Before She Was an Expert on Crime?

Is this the Celeste Fremon of the crime and punishment blog, Witness LA, then a USC cheerleader in this 1968 episode of the game show, Hollywood Squares? The things you find on YouTube!

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

Well, well, well.  Guess who spent $50 million to save $13 million? Nope not the DWP.  Nope, not Tom LaBonge. You're incorrect if you said Kim Kardashian. Give up? Your Los Angeles MTA spent that amount to install turnstiles at it's subway and light rail stations - except it currently can not issue the fare media the gates require and can not be locked.




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Yes Some Folks Actually Think Polanski Should Walk Free

  Polanski in court in 1978

"Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be."

Polanski victim Samantha Geimer

Pedophile fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski was finally captured by law enforcement authorities after 31 years on the run following drugging and raping a 13 year old girl at Jack Nicholson's house in 1977.  Polanski, then 44, was supposed to turn himself over to authorities in 1978 but instead ran to France who would not extradite the award winning director to the US as the frogs view child rape as more of a hobby than a crime.

Wikipedia gives the following description of the crime from the victim's point of view:

In 1977, Polanski, then aged 44, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer). It ultimately led to Polanski's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot. According to Geimer in a 2003 interview, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot."

Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the Mulholland area home of actor Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." She recalled in a 2003 interview that she began to feel uncomfortable after he asked her to lie down on a bed, and how she attempted to resist. "I said, 'No, no. I don't want to go in there. No, I don't want to do this. No!', and then I didn't know what else to do," she stated, adding: "We were alone and I didn’t know what else would happen if I made a scene. So I was just scared, and after giving some resistance, I figured well, I guess I’ll get to come home after this".

Geimer testified that Polanski gave her a combination of champagne and quaaludes, a sedative drug, then kissed her, performed cunnilingus on her, penetrated her vaginally, and then penetrated her anally, each time after being told 'no' and being asked to stop.

Over the weekend Polanski, now 76, was arrested in Switzerland on his way to a film festival; the Swiss do have an extradition treaty with the US.  Despite Polanski's horrific crime, his supporters are pointing to the "Stockholm Syndrome" reaction of his vicitm, now 44.

Polanski "penetrated her anally, each time after being told 'no' and being asked to stop."

Amazingly self proclaimed vicitm's advocate Celeste Fremon is writing off Polanski's crime as no big deal saying that prosecution would bankrupt the LA County DA's office and be an equal injustice to the victim as Polanski's crime.  Stay tuned.

Feast or Famine for "Connected Non-Profits" ??

"Did Mayor Villaraigosa stiff Father Boyle's Homeboy Industries"

Memo to Celeste Fremon at Witness LA.

How can you be surprise that the former Tony Villar, now known to all as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, fail to keep a promise ??

Look if the guy could lie to his wife, then what would keep him from saying that the "Check is in the Mail", to the man he once equated to Jesus Christ, Father Greg Boyle ??

Non-profits like most for-profits entities are suffering through hard times made even worst by President Obama and those socialists that reign in Sacramento, but I digress.

Homeboy Industries has been held up as the shining example of what a non-profit, with an visionary front person can accomplish, with the sincere support of those in the public and private sector.

But sadly, sincere non-profits are being usurped by "connected non-profits", created by elite insiders, for the benefit of the exclusive few, not for the greater community.

And as you push Homeboy's "Virtual Carwash Fundraiser", which I'll link here, in the spirit of seeing a carwash use for something positive, and not for raising funds to bury another young life. Let me highlight how some "connected non-profits" use public money.

Take this motion on tomorrows City Council Agenda.

Barrio Action Summer Sports Activity - $10,000 --This activity will provide funding to

Barrio Action Youth and Family Center to support a summer sports program between July 1,
2009 and September 19, 2009, Sport activities will include basketball, volleyball and indoor
soccer. Funding will be used to provide a recreation coordinator and necessary sports
equipment A total of 200 youth will be served, (another handout to Tammy)

EI Centro de Ayuda-Youth Enrichment Project - $13,000--This activity will provide funding
to the EI Centro de Ayuda to support a community Youth Enrichment Project (YEP), YEP will
provide gang prevention and violence prevention services by working with at-risk youth and their parents on school campuses and in the broader community, engage and educate local
communities on these issues and to promote public policies that directly impact these issues,
Funding will enable YEP to focus on the community engagemenUeducation and policy
developmenUpromotion purposes of the Youth Enrichment Project, including costs associated
with holding community forums in northeast Los Angeles communities of Boyle Heights and EI Sereno, honorariums for key forum/community speakers, staffing the project, and publication of policy recommendations resulting from the forums, (Raul makes another Harley payment)

Then there is the new poster boy for "connected non-profits" Legacy LA.

But Celeste, while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has yet to come through with the $500,000 for Homeboy Industries, let me share this little nugget of public funding coming their way from the proposed budget for the Summer Night Lights Program.

c. Allocate up to $210,000 for a contract with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC) to
manage youth squad and community program coordination team members providing services at the 16 SNL sites; (the same group DWP payed $100+ per tree to plant)

****d. Allocate up to $200,000 for the costs of shirts from Homeboy Industries for SNL.program participants and staff; and

e. Allocate up to $50,000 for custodial services, utilities and staff time directed towards the
operation of SNL at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center by the Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD);

So Celeste, not all is lost for Homeboy Industries, at least until Antonio's associates come calling for those franchise fees/ campaign contributions.

Your thoughts...........

“Shot-caller”

Photo by Uncle Glen (Flickr)

That’s how the feds describe Alex Sanchez: An MS13 shot-caller who is alleged to have participated in a conspiracy to commit murder in 2006 while running Homies Unidos, a prominent gang intervention organization. Sanchez was arrested this morning at his Bellflower home as part of an FBI operation targeting two dozen members of the Salvadoran street gang.

WitnessLA editor Celeste Fremon splashed “Target of FBI Rampage” over a photograph of Sanchez following news of his arrest. Dueling replies posted on LA Weekly and LA Times articles take aim both at the FBI and the local politicians who celebrated and funded Sanchez’ intervention efforts.

It’s another sharp turn in a life of sharp turns. Sanchez arrived in the US around 1980 at age seven and joined MS13 at age 14. In 1994 he was deported to El Salvador on a parole violation. One year later, he returned to establish the US chapter of Homies Unidos and in 2002 won political asylum with the help of former California State Senator Tom Hayden. Hayden’s son, Troy Garity, is listed as chairman of Homies Unidos.

Last year, NPR sought Sanchez for comment on the FBI’s efforts to dismantle the 18th Street gang—specifically on leadership succession when law enforcement closes in. There are always new shot-callers to fill the void, Sanchez explains. “Shot callers are local heroes; role models.” … In what may emerge as a moment of prescience, he then added, “The lure of the gang culture may be stronger than any federal-local anti-gang collaboration.”

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Is Burbank based Assemblyman Paul Krekorian going to announce he is running to replace Wendy Greuel on the City Council? That was the buzz around  town Thursday evening.  Stay tuned!


Celeste Fremon thinks that it would be a good idea to change the City Charter so that His Imperialness Bill Bratton can serve ad infinitum as LAPD chief.  One wonders how consistent an old lefty like Celeste is and did she favor the Christoper Commission's term limits back when Daryl Gates was chief? I am also curious if Celeste thinks that the Police Chief should be dabbling in partisan and electoral politics, again much in contravention of the findings of the panel that sought to reform the LAPD in the wake of the Rodney King beating.  This is no different than the Republicans who were aghast at FDR's election to four terms and sought to change the constitution to prevent that from happening again.  Yet, when those very same term limits meant no more Ike after 1961, they wanted to change the game again.  Fortuanately, Ike was smart enough to know that was wrong.

Zach Behrens notes that Obama California campaign manager and Measure B godfather Mitchell Schwartz thinks there was a message in the defeat of the controversial proposition and hopes that LA's leaders take the hint. “When something that should be very popular doesn’t pass, it is a wakeup call to the mayor and the City Hall establishment," Schwartz told  Daniel Heimpel at the LA Weekly.

No wonder some of the "umbrella organizations" over Neighborhood Councils get scant participation from all but a fingerful of NC members citywide. Perhaps folks don't see these organizations as ready for "prime time." A recent notice I got from the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition said "The LANCC meets on the first Saturday of each month: MEETING SATURDAY, MARCH 28TH."  Now, yes, I did graduate from LAUSD but I am pretty sure that March 28th is not the first Saturday of the month.

Now we know why the City has made significant increases to parking meter rates and cut back on hours you can park, severely impacting local business and residents: there's gold in them thar hills! Friday the Clowncil will transfer $56 million from a parking meter fund surplus to help cover the City's budget deficit.

The LA Times reports that Bergamot Station art museum in Santa Monica could be a victim of the Expo Rail Line.  Local NIMBYs want the legendary location to be used as a maintenance yard for the line, instead of a nearby industrial property that is within the NIMBY's line of site.

Thursday Hotsheet: Around the L.A. blogosphere

Photo by willdude2005

Remember ERSNews? Of course you do. Last summer, the city was captivated by a mayoral affair and investigative journalist Eric Longabardi was working overtime splashing tabloid-style exclusives on his website, annoying Mayor Villaraigosa’s press office, and seeking comment from the elusive Mirthala Salinas. He even knocked on the door of her Studio City condo, to find only a barking dog. The interview wasn’t meant to be.

Then, this past Saturday, she showed up at Longabardi’s doorstep:

I opened the door and there she was. Mirthala, the woman I had been seeking to talk with for so many months. I had tried her on the phone before, but she never called me back. She was there with her new husband, a man named “Yani” who I also recognized. More

What have become of L.A’s libertarians? Indeed, Los Angeles’ physical and political landscapes lend themselves to anti-authoritarianism, and yet, L.A. BlogFathers Matt Welch and Ken Layne have moved on. Others seem to have lost their edge. Joseph Mailander cites an interesting theory as to why, and offers reflection:

Recently I read an interesting passage in my summer reading, Francois Cusset's French Theory, which stated that the small-l libertarians won the battle for the Internet early on, but they lost the subsequent wars when their zeal for self-gratification steadily turned the place into a mere amusement park. Indeed, my experience is, every time you try to bring a modicum of gravitas to the Internet, you get booed off the virtual stage: amusement and insouciance is what the people want, as they wanted only bread and circuses in a previous Imperial time. More

Zuma Dogg reports that Councilmember Jack Weiss has missed the 10-day deadline to respond to a public records request. Stay tuned. Things tend to get interesting when people stonewall these.

Say, have you ever wanted to ask Councilmember Dennis Zine, Father Greg Boyle, Sheriff Lee Baca, and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky what they’ve been reading this summer? Well, Celeste Fremon did the heavy lifting for you here and here. Friday, she promises District Attorney Steve Cooley, among others.

If you’ve been looking for a three-minute crash course on the history of the Daily News, Ron Kaye has one for you. And, if you’ve never hailed a cab before, Curbed LA links to a convenient guide. After all, starting today it’s legal—in Hollywood and Downtown.