for, Accordingly, most police departments cooperate with the press - which is the public's representative in such matters - by making available to reporters the entire record of police department activity, without exception. 

Now sometimes, of course, premature publicity can seriously damage a police investigation. A criminal who reads he is being hunted, for example, is much more likely to try to make a getaway. Sometimes, also, publishing certain details or clues about a crime can impede a police investigation. Sometimes, it is important to an investigation that nothing be published about a crime at all. 

In such cases, it is normal procedure for a police department to ask reporters to cooperate by not printing such information. And we have never known a police reporter who refused such a legitimate request.  

But it is one think to ask reporters to withhold information and another to deny them information. 

And it is one thing to try to suppress information because its revelation would impede capturing a criminal - and another to suppress information because it would perhaps embarrass people whom the police chief would not like to embarrass ... or perhaps even embarrass the police department by showing that it is not doing its job of preserving public order. 

***

WHY WAS THE NEWS of the Palladium riots suppressed?

Police Chief Cagle told reporters at first, that it was because no arrests were made at the initial two riots - in itself a lame excuse, for a crime is no less a crime is a police department doesn't happen to catch the perpetrator. 

But, 10 minutes later, when he was quizzed further by reporters, the police chief apparently forgot what he'd said before and stated that two arrests had been made at the first riot. 

This kind of double-talk certainly tends to weaken the public's confidence in its police chief. 

***

IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, the public cannon act unless its public servants provide it with the information on which it can form judgments. 

Already, there is too much suppression of  the news from Washington - but at least on that level, much of this (although not all) is necessary for reasons of national security. 

But there is no such excuse for withholding information on local matters. 

How are the people of a community to measure whether their police department is doing a good job, if the department tries to hide from them what is going on in their town?

How is the public going to make its voice felt in public policy if it is uninformed. 

There is probably no better example than the Palladium riots. Since news of this mayhem leaked out (despite the police chief), National City ministers have mobilized to try to do something to close this poor excuse for a recreation place. 

But if Police Chief Cagle had had his way, few people would have known such riots were taking place. We doubt if the teenagers at the dance hall would have bragged to their parents about t he kind of a place in which they were amusing themselves. We doubt if the gang warriors would have publicized their discovery of a great arena for wielding tire irons and nail-spiked boards. 

We hope now that the Palladium is closed for good. 

We hope that the National City police department from no on will start to come clean with the public.

And we hope that Police Chief Cagle can come up with the real answers as to why he suppressed news of the riots. If he doesn't do so voluntarily, we believe it is up to the City Council, his employers, to demand this information from him. 

Star-News

Thursday, May 21, 1959

'Largest' Marijuana Cache Found Here

Loss of Purse Leads to Arrest of Young Couple

(PHOTO CAPTION #1) MARIJUANA - Chula Vista Police Det/ Ted Bell and Jim Fant of the police crime laboratory, inspect marijuana found Sunday afternoon by Bell and two National City detectives in the home of a young Chula Vista couple. The 1 1/2 pound cache has an approximate value of $1,000. The couple, Allen and Eunice Weaver, parents of  a seven-month-old girl, were being held pending arraignment on a felony narcotics charge. -(Star-News Photo)

CHULA VISTA - National City and Chula Vista police detectives Sunday afternoon arrested a young married couple after finding a cache of marijuana valued at approximately $1,000 in a hat box on a closet shelf in their apartment on 566 - C Flower street. 

Weighing about one and one-half pounds, the marijuana represents the largest single haul of the narcotic ever made by local authorities. 

The couple, Allen and Eunice Weaver, 19 and 18, were held in Chula Vista jail pending arraignment in South Bay Municipal Court on a charge of possession of narcotics, a felony. 

Their seven-month-old daughter, Debra, was being kept by Weaver's parents, who reside in Chula Vista. 

Chula Vista Police Det. Ted Bell, who along with Dets. W.L. Brown and J.R. Crowell of the National City Police Department made the search and arrests, said a purse dropped at the scene of a minor automobile accident earlier Sunday led to the investigation. 

Bell said Mrs. Weaver's identification, $74 in cash, and two marijuana cigarets, one whole and one partially smoked, were found in the purse. He said the auto mishap occurred at the Mayfair Market parking lot in National City. The red purse was found by Wayne Greer, assistant manager of the store, and turned over to the police, where it was searched for identification. Police then notified the district attorney's office and were told to use a search warrant to check the Weaver home. 

Both Weaver and his wife are longtime residents of the South Bay area, Weaver having attended Chula Vista High School. He is employed by a window frame and screen manufacturing firm in National City. 

Weaver admitted to police that he had been smoking the marijuana but his wife denied that she had used the narcotic. Weaver denied buying the marijuana and said he found it beside Sweetwater road four or five months ago.