Arrests made public

The arrest of the man who was the prime suspect was made public and the identity of the victim was made public as well.

The Police Department was aware of this prime suspect for a while now and I could not list the information on the website due to the sensitivity of the investigation but now that the information is public... Read it! And note what the authorities are saying in this one line:

"Authorities said Bureng's disability might be the reason he was attacked and that Bureng was unable to communicate with his attacker because he does not speak."

I still don't trust the media after my experience getting different information from the media and the police department themselves so I still don't know what to say about this but WOW because I got different information that was strong enough to show that it was a different type of crime, not a Deaf Hate Crime but hey maybe we changed their thinking and maybe the "authorities" really are opening up to understanding the Deaf community!

The link to the article is:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/9905200/detail.html

Many thanks to Mari for alerting me to this news item!

Here is the article copied and pasted...

SAN DIEGO -- Police said on Thursday that they have arrested the man who severely beat a deaf teenager in San Diego last month.

Officials said Loro Bureng, 18, was playing basketball at Rosa Parks Elementary School in the 4500 block of Landis Street in City Heights when he was approached by a group of people. He was severely beaten, suffering a broken eye socket and nose in the attack.

San Diego police said Jesse R. Ross, 20, beat the victim for "no apparent reason." Authorities said Bureng's disability might be the reason he was attacked and that Bureng was unable to communicate with his attacker because he does not speak.

Investigators said they were led to Ross -- who was arrested in El Cajon on an unrelated theft charge -- by a Crime Stoppers tip.

Police said Ross faces assault charges in connection with the attack on Bureng. He is currently being held on $90,000 bail. Investigators said they are still looking for the other young men who took part in the beating.


ALSO...

The San Diego Police Chief WILL speak at San Diego Deaf Awareness Day, sponsored by Deaf Community Services of San Diego. Keep your eyes open for the exact time he will show up to speak at the event.

Quick Update about the Chief

A quick update...

Contact has been made with Deaf Community Services of San Diego. There will be a meeting next week to work together to bring Chief Lansdowne to the Deaf Awareness Day on September 30th. It made more sense to invite the Police Chief to an event that draws over a thousand attendees instead of the coffee night meeting which draws about 50 people.

I am very sure that after inviting the Chief we will see him at the Deaf Awareness Day event and I will also ask Deaf Community Services, the sponsor of the Deaf Awareness Day event, if they would be interested in inviting City Councilwoman Toni Atkins to the event as well because her office played a big role in getting our voices heard. I think it would be best to have both Chief Lansdowne and Councilwoman Atkins at the event to show that the city has heard our complaints and is here to listen and help us.

Because of these recent updates, I won't be at the coffee night event tonight with a big card to sign. Instead I am going to wait until the Deaf Awareness Day event so more people can sign the card and then we would have a card with so many signatures that it will show how many Deaf people there are in San Diego that are thankful to the Chief and Councilwoman Atkins. That should help us build a bond with them which is important since Councilwoman Atkins is already considered the frontrunner for a State Assembly seat in 2010. It would definitely be nice to have a State Assembly member in California that is aware of the Deaf Community.

But you can still expect to see me at the coffee house for a drink at 9pm. If you are there tonight feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks again to everyone.

The Police Chief LISTENS

Today at 4:15pm there was a meeting with Police Chief Lansdowne regarding this incident and the response that was given to the Deaf Community by the San Diego Police Department.

Chief Lansdowne was very attentive to this issue and definitely paid attention to what we had to say the past two weeks.

He shared good news that they were very close to capturing suspects in this case and that they had identified one of them. He agreed that there was an obvious communication breakdown that occurred. He explained that there were a few police officers that knew sign language and that what should have happened was they should have assigned a police officer that knew sign language to this case. It could have improved understanding BIG TIME between the Deaf Community and the Police Department.

Chief Lansdowne was a BIG improvement over the response we had gotten from Officer Donelson. Chief Lansdowne was aware of the case and explained clearly what steps had been taken and what they would do next. He pointed out that they would let the District Attorney's Office determine whether not it would be a hate crime and they would do this after arresting them and questioning them to figure out if there is such a motive involved. This response alone was GREAT. Instead of getting a NO NO NO response, we got a clear explaination of how they were approaching this case and how they would let the DA's office make a determination after the arrest and questioning. As most of you will remember Officer Donelson avoided any possibility or mention of this being a possible Hate Crime. Even though now it has become apparent that it isn't a Deaf Hate Crime, the fact that the Chief is explaining how this will all work out and pointing out that it is still possible that it is a hate crime if they get more information from the suspects after arresting them and questioning them for more information is a VICTORY for the Deaf Community because at least we know they are listening.

Chief Lansdowne also expressed an interest in speaking to the Deaf Community in the near future, possibly in two weeks at the Deaf night gathering at the Coffee Bean in Mission Valley. He is looking into this possibility and we should have the suspects in custody by then so we can have a productive meeting between the Chief and the Deaf Community so he can understand that we have a huge Deaf Community that is concerned about our relationship with the Police Department.

I will also be bringing a big card on Friday this week to Deaf night at Coffee Bean at Mission Valley to sign as a THANK YOU to Chief Lansdowne and Councilwoman Toni Atkin's Office for paying attention to us about this issue.

MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SENT EMAILS AND GOT INVOLVED!

Will update you when Chief Lansdowne will meet with the Deaf Community to focus on improving the relationship between our community and the San Diego Police Department.