Photo taken by Davis Barber and swiped from Fullerton Stories.com

Wow was the only thing in the email subject line.

It was an email from an acquaintance telling me that a local blog, Friends for Fullerton’s Future, was turning off-for now.

I nearly fell out of my chair reading it. REALLY?!

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Friends blog, as it has become locally nicknamed, has been around almost 5 years and came to fame almost 2 years ago after the death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless, mentally ill man who was allegedly murdered by Fullerton police officers. I personally believe that the persistent work of Tony Bushala, the blog founder, and Travis Kiger, led to charges being filed against 3 of the police officers on scene that evening.

I haven’t always agreed with the work on that blog. They were rude as hell, committed copyright infringement more times than I can count and on and on.

They were also instrumental in holding local politicians accountable and put many media outlets around the country to shame by bringing the Thomas case to light when they published a bruised, heavily beat up face of Thomas as he laid brain dead in his hospital bed.

They were clever as hell on occasion also. I especially loved the video Bushala did when Dick Jones, the mayor at the time Thomas died, told the crowd at a city council meeting in his trademark Southern accent, “WILL YOU SHUT UP?!” 

Bushala mixed a video of Jones saying that at the city council meeting mixed in with The Black Eyed Peas video Shut Up. It was priceless. It was creative. The Black Eyed Peas might not have appreciated it, but it worked…

So, as you can see, this was a mixed bag.

Any way you look at it though, I wish the blog admins well as they go on to the next chapter of their lives. You leave a gaping hole in this unique city’s structure.