LATHROP – Are Lathrop Police culturally insensitive?

That’s what councilman Omar Ornelas claimed during a five-minute dress down of Lathrop Police at the end of Monday’s council meeting.

And as far as Ornelas himself, Mayor Joseph “Chaka” Santos believes he has no business airing his beef about the men and women of law enforcement in public – let alone during a publicly televised council meeting.

During the council comments portion of Monday’s meeting, Ornelas unleashed on the uniformed personnel charged with keeping Lathrop’s street safe, accusing an unnamed deputy of harassing people in the community repeatedly and “talking down” to them in the process.

He went so far as to claim that cultural differences might have had something to do with the exchange.

“I just want to say this out loud so that everybody understands – when you interact with a police officer you’re just as much as they are. Don’t ever let anybody talk down on you and don’t ever let anybody keep coming back and harassing you because that’s not the way it’s supposed to be,” Ornelas said. “And just because you’re from a different culture and speak a different language and you do something different than they do does not give them a reason to talk down to you or harass you.”

The comments didn’t sit well with Santos, who ran his campaign for mayor on a platform of public safety and routinely thanks both the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District and Lathrop Police Services for the jobs that they do in the community.

“As mayor I am 110 percent in support of public safety, especially our police and fire services,” Santos said in a call to The Bulletin. “They’re the backbone of our community. If councilman Ornelas has a problem with police or fire he should talk to them privately at the end of the day. We need to support our guys 110 percent and not publicly criticize them.”

When reached for comment, Ornelas declined to provide any specific details about the situation he was referring to and noted that with the exception of these incidents, he stands behind the men and women in uniform in the community.

“I do appreciate the work that the Lathrop Police do, but part of what I said Monday was that these guys are supposed to be out catching criminals and not harassing members of the public,” Ornelas said. “It was a message to not only the department but to everyone in a position of power. It was to let the police know they have a duty to do their job enforcing the laws and protecting people, but it was also to everybody else – the city manager, the mayor, the rest of the city council.

“It’s our job to make sure that we’re doing things the right way.”

He also stated during the meeting that both Chief Eric Holman and Lieutenant Chris Stevens are good people that’ll gladly listen to members of the public that may have problems, noting that he’d be talking to them both following the meeting.

San Joaquin County Sherriff’s spokesman Les Garcia said that the department is aware of Ornelas’ comments and has already set up an appointment to meet with him to discuss the matter further.