The questions seem simple enough. Who killed San Jose Police Officer Michael Katherman? And is the suspect an illegal alien?
Finding the answers, however, has been complex.
Katherman, a motorcycle cop and 11-year veteran with San Jose, was on patrol when a minivan turned in front of his motorcycle and struck and killed the officer during his June 14th afternoon shift, police said. He is survived by his wife and two young sons, ages 10 and 8. He was 34.
However, rumors inside San Jose Police have been swirling since Katherman’s death alleging he was struck and killed by an illegal alien, sources said. Some officers believe department and city brass are protecting the identity of the driver because it would embarrass the city, especially on the heels of the disastrous breakdowns of basic public safety at a recent Donald trump rally, sources said. Officers describe the driver as a Latino male, driving a silver minivan that collided with Officer Katherman. No one has been charged in the fatal crash though police do know the identity of the driver.
True Pundit asked San Jose Police simple questions. We didn’t even get to the questions like is the suspect a licensed driver, was he under the influence of alcohol, drugs, etc. We just wanted two very basic questions answered to possibly counter or squelch the disturbing rumors inside the police department. The so-called answers only add to the case’s growing intrigue.
San Jose Police Sgt. Enrique Garcia responded with “the San Jose Police Department will not release the information you are requesting.”
Garcia cited a state code that protects the name and address of persons involved in motor vehicle accidents. That statute, however, does not protect the police from acknowledging whether such a driver was in the country illegally. But Garcia completely ignored that question. If untrue, it’s not difficult to simply deny.
But in San Jose, as the country has recently learned, the city government is anything but simple. Just days before the death of Officer Katherman, San Jose Police came under fire for its departmental-wide lack of regard for public safety at a Donald Trump rally in early June. Anti-Trump protesters were licensed to run wild, openly beat, bloody and harass Trump supporters while police stood watch in full riot gear. Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigrants, yet San Jose is a Sanctuary City, paid with federal funds to protect illegals. Likewise, La Raza is openly and blatantly anti Trump. La Raza has a foothold in San Jose politics.
A national outcry followed the San Jose Police’s public debacle, turning the spotlight on San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Police Chief Eddie Garcia, among numerous city council members. The enhanced scrutiny did not bode well for the city of San Jose. True Pundit linked Liccardo and Police Chief Garcia, as well as the city’s former police chief who resigned in early 2016, to La Raza, the radical Latino-rights-only group. Interestingly, Liccardo and most of San Jose’s City Council members were explicitly barred from attending Officer Katherman’s June 21 funeral at the SAP Center, per his family’s demands.
Mayor Liccardo (Left) and Police Chief Eddie Garcia are frequent speakers at La Raza
events.
Chief Garcia pictured here at another La Raza event.
Mayor Liccardo hanging with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at recent
La Raza meeting.
More alarming, True Pundit discovered San Jose, Santa Clara County and the state of California paid La Raza since 2014, millions to write San Jose’s laws for Latinos. The radical group pocketed well over $30 million+ to create specialized social, welfare and criminal policy that benefited ONLY Latinos. San Jose officials then gladly converted La Raza’s recommendations into law.
Sgt. Garcia acknowledged True Pundit’s frustration with the department’s refusal to answer, again, what we believe most of the public would consider simple, direct questions. “I am sorry you are upset, but we are treating this case like all other cases.” he said.
However, according to research, withholding the names of suspects who kill its police officers is apparently a new policy in San Jose Police.
In March 2015, San Jose Police Officer Michael Johnson was shot dead while responding to a call about a man who was threatening to kill himself. San Jose Police released the name of the alleged suspect within minutes. The shooter was a 57-year-old white male.
Officer Jeffrey Fontana, 24, was a rookie San Jose police officer in his second week in a patrol car. He was shot and killed during a 2001 motor vehicle stop. San Jose Police released the name of the suspect, DeShawn Lee Campbell, within minutes. The shooter was an African American male. San Jose Police also publicized by name the arrest of an accessory to the shooting; another African American male.
Two San Jose Police Officer deaths; two cases where the suspects were named immediately. Echoing True Pundit’s published email to Sgt. Garcia, withholding the name of an individual who killed a police officer, even by motor vehicle accident, is very rare. In fact, it is almost unheard of in law enforcement.
San Jose Police’s lack of transparency only gives birth to deeper questions: Who is San Jose Police trying to protect? And if the answer is no one, why not simply say so? Why not offer full transparency with the media and public when an officer’s life has been lost in the line of duty? Playing cat-and-mouse with the media comes off as insensitive. Also, why does it take two weeks plus now to wrap up a two-vehicle investigation where witnesses supposedly watched a man in a minivan cut off, strike and kill Officer Katherman? What messages are you sending the public and Officer Katherman’s brother officers, family, and friends by going beyond normal protocol to protect someone responsible for a police officer’s death?
Who runs the San Jose Police Department? La Raza? Or officers sworn to uphold America’s laws?
