SO i attended this event at Fuller Seminary's Travis Auditorium, my old stomping grounds when i was a student in the master-of-divinity program around 2000. Ever since February of 2000 when I was basically beaten up by several Pasadena Police officers at the scene of a near-traffic-accident on Lake Avenue, I have continued to monitor Pasadena PD and Pasadena City Attorneys Office, et al. There's not enough space here to fully discuss my experience, and explain in detail how I was WRONGED & MISTREATED (not to mention left with permanent chronic pain) but SUFFICE to say that I was 100% innocent of any wrongdoing at a traffic incident (near accident) but yet I was the one facedown on my face with several Pasadena PD on top of me, knees in my back, and handcuffs excessively tight on my wrists . This led to my lawsuit against the City of Pasadena and the discovery of a TON of SHENANIGANS that the police and at least one assistant city attorney "play" when they get sued (they think it's all fun and games, trying to manipulate information and data ...and trying to "spin" the story in their own favor...unfortunately, it is at the expense of a citizen). I will post a link here at some point if anybody wants to read the full story of what happened to me. NOnetheless, I don't think anybody at this gathering knows about what happened to me, and probably are not that interested given I am a white Christian male and wasn't killed like some others (the name mentioned most in regard to this gathering were the deaths of Leroy Barnes & Kendric McDade), apart from possibly the president of Fuller (he wasn't the president at the time, but may have been briefed about it when he took the reigns...albeit we have never talked about it) ...; and yet GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS... prior to my experience I didn't think much about incidents involving police & civilians and excessive force or death, albeit I was always concerned in general about it....yet after it happened to me it became THAT MUCH MORE REAL . And yet what most of the focus (or mis-focus) on police problems is about abuse of minorities, particularly AfricanAmericans. YES, this is a problem, ...but the real problem is simply EXCESSIVE FORCE in general, against people of ALL COLORS, including whites. We shouldn't make it a race issue, but an excessive force issue. And that's a matter of training and discipline. It's a matter of training especially re "de-escalation" . In my situation, one of the officers also may have been on medication that increased his agitation. That's something police should monitor as well...certain medications increase the tendency towards anger. So I will leave it at that for now.
