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L.A. Sheriff Who Cut Paris Hilton Loose Holds Deputies’ Computers Hostage |
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The Los Angeles Country sheriff who tried to let Paris Hilton out of jail early has been holding hostage his deputies’ right to information for months without hope of release. The Los Angeles Times reports Sheriff Lee Baca has blocked access from hundreds of department computers to the website of the union that represents his deputies.
The union, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), an affiliate of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, has been highly critical of Baca’s management of the department. Union President Steve Remige strongly criticized Baca’s decision to release Hilton from jail, a decision that was overturned by a judge. The union also released a survey that showed a large majority of deputies are unhappy with the way Baca is running the department.
Remige told the Times Baca’s decision to block access to the website was spiteful and petty and has hampered deputies’ ability to get information about benefits, overtime and other issues. He said access was cut off in December 2006, and he’s been unable to get Baca to lift the block.
What’s the sheriff afraid of? How can something this petty bother him? What’s that say about him?
A top aide to Baca, Undersheriff Larry Waldie, said the decision was made because the union’s newsletter, the Dispatcher, unfairly criticized the department’s management. Amazingly, he told Times reporter Stuart Pfeifer:
I don’t think it’s good for the deputies because they might think [sheriff's managers] are doing bad things—and they’re not.
But guess what. The union’s website—www.alads.org—doesn’t even have any articles from the Dispatcher posted on the site. So what’s Baca’s real beef? We don’t know because Waldie wouldn’t tell the Times which articles bothered him or why articles in a newsletter would lead him to block access to a website that did not publish the articles. Remige tells Pfeifer he’s trying to find out if there’s a legal remedy.
I’ve probably gotten calls from 50 or 60 deputies since this happened. The sheriff, it seems he’ll do anything he can to make it harder for the union to communicate to its members. It puts us in a difficult position.
5 Comments
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Whoever wrote this article does not even live in Los Angeles. If you had any knowledge of ALADS you would know that they do not consider themselves union members until their abusive behaviour of ordinary citizens comes into question. I wish if the AFL-CIO wanted to highlight abuse please use another example. ALADAS certainly is not one.
As unpopular as his management style is, he is the boss and personal business on company time is generaly not permited.
Baca is just another blind fool that can’t see past the rich so he wants to give them special privileges.
There are no 1st Amendment rights in any employment situation. The use of Telephone or computer is up to the Boss. There was one case in California where an Employee of a High Teck company on his own time at his own computer e-mailed his fellow employees of his unfair termination. This was ruled ok because of his NLRA section 7 rights.
Who cares? These cops are the ones that happly beat us with nightsticks, and/or shoot tear gas in our face. Are we suppose to stand in solidarity with these “union” members, even as they use deadly force in protecting the state from workers?