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No More Tenant Intimidation! Palo Alto Police Lieutenant No Longer Works for Landlord
A Palo Alto police lieutenant who did contract work for East Palo Alto's biggest and most controversial landlord has had police department permission to work for Page Mill Properties revoked. The Palo Alto Police Department, just now recovering from its own controversial reputation for racial profiling, is proceeding with an internal investigation into what appears to be a clear conflict of interest. Tenant rights activists say East Palo Alto renters suffer many indignities from Page Mill, which has refused to honor the city's rent stabilization ordinance, but the company hit a new low when it hired the police officer in an attempt at tenant intimidation.
Prior to retiring amid allegations of racial profiling, former Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson authorized Lt. Tim Morgan to work for controversial landlord Page Mill Properties as an "emergency preparedness consultant". It appears that the lieutenant and his landlord employer had a very broad definition of the "emergency preparedness." Either that or they chose to ignore the title altogether.
The officer's tasks in his off-duty hours from the police department included visiting tenant rights activist Chris Lund's East Palo Alto home twice in January to snap photographs of him. He showed up with a concealed weapon and behaved in an intimidating manner, refusing to identify himself.
In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News (Feb 21), Agent Dan Ryan of the PAPD would neither confirm nor deny rumors of a police internal affairs investigation into Morgan's work for the company, but Chris Lund tells indybay that the current interim Chief Dennis Burns "has assured me that his internal affairs team will follow the investigation wherever it leads." Chris provided indybay with photographs of the lieutenant near Lund's East Palo Alto apartment.
Previous coverage on indybay: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/10/18569383.php
The officer's tasks in his off-duty hours from the police department included visiting tenant rights activist Chris Lund's East Palo Alto home twice in January to snap photographs of him. He showed up with a concealed weapon and behaved in an intimidating manner, refusing to identify himself.
In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News (Feb 21), Agent Dan Ryan of the PAPD would neither confirm nor deny rumors of a police internal affairs investigation into Morgan's work for the company, but Chris Lund tells indybay that the current interim Chief Dennis Burns "has assured me that his internal affairs team will follow the investigation wherever it leads." Chris provided indybay with photographs of the lieutenant near Lund's East Palo Alto apartment.
Previous coverage on indybay: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/10/18569383.php
For more information:
http://www.epa-tenants.org
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