Chico PD Sued Yet Again
Mark Bass photographed after the killing of Gabe Sanchez
You may recall that we broke the news about yet another lawsuit against the City of Chico for excessive use of force by Chico Police Officers. A teenaged girl was pulled over with friends in the car because someone had called 911 to report “a car with people yelling racial slurs.” 5 police cars and many officers arrived after she was pulled over. She called her mom, who came to the scene, but when she got out of the car to try to talk to her mom, she was thrown to the ground and pinned down, causing injuries. She was kicked down so hard that her shoe flew off. You can view the actual court filing here.
And yet, Chico PD continues to refuse to work with a citizens oversight committee, or to make significant cultural changes. If the human toll didn’t sway them, you would think the cost of defending lawsuits and subsequent settlements would. Instead, the Chico city council just handed Chico PD officers a 20% raise. Outrageous.
One of the officers involved, Sgt. Mark Bass (pictured above), has already killed two people in Chico, and been a party to multiple excessive use of force lawsuits. Bass is currently party to a wrongful death lawsuit for the killing of Gabe Sanchez, in addition to the Rush lawsuit. He doesn't stop at professional assaults, however - his ex-wife was forced to obtain a restraining order against him for domestic abuse, and he so savagely attacked his own teenage son at one point that the issue was referred to law enforcement ... but then somehow the case just disappeared.
To put his behavior into context, nationally 73% of law enforcement officers never discharge their weapon at all in the line of duty at all - not in the entire course of their careers, let alone killing two people. It's clear this is not a coincidence, it's over-aggressive policing, and Mark Bass should be removed from the force before he harms anyone else. You can learn more about this latest case and Mark Bass' long history of malfeasance from ChicoSol.org.
Chico Sol is the only local media outlet pursing this information and the city has repeatedly refused to provide public records. In fact, Journalist Dave Waddell with Chico Sol had to sue the city in order to obtain those public records.
You can also hear journalist Dave Waddell and Angela McLaughlin discuss some of his work on policing in Butte County here: https://www.kzfr.org/broadcasts/34961
