8:30am | On February 6, in Long Beach Superior Court, the case of Thomas R. Gonzales versus the Long Beach Citizens Police Complaint Commission (the CPCC) is scheduled to be heard.
Mr. Gonzales, 62, was fired in 2005 by then-City Manager Jerry Miller after six years of service with the CPCC. He alleges that the CPCC refused to investigate the complaints of Hispanic citizens of the use of excessive force, racial profiling, and issues of a sexual nature, against the Long Beach Police Department.
The case involves Mr. Gonzales’ allegations that the CPCC deliberately singled him out for adverse actions and discrimination in employment. This was in retaliation for Mr. Gonzales bringing to the CPCC’s attention that the CPCC was violating the rights of Latinos, as well as his civil rights as a Mexican-American, and as a bilingual CPCC special investigator. These allegations are expected to expand on shortcomings that many media outlets reported in 1993 against the CPCC, saying it was one of the weaker citizen review panels that used the police department for its work, often sided with police, and rarely exercised its subpoena power.