Deputies Decide Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Allegations

Crime and punishment.

* Un-funny home videos.

The people who run the County Jail in Vista have decided to use video cameras to tape the movements of prisoners who have made, or are likely to make, complaints about deputy brutality.

“It’s the best kind of evidence, don’t you think?” said sheriff’s Capt. Bill Flores, jail commander.

The first prisoner to be taped: Meecee Parks (nee Sagon Penn), who alleges that he was beaten Sunday night by deputies.

Parks, who is serving time for assault, was put into solitary confinement (“administrative segregation”) after the altercation.

Now, when he is let out for meals or otherwise has contact with deputies, his movements are being taped by a deputy with a hand-held camera.

Flores said cameras have been used to film riots but never before for individual prisoners.

“If Mr. Parks is going to make allegations about how he’s being treated, we think there should be a record,” Flores said. “The taping seems to calm him down.”

Annilee Carmichael, Parks’ fiancee, tells it differently.

“Meecee feels like an animal in a cage,” she said. “He feels they’re trying to intimidate him.”

* Go ahead, punk, make my Weedeater.

A Rancho Santa Fe homeowner didn’t take kindly to a thief brazenly snatching his $350 Weedeater, a gizmo that whacks down weeds.

He took his .357 Magnum, aimed at the fleeing Honda Civic, and blam, blam, blam, fired off a few shots. The thief escaped, apparently unscathed, although the car was hit.

The Sheriff’s Department is investigating--not pleased at the theft of garden tools, also unsettled at the armed response.

“I’m not one to preach that people don’t have the right to bear arms,” Sgt. Jerry Lewis said. “But I’m not sure that capping a few rounds at a guy for stealing your Weedeater and splitting is a good idea.”

Any Side Dish Benefits?

Make of it what you will.

* America’s finest tortilla.

Here’s a help-wanted ad for the Food Palace restaurant in San Diego:

“Tortilla Quality Controller; For 1 year. Press flour tortillas with tortilla press. Examine for flaws and detect same. Adjust parameters as required to control discrepancies. Recommend changes. Perform random sample checks . . . “

* The Mildred MacPherson Waterfall, jewel of Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, has been dry for four months.

The drought? No, the county Parks and Recreation Department can’t seem to fix the pump that recycles the water that makes the waterfall go.

* The TV show “Inside Edition” is doing a story on VALOR (Victims Against Law Officer Repression), formed by Jim Butler of Vista, who won a $1.1-million brutality lawsuit against sheriff’s deputies.

* Animal activists say the death of a keeper at the San Diego Wild Animal Park increases chances for a bill submitted by state Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose).

SB318 would limit the use of chains to restrain elephants and require a hands-off policy toward bull elephants. The first hearing: April 23.

* Who says librarians are dull?

The speaker at Saturday’s closing session of the Public Library Assn. convention here: cult filmmaker John Waters (“Polyester,” “Pink Flamingos, “Hairspray”).

Polish Dialogue

There is always a local angle.

Polish President Lech Walesa laid flowers on the coffin of Polish composer and diplomat Ignace Jan Paderewski at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.

On Saturday, Walesa meets in Los Angeles with Paderewski’s closest American relative: second cousin Clarence Paderewski, 82, a retired San Diego architect.

The two will discuss plans to move the coffin, in keeping with Paderewski’s wish that his body be returned to his native Poland if it ever became a free country. He died in exile in 1941 at age 81.

Clarence Paderewski will accompany the coffin to Warsaw on June 26, where it will be reburied at St. John’s Cathedral, amid much pomp and circumstance.