Whistleblower hotline: (213) 785-6098
mayorsam@mayorsam.org

Monday, January 24, 2011

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Valley Plaza, North Hollywood - Ghost Town


Class act by some Villaraigosa staffers at the Conga Room at LA Live.  Blanca Martinez-Navarro, a member of the Mayor's anti-gang staff, allegedly got into some sort of squabble with her husband, followed by the genius move of getting into with the police officers trying to break up the scene.  Suffice it to say, Blanca is now "on leave."

Leave it to the politicians to overreact to a tragic event.  In the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona and a recent rash of school shootings, Council President Eric Garcetti wants to overturn laws that allow folks to legally carry weapons in public.  Even if these laws pass, the wackos who shoot Members of Congress and the gangs who terrorize schools will still get, guns.  But this looks good in the papers!

After years of focus on new urbanism and downtown shopping, it appears that urban malls are back.  The Westfield Culver City Mall once known for gang violence and Hot Dogs on a Stick has remade itself a tad mare upscale and sees rents and retail sales booming.  However it's not the case everywhere as after many years, the owners of the legendary Valley Plaza Mall in North Hollywood want to switch gears from a retail development to production sound stages.

Labels: , , , , ,

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Correction. Blanca is now "on PAID leave."

January 24, 2011 3:26 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Garcetti is doing this because he wants to be Mayor and most of the LA's idiot leftwingers swallow the idea that unloaded open carry is related to the Tucson shooting. It's a bitch move on Garcetti's part. Jack Wiess pulled this bullshit ahead of the City Attorney race and thankfully lost. I hope Garcetti meets a similar fate at the ballot box.

January 24, 2011 7:35 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Can you name one reason why people need to carry guns in public?

I can name lots of reasons why they shouldn't. One is that most people don't know how to use guns.

Look at the kid who packed one in his backpack. I don't want to be the innocent bystander who gets hit by some yahoo who pulls out a gun and starts firing at what he or she thinks are bad guys.

January 24, 2011 8:04 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

1. Who gave you the right to determine how I defend myself?

2. Have you ever had to rely on the LAPD? I bet not. We called Central Division to our business 4 times in 8 years. All 4 times were reported through 911 as emergency situations.

The police showed up only two of those times.

I had to fend off drunk day laborers trying to break in the back door with a broken countertop. The report was turned in to a loitering complaint and a foot patrol showed up with no lights a half hour later.

If you call 911 and tell them there is a mentally deranged man standing at your cash register and you need help getting them to leave your place of business, you will be given a lecture on how "it really is a public place" and how do they know that the person doesn't have a legitimate reason for being there....

And most importantly make sure that the person victimizing you doesn't have connection to Villaraigosa or Huizar, because the police can and will be used against you... they are puppets working for those that promise reward for loyalty.

Seriously, you want to live in the City of LA and take your chances without protection, knock yourself out. But making decisions about how others protect themselves, or don't protect themselves, is totally outside your job description, whatever that is!

January 24, 2011 9:09 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It's a sad comment on our society that so many of us feel that the only defense that we have is to have a gun.

According to reports, the kid packed a gun in his backpack because he was being bullied. Think about that! His choice was to protect himself from bullying with a gun. Not MACE, a slingshot, a big stick, or an air horn.

Also, there's a difference between having a gun in your house or business for protection, and carrying one around in public.

Unless I was going to make a citizens' arrest in a crack lab, I can't think about why I'd want a gun. If enough people carried guns, the violent criminals wouldn't have to have them. They'd just take them off the people carrying them. use them, and toss them.

January 24, 2011 9:51 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

First of all, the club's security guards were assaulted which is why the cops got called in. Assault on a police officer is a serious crime. Wonder how Bianca and her husband got out on only $20,000. bail. What would bail be if she didn't work for the mayor?

January 24, 2011 10:44 AM  

Anonymous trojan2002 said:

I'm sure there's a very good explanation for why Blanca jumped on the police officer's back.

Haven't you seen the axe commercials?
Maybe he was wearing axe?

January 24, 2011 10:54 AM  

Anonymous trojan2002 said:

Here's my thought on gun laws.

Pols go after guns as a way to deflect.

Our pols fail us every day when it comes to essential public services. This failure leads to people committing crimes as a source of income, or because they know no better.
That's a failure of education and economic development, which pols oversee.

Pols blame guns because it's easy, and people actually believe it will work.
The only think it will do, maybe- statistics in DC proved otherwise- is make crimes less violent.

So Garcetti and the anti gun pols are just saying, "hey, go out and commit crime. just don't shoot anyone."?

Is that really a solution to anything?

Man up garcetti. You're the President of the Clowncil and you've overseen the deterioration of our city. Admit it.

January 24, 2011 11:02 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:09 said...

"I had to fend off drunk day laborers trying to break in the back door with a broken countertop. The report was turned in to a LOITERING complaint . . ." (emphasis added).

Ya see, there's that "loitering" word again.

"Rudy Rich" Martinez was convicted of "loitering" (wink, wink) - one of his four criminal convictions during his late 20s and 30s.

Don't ya just REALLY want to know what he was REALLY arrested for, that was plea bargained DOWN to "loitering."

Well, heck, he's "MR. TRANSPARENT" - all some enterprising journo has to do is simply ASK him, right?

Surely "MR. TRANSPARENT" won't pull that same trick he pulled on Zahniser a couple weeks ago and say: "I can't recall; I'll have to go look it up."

Did Rudy get back to you with that TRANSPARENT answer, David Z.?

Still waiting??? I imagine so.

January 24, 2011 11:06 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Somebody missed one point on a kid with a gun. It's generally illegal for anyone under 21 to possess a handgun in California. Gangsters violate this regularly.

Responsible gun ownership seems to be assumed largely absent by critics of gun rights. Eric Garcetti really will not be happy until private ownership and possession of firearms is accomplished.

The gun is the law abiding citizen's tool for personal safety until the police can arrive. It is not intended to replace the professional anymore that a fire extinguisher is a substitute for the fire department.

Police usually are present long after the fact and the remaining task at hand is to take down reports of the crime. Without a gun, especially against larger numbers of persons or where there's a size differntial usually the case between men and women, even an experienced martial arts expert would be at risk of serious bodily injury or death.

The time is ripe again after the Tucson shooting for action by many anti-gun advocates. The proposals would not even have changed things that happened there.

It's simpley a pretext to advance restrictions against law-abiding gun owners. What about the criminals that might be creating the problems? Getting after them by actually doing some serious enforcement snd sentencing might be worth a thought or two from these politicians.

Remember in the riots after the Rodney King verdict where there wasn't even a slow response to calls but no response at all to the dozens of incidents of looting and violence. Such may be extreme conditions but you don't want to be without any defense by more anti-gun measures directed against gun owners.

January 24, 2011 11:23 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

If city employees are taking furloughs the Mayor's office could have saved additional $$$ on putting Blanca on furlough instead of paid leave. Just saying....

January 24, 2011 11:37 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

This issue here is not gun ownership but the carrying of guns in public. Big difference. A core function of government is to protect my health and safety. I am less concerned about being in situation in which my life is being threatened and only a gun that I'm carrying in public will save me, as I am that some tirgger-happy clown on the street with a gun isn't going to know when it's appropriate to use the gun, or how to keep innocent bystanders from getting hurt when they do use it.

January 24, 2011 10:17 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

Advertisement

Advertisement