Pubdate: Thu, 01 Apr 2010
Source: Pasadena Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2010 Southland Publishing
Contact:  http://www.pasadenaweekly.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4323
Author: Jake Armstrong

CHASING THE DRAGON

Glendale Activist Accuses Police Of Cooking Up A Drug Problem In The Community

Sirens went off in Herbert Molano's mind last week the  minute he saw 
the police chief's presentation to the  City Council detailing a 
dramatic rise in drug use in  Glendale.

For starters, Chief Ron DePompa's graph plotting that  increase 
seemed to make spurious connections between  drug incidents and the 
years they occurred to highlight  a heroin and medical marijuana 
problem rearing its head  in the northern reaches of the city, he said.

Some drug incidents were reported as happening in one  year, but 
others were reported as occurring over two  years, and Molano said a 
graph depicting that data in  the presentation was put together in a 
way that  inaccurately shows a soaring rise in drug use. Besides, 
medical marijuana is legal, he said.

Further, Molano, an activist who owns property in  Glendale, 
questioned the timing of the presentation,  which was part of a 
council meeting that supposedly  included labor negotiations with the 
Glendale Police  Officers Association.

Molano said the move smacks of the police falsely  generating fear to 
boost their position in contract  talks, and it derails proper talks 
on what policies  would address such issues.

"They can do whatever uninformed images they want and  the public is 
just going to eat it up," said Molano,  who lost an election bid for 
the City Council in 2007.

But police officials say that's far from the case -  their contract 
is locked through 2011 - and they insist  Glendale is in the midst of 
a drug surge, specifically  in heroin use among youth. In fact, a 
2005 survey  showed Glendale had one of the worst drug problems 
in  Los Angeles County.

"There's somebody out there who doesn't like us, or is  trying to 
skew the facts," said Glendale Police Sgt.  Tom Lorenz.

Data in the graph in question - a bar graph showing  both a five-year 
average juxtaposed with the number of  arrests made in the last week, 
last month, last six  months and last year - was not meant to be used 
for  comparison, Lorenz said. He did agree that distinction  is not 
readily discernable at first glance, but that  doesn't make the drug 
problem any less severe, he said.

"Unfortunately, we've got young teens who have become  addicted to 
heroin," Lorenz said.
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