Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday
Republican politicians like DA Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich - who do the impossible and get elected in blue leaning Los Angeles - typically either go RINO (a la Dennis Zine, Dick Riordan and Greig "Sleepy Bear" Smith) or crash and burn. That is where TrutanaCooley are headed on the issue of medical marijuana with an approach right out of 1936's Reefer Madness, despite the fact that the voters and the rest of the state are going the other direction. Note to local Republicans: Lower taxes, fighting gang crime, prosecuting corrupt politicians, good. Hating the gays, busting potheads, bad.
The door can't hit the ass of outgoing Chief of Police Bill Bratton any faster than it will, however Bratton does make a good analysis of the city's failed culture before he finally gets out of dodge. Bratton tells KPCC "This city is almost a city that doesn’t work in so many respects and it’s frustrating...What surprised me was, one, just how big this city was, and two, how neighborhood-centric it was, that despite people moving around this city on freeways, people identify more with their neighborhoods than with the city as a whole. Other cities I’ve lived in – Boston, New York – while there’s great pride in the neighborhoods, they still think of themselves as New Yorkers or Bostonians." And in this case Bratton is absolutely right. LA is not a city like Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. which grew organically. Instead, it was more like a corporate behemoth that acquired many, many local towns through it's evil manipulation of water and has never been able to form into a single whole. In the end, secession is this area's only hope.
The Los Angeles City Clowncil is looking at methods (way too late) to curb runaway film production in the City. There is one thing they can do now, and that's to make sure Chris Essel is not elected to their semi-august body.
And finally Gavin Newsom's "not ready for prime time" Campaign for Governor continues on. First, Gavin blasts Jerry Brown for assisting San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos raise funds for his campaign. Why? Because Ramos is a Registered Republican. However the office is a non-partisan seat and there are no Democrats running. Next, following massive ridicule and opposition from the homeless community in San Francisco Newsom nixed an idea he had to "help" the homeless: Gavin wanted the city to set up special "homeless parking meters" that San Franciscans could drop coins into and which funds would go towards relief programs. Keep thinking Gavin!
The door can't hit the ass of outgoing Chief of Police Bill Bratton any faster than it will, however Bratton does make a good analysis of the city's failed culture before he finally gets out of dodge. Bratton tells KPCC "This city is almost a city that doesn’t work in so many respects and it’s frustrating...What surprised me was, one, just how big this city was, and two, how neighborhood-centric it was, that despite people moving around this city on freeways, people identify more with their neighborhoods than with the city as a whole. Other cities I’ve lived in – Boston, New York – while there’s great pride in the neighborhoods, they still think of themselves as New Yorkers or Bostonians." And in this case Bratton is absolutely right. LA is not a city like Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. which grew organically. Instead, it was more like a corporate behemoth that acquired many, many local towns through it's evil manipulation of water and has never been able to form into a single whole. In the end, secession is this area's only hope.
The Los Angeles City Clowncil is looking at methods (way too late) to curb runaway film production in the City. There is one thing they can do now, and that's to make sure Chris Essel is not elected to their semi-august body.
And finally Gavin Newsom's "not ready for prime time" Campaign for Governor continues on. First, Gavin blasts Jerry Brown for assisting San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos raise funds for his campaign. Why? Because Ramos is a Registered Republican. However the office is a non-partisan seat and there are no Democrats running. Next, following massive ridicule and opposition from the homeless community in San Francisco Newsom nixed an idea he had to "help" the homeless: Gavin wanted the city to set up special "homeless parking meters" that San Franciscans could drop coins into and which funds would go towards relief programs. Keep thinking Gavin!
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/12/2009 02:00:00 AM
33 Comments:
Close down the dispensaries and fill medical marijuana prescriptions at the pharmacies. Whoever came up with that crooked marijuana dispensary plan is in bed with the Mexican Mafia.
There's no loss of convenience in using pharmacies. There's a pharmacy in nearly every supermarket, these days. If you can find your way to the supermarket then you can reliably get your marijuana prescription filled.
Michael you never did like the Chief but you gotta give him credit for the crap he had to put up with these loser city council members. He showed the horrible bullshit Bitter Bernie left behind. Wonder how Garcetti is going to vote tomorrow to hire more police since the Police Political League honored him last month and they are staying out of the fight. Something that has the rank and file super pissed.
Bratton has never been one known for keeping his thoughts to himself and generally, if pushed hard enough, will be outspoken and candid about 'the fifteen,' his term for the Council usually spoken with more than a note of contempt than praise.
Bratton's right to note that the city is fractured; NIMBY neighborhoods on the Westside, and crime ridden corrupt ones to the east and south. All are represented by politicians who share a common goal - to get re-elected at any cost.
If Essel gets elected to CD2, she'll have the same rude awakening as Bratton. Paul Krekorian, on the other hand is a seasoned veteran of survival politics who, like Paul Koretz, should slide right in with the rest of them.
I'm glad Bratton's leaving, he compromised too much and should have stood his ground and stuck to his principals. He got smitten with the same 'survival politics' bug as the the rest of them when he compromised his standards to achieve his goal; leave LA with a bigger police force. The compromise? Lay off the gangs and let the Mayor's multi-million dollar anti-gang plan make a few gangsters richer and more powerful.
Bratton massaged the figures to show that crime in Los Angeles was down to 1950's levels, when anyone who lives in the City knows it is the reverse. We do have less murders, but not less shootings. We have less deaths from shootings largely because of faster emergency response times and better medical treatment. Bottom line, crime's up, deaths down, thank you Bill, don't let the door ....
excellent comments
the city attorneys office is a joke.
rocky, then 'nuch' , or it could have been Weiss ass.
they send police down on the boardwalk to 'check names' from a list to make sure people don't use a space not 'allocated' to them, and then they hit a piano player with one of these tickets. not bothering anyone this guy, and they cite him. they cited me for having a mic stand 'over four feet' high, when I'm in the middle of a song, . see, the beach law is there to ENHANCE expression, and reduce vending. when core expression like a musical performance is being criminalised by a rule which is intended to advance performance, then the rule is deemed to be OVERBROAD and not narrowly tailored to the governments stated interests, because legitimate speech is being burdened when its intent was too protect speech.
what we need is better police, not more police. better training, and fire some attorneys to pay for it.
start heading off the lawsuits with better outreach, and less lip service.
[thud thud]
that's me banging my head against the wall, when I read back what I just wrote.
I must've forgot who I was talking about for a second.
let me get back to my preliminary injunction papers...
Whether Cooley and Trutanich lose the support they currently enjoy really will depend on whether they follow through with the plan to eradicate pot shops and leave alone the collectives that have operated within the narrow confines of Prop 215. Neighborhood Councils begged Trutanich to do something about the explosive growth of pot shops openly selling pot to anyone with a piece of paper signed by a doctor.
Koretz, one of the architects of Prop 215, has remained silent on the topic, knowing that his constituents are less than happy about the pot shops in CD5. It's unlikely that Koretz can support the pot shops and hang on to his seat, so he'll either have to find a way to position himself with Trutanich and Cooley, or stay out of it altogether. Expect him to stay out of it.
Cooley and Trutanich might come out of this as heros because the pot shops have brought this situation on themselves. Instead of operating quietly, discretely and legitimately, they've chosen to confront the community and use brightly-lit store fronts on high streets near schools. Their loose interpretation of the definition of 'patient' and 'caregiver' shows their true agenda is to bring Amsterdam style drug sales to Los Angeles. In pushing the envelope so far, they've forced law enforcement to respond.
The response, if Cooley and Trutanich have planned their attack properly, is likely to aimed first against the most visible pot shops; like the one on Venice Beach where a pot-head proudly waves a sign saying "The Doctor's In The House" to attract customers, and others close to schools on the Westside and the SFV where neighborhood councils are screaming for action.
Since February 2009, when Eric Holder announced that the DEA will not be targeting collectives, hundreds of pot shops opened. As recent FDA analysis of the pot sold at two stores shows, the pot is laced with a toxic insecticide; Bifenthrin. Pot containing 1,600 times the permissible level in a medicine? Not good for the pot shops, not good for cancer patients.
The presence of such large quantities of insecticide suggests this is commercially grown pot, not collectively cultivated. Bifenthrin is used to kill red fire ants and subterranean termites, and is used extensively in Mexico, providing further evidence that the pot shops are selling Mexican pot imported by organized crime. Not good for pot shops.
As longs as Cooley and Trutanich allow the legitimate collectives to continue to do their work; compassionately serving the medicinal needs of the cancer and AIDS patients for whom Prop 215 was created, it's a win-win situation and one that is guaranteed to raise the ire of the liberal left who have completely misread the current state of public opinion.
Expect the usual boilerplate anti-Cooley/Trutanich rants to follow...
I like a strong man who isn't afraid to say what's on his mind like Bratton did and now the way Trutanich did on Saturday. We have too many weak ass men as politicians that think they are entitled to respect yet they behave like immature juveniles like Greg Smith and now Koretz. Why is Smith taking on Koretz's fight? 8 gang interventionists have been arrested for felonies in the last two years. But Antonio is still giving them money. We are going to get the brunt of all the inmates being released and when you become a victim of crime then you can whine we already have enough cops.
Essel is the queen of run away production.
Huh? less deaths from shootings due to better hospitals? Where is the anonymous person living? Los Angeles always had the top notch medical treatment teams for shootings.
Yet they have closed more hospitals and some idiot now says they are saving more lives?
Maybe the bullet supply is getting scarce because people are hoarding bullets and/or sending it to Iran/Afganistan?
I agree with 5:06 AM.
The dispensaries should be closed.
The voter initiative was called "medical marijuana", which means it's being treated as a medicine. If so, then sell it at hospitals and pharmacies from legitimate vendors with some degree of self-control.
The current situation is unacceptable.
People are selling marijuana on the streets of Los Angeles as if it were a candy bar or a bag of potato chips. This is not what the initiative had intended.
Phil,
No wonder you get your sked kicked everytime you run for office. This is exactly what the proposition intended - the mainstream acceptance of marijuana. After 13 years, it seems to be working - the new initiatives for recreational use are way ahead right now. The medical marijuana initiative has more than fulfilled it's promise.
All this saber rattling by Cooley and Trut will result in nothing once recreational use is legalized. Just more typical republican grand standing and divisive PR. It's just a matter of time these "marijuana" voters end Cooley's political career.
First Phil develops a reputation for describing in minute detail the food spread at Neighborhoood Council meetings.
Now he compares marijuana to soda & chips.
No wonder Mayor Sam likes him.
Yea Higby you are right good comments without the usual crap. Looks like you put some good QC into place.
Assuming you are not posting anonymously as Mullholland Drive or whoever the anti-Christian bigotry has to go too!
Re: 6:57, I hope Garcetti has the cajones to support maintaining LAPD at current levels. When Bratton says that shrinking it to 9500 would roll back what he's accomplished over 7 years, as some want either because they think that LAPD's done such a good job reducing crime, it won't matter (Koretz said this) OR because they mismanaged the Budget so badly they will do anything to funnel the money into the General Fund (the others, especially Parks, Smith, Perry), Garcetti needs to listen to him not the dum-dums on Council. OR to PPL's Weber who wants to freeze the force for his own reasons. BUT Garcetti is NOT beholden to PPL as you claim 6:57 like the others and Zine because they honored him at that banquet - Garcetti showed up last minute as a favor to them. As of 2 weeks before, Sept 14th, only Trutanich was listed as honoree but they couldn't sell tables because many hate him, so Garcetti agreed to go and make calls to sell tables. Which helped raise money for them.
Phil,
I would suspect that soda and chips pose a bigger health threat than marijuana.
Also, I would much rather have a self secured dispensary in my neighborhood than a liquor store which engender much more crime than a legal collectice.
8:11 - "Kelvin" as you call yourself elsewhere, other names, don't worry about the "boilerplate rants to follow," you're too stupid to bother with. You and "Trutanich and Cooley" who you say in the same breath to prove Trutanich IS his shadow who he pushed to elect for that reason, are so stupid and out of touch with the intent of 215 and with anyone but the ancient "Reefer Madness" crowd you argue against yourselves better than anyone else could.
on WitnessLA.com Celeste Fremon has posted 4 videos totaling about 30 mins. of Bratton's talk, a lot more than the bit on KPCC. She's also got a thread on the Cooley/Trutanich grandstanding on pot shops issue.
I know you are going to laugh it off and say it's a joke, which it may or not be, but the medical marijuana community, the community that got the medical marijuana law passes in the first place, is has begun the initial organization for a Carmen Trutanich and Steve Cooley re-call campaign.
They seem to feel they have the money and active voters to push this through themselves.
So let the minimizing of the effort begin, but it won't be the best PR for Cooley and Trutanich.
Especially as their legal head honcho Jerry Brown is running for governor and can't alienate that vote.
In my opinion Trutanich should set up a meeting with these people and work out a way to have the city allow for collectives to operate under state law. It's looking like the Cooley/Trutanich/Zine crew don't think medical marijuana should even be allowed to be dispensed.
So there needs to be a meeting to clarify.
Oakland and San Francisco got done right and stopped all the medical marijuana shops. LA has more then any other city because we have jerks running the city. Yeah, why is Paul Koretz not saying a word since he's to blame along with idiot Ed Reyes and Huizar on Plum who met with the marijuana advocates. Trutanich was cheered by NC's on Saturday cause he's not afraid to say he doesn't like politicians. Good for him. If he does what he said you can be sure one of the idiot council men will do something to criticize him in the media. You know the Police Political League can't be happy he's on board with Mayor to support cop hiring.
THANK YOU NINA. You are right! Its easy to sit and complain and a lot of people who post here sit in the comfort of their homes and type. Get up off your asses and show those lame ass city council members they are responsible for the budget deficit. The reason why council members act so arrogant is because they don't think people really care or know what they're doing. Get in their faces like the radicals and see how differently they react. Get there tomorrow.
Nina Royal said...
They just don't get it. It takes a year for LAPD personnel to go through the hiring process for a qualified applicant. If they stop adding to the eligible list,then when they do need to hire, future top applicants will have gone to anoher department to start their process. The huge money that has been spent for outreach to get the very best applicants will be lost. When we lose officers through attrition, we will not have qualified applicants, for possibly 2 years, to take their place. Think about the ramifications of that scenario. Police and Fire should have priority in insure safe communities.
The L.A. City Council will be making a decision regarding furloughs and delaying classes on Tuesday. Anyone interested should attend. I have been attending the meetings and the representation of our communities is dismal and you all will be the first to complain when you are a victim of a crime or a fire or need emergency services. Now is you chance to "Speak Up" people!!!
October 11, 2009 9:49 AM
At least somebody is thinking about the homeless. Instead of bashing Newsom's idea, come up with effective solutions yourself. Before you rush to your keyboard, I said "effective."
I applaud you, Higby for enforcing the QC here.
I am able to actually read semi-literate comments sans capital letters, exclamation marks and other rants favored by those who you are doubtlessly screening out.
Despite the way the small percentage of votes who do vote, vote, the mainstream sentiment of California and the uS is right center.
That explains Cooley and Nuch; people want tough law enforcement, even is they are more liberal than the enforcers they elect.
2:59, what "explains Cooley and Nuch" (besides that the anti-tax electorate both in March - over Measure B - and in May over the State Props skewed conservative) is that Nuch lied about who he is and what he stands for and now that his TRU colors are coming out as critics and those who knew him said all along, there's a huge backlash: it started before he even took office after his grandstanding over the Jackson affair against LAPD which everyone else was the ONLY dept. that had done a great job. If the company's supposed to pick up costs in future, that wasn't their problem; against Planning & Board members, "criminal aspects" against others; the lying about the Controller issue and how he's since treated Chick disgracefully, dragging on the suit for egotistical reasons; on and on.
The Daily News and Doug are supporters who have written critical editorials, Jim Newton at the Times Opinion was removed over pushing him and being so biased.
But most of all, lying to the pro-medical cannabis community and getting them out in numbers to campaign for him and now showing his/Cooley's true agenda all along -- playing some word=game like "we always meant that supporting state law was closing down all the shops" has gotten this vocal community so angry on a state-wide level they're talking about a dual recall. Which may not work but it will expose all his lies. Many people who want tighter regulation of pot but resent this kind of voter fraud by a Neanderthal rightwinger like Nuch who posed as moderates will support them. As for Cooley, he's had a free pass despite his litany of prosecutorial misconduct cases, and scapegoating celebs like Winona Ryder who should have gotten community service while big toxic polluter donors get off -- he can even hide DA misconduct to Polanski over the years because Polanski's a hated little pervert who didn't seem remorseful -- but their ego's got the best of them this time.
Cooley and Trutanich are on the right track. The law is the law just like illegal vending there's always people who will try and squeeze in the ultra liberal views of it. Please...if they are selling marijuana illegally then they need to be stopped. There's already too many robberies of these places and the violence in some neighborhoods like the Westside are getting ugly because of these dope shops. Sorry but there's a lot of people who agree with Cooley and Trutanich they are right.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and two members of the City Council said today they have forged an agreement to keep the number of police officers from shrinking in the middle of a budget crisis. With officials still trying to eliminate a $405-million shortfall, Council President Eric Garcetti said he “comfortably” has support from at least eight of the council’s 15 members to ensure that the Police Department continues to hire officers to replace those who resign or retire.
GUESS WHO IS SAYING SHE DOESN'T KNOW? YOU GOT IT JAN PERRY. The one who came out in support of the Nation of Islam Tony Mohammed when he assaulted a police officer. Perry like bitter Bernie has an ax to grind and doesn't like Bratton. She is a classless woman with bitter issues. Didn't the LA Weekly write a story about her owing the IRS a lot of money and her development deals?
It was Reyes and Zine who introduced the Interim Control Ordinance and have been leading the dispensary effort. Huizar became involved when Eagle Rock residents pointed out to him the number of new dispensaries in the neighborhood. He helped by closing the loophole "hardship exemption" that was in the interim control ordinance. He was helpful to clear up the mess. Dont lump him as being part of the mess that was created. We appreciate what he did for us in Eagle Rock.
Eagle Rock Resident
Got to love the way the sore losers are trying to convince Los Angelenos that 900 pot shops is a good thing for Los Angeles.
They are soooo out of touch with reality that they have to be smoking some of that toxic weed that Trutanich discovered.
Guess what? We don't want or need 900 pot shops. We don't want your stinking businesses in our community, and at last a couple of people have the guts to stand up and do what the City Council doesn't have the stomach to handle - throw the criminals in jail and allow the legitimate collectives to do their job.
11:25am, or "WDC" as you call yourself on another blog, here's some advice. Go fuck yourself. Twice. You don't know what you're talking about, and if you had any concern whatsoever about the community you should have been at City Hall on Saturday where Trutanich's plan to eradicate the illegal pot shops got the overwhelming support of the audience. Where does that leave you and your bitter defeated political shipwrecks? Out of touch, history, over, and finished.
10:30, I don't know what your problem is or what you're talking about, but the average age of the people there on Saturday was 102 - even this thread prefaces the topic as the two of them acting Republican like from the 30's, which about sums up when the people who were at that meeting or support Trutanich/Cooley were young. If you think lying to the medical cannabis community will get a pass like some other groups he lied to you're as clueless as your are bitter and hateful - he'd better have a BIG umbrella of his own, can't hide behind Cooley's.
And for the record, neither i nor the commenter you're responding to personally wants 900 pot shops -- but your idiots can't promise to uphold state law then tell people they are ALL illegal. Hello...
10:47pm - pity you don't know, or care to understand what 'State Law' is. It does not now, nor did it then, allow over the counter cash sales of marijuana, medical or otherwise.
It also does not allow shops of any description to open up without permits.
It does not allow any product to be sold containing toxic substances.
So, let's follow the state law as it is, not as you people want it to be. If you had any clue what you were talking about your criticism of Cooley and Trutanich might have merit. As it stands you are just full of bitter loser bile.
You and the 'previous' poster don't want 900 pot shops, well then, what's your solution? Oh yes, legalize pot. Get real. You guys are picking yet another loser.
9:49- just a point of clarification- the ICO (aka "moratorium") was a poorly crafted item. The absence of needed specifications for the "hardship exemption" in the ICO was what spawned the many MMDs complained of.
The exemption was supposed to apply to situations where relocation of existing MMDs was made necessary due to the landlords actions to terminate tenancy after the DEA sent out letters to intimidate those landlords as parties to an illegality, to wit, the sale of marijuana. The opening of any other MMDs was not to be permitted otherwise, yet the city did nothing as they continued to set up shop. Who's fault would that inaction be attributed to?
Aside from that the PLUM committee, of which Reyes (chair) and Huizar were members, as well as the recently departed CM, Jack Weiss, did absolutely nothing to process any of the applications filed since around September 2007, when the ICO was created, to the time that CM Huizar announced his motion to terminate the hardship exemption from the ICO. At that time the number of applications were in the 200 range.
Jose Huizar was pressured by the consituents in Eagle Rock earlier this year after MMDs began to appear with more frequency in Eagle Rock, as well as in the rest of the city. His motion as I always believed, was to remedy his own missteps in failing to handle the processing as part of the duties that PLUM was assigned.
The resulting surge in application filings came as an "unintended consequence" from Huizar's initial announcement of his intention to make that exemption-ending motion.
During the whole time, the idea of "applications" was supposed to be handled as a preliminary step to begin a business, not as anything that granted permission or demonstrated compliance with laws to allow an MMD to open. THIS is where the city failed to step in and that is what further signalled that it was ok to start up before any decision was made on the "hardship exemption."
So the big mess is what we see. Other cities banned or controlled MMDs, apparently without any calamity that's been caused in the City of L.A. Again, the city "leaders," as they call themselves, could very well have modelled procedures after cities where strict control was applied both to provide the MMDs for eligible individuals to obtain the herbal product, and to avoid allowing the MMDs to become a problem for the city.
The city here does try to LEAD in so many ways, a matter of vanity from a political viewpoint, and rarely follows anything neighboring cities do of a productive nature that could enhance the quality of operations for its own residents and businesses. You can see Tony V. boast of anything L.A. has done in larger degree than other cities, i.e., "We've got the most (name it) in Los Angeles than in any city in the country." CMs and especially Eric Garcetti also like to fall back on that phrasing when that suits them. For similar uniqueness on the negative side, you don't have any equal measure of bragging or even acknowledgement.
So before giving Huizar a pass on this, consider he's been a part of the problem and even the abatement he tried to apply tended to backfire in an enormous way. Maybe that's why he's not tried to do much of actual substance as CM, trying to stay in that area of inaction that keeps him from making the wrong decision.
AS for Nuch, I don't have any idea of what he stands for anymore- the litigation issue with Chick and then Greuel in the Controllers office that he promised to ameliorate upon election as City Attorney did not happen, and actually worsened, giving the CMs by their refusal to dismss the action, a window to establish more leverage to resist performance audits themselves in the future.
Who can you trust? Well, whoever that may be, you won't find them at City Hall.
in CD-14
To the poster who is comlaining aobut Winiona doing time:
Cooley offered a deal to Geragos with no time, but the loser passed and tried the case.
"Please Bargain"; the operative word here is "Bargain".
You pass the bargain, you pay full price.
Another big loss chalked up for Geragos.
1:07, you forget to add that it was the City attorney's office which actually wrote the ICO with that big loophole in it that lawyers for some pot dispensaries were able to use in a way that was contrary to the narrow intent of the PLUM committee and that made it hard to enforce. However in principle Rocky was opposed to the proliferation. But Nuch ran as being more sympathetic to the medical cannabis people than Rocky or Weiss and got them to work for him in droves then threw them under the bus as he'd planned all along.
Like he apparently did with Chick, whom you mention too.
Who he's now claiming is a loser, liar, fool, dumb broad with hormonal and anger management problems, and worse. That is a reprehensible lack of character, the way Nuch operated his whole adult life as a criminal lawyer but it's wildly unsuited to someone in this level of public responsibility, I'm sad to find that his worst critics had been right about him and the anti-Antonio media and blogosphere chose to believe his own lies and counter-attacks.
I mean, it WAS hard to believe: no one could be THAT bad and have the nerve to run for such an office, just because Cooley laid the groundwork for him to, right?
"in cd-14". wrong. if you knew how city hall worked and what happened you'd stop being a spectator.
Zine and Reyes got a "task force" to advise them on their ordinance. Huizar was not allowed to be part of the task force because of brown act issues. meanwhile, as a member of "plum" he asked for various items in public meetings that the city attorney did not want to do with their "criminally" focused ordinance that was first introduced over a year ago. He's been meeting with us and has been updating us on the progress.
in eagle rock
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