New Decade: Click to Accept
It’s fitting that a decade that kinda sucked ended with a year that totally did. An illegitimate love child born of fraudulent promises, the decade without a name or nonzero integer mapped its genome to parents intoxicated by a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme known as the Dotcom Boom, whose drinking buddies told everyone within earshot: invest in new computer hardware to prevent a Y2K apocalypse. Yeah, and then buy overpriced California real estate because everything goes up if you wait long enough. By the time margin calls settled and rate locks expired, 12 percent of Silicon Valley’s workforce collected unemployment checks — and homeowners from Los Altos to Los Banos were handing over keys.
It’s convenient to assign blame to big New York banks, to China or to Clinton/Bush/Obama. Let’s remember, though, where the shit goes down. Have you heard of a Palo Alto startup called Facebook? An 11-year-old company known as Google? Did you see it on YouTube? An Intel or AMD chip and a Cisco/Linksys router touched the bits along the way, no doubt. And is that an iPhone in your pocket or are you just glad to see us? Yes, we’re Silicon Valley. And this is Metro’s year-end edition. This is our story. We’re sticking to it.
Latin Dictionary Stocking Stuffer Arrives Too Late
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed apparently never heard of the political rule called “quid pro quo.” After playing it cool throughout Obama’s presidential campaign, Reed tried to cash in after Inauguration Day, only to discover he didn’t have any chips.
Reed and other local leaders began a push in January to get pet projects like clean tech and the BART extension funded by the president’s stimulus package. Not bloody likely! Obama got his stimulus package passed in March, the same month the VTA proposed building half of the planned, Measure B–seeded BART extension because the project was suspiciously underfunded. Reed didn’t get money for his green projects, either, and in the end Silicon Valley ended up with 800 million measly bucks out of $787 billion. Mr. Reed did go to Washington last month to complain about San Jose getting short-sheeted. The cautious optimism afterward was deafening.
Your directors’ fees are a rounding error to me anyway
Google Supreme Leader Eric Schmidt resigned in August from Apple’s board of directors, just as its androids assembled for an intergalactic attack on iPlanet. Apple was clearly not pleased with his double-agency. “Unfortunately,” Steve Jobs press-released, “as Google enters more of Apple’s core [Editor’s note: no pun intended.] businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.” What Jobs didn’t realize, however, was that Dr. Schmidt was not recusing himself but rather stepping out of the Apple board meetings to check Google alerts of Gawker’s obsessive posts about his ostensible mistress.
Tesla Seduces and Abandons San Jose
In a highly anticipated press conference after countless scintillating promises, the electric-car maker Tesla chose to bypass north San Jose as the site of its new factory. Company president Elon Musk, perhaps distracted by his side project, the rocketship-builder SpaceX, said he couldn’t secure the necessary venture capital after the economy tanked—although some disappointed local wags hurled blame at the Redevelopment Agency for losing the green plum.
Privacy is so last century
For anyone who entertains the old fashioned, idealistic notion that privacy still exists, Dr. Schmidt shared some sage advice from someone who knows. Knows, that is, more about you than you may know about yourself: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” You hear that? Stop it right now.
Geeks Lose Spiritual Leader
Bob Wilkins, host of the Bay Area’s Creature Features show in the 1970s, died in January, at the age of 76, of complications from Alzheimer’s. Unlike Elvira, Ghoulardi or other TV horror hosts, Wilkins didn’t wear a costume or make up his face. He dressed like some kind of proto-supergeek and mercilessly mocked the movies he was presenting, even picking up a TV Guide now and then to let his audience know what they were missing on other channels. His motto was “Keep America Strong! Watch Horror Films.” A whole generation of Silicon Valley geeks grew up wishing they could be that cool. But they weren’t.
I’m a PC. Let’s Go Shopping. Please? Hello?
Early in February, Microsoft announced it would be opening a chain of retail stores. Despite every attempt to rip off the success of Apple stores—including placing them near Apple stores, designing them like Apple stores and setting them up to run like Apple stores—Microsoft got no love from tech or retail analysts with the move. Rumor has it the first shoppers to hit the newly opened stores in October mostly milled around until they realized they couldn’t get one of those trendy pink iPhone cases sticking out of everyone’s pockets, then left.
Rich Guy Calls For Tax Hike—Declared Insane
Reed Hastings, CEO of the Los Gatos–based Netflix, proposed in The New York Times that highly paid executives like himself should pony up more in taxes. Other CEOs reread his statement for hours, trying to figure out if it was in English. Internally, the Council of Rich Guys that secretly runs the world decided that Hastings had simply been licking too many red envelopes and decided to let it go … this time.
Kneegate! The Nancy Pyle Story
After the San Jose City Council agreed to cut 52 city positions on Feb. 3, Councilwoman Nancy Pyle briefly flirted with controversy when she spent $6,000 for new furniture in her City Hall office. Her chief of staff explained the 20-year-old furniture had to go because the design of the conference table caused people to knock their knees on the legs when they sat there.
Psycho Over Donuts?
Self-appointed mental-health advocates got extremely hot under the collar over an innovatively themed new Campbell donut shop because of its name: Psycho Donuts. These advocates held protests over a couple of weekends trying to inform the public about the evilness of a business that would dare give its confections names like “Cereal Killer” (studded with Froot Loops), “North BiPolar” (a seasonal treat decorated with red-and-green M&Ms) or “Manic Malt” (you guessed it). Obviously, the purpose here is to mock those with real mental-health problems (?!). Of course, the protests got the store a ton of press and brought more customers—who mostly refrained from calling the protesters nuts.
Tea Time
What might have seemed like a Quaker Oats guy look-alike contest was actually a bunch of people dressed as Benjamin Franklin protesting President Barack Obama’s economic plan. About 1,000 people showed up at San Jose’s Cesar Chavez Park on April 15 to protest the federal bailout. A few months later, a group of 125 shouting and bullying protesters got into the anti-democratic, pro-insurance-industry spirit of things by loudly voicing their support for the pitiful state of our health-insurance system at a crowded forum called by Rep. Mike Honda at the Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos.
All in the Family?
In the midst of a series of crises at the San Jose Police Department, the city decided to hire Chris Constantin as Independent Police Auditor—the person whose job it is to police the police. If anybody on the force or in city government recognized his name, they kept that to themselves. But as it happened, he has a brother who is a homicide detective with SJPD. Constantin smartly quit the position before he unpacked his boxes, leaving the city’s police unaudited for another year.
Working in Partnership
In December, San Jose City Council reluctantly moved forward on most of Mayor Chuck Reed’s recommendations to introduce some semblance of ethics to city policy decisions. The mayor stepped over the line, however, for having the audacity to suggest that the South Bay Labor Council’s Bob Brownstein actually is not above the city’s lobbying ordinance when he makes his frequent trips to ghost-write memos for intellectually-challenged council members. While he would have to declare his activities on behalf of registered lobbying group SBLC, Brownstein is fully exempted when he pulls strings on behalf of SBLC’s nonprofit clone, Working Partnerships USA.
Driving While Dumb
Though hyphy is pretty much dead, the legacy of “getting stupid” was alive and well in the South Bay this year. In two separate incidents this spring, a 20-year-old Sunnyvale man and a 17-year-old Brentwood girl were both killed while attempting to “ghost ride the whip,” a.k.a. dance on top of a car as it rolls. The stunt, popularized by E-40’s hit song “Tell Me When to Go” and Mistah F.A.B.’s “Ghost Ride It,” reached its peak in 2007, with numerous videos of people performing the act making the rounds YouTube. Metro thinks ghost riding is soooo passé; all the hip kids are playing Russian Roulette now.
The Desi and Wanda Show
Proving the devastating ability of viral media to derail corporate image campaigns, Texans Wanda Zamen and Desi Cryer declared “Hewlett Packard computers are racist” in a YouTube posting that was viewed by more than a million people in less than two weeks. The basis for their conclusion was that HPís ìfollow meî webcam discriminated by following a white woman but not a black man at a fluorescent-illuminated retail establishment. It turned out that users of the pigmented persuasions could actually make the camera move if they fiddled with backlight settings and settled for a more washed out picture. The video made for good guerilla comedy anyway.
Dark Skies
The city of San Jose decided that the best way to celebrate the anniversary of our great nation would be without fireworks in 2009. The sparkly sky flowers would not be seen in the skies above the South Bay because the city could not afford them. After 18 years of pyrotechnics over Discovery Meadow, the sky would be black—like the hearts of those who made the decision to do away with the celebration.
Nausea, Heartburn and Indigestion Champion
The hungry masses quaked this May when competitive-eating champ Joey “Jaws” Chestnut of San Jose was defeated by Japan’s Takero Kobayashi in a six-minute P’zone scarfing contest in Culver City. Kobayashi was able to get down 5.75 P’zones, while Chestnut lost with only 5.5 in his gullet.
Chestnut managed to seize the title back from his archrival in July, however, when he beat his own word record by downing 68 franks in 10 minutes in the 2009 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. SJSU alum Chestnut, who first made a name for himself in a 2005 deep-fried-asparagus-eating championship, also starred in an episode of the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food this year, eating a piddly 5-pound Burritozilla from San Jose’s Iguanas.
Coyote Ugly
After years of squabbling and political machinations—and millions of tax dollars spent on task forces and EIRs—for the much-ballyhooed new minicity in Coyote Valley, the San Jose City Council finally said, “Wait … never mind,” to the massive development along the city’s southern border. Realizing a need to fix what they already have first, Envision San Jose 2040 Task Force officially removed Coyote Valley from future growth discussions last May. Open-space activists and environmental groups—who fought for years against the city, developers and developer-friendly unions to keep the expanse green—immediately declared victory and formed a dancing conga line.
Peace Dividend Costs Local Economy
Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Geographic Services announced the layoff of 535 employees at its San Jose branch after its contract for the development of a space-based high-speed military communications system, as well as a scary-sounding “classified program,” was canceled by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. On the upside, it looks like the budget crisis has delayed Skynet’s ultimate takeover of the universe.
Billionaire Buys New Liver
Steve Jobs had been ambiguous when he announced in January that he was taking a medical leave from his job, but promised he would return in six months. At that time, he posted a relatively soul-baring letter allegedly explaining that a hormone imbalance was responsible for his illness. “The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment,” he wrote.
Apparently, by “hormone imbalance” he meant “complete liver failure.” In June, it was revealed that Jobs had had a liver transplant. He returned to work, and Apple’s stock took a jump—his prolonged and silent absence had started to send shivers around Silicon Valley (and, more to the point, Wall Street). While the rest of the world rejoiced at his return, the news of the transplant had prompted some critics to wonder if Jobs had gotten his organ unfairly.
But Methodist University Hospital insisted that the CEO of the Decade had a higher MELD score—which measures the severity of liver disease—allowing him to jump ahead of others on the transplant waiting list.
The Sheriff Catches a Break
Sheriff Laurie Smith avoided what might have been a tough runoff when her nemesis, Lt. Jose Salcido, landed a job advising Chuck Reed on how to oversee an urban police department. Salcido had been employed as the sheriff’s liaison to the county Department of Corrections, and had taken out papers to run for sheriff. He is a longtime adversary of Smith—he ran against her in 1998—and looked at the time to be her main opponent for the job. It was a pretty good deal for Salcido, who became eligible to collect retirement benefits from the Sheriff’s Department while earning a $122,891 salary with the city.
First-Person Shooter
Two men were arrested in Fremont for using cars on I-680 for target practice. More than 45 people had their cars punctured by pellets as they drove through Fremont. The two 21-year-old dudes plead guilty to using a high-powered pellet gun that shattered glass and injured one commuter who got a pellet lodged in his stomach.
Gatos Gal Bites Cop
Female motorist collides with a parked car in a parking lot on North Santa Cruz Avenue. Cop arrives and tries to question her. She, allegedly hammered, takes off, nearly running him down. Cop gives chase, but to no avail. Cops eventually identify the woman and show up at her house. Woman is allegedly still hammered and, upon arrest, tries to bite the officer. After being cuffed, woman injures herself and eventually kicks the hospital employee before biting a second officer. Woman is booked on several accounts of assault and battery, DUI, felony evading, resisting arrest and driving on a suspended driver’s license. Bail is set at $250,000. Go gal.
Donovan Can’t Bend It Like Beckham
Over the summer, Grant Wahl’s book The Beckham Experiment blew the lid off internal dysfunction at Major League Soccer’s supposedly flagship franchise, the Los Angeles Galaxy. In the blockbuster, Landon Donovan, who originally won two titles with the San Jose Earthquakes, came to almost came to blows with the Galaxy’s David Beckham, a one-man multinational conglomerate who tried everything to bail on American soccer. After the two smooched and made up, L.A. went on to the championship, only to see Donovan botch a penalty kick in the end. Thus L.A. lost, while San Jose Earthquakes fans relished their schadenfreude.
Black Sea Gallery Dries Up
After Woolworth’s closed shop in San Jose, a much-ballyhooed House of Blues almost went in, but never actually happened. In 2005, the Redevelopment Agency determined that a furniture store would serve as a catalyst for more retail: “More and more of our empty spaces are being filled. So there’s greater continuity from a pedestrian point of view. And it’s starting to feel synergistic. There’s activity, there’s excitement. We don’t have all those gaps that feel empty and lonely and give people pause as they’re walking down the street.” Well, for four years, the store catalyzed nothing, nearby retail is actually closing, and the Black Sea is empty. Next up: Ross Dress for Less.
SJSU, Eviscerated by State, Passes Along the Pain
The California State University System initiated a ton of cutbacks, and San Jose State lost $42 million. Furlough days for faculty and staff are now being implemented, and no student applications are being accepted for the spring semester 2010. Stragglers who’ve accumulated more than 120 credits are essentially being booted out if they aren’t graduating. Talk about damage control.
Greens in the Red
A grand jury report detailed how two San Jose municipal golf courses ended up in a $1.9 million sand trap. Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo, two of three public courses owned by the city, have been draining $800,000 per year from the General Fund. The grand jury found budget mismanagement, faulty feasibility reports and shoddy consulting when the course was being built, along with gross underestimates of labor costs. According to the report, the original feasibility study neglected to take into account that six other golf courses were being built in the South Bay at the same time as Los Lagos. Maybe a visit from Tiger Woods would help save two failing city-owned courses. Oops. Never mind.
Spartan Sparker Still on the Lam
At San Jose State University this fall semester, the theme was “another week, another dorm fire and large-scale evacuation.” The school’s Joe West Hall was evacuated at least five times for small blazes, and not all of them were the accidental results of students’ mishaps with hot plates and bongs. In fact, the University Police have determined that two of the fires, on Nov. 12 and Nov. 26, were definitely arson. They are now offering $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the firebug.
Siebel not Bullish on Elephants
Even billionaires had a crappy 2009. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Siebel admitted to getting stomped and gored by an African elephant last summer. Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems, said he and his guide were attacked in the Serengeti, where he broke several ribs and injured both legs. According to press reports, Siebel had to wait three hours before the radioed medical assistance team showed up and gave him treatment.
San Jose City Council Attacked for Bagging on Plastic
San Jose became the largest city in the country to approve a ban on most plastic shopping bags. Perhaps predictably, many retailers complained that the ban would be costly. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex of plastic and marine debris twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean, accused the City Council of being unfair to plastic and accused the council of outright “polymerism.” The ban won’t take effect until 2011.
We All Used to Have Jobs
Silicon Valley’s jobless rate climbed to the kick-in-the-nuts rate of 12 percent—the highest since 1990. We don’t really have a joke here. We’re screwed.
RDA Loses $75 Million; The Caravan Rocks On
The Caravan Lounge, one of San Jose’s most celebrated dive bars and dingy music venues, almost hit the chopping block when property owners Jan Chargin and Lynn Bohnen schemed to sell the building to the Redevelopment Agency. The RDA’s nebulous plan was to replace the 45-year-old business with an empty parking lot, in which to store forklifts for the future construction of a nearby parking garage that wasn’t going to happen anyway. Alas, the RDA discovered its own problems—the state will swipe $75 million of the agency’s budget, resulting in significant layoffs. As a result, the agency decided not to buy the Caravan.
VTA Hits Economic Pothole
At least if you lost your job, you could save a little money by getting around town on the bus. But that might not be so easy, as the Valley Transportation Authority faces an operating deficit of $98 million over the next two years. The VTA will consider layoffs, cuts to employee benefits and reductions in bus service. On the bright side, speed walking is supposed to be great exercise, and you don’t have to put up with the bums in the back of the bus. Wait! That’s no bum! That’s your former co-worker!
No Fun Allowed Downtown
Downtown clubs continued to face suspensions and permit revocations as the San Jose Police and Alcoholic Beverage Commission continued enforcement campaigns. Relations between the police and downtown entertainment community improved for a bit with the appointment of a new entertainment zone chief, Lt. Larry McGrady, and the retirement of Sgt. Brian Kneis. However, in September, McGrady was reassigned to a post on the East Side, amid talk that he had been too “business friendly.”
Last Call at Mission Ale House
Yet another local music venues calls it quits. After a 14-year run, Mission Ale House closed abruptly following a sale to a group of local investors. Once a popular hangout for college students and 49ers—quarterback Jeff Garcia drank his way to a DUI there—”Mission Male House,” as it came to be known to a sexually frustrated dating crowd, was a victim of hard times—the latest in a wave of downtown bar and restaurant closures. Former owner Dan Doherty told Metro he’d had enough of San Jose. “I’m sick of the city and the police and the code enforcement that ran us out of business,” he said.” They don’t want small businesses—not ones that serve alcohol, anyway.”
It’s Good to Be the Chancellor’s Assistant
Dr. Bayinaah Jones, executive assistant to Dr. Rose Perez, chancellor of the San Jose Evergreen Community College District, knows that all too well. Not only has she received a pay hike of $30,000 since 2005, not only did she buy a home in San Francisco together with the chancellor (maybe to help her send emails from home), she was also appointed executive director of Institutional Effectiveness and given the rank of dean. And then there was the 10-day trip to Scotland with Perez, all paid for with college credit cards.
Good Work. Now Get Lost
San Jose State University sent out rejection letters to thousands of qualified transfer students and recent high school graduates, including 4,400 students who would have entered the freshman class. “Unfortunately it was our only alternative,” said university vice president Veril Phillips.
Fight for the Right To Insult
Santa Clara University’s Alpha Phi sorority threw a “Notorious P-H-I” event, in which partygoers, most of whom were white, stopped just short of blackface—wearing sports jerseys, bandanas and fur coats, and using makeup to black out their eyes. The winner of the Most Offensive Costume award was a shirt with the words “Ghetto Certificate” on it, which resembled a report card showing an A+ next to subjects including Criminal History, Sex Education and Physical Education.
Good Work. Now Get Lost
San Jose’s once mighty redevelopment agency cut its staff by a quarter in September, after state raids on local budgets took their toll.
No Honor Among Cop-Killers
Justice finally was served in the 2001 killing of San Jose police officer Jeffrey Fontana. Cop killer DeShawn Campbell tried to throw a friend under the bus in February, claiming through defense attorney Edward Sousa that Rodney McNary had actually gunned down Fontana. The jury didn’t buy the story, however, and convicted Campbell in May.
... So Cut Off His Hands Already
Bradley Dexter, 26, was arrested and charged with stealing $9.75 worth of DJ’s tips at the Blue Pheasant club in Cupertino. Six police units and a helicopter were deployed to chase the accused petty thief, who’d been drinking Long Island ice teas. He ran out the door after he wrestled the tip jar away from a Blue Pheasant employee and was captured a quarter of a mile away. “Nobody steals from my bar,” boasted bartender Keith Manning.
Dancing with Woz
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak left his dignity behind and signed up for Dancing With the Stars. He proved that Apple fan boys are legion and loyal; the fan voting kept the geeky icon, with his questionable dance skills, on the stage longer than most people thought possible.
‘Commie’ Controversy Fizzles
The heated campaign to recall San Jose City Councilmember Madison Nguyen, brought on by her choice of a name for a Vietnamese business district, ended with both sides winning—sort of. The drama had grown heated when some supporters of the “Little Saigon” appellation called Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American on the council, a “communist.” Nguyen handily defeated the recall, and now, banners declaring “Little Saigon” fly over the stretch of Story Road officially known as the “Saigon Business District.”
Pegram Suggests Privatizing Porn Enforcement
Earlier in the year, San Jose City Councilman Pete Constant’s 19-month-long crusade to install porn filters on all the main library’s computers was shot down by a majority on the San Jose City Council, plus SJSU. Other councilmembers believed better ways exist to protect children, and that the filters don’t accomplish anything anyway. SJSU President Jon Whitmore also wrote a letter to the council saying that the idea violated the spirit of the university’s joint operating agreement with the city, that is, the spirit of intellectual freedom and open access. As a result, Larry Pegram, leader of the Values Advocacy Council, who spearheaded the filtering, threatened to hire his own group of private contractors to “police” the libraries for potential thugs viewing porn sites.
Downtown Zanotto’s, We Hardy Knew Ye
It ain’t over yet, but the writing is on the wall. Ten years ago, the concept of a city-subsidized market selling imported olives for $8.99 a pound across the lane from an ill-conceived “transit mall” may have made sense to somebody somewhere. But in 2009, with a new Safeway one block away, Zanotto’s can’t possibly last much longer. We hope their new Willow Glen location works out.
The Icemen Cometh—But Don’t Delivereth
Rooting for the San Jose Sharks is beginning to re-semble some terrible fable from Aesop, in which a hapless yet forever optimistic creature falls in love again and again only to have its heart broken in the end.
This past year, the Sharks looked as sharp as their blades during the regular season, gliding to 53 victories and 117 points, winning the President’s Cup. Then, as surely as nightmare follows daydream, the Sharks went to the playoffs and sank faster than a polar bear on an ice floe under the merciless sun of global warming.
As it had in the previous three years, ignominious defeat awaited the boys in teal, who succumbed to the Anaheim Ducks in the Conference Quarterfinals, only eking out two wins. At least in the previous three years, the team managed to cruise all the way to the semifinals. At this rate, the team will have to relocate to Sherman’s Lagoon.
Bumpgate: A Timeline
The sordid tale of the death of a nasty attack-blog.
July 15: The Mission City Lantern, a quirky blog run by gadfly activist James Rowen, launches a “contest” to determine who is the author of the notorious anonymous political blog, San Jose Revealed.
July 20: The Lantern published the names of the front-runners in its contest. Political consultant Phil Bump, a onetime close associate of former Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, is named as the most likely culprit.
July 24: San Jose Inside, citing electronic evidence, conclusively names Bump as the secret author of SJR, and points out his background as former political director of the South Bay Labor Council.
July 28: Scott Herhold publishes a painstakingly detailed analysis of the writing on Phil Bump’s personal blog and the posts on San Jose Revealed, and concludes that Bump and Revealed are one and the same.
Aug. 5: Metro publishes an investigative piece showing the suspiciously cozy financial relationship between Bump’s then-employer, Working Partnerships USA—a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization—and his former employer, the South Bay Labor Council. The piece quoted from an IRS code barring nonprofits from overt political activism.
Aug. 6: San Jose Revealed publishes a snarky denial, making fun of Metro, San Jose Inside and Herhold, and supplying evidence proving that everyone had gotten the story wrong. It would be the site’s last post.
SJPD Use-of-Force Crisis: A Timeline
March 18: The San Jose City Council announces the initiation of a major research initiative by the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity (CPLE), to check claims of SJPD bias against minorities.
April 20: Chris Constantin, the SJPD’s newly named police auditor, resigns following revelation that his brother is a SJPD detective.
May 10: Daniel Pham, a 27-year-old mentally ill Vietnamese man, is shot and killed by a San Jose police officer. The police had been responding to a domestic disturbance call where Pham reportedly slashed his brother with a knife.
May 26: San Jose police refuse to release 911 tapes to the media that would clarify what they knew about Daniel Pham’s mental health in the incident where he was killed.
May 19: SJPD watchdog Raj Jayadev is mocked in a YouTube video posted by the San Jose Police Officers Association.
Oct. 24: The Merc posts a grainy cell phone video of SJPD officers hitting and Tasering student Phuong Ho while he is being arrested for threatening his roommate with a knife.
Nov. 12: San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, La Raza Lawyers, Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Asian Law Alliance, among other community groups, call for Chief Rob Davis to resign.
Nov. 19: UCLA social psychologist Phillip Goff, who helps direct the CPLE, presents his quarterly findings to the San Jose Public Safety Committee, reporting that his early findings uncovered no bias in the San Jose Police Department.
Dec. 1: City gives $97,500 in excessive force settlement to Ascension Calderon and Samuel Santana, who said they were falsely arrested and beaten by the SJPD in 2006.
Dec. 27: Merc publishes article calling out 14 individual SJPD officers for their repeated use-of-force records.
