New Timm Browne Campus Safety Regime Spinning Out Of
Control...
Whittier College's Campus Safety department is rapidly spiraling out of control.
New Chief, or as he prefers, Director, Timm Browne is, on one hand, displaying
complete incompetence in directing the department's protection and service functions,
and, on the other hand, setting a new low standard for cronyism and corruption.
Browne has already proven to be at once a public relations and an on-campus
relations catastrophe. Every idea, and con men are nothing if not idea men,
that Browne has announced publicly has proven to be really bad.
After insulting the community's intelligence with exaggerations and outright
fabrications regarding his personal history, Browne's negligence in failing
to notice the College community of a Whittier P D SWAT siege training session
less than a stone's throw from campus caused a commotion. Then his dramatically
instituted draconian Whittier College events alcohol policy resulted in angry
neighbors and virtually the entire Whittier P D occupying campus. Earlier Browne
had conned the ASWC out of thousands of dollars and more to come - those are
student funds - to purchase and maintain electric carts to be operated exclusively
by Campus Safety personnel. That was followed by Browne engineering the replacement
of practical department vehicles with impractical electric mini-vehicles, again
purchased and maintained for the exclusive use of his department (a department
with a history of kickbacks related to vehicles). Browne has also gradually
hired unqualified cronies, in one case creating an altogether new department
position.
These concerns are only those being publicly discussed, showing us where Browne's
regime is headed - the same place he led the other two departments he directed,
the Rialto P D and the Palos Verdes Estates P D - to public relations disasters
from which it took those departments and the larger entities of which they're
parts years to recover.
Browne's unnecessary and habitual, and ultimately self-destructive, dishonesty,
hallmark of the con man, and psychopath, is addressed on whittiergate's Hall
of Shame page, and his negligence regarding the Whittier P D SWAT exercise and
conning the ASWC is described on this site's New Campus Cop Scandals Revealed
page, along with encapsulations of his earlier Rialto and PVE flame outs. In
view of so many well-founded concerns regarding Browne, the College needs to
make all department transactions completely transparent, and Quaker Campus needs
to for once do its job, that should be first and last investigative journalism
and advocating student best interests. These needs are nothing less than imperative
when the idea man Timm Browne has over the course of an entire academic year
done not even just one thing to the benefit of students or school, while showing
himself to be a con man and a tyrant.
Browne Makes Fools of Dean Ortiz and President Herzberger
Clearly, Browne's justifications for the new e-vehicles are every bit as weak
as were his justifications for the electric carts. In addition to the purchase
and maintenance kickbacks issue, Browne's suggestion that the e-vehicles don't
leave a carbon footprint and cost nothing to operate is ridiculous. Browne's
partner in crime, Jose Padilla, claims, "It saves a lot of money because
we don't need fuel for these cars." Con men must depend upon magical 'thinking'
by their victims. The fuel for electric vehicles isn't free and, usually generated
by coal-fired plants, leaves a significant carbon footprint. What Browne's really
doing, in addition to creating kickback options, is freeing up the Campus Safety
budget's vehicle fuel item for other uses by transferring the vehicles' fuel,
electricity, cost to the College's general budget, increasing its electricity
bill item.
President Herzberger recently said in so many words that Whittier students (recruited
by her staff) aren't bright enough to understand the College's budget, so if
she's right, then there doesn't appear to be anyone on campus, except con men,
who do. It's not an accident that the Quaker Friends, who founded Whittier College
but later on principle shifted their support to Azusa Pacific, have seen the
latter school become a university while Whittier has floundered, or that Whittier
College peers, like Occidental College, have endowments dwarfing Whittier's.
It should be noted that Sharon Herzberger ensured students couldn't understand
the College's budget by refusing to let them see the entire budget, by refusing
to make the College's budget transparent, which refusal raises the question
of fiscal slights of hand by high-level administrators and even trustees as
well as by Browne. Certainly those responsible for hiring and monitoring Timm
Browne, Dean Jeanne Ortiz and President Sharon Herzberger, are, together with
Whittier College's Trustees, liable for every single consequence of Browne's
actions.
Browne's Whittier College events alcohol policy has left most students and campus
safety department equivalents at other Los Angeles Basin colleges and universities
incredulous. This policy, instituted at the Club T's Me November 2011 dance
held at the Radisson Hotel, calls for Campus Safety personnel to make a preliminary
determination of the sobriety or intoxication of a student while frisking him
or her at the event entrance. If the Campus Safety employee says so, the frisked
student must take a breathalyzer test. If the test result is over .08, the student
is confined in a "detox room" until such time as a Campus Safety employee
decides the detained student is sober, at which point in time the student is
released - and automatically fined $100.00. The policy also states that students
exiting an event are subject to the same treatment, and students over 21 years
of age are subject to this policy along with students under 21 years of age.
Turning Whittier College Into a Pariah
whittiergate surveyed public safety departments of other colleges and universities
across the L. A. Basin and not only doesn't even just one other school have
any equivalent policy, but every campus public safety department spokesperson
contacted expressed incredulity when Timm Browne's event alcohol policy was
described. Peer campus safety equivalent spokespersons agreed with Whittier
sophomore Haley Kleine, quoted by Quaker Campus' Kaitlyn Baldwin, observing,
"This just seems unnecessary." But breathalyzer kits were purchased,
another kickback option was created, someone has to be paid to train Campus
Safety employees to carry out this procedure; it makes sense from a con man's
point of view, and from the point of view of individuals who have no concept
of the rule of law or our rights thereunder, nor of how to relate to and guide
students. This outrageous policy was bound to fail, and in a big way, and it
did...
The recently reinstated disgraced and suspended Lancer Society's much ballyhooed
comeback event, Mona Kai 2012, staged on April 7th, was one of the worst disasters
in Whittier College event history. While Timm Browne has been silent about this
fiasco, and Societies Czar Dean Andre Coleman has vainly sought to excuse the
Lancers, whom he wrongly supported being reinstated, from responsibility, these
two parties are clearly to blame for an angry neighbors-driven Whittier P D
invasion and occupation of campus to shutdown Mona Kai 2012 and disperse students.
Mona Kai is an event with a storied history, one of the foundations of Whittier's
now tattered reputation for cool California partying. Once upon a time, 60 tons
of sand and tropical decorations and plants transformed a parking structure
into a Hawaiian beach scene, everything about the event was fresh and meaningful
and fun. This year's incarnation of Mona Kai was none of those things. Sand
covered a parking lot on campus, the music provided by D J Brass Knuckles and
rapper Na Palm was inappropriate to a beach party and unnecessarily loudly drew
attention to its lack of any class or merit. No college student parent would
like the music presented and the tens of campus neighbor complaints are completely
understandable:
"It was loud, and for no reason."
"...people walking on my yard and really loud, terrible music."
Quaker Campus' Katie Jenkins-Moss quoted LEAP Director Shauna Young stating,
"Noise, trash, urination and broken bottles on neighbors' lawns resulted
in formal written complaints to the City Council and the College..."
Quaker Campus published a Mona Kai 2012 post-mortem Opinion by Sean Bahar:
"...the world renowned electric dance artist Na Palm? I've never heard
of him."
"Mona Kai fell short of the expectations I had, and I am sure I am not
the only one who felt this way."
"A student struggled...while his wrists were being cuffed."
"...for $12,000, the event was not very impressive to me."
The Lancers persuaded ASWC and Media Council to fund Mona Kai 2012, but failed
to keep up their part of the funding agreements, upsetting student organizations
as well as neighbors. Q C's Celine Adame quoted Media Council Chair Matthew
Grant Anson as saying, "...in retrospect we will probably be more prudent
in the future with allocating these funds." Monster Energy only had to
hand out drinks with leis to the first 200 partiers for co-sponsor status, suggesting
the Lancers can also improve when negotiating sponsorships, although perhaps
with a reputation like that of the Lancer Society signing on any sponsor at
all may be deemed an accomplishment, and that will only now be still more difficult
in years to come.
Virtually the entire Whittier P D showed up, with dogs, referred to by one Q
C reporter as "drug dogs", and no one has denied the widespread alcohol
and drug use at this event by students and their guests. Why did the Whittier
P D respond with its small town version of overwhelming force? Because the Lancers
set the tone and provided music that was inappropriate and far too loud, and
because Campus Safety didn't act to lower the volume to a reasonable level and
because Timm Browne's events alcohol policy can only turn out in practice to
be an intolerable violation of rights or a bluff that once seen through only
further discredits Browne particularly and Campus Safety generally.
Campus Safety Cronyism
Timm Browne's ideas are really bad ideas because they originate, not in a desire
to protect and serve, but rather in a desire to milk every situation for all
he can get, and to corrupt the department he leads (astray) for that purpose.
Part of this process is getting rid of those who might oppose his dishonesty
and mismanagement, and part of this process is getting his partners in crime
embedded in the department.
Felix Osuna
When Browne replaced the forced out former Assistant Chief John Lewis with Felix
Osuna, a retiree from the Santa Ana P D receiving a pension of $119,173.56 per
year, which is outrageous but a couple thousand less than equivalent SAPD retirees
who are White receive, we had to pause. Hiring Osuna appeared to make some sense
given that Latinos are evidently in the process of becoming the largest minority
on the Whittier campus (if Latinos aren't that already - this is the first year
in memory that the College hasn't provided student body ethnicity/race stats
to Quaker Campus). It is, though, somewhat disconcerting that Osuna's focus
for the majority of his SAPD career was that department's SWAT team.
http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/pd/documents/2004AnnualReport.pdf(Scroll
down to see photo of Lt. Felix Osuna)
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2009/11/27/100000-plus-pension-club-in-placentia-santa-ana-south-orange-county-water/43273/The
Orange County Register's Online O C Watchdog
Even though Osuna's pension breaks down to about $10,000 per month, he still
has business interests, for example, LEMHS Corp. LEMHS is a curious startup
that offers prospective clients help in dealing with the mentally ill. When
one scans the bios of LEMHS principals one sees a psychiatrist, then a judge
with extensive experience with the mentally ill, ok, but then there's Felix
Osuna, former SWAT commander.
WTF? If a shrink and/or legal expertise aren't getting the results a client
wants, then a SWAT team's called in? The more important questions for us, though,
are how much money is enough for Felix Osuna, and what will or won't he do to
get more? Osuna's willingness to associate himself with Timm Browne is not an
encouraging beginning to the answers to these questions.
Law Enforcement Mental Health Link: http://lemhs.com/
At least Osuna has a master's degree in psychology, and has shown an interest in being supportive of young people trying to bootstrap themselves from barrios to the mainstream. whittiergate will continue to look into Felix Osuna's record, but there are more pressing Campus Safety personnel issues, beginning with Timm Browne crony Jose Padilla, for whom Browne created the new Campus Safety postion of Deputy Director.
To whittiergate: "You
were right to wonder why Felix Osuna was brought into Campus Safety. Timm Browne
had to bring in someone with enough credibility to negotiate the new Memorandum
Of Understanding with the City of Whittier that enables Browne to expand his
operations to a one-mile radius around campus and confers the power to make
arrests. Previously, Campus Safety couldn't arrest anyone, just detain them,
and any arrest was the Whittier P D's call.
"Now we have Jose Padilla, with exactly no experience as a law enforcement
officer, running DUI checkpoints and making arrests?! The Whittier P D now just
transports the arrestees to jail without question. Fines, vehicle towing charges,
money, money, money, all squeezed out of student turnips, and there's a criminal
offense on the arrestee's record. This is the kind of thing Felix Osuna was
brought in to make possible. And we almost bought that Osuna wanted to help
young Latinos trying to bootstrap themselves to success. Thanks a lot, Felix
Osuna. You haven't just sold us out, you've destroyed the best part of your
own reputation."
Jose Padilla
To whittiergate: "Jose J. Padilla has NEVER
been a police officer." "The closest...he came was when he was a front
desk cadet at the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department when he was 18."
"Padilla...worked for Burns Security", from
which he was fired. "Then Padilla worked for a company called Special Operations"
doing "Loss Prevention for Vons... That's where [Padilla] met Timm Browne."
"...Browne and Padilla worked together for a period of about three years
(Browne at Vons and Padilla with Special Operations working for Vons)."
"Padilla was fired from Special Operations in November of 2009. Padilla
currently has a company doing Loss Prevention for Krogers in the Food 4 Less
Division. The company is called Paladin International Investigative Group and...Timm
Browne is heavily involved in this" company, too.
Jose Padilla "...does not have a college degree, has never served in the
military, and has never worked a day in his life as a law enforcement officer."
"...Padilla is a thief who stole from his prior employers, and was [terminated]
for it. Browne's just a con man trying to fleece the world."
"Timm Browne also got one of Padilla's friends named Jessica Aparicio hired
on at Whittier" in the Campus Safety department.
Jose Padilla claims that he graduated from Leuzinger High School in Lawndale,
California, and that he's CEO/President of Paladin. Paladin boasts online about
providing clients with "World Class Personnel", yet it's top executive
might be a high school graduate at best.
http://www.paladin-int.com/ (Paladin
lists no names on its web site, but Padilla makes his claims to have graduated
from Leuzinger H. S. and of being Paladin's CEO/President on his Spokeo profile.)
So Timm Browne, a guy who was busted selling confiscated weapons while he was
the Palos Verdes Estates P D Chief, got John Lewis, who informed people believe
was 'disappearing' drugs and paraphernalia confiscated from students, out of
the way, and brought in Jose Padilla, a guy we're reliably informed has been
fired for stealing. Browne and Padilla, one may fairly say, have been and continue
to be thick as thieves. Former Campus Safety Chief Bernard Alex and Assistant
Chief John Lewis were small time crooks and Whittier College is better off without
them, but the administrators who replaced Alex and Lewis with Browne and Padilla,
with much worse crooks - that would be Jeanne Ortiz and Sharon Herzberger -
must be Dumb and Dumber.
Jessica Aparicio
As for Jessica Aparicio, well, even not so smart rats don't wait around to go
down with the captain and his ship...and Timm Browne's Campus Safety regime
is clearly on the way down...
To whittiergate: "FYI,
Jessica Aparicio's evident role in Timm Browne's master scheme is to cook the
Campus Safety books. Your advice to Aparicio to leave, now, is certainly good
advice, and, given the shortness of Browne's other chief gigs, all Browne's
Campus Safety hires would do well to take that advice themselves.
"You've also done well to link the Campus Safety budget transparency issue
to the larger Whittier College budget transparency issue. It's very difficult
indeed for President Herzberger to insist on departmental budget transparency
when she's refusing calls for general campus budget transparency. One can only
think both Herzberger and Browne have things to hide.
"Keep digging!"
Once a racist...
To whittiergate: "What Timm Browne's doing to Whittier College wouldn't
have been tolerated back at the idea stage when this was a majority White campus.
These new working class Latino students are used to being discriminated against
and mistreated by cops. They've been duped into coming to Whittier and paying
retail. And now the new Campus Safety department's unleashed on them to rub
it in.
"The Whittier P. D.'s bread & butter is keeping the majority-Latino
Whittier population down for the all-White Whittier City Council. There seems
to be a meeting of racist minds involving the Whittier College administration,
Timm Browne, and the City of Whittier and the Whittier P. D.
"The recent Whittier P. D. "invasion and occupation" of campus
would never have happened nowadays if this was still a majority White college.
The once tolerant atmosphere of this campus is disappearing under a Browne cloud.
Too bad the new Latino students never got to enjoy the small liberal arts college
atmosphere they were told they'd find here."
To whittiergate: "Pretty soon all the Black Campus Safety officers
will be history. Timm Browne might bring in a new African-American to cover
himself, someone grateful to him personally, but watch the purge play out. Blacks
don't matter to Whittier College, excepting the Athletic Department. The money's
in pretending to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution, so the racist Browne's being
allowed to exercise a free hand, or is that fist? This is blatant and deeply
disappointing, and I hope the Black officers make Browne and Whittier pay big
time."
Update
Kenneth Nelson, a respected sergeant in the Campus Safety Department, has been
fired in retaliation for filing a complaint. Officer Anthony Stubbs, and even
Captain Rory Cochran, good luck. Nelson, Stubbs, and Cochran are all African-American.
Nelson should learn from the character and intelligence of former Whittier Law
School Registrar and African-American Wayne Van Ellis, who filed an EEOC complaint
alleging discrimination and retaliation and walked away with a Lot of Money
(rightly) at Whittier's expense. Van Ellis is now registrar at a bigger and
better school. Hang in there, Kenneth Nelson, stand up for yourself and others,
and you'll be singing "the future's so bright I gotta wear shades..."
(Nelson and any other good officers wrongfully terminated by Timm Browne note
that Campus Safety has a history of using recommendations to reward or punish
former employees, usually the latter. So make sure that your settlements with
Whittier College include prohibiting Campus Safety / Whittier College from sabotaging
your career(s) through fabrication of bad recommendations.)
UPDATE
Officer Anthony Stubbs has been retaliated against for his willingness to testify
truthfully about how Sergeant Kenneth Nelson was discriminated against and wrongfully
terminated by Timm Browne and so Campus Safety and Whittier College; Officer
Stubbs is now on stress leave. And Captain Rory Cochran has been put on medical
leave. Timm Browne's ethnic cleansing of the Campus Safety department continues
unabated. Where's Sharon Herzberger? Where are the Whittier College Trustees?
Shame on Whittier College!
A question of all African-Americans associated with Whittier College: Where
are you?! Your silence is allowing Timm Browne and so Whittier College to get
away with this appalling blatant racism and ethnic cleansing. Don't dare cry
when you are discriminated against or get the boot - and your turn will come...
unless Timm Browne is booted from Whittier College first...
To whittiergate: "Latinos
at Whittier have already played the fool, we're here! Whittier isn't in love
with Latinos. We're treated no better here than we have been in the barrios
most of us are coming from, and it's getting worse and worse here, not better.
Whittier recruited us because this school gets extra money from the Hispanic-Serving
Institutions program for our being here. That's what's so special about us.
"Cuts are coming in federal as well as other governmental spending. The
H-S I program will be capped, just like the programs for Native American and
Black colleges have been, and then cut. You don't need to be a political scientist
to see that coming. And then we'll see just what's happening to Blacks on this
campus now happen to us.
"Don't wait and see what happens, then it will be too late. Help stop what's
being done to Blacks on this campus, now - because if these racists aren't stopped,
our turn will come. This is Whittier, the place where not so long ago not just
Blacks but also Latinos couldn't rent housing or eat in a restaurant, and where
Latinos are a majority but are still under a completely White city council.
"Why are any other minorities going to help us when our turn comes, if
we don't help them now?"
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately."
- Benjamin Franklin
Accountability
The question is how many members of this community are going down with Browne?
If the answer to this question includes those responsible for hiring Timm Browne,
that might make having suffered through the worst Campus Safety regime in the
history of Whittier College worthwhile.
To whittiergate: "did
anyone else notice that whittier claims in its catalog that campus safety has
a "...fulltime staff of 14...complemented by a student work force of 24...as
well as 4 reserve officers"? even counting the new hires brought in by
timm browne there aren't 14 full-time staff, and there most certainly aren't
any 24 students working with campus safety. who knows about reserve officers?
either whittier college administrators can't add or they're engaging in false
advertising. but the way campus safety's going the fewer officers there are
the safer we are."
To whittiergate: "It looks like the administrators who hired Timm Browne
didn't even Google the guy. The quality of a school's administrators says a
lot about the quality, and value, of the education offered. You have to wonder
how many more times these incompetent administrators are going to be allowed
to embarrass this school and still keep their jobs, and how many students at
least smart enough to Google Whittier College will want to enroll here anymore?"
How Breathalyzer Testing Works / How To Lower Your Breathalyzer Test
Result / How To Contest Breathalyzer Test Results
To whittiergate: "The
German war memorabilia Timm Browne displayed in his Rialto P D office must have
been Nazi memorabilia. Browne's breathalyzer testing won't last, but in the
meantime the following links may be helpful to students attending events:
"http://www.glasgowlaw.net/CM/FSDP/PracticeCenter/Criminal-Law/Drunk-DrivingDUI.asp?focus=topic&id=3
"http://www.duiblog.com/2006/06/14/how-you-breathe-affects-your-breathalyzer-results/
"http://www.policeacademyblog.com/2011/10/09/6-things-police-won%E2%80%99t-tell-you-about-a-breathalyzer-test/"
To whittiergate: "...this
isn't about DUI, there's no implied consent law for walking. If I'm told I have
to take a breathalyzer test by anyone from Campus Safety when I'm walking into
a dance or whatever, I'm going to tell them to f*ck off in an obscure language
and refuse. What are they going to do? Impound my shoes?."
To whittiergate: "What's
most distressing about the breathalyzer testing is that this liberal arts college
administration sees this highhanded invasion of privacy as consistent with this
school's mission, and thinks it'll work. This is the last straw for me. This
will be my last term at Whittier College."
More on Whittier College and Alcohol
'Binge Drinking Escalates On Campus' by Q C's Chris Frisby documents what we've
all been learning: the more Timm Browne invades student privacy, the more Campus
Safety assaults students' rights, the more bad science Browne promotes, the
worse the problems he says he's trying to resolve become. Nearly twice as many
Whittier College students were transported to hospital for alcohol poisoning
before the end of Fall Term 2012 than during the entire 2011-2012 academic year.
Even Dean of Students Jeanne Ortiz, who seems to see her job as minimizing if
not denying campus problems, admits that "hospital transports have increased."
Many high schools manage to present effective alcohol education programs, but
that seems beyond Ortiz's competency. Whittier College alcohol education is
so bad students walk out on mandatory sessions.
And now - it seems some Whittier not quite rocket scientists have noticed that
sexual assaults sometimes involve inebriated perpetrators and/or victims - Timm
Browne and Assistant Dean of Students Andre Coleman are promoting the notion
that alcohol causes sexual assaults. Only at Whittier can completely unqualified
administrators go unchallenged promoting bad science. (As usual, not a peep
from Whittier's pathetic professors.) Meanwhile, Whittier College continues
to rank well above the national average in both alcohol abuse and sexual assaults,
and quack science certainly isn't going to help solve any problem - but then
its real purpose isn't to help but is rather to justify Timm Browne's control
freak agenda.
Sexual Crimes
The single bright aspect of Timm Browne's Campus Safety regime is also a damning
indictment of John Lewis' former shadow regime: Campus Safety accepted four
rape reports last year, the first under Browne.
One of the most outrageous aspects of the Bernard Alex - John Lewis Campus Safety
regime was their discouragement of rape victims from pursuing justice for themselves
and the safety of other would be victims of the rapists. Lewis and Alex effectively
silenced victims and protected rapists. This was supposed to be in Whittier
College's best interest. If that's how Whittier College sees itself, then everyone
needs to know that... That four rapes were reported by Campus Safety last year
doesn't just mean Whittier College is above average in this regard, this puts
Whittier College in the far above average range, which is completely unacceptable.
whittiergate wants to know how many of those rapists were Whittier College societies
members, and how many rapes were committed that might have been prevented by
removing those rapists from, not just this campus, but more from society - so
there wouldn't have been more victims and the perpetrators might have gotten
help learning how to control themselves. whittiergate has called as loudly as
possible for an end to Campus Safety victimizing rape victims a second time
by preventing them from asserting themselves and protecting others, after failing
to prevent, and it needs to be made clear, encouraging, those crimes, and their
repetition against other victims.
John Lewis, member and advisor of the Sachsen Society, banned from Whittier
College for many years until Lewis persuaded Sharon Herzberger to restore the
Sachsens to campus, failed to take any action against societies who coerced
pledges into sexual acts, which felonies were widely known by societies members,
presumably including John Lewis, and even by community members outside the societies.
The sexual crimes committed during pledging got so out of hand, under the glare
of whittiergate spotlighting, that the Dean of Students office had to suspend
two societies, the Lancers and Mets (Metaphonians), but still no perpetrators
were arrested let alone prosecuted, nor were those pledging-related sexual assaults
reported by Campus Safety as required by law.
While we'd like to give Timm Browne credit for something, anything, even helping
rape victims is twisted by Browne to suit his own agenda: sexual assault is
used by Browne to create still more fear in this college community, and then
alcohol is tied in to help justify his frisking and room search and breathalyzer
and detainment, and DUI, assault on students' and everyone's rights and this
school's private liberal arts milieu. Alcohol was present in the four reported
rapes last year, and so was breathing air and perspiring. Alcohol does not cause
nor does drinking necessarily lead to rape. Rapists have a sexual imprint they
need to learn to control. Alcohol and any number of other factors may contribute
to but do not cause rape.
We note that whittiergate has also consistently spoken out against not only
binge drinking but has more asked why anyone needs to drink alcohol at all,
while Whittier College President Herzberger was signing on to the Amethyst Initiative,
which effectively encourages under age drinking.
Marijuana
Previous Whittier College Campus Safety regimes have largely turned a blind
eye to marijuana use by students. whittiergate has repeatedly called for an
honest drug policy from the Whittier College administration. In unguarded moments,
Sachsens can be heard talking about marijuana confiscated by former Campus Safety
Assistant Chief and Sachsen Society advisor John Lewis later showing up in his
legendary bong. One of Arnold Schwartzenegger's last acts as Governor of California
was to reduce possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor
to a (mere) citation. Many states, including California, have medical marijuana
laws on their books, and now states are beginning to simply legalize marijuana
use by adults. Yet Timm Browne seems to take Reefer Madness as a serious film,
not the low camp, but consequential, zaniness it has always been.
The following incidents of over zealous policing are becoming common at Whittier
College:
A search of a female student's purse at the Campus Center, itself requiring
justification not given, turns up a small amount of marijuana. This student's
dorm room is then searched (not even real police departments do this), but only
marijuana residue is found.
While receiving a vehicular citation in a campus parking lot, a small amount
of marijuana and Swishers are "found", which leads to another female
student's room being searched.
A Campus Safety officer sees a "flickering lighter" in a student's
car in the Haverhill Parking Lot, makes students exit and then searches the
car, finds paraphernalia, then causes an Area Coordinator to conduct a search
of the students' rooms.
The smell of burning marijuana leads to a dorm room search, which turns up an
"excessive amount" of marijuana. This male student is handcuffed and
taken to the Whittier P D. - after being told to report to the Campus Safety
office after his release. If it's known that this student will be released by
the Whittier P D, then the amount is for personal use, not for sale, isn't "excessive",
is it?
A Quaker Campus Crime Log entry for November 7, 2012, expresses the student
view of Timm Browne's overzealous anti-marijuana campaign, stating that "A
narc called Campus Safety to report the smell of marijuana..." instead
of previously used identifiers such as A student or An R A called Campus Safety
to report.
These and many more student victims of Timm Browne's reign of terror now have
these incidents on their transcripts and some now have police records. WTF?!
We're talking about a victimless 'crime'. Thousands of students die every year
because they drink alcohol, yet President Herzberger signs the Amethyst Initiative
seeking to lower the legal drinking age back to 18 (against good science) anyway.
Not one student has died from smoking marijuana, but Herzberger still authorizes
Campus Safety to completely disregard student rights in pursuit of this relatively
harmless substance. We're talking about simple citations; you know, like a parking
ticket, but a citation that can still be damaging on one's record. Timm Browne's
approach to marijuana is the same as his approach to alcohol - he's using it
to increase fear and his control. Meanwhile, real criminals are overrunning
our campus, and some of the real criminals appear to be associated with and
even within Campus Safety...
Inside Job or Inside Job ? !
"This has greatly impacted my image and view of Whittier College. I now
have trust issues not only with the school but also the security at Whittier
College" says a Chapman University football player quoted by Quaker Campus'
Katie Jenkins-Moses.
The theft of personal belongings worth thousands of dollars from visiting Chapman
football players' travel bags in a Graham Athletic Center locker room (during
the first half of the Whittier College v Chapman University (Sept. 29) 2012
football game) looks like an inside job, and Whittier's Campus Safety chief
Timm Browne's comments only further fuel this suspicion...
According to Whittier P D Lieutenant Bryan Ellis, the victims "left their
items...someplace that was supposed to be secure" and "I certainly
can't blame this on the victims in this, this is not their fault."
Yet according to Campus Safety chief Timm Browne, "Nobody dropped the ball.
Somebody had intent to do what they did."
The criminals who committed this crime appeared to know that valuables would
be accessible once inside the locker room, the Campus Safety patrol schedule,
and what would be necessary to breach the room's locked door. This crime, this
felony (forced entry and theft of approximately $3,000 worth of laptops, phones,
and wallets with contents), was not a crime of opportunity, rather it appears
this felony was enabled by insider knowledge. And the other implications of
Browne's statement are also really astonishing...
A felony was committed on campus, and Campus Safety at best failed to prevent
this crime, and at worst needs to be investigated in regard to its commission,
yet Timm Browne says in so many words that his department cannot prevent, nor
solve since, surprise, this crime, among most others, remains unsolved, any
crimes committed intentionally. If that's correct, then why is Whittier College
funding a Campus Safety department at all? Isn't crime prevention the most important
function of any campus safety department, its raison d'etre? So who isn't finally
getting that having Timm Browne and his cronies on this campus is resulting
in increased crime here? Not only do we see, since Timm Browne's arrival, these
embarrassing thefts of visitors' property, but also students and staff on campus
likewise being increasingly victimized - by assaults as well as thefts by criminals
who never seem to be apprehended.
Sharon Herzberger and Jeanne Ortiz have been so incompetent as to invite the
fox into the chicken coop, and that the Whittier College Trustees are sitting
on their hands while this College's reputation is progressively destroyed by
a con man and his band of thieves, suggests Whittier College's incompetent,
corrupt and corrupting leadership needs to be swept out pretty much across the
board, and, it needs to be explicitly stated for a school that replaced a bad
safety chief with a worse safety chief, replaced by competent, ethical and law-abiding
professionals.
The Whittier College Athletic Department, since it needs other schools' teams
to continue to visit Whittier College, has reportedly agreed to compensate the
Chapman football team victims for their losses at Whittier, but it is clearly
the Campus Safety budget from which compensation should be deducted - because
Campus Safety, not the Athletic Department, should have prevented or failing
that at least solved this crime.
Six weeks after this apparent inside job, Q C's Katie Jenkins-Moses reported
that investigation of this crime "has been suspended" - because no
leads have been generated. The only justice in this case so far is that, despite
the half-time chaos in the visitors locker room, Chapman beat Whittier 49 to
35.
Two weeks before the locker room theft, an unprecedented brawl erupted in the
Stadium that required a joint Campus Safety - Whittier P D response to quell.
Yet again, WTF?! Since Timm Browne was installed as Campus Safety chief, Whittier
College can't seem to get through a semester without disturbances so serious
they require joint Campus Safety - Whittier P D deployments for the restoration
of order. What on earth has to happen before Whittier College stops and turns
around this rush to ruin?
No one whittiergate has queried can recall either such an out of control Campus
Safety regime, nor such a wave of crime overwhelming campus. A number of observers
suggest a link between the current Campus Safety regime and crime wave, and
it is becoming increasingly clear that Timm Browne's focus on turning students
into criminals and getting everything he can out of this school before he's
expelled leaves little time for serving and protecting the Whittier College
community from intruding criminals.
And it's not only property and students' clean records that are now endangered
on the Whittier College campus...
Strong-Arm Robbery and Attempted Carjacking on Campus
In The Quaker Campus Crime Log one sees dangerous incident after dangerous incident
reported, from uninvited homeless people found in dorm showers to unidentified
men carrying iron bars and baseball bats (frightening Campus Safety officers
as well as students and staff) to men carrying "camoflaged rifles"
(frightening everyone). A recent strong-arm robbery and attempted carjacking
shows what the Whittier College community is facing on campus since Timm Browne's
reign of terror began... It seems Browne's Campus Safety crew is too busy ripping
Whittier College off and tagging students with police records to deter or apprehend
real criminals, and it has become more and more difficult to distinguish the
criminals from outside this college community overrunning campus from the criminals
now in the Campus Safety department.
To whittiergate: "How
bad is Timm Browne? Timm Browne's new Campus Safety crew is so bad they're making
us nostalgic for the small time crooks of the Bernard Alex regime during which
we at least felt safe on campus."
6' 2" dude and senior Whittier Lacrosse goalkeeper Robert Bazlen was the
victim of a broad daylight strong-arm robbery and attempted carjacking on campus
adjacent to the Shannon Center during which he suffered a lacerated lip, scrapes
and bruises. Quaker Campus' Sean Bahar quoted Bazlen recalling that, after he
was sucker punched and jumped, he managed to break free of his assailants, but
that then one of them pulled out "a shank, and I was like fuck that. Then
I booked..." (A shank or shiv is a homemade weapon usually associated with
prison inmate violence.)
Fellow student Ben Binder commented, "Can you believe it? This happened
with Campus Safety right fuckin' there..." (The Campus Safety office is
literally adjacent to Shannon Center parking.)
A Whittier College employee who asked to remain anonymous noted that "It
usually takes Campus Safety 15 minutes to respond, and that's at warp speed."
Robert Bazlen was smart enough to call the Whittier P. D. first.
Senior commuter and Iraq War vet Maria Basulto says, "I'm scared to park
there now."
The two strong-arm robbery and attempted carjacking suspects were later observed
entering a vehicle and driving up Olive Street, then disappearing into an alley
near Broadoaks Childrens School, associated with Whittier College's Education
school and for which Campus Safety is also responsible. Fortunately, no children
were reported to be disturbed or harmed in relation to this incident.
Students Protesting Timm Browne's Campus Safety Regime
Not surprisingly, students are becoming more and more concerned about Timm Browne
and his new Campus Safety hires. After tens of students descended together on
Dean of Students Jeanne Ortiz's office to complain about Campus Safety - stating
that "harassment of students by Campus Safety is a systemic...issue that
affects all students on campus" - Assistant Dean Andre Coleman suggested
Timm Browne's "tremendous turnover" of Campus Safety personnel is,
as Q C's Emily Baeza writes, "at fault for the uneasy student-officer relationship
at the moment." Ah, that small liberal arts college milieu... Remember
that?
The salient question regarding Campus Safety is how much more harm President
Sharon Herzberger and the Whittier College Trustees are going to allow Timm
Browne to do to students, who are already paying too much for declining degree
values, and so how much more damage to what's left of this school's tattered
reputation?