Calexico, California - A border town east of San Diego fired their own police chief last month "in the interest of their own citizens," and on Oct. 13 Former Police Chief Pompeyo Tabarez was replaced with Mike Bostic.
When Bostic took over the department he found it rife with corruption. "The council members in conjunction with the police officers association and members of that association have used city funds and city resources to run what I would call an extortion racket," said the newly-appointed police chief as he publicly accused his predecessor, members of his own department and city officials of illegally trying to undermine a criminal investigation, comparing their actions to those of the New York mafia.
"Exactly like the Mafioso in New York. That's exactly how they are operating," the chief said.
According to NBC San Diego, after he was on the job for three or four days, Bostic discovered the investigations unit was not working any active cases. The same was true with the narcotics and internal affairs units.Bostic immediately placed several officers on paid leave and demoted others.
He was unable to find any reports on an alleged kidnapping and assault of a juvenile that took place in October.
"The former chief and his investigative unit were so busy trying to save his career and his job rather than focus on that investigation, they completely botched it," Bostic alleged.
Bostic said that he even witnessed detectives using professional burglary tools, that no officer should carry, to break into cars.
"There's a thing called search warrants in the state of California," he said. "These were clearly tools for violating people's rights and we're trying to get to the bottom of that."
Comment: From James Henry's piece on witness harassment linked in the article: That's just one: add to that list Ashurmamad Miraliev, Khusn Taramiv, and Ibragim Todashev, who was murdered in cold blood by FBI agents. Apparently the FBI has been trying to 'turn' these witnesses into 'informers' and get them to spy on local mosques and restaurants. For SOTT's coverage of the bombing, see Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley's book: Manufactured Terror.