Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Is Pechanga's Security Guards Action an Abuse of Power?

KNBC's Mary Parks has reported the abuse the Swan Family suffered at the hands of Pechanga's crack trained security goons. Let's see, they can beat up on an old man (sorry Mr. Swan) but not protect people from being carjacked as we reported last September HERE.

We've challenged the local newspapers: Press Enterprise and SBSUN to question the Riverside Sheriff's Department as well as Pechanga Tribal Council about the crime wave that's swelling up.

Sheriff Sniff, are you concentrating too much on the Soboba Reservation and not enough at the lawlessness at Pechanga? Are CALIF citizens SAFE at Pechanga?


I'd offer this advice to customers: STAY away before YOU are beaten too.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Pechanga going to sweep this under the rug and claim their status as a sovereign nation means they don't have to cooperate with an outside investigation of the beating of this elderly man?

After all, in the case of hundreds of its former tribal citizens, who have been kicked out of the tribe in a process called disenrollment in the last four years without due process of law, that is exactly what they have done.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/Pechanga_Membership_Battle_Los_Angeles.html

Above is a link to a KNBC Los Angeles 2007 story detailing the plight of one of the extended families who have lost their tribal citizenship.

The disenrollees were not allowed attorneys to be present at any disenrollment proceedings, they were not allowed to have any copies of the official transcripts, and they weren't even allowed to take notes at hearings.

The disenrollees actually were sent letters that said, "note taking instruments of any kind will not be permitted in the hearing room."

But one of the biggest travesties of justice, as seen in the investigative report "Without a Tribe," is that the tribe hired a re known expert on local Indian geneology who confirmed that the family in question were indeed bonefide Pechanga Indians but the tribe ignored their own expert in kicking the family out of the tribe.

The powers that be also ignored cesnus records, probate records, notarized testimony from current tribal elders and also tribal elders from the late 1800's who all confirmed the family were Pechanga.

In addition, in 2005 the tribe's general membership, the final governing authority of the tribe, voted to end disenrollment as a part of tribal law but the family in the KNBC investigative report were disenrolled (kicked out) from the tribe in 2006 anyway.

It is time the lawlessness going on at Pechanga end. The beating of an elderly patron at the tribe's is just the latest example and if they don't even follow their own laws, how can we be sure they will do what is right by the man who was beaten by Pechanga security?

Anonymous said...

We can now see why the large group of Pechanga members was kicked out:
These folks are too wholesome, civilly conscious, and just down right descent for this gang of hoodlums!
The place has gone to the dogs since the tribe unjustly disenrolled more than 200 of the tribal members. Before the brutal incident of discriminatorily removing these people, one could take pride in the tribe’s work within the community and neighborhoods. Now the whole population watches with distain, disbelief, and fear.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't much of a report on KNBC Los Angeles T.V.

It just showed Mr. Swan, who briefly described what happened to him and a statement from Pechanga Development Corporation president Amy Linnear who said an employee had been fired.

Still, is Pechanga going to cooperate with Police and their criminal investitgation as there was a crime committed by Pechanga security.

Anonymous said...

Where is the video tape?

Isn't Minnear the person who laid off 400 workers at the Casino.

Do we know a name of the fired person?

Will he TESTIFY in court as to what Pechanga trained him to do?

Will the DISTRICT ATTORNEY look into this?

Will the PRESS ENTERPRISE look into this?

Anonymous said...

So then, it was an EMPLOYEE and not a contracted security guard?

INTERESTING

Anonymous said...

Great work PECHANGA SECURITY! Couldn't handle the Thugs at Silk but great job taking down the medicated senior citizen.

Oh well, Pechanga is used to abusing their elders anyway.

Congratulations Mark Macarro.

Anonymous said...

I will not take any of my family or friends to Pechanga since we witnessed a fight their two years ago. It was ugly, and handled very poorly by Pechanga security. It lasted way to long, and was very nasty. Name calling, spitting, and it seemed the security people did not know how to respond. When people ask me if we go to Pechanga, I tell them what we witnessed.
I'll never go back.

Anonymous said...

I will not set foot in Pechanga again, and I will tell the two friends that go there about what happened.

Anonymous said...

My family will NOT go there anymore!
It is very clear Pechanga is dangerous and unsafe.
We hope this works out for the Swans. We are so thankful nothing worse happened.
Mr. Swan, as you are on blood thinners with an obvious heart condition, you could have easily been killed. You tried fairly to warn them of this matter. You were ignored and abused as only a threatening criminal should have been treated.
We are going to be sending letters out to the Riverside DA and liaisons to county tribes.
We are hoping the PE and SBSUN contact you also.

Anonymous said...

One of their problems is that they aren't very civil with you if they believe you have stolen a ticket. How hard is it to detain a person while reviewing the video that obviously could have shown whether or not Mrs. Swan took anything. With all that money you would think that being sure of someones guilt would be foremost in their minds.

Anonymous said...

Will Mary Parks and KNBC do a follow up?

Anonymous said...

It makes me wonder what Pechanga's screening process is for hiring security officers if those officers can be so abusive.

It can't be very good as a supervisor who works for the tribal rangers, the internal security for the Pechanga reservation, is none other than Ronald Rivera, a convicted sex offender profiled on the Meagan's Law Web site.

Rivera couldn't get a job in security anywhere else and while the tribal rangers don't handle security for the casino, they are in charge of security for the rest of the reservation.

Lax hiring standards for the rangers = lax standards for the casino also?

Anonymous said...

Anyone who has played slot machines that use the ticket system knows it would be easy to sit down at a machine and put money or a ticket in the machine and not notice there was already credit on the machine.

Someone could start playing and not realize there was other money in the machine as the new money put in just adds to the total that was already in there.

So it is quite possible that if there was $44 in the machine that the other customer forgot to cash out that Mrs. Swan made an honest mistake.

It could have been cleared up without incident as the securtiy footage would show how much was in the machine when Mrs Swan started playing.

Anonymous said...

I once put $100 into a $2 slot at pala not noticing that there was some money still in there. The Korean lady was furious and talking smack in Korean (I think). Anyways I kept telling her I would give her money back, and a Pala security guy finally made her take my money (about $8). It is an honest mistake if no one is around the machine and you don't look that closely at the machine. There should be a little warning sticker to stay close to your machine if you have money in it.

Anonymous said...

It makes me wonder who the other patron is who was yelling at the Swans and who had claimed that Mrs. Swan took $44 that belonged to him.

Why did Pechanga security side with him after the Swans had asked for their help and also why did he all of sudden disappear from the picture?

Also, on the KNBC site's video of the news story there are comments in the comments section from posters who claim the wrong security man was fired, that the man who slammed Mr. Swan to the floor hasn't been fired.

Could it be that the other patron who security was siding with and the security guard who wasn't fired are tribal members?

I agree that this incident could have been avoided with just a little professionalism on the part of Pechanga security.

Pala security at the Pala casino seems to be more professional.

Maybe a reason to patronize Pala instead of Pechanga.

Chris said...

Interesting conversation! I hope the government will do something to bring back peace and order in Pechanga.

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