"Another Soulvine Thursday" via Columnist Betty Pleasant

Its time for the (South LA) world according to Los Angeles Wave Newspaper Columnist Betty Pleasant.

We bring you the latest weekly installment of "Another Soulvine Thursday" via the keyboard of longtime African-American Journalist Betty Pleasant. Sit back and read Betty's latest musing on local current affairs. (S.J.)

Betty's opinion on choosing sides in the Conrad Murray Trial:

There were preachers and other church-going folk who urged me to join in their support of Murray’s innocence, while avid Jackson fans pressed me to join their crusade to make Murray burn in hell for having killed their idol. I refrained from taking either side because, frankly, I had no opinion one way or the other. Can you believe that? I had no opinion!

...... but that didn't carry over to the District Attorney's handling of the case: 

But now that the verdict is in, I have an opinion, but not about Murray’s guilt or innocence, but about that pitiful, showboating, grandstanding mess of a press conference District Attorney Steve Cooley held on TV immediately after the jury convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter, during which Cooley preened and gloated and praised and patted himself and his staff on their backs for having done an outstanding job of nailing the doctor — while his right-hand woman, Jackie Lacey, stood silently by his side with her heart glowing all over the place. It was sickening.

Deaths in "Cooley County"?:

However, several popular Black entertainers have met their demise here in Cooley County in the past couple of years about which we know nothing. Cannot Cooley’s precious investigators (as well as the LAPD) do anything to solve the 1997 murder of Biggie Smalls? What do we know about the circumstances that caused Nate Dogg to wake up dead in Long Beach in March? Are there any clues to the drive-by shooting death of M-Bone in Inglewood in May? Were there any suspicious medical personnel in the vicinity when Heavy D died in Beverly Hills Monday?

Occupy City Council?:

Those on the bottom of the 99 percent are taking it on the chin again here in Los Angeles — thanks to the votes of City Council members Bernard Parks, Jan Perry, Tony Cardenas, Herb Wesson, Bill Rosendahl, Paul Krekorian, Mitchell Englander and Dennis Zine.

Racists at LAUSD?:

Last week, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s PR consultants made a big deal out of announcing that LA’s Promise, a nonprofit organization working with South L.A. schools, had selected Veronica Melvin as its new president and CEO. What followed was a three-page press release of statements from 12 people gushing with praise for Melvin, the first of which was racist school board President Monica Garcia, followed by her equally racist cohort, Yolie Flores 

AND FINALLY — Damn! I thought we’d have two Blacks running for president.

Thus, that's a wrap on another week of the world according to Betty.

Scott Johnson in CD 14.