Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Getaway Friday

Our favorite South LA Wave Newspaper Columnist Betty Pleasant, has a Soulvine (with thorns) for Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The always gracious Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant.

 

Great Labor Day Weekend getaway day to all as your Los Angeles City Clowncil Central Committee gathers this morning to formally vote on the confirmation of Mayor Eric Garcetti's nominees to sit on the Police Commission and guess who is not happy with the choices? Betty.

Betty, or better known as the reigning purveyor of Yellow Journalism in South LA, is still having issues with the fact that now Mayor Eric Garcetti beat her sister of choice Wendy "Boss D'Arcy's Greuel" last May. Thus, it should come as no surprise that her recent Soulvine Columns have become thorny in nature, in regards to Mayor Garcetti. We provide the yellowish, thorny excerpts below.

From the August 22 Edition ..............

I did not mince words when I slammed Eric Garcetti’s candidacy for mayor, as I was obsessed with his documented unreliability as a councilman, had personally experienced his wishy-washiness as a man and listened to colleagues describe his faint heartedness as a human being, but never did I think him to be so vainglorious and vindictive that he would impede the heretofore smooth operation of this city by appointing a bunch of irrelevant losers, nobodies, done-nothings and governmental greenhorns to the city commissions.

Mayor Garcetti is stupid and has appointed the worst batch of city commissioners since the late Mayor Sam Yorty (we always knew that Betty loved us), and the most egregious thing he did — among a long list — was his removal of John Mack from the Police Commission, where he had served eight years. Mack was in his second year as Police Commission president when Garcetti yanked him off the commission, and before that, Mack had been vice president of the commission for two years.

But even before former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed him to the Police Commission in August 2005, (and reappointed him in 2009) Mack was a vibrant force in this city as president of the Urban League for 36 years and a strong advocate for equal opportunities in education, economic empowerment and law enforcement for all communities. He was a leader in the 1960 civil rights movement in Atlanta, he co-founded and co-chaired the Committee for Human Rights and has played an instrumental role in bridging the gap between the Los Angeles Police Department and the communities it serves. He has molded the LAPD into an entity we African-Americans no longer hate. We appreciate John Mack and we deplore Garcetti’s callous mistreatment of him.
 

John Mack is somebody. He is the Martin Luther King Jr. of this city (along with the venerable Reverends Chip Murray and James Lawson, civil rights giants) and nobody but a fool would remove any one of these men from whatever position they hold in service to the people of Los Angeles. They have earned the right to remain wherever they are for as long as they like. But, no, classless Garcetti dumped John Mack because he supported Wendy Greuel for mayor instead of him! Wait, and with whom who did he replace Mack? Paula Madison, a former NBC television executive? SHUT UP!!

......... and  Betty yellow, thorny attack on Mayor Garcetti continues a week later.


NO, I’M NOT LEAVING HIM ALONE! — All this noise about the DWP contract negotiations is missing the point. First, the City Council and the DWP union had agreed upon a contract. Then your mayor took the microphone and announced that he didn’t like it and he wouldn’t sign it. Then he went back to the mic and said the contract was everything he wanted. He announced that he would sign it and said it would result in ka-trillions of dollars in savings to the city in 30 years! He ended up signing the very same contract he said he wouldn’t sign. Nothing was added to it nor subtracted from it. What’s with this guy? I don’t care about the city saving money 30 years from now, what I want to know is when will my humongous DWP bills be reduced and by how much?

The outgoing Police Commission held its farewell meeting this week and they agreed with the Soulvine’s sentiments expressed last week — as did a lot of people and I’m heartened to know we’re on the same wave length (usually I don’t care, but … ). I also learned this week that John Mack did not even know he was being kicked off the Police Commission until your mayor publicly announced his commission appointees. That’s a lousy way to treat an icon.

However, ABLE — the Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives — will host a farewell reception for John Mack at the Police Academy on Sept. 24, to which I’ve been invited and which I would not miss.
In lieu of Betty's comments above, we ponder whether the Soulvine Columnist has always been gracious in support of John Mack, more later.

** As the City Clowncil Central Committee convenes this AM, they may want to review the comments provided by retire Parole Officer Caroline Aguirre on the true state of Public Safety in Los Angeles.

Here it is Thursday morning and per. the weather man it is projected to be more than 101 degrees and very humid. Perfect conditions for the homeboys ( gang members ) to come out and share their bounty of lead with all. Their intended recipients have been Los Angeles Police officers , rival gang members and the  innocent John Q. citizen.

During the past two days LAPD  has called for two modified tactical alerts , first on Tuesday afternoon after unnamed individuals decided they were bored and wanted to use of group  of young men as their targets on West 64th. street . Three or four males were shot , two  of which died on the spot. This took place in 77th. Division area. Then we have Wednesday afternoon. Two LAPD officer involved shootings. An unnamed male who may or may not remain outstanding decided he wanted to kill a Los Angeles Police officer. There was an exchange of gunfire and no one was hit. A perimeter was established . During this time frame a second officer involved shooting took place and the suspect was shot and killed. These events both took place in Olympic Division.

We need to mention the violent home invasion robbery in San Pedro , 9 "Hot Prowler " residential burglaries in Harbor City,  Assault weapons and ammo stolen from a CHP officers vehicle  (  some of the stolen items have been recovered from a South Los Angeles location ) , crime alerts for Boyle Heights and an overall increase in violent crime in 9 Los Angeles City Neighborhoods.

Now Los Angeles Police Chief Charles Beck when are you going to acknowledge and tell the residents of our once great city that both violent crime and gang violence is on the rise .

Your thoughts and great Labor Day Weekend to all.
Scott Johnson in CD 14