Friday Melee at City Hall
General Services Officer Michael Johnson covering KFI's Eric Leonard camera.
Officer Johnson points toward KFI's Eric Leonard.
Los Angeles Times photo of tenants, police skirmish.Troubling scene at City Hall this afternoon as tenants rights groups protested the City Council decision to delay action on a rent hike moratorium proposal by City Councilman Richard Alarcon.
Tensions increase throught the proceedings as tenants rights groups and landlords gave testimony on Alarcon's motion. As the council debated Alarcon's motion, the mood darken as the retoric among those within the horseshoe became more heated.
Then when the council voted to do what they do best, that is punt, the boiling point was reached. This caused the masses to erupt and thus, a "officers need help call" went out. This cause a rapid response of Metro Cops and others to descend upon the council chambers where KFI's Eric Leonard became part of the drama.
Leonard became "ground zero" for the brewing media vs. council tensions over media access. On his blog he reports the following.
It's getting more and more difficult to cover L.A. City Council meetings.
Last week Councilmembers Garcetti, Zine, and Perry issued new restrictions for reporters, that, if fully enforced, would make it very challenging for us in the media to ask Councilmembers about their decisions.
Chief enforcer of the new rules is L.A. General Services police officer Michael Johnson, seen above, who today decided I wasn't allowed to take photographs of him while some protesters were yelling.
This evening on KFI's Tim Conway Jr. Show, Leonard reported that a meeting was schedule for Monday to discuss the new press restrictions, ..... under the condition that nothing be reported about meeting to the public.
Indeed the pressure is mounting.
Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14
Labels: Eric Leonard, Friday Melee at City Hall, General services police, Officer Michael Johnson
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 5/21/2010 08:24:00 PM
10 Comments:
It's Obama's fault.
This kind of stuff should be happening every single day the City Council is in session!
At least their real reporters unlike you Scott "plays with his" Johnson.
Are you playing with your "Lil Pito Johnson?"
Did anyone see the piece of mail Eric Hacopian did for Reggie Jones Sawyer in the 47th AD?
Apparently, Eric was so busy sending his e-mail to Frommer that he forgot to spell check his own piece of mail.
It's amazing how people who WANT to be heard ARE heard.
Phil, make a note of this.
The guy who is trying to recall Janice Hahn was ON KFI on Friday!
The people who wanted to be heard about the rent freeze, got a mob together!
How come you, who has CROWED about the recall for a year now, can't catch a cold, let alone attention for the recall?
Your will to do this is virtually nil, and it shows. That's why people call you an idiot, moron and incompetent liar, conniver and bullshiter.
Interesting, the LA City Council, so quick to play the Nazi card against the state of Arizona, have no hesitation in employing Nazi tactics when it comes to controlling freedom of the press.
Last night KFI's Eric Leonard said that Council President Eric Garcetti has called a meeting with the Press to discuss the new orders on where the Press are to be allowed to observe the Council at work, but that the Press is not allowed to report on what will be said at the meeting!
I wonder how the Council would react if, during this secret meeting, or during public comment, someone said of the Council's new order "I think we were absolutely at the beginning of what went on in Nazi Germany. It’s not much different."
The Council would probably have a shit fit and order whoever compared them to Nazi Germany to be thrown out of the Chamber. But that comment is an exact quote of what Paul "potato head" Koretz said last week about Arizona.
Jan Perry is the one who started the whole business about restricting the press access to the Council Chamber, and has the support of Garcetti. I wonder why?
The only way to bring sanity back into City government is to vote these buzzards out of office.
Some of these fools are termed out. They will be looking for their next job soon. Hopefully they will not find another job.
The city council is great at giving long boring speeches.
However, the city council does not want freedom of speech for the press or anyone else that may come and oppose them.
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