CHP 11-99
06-06-2007, 07:52 AM
By Ellen Thompson (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:NewWindow%28500,550,%27/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=489%27,0%29)
Record Staff Writer
June 06, 2007 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - An alleged plot among 10 men to overthrow the communist government of Laos involved a scheme to use the California Highway Patrol Academy to train the future regime's police force.
California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Fran Clader said the CHP was contacted by federal investigators who suspect the plot's organizers - one of them from Stockton - were planning to help the CHP recruit Hmong officers.
According to court documents, organizers hoped to call on those officers to "abandon" the CHP after they completed their state-funded training and to provide law enforcement for a new regime.
The plot included a plan to destroy government buildings in Laos and distribute $9.8 million worth of automatic weapons and anti-aircraft explosives among revolutionaries, according to the court records.
Clader said CHP Assistant Commissioner Art Anderson met in March with Hmong community leaders who claimed to be interested in helping recruit Hmong for the CHP.
Anderson set up a March 7 tour of the CHP Academy in West Sacramento for 26 Hmong representatives, including at least four who now face federal charges.
Plot organizers would not have had enough time to implement such a plan if it existed, Clader said. It takes four to six months to complete a background check before being accepted to the six-month academy, she said. The background process involves psychological testing.
Clader did not know of any applications to the CHP resulting from the March meeting, and the CHP is cooperating with federal investigators.
"We have no indication of criminal activity among any of our officers," Clader said.
Recruiting new officers, particularly those who help the agency better represent the state's cultural diversity, is a priority of the CHP, she said.
But Clader said the Hmong ethnic group, originally from mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, is not among the minority groups the CHP tracks in measuring its own diversity.
Community leaders estimate about 8,000 Hmong live in Stockton and their numbers in law enforcement are few.
The Stockton Police Department has at least one employee, who is not a sworn officer, who speaks Hmong and can help translate, spokesman Officer Pete Smith said.
Record Staff Writer
June 06, 2007 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - An alleged plot among 10 men to overthrow the communist government of Laos involved a scheme to use the California Highway Patrol Academy to train the future regime's police force.
California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Fran Clader said the CHP was contacted by federal investigators who suspect the plot's organizers - one of them from Stockton - were planning to help the CHP recruit Hmong officers.
According to court documents, organizers hoped to call on those officers to "abandon" the CHP after they completed their state-funded training and to provide law enforcement for a new regime.
The plot included a plan to destroy government buildings in Laos and distribute $9.8 million worth of automatic weapons and anti-aircraft explosives among revolutionaries, according to the court records.
Clader said CHP Assistant Commissioner Art Anderson met in March with Hmong community leaders who claimed to be interested in helping recruit Hmong for the CHP.
Anderson set up a March 7 tour of the CHP Academy in West Sacramento for 26 Hmong representatives, including at least four who now face federal charges.
Plot organizers would not have had enough time to implement such a plan if it existed, Clader said. It takes four to six months to complete a background check before being accepted to the six-month academy, she said. The background process involves psychological testing.
Clader did not know of any applications to the CHP resulting from the March meeting, and the CHP is cooperating with federal investigators.
"We have no indication of criminal activity among any of our officers," Clader said.
Recruiting new officers, particularly those who help the agency better represent the state's cultural diversity, is a priority of the CHP, she said.
But Clader said the Hmong ethnic group, originally from mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, is not among the minority groups the CHP tracks in measuring its own diversity.
Community leaders estimate about 8,000 Hmong live in Stockton and their numbers in law enforcement are few.
The Stockton Police Department has at least one employee, who is not a sworn officer, who speaks Hmong and can help translate, spokesman Officer Pete Smith said.