When Gangs Rule

The power of gangs here is so deep now that there is an open season on even our men and women in law enforcement.

Our politicians and even the Chief of Police denies and deflects the problem.

When will We-the-People finally demand action?

The Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 2188 and Ladies Auxiliary, are asking for the support of our community to help raise funds for the family of fallen Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Juan Escalante. Juan was gunned down outside his home in Cypress Park.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles are hosting a PASTA DINNER on Thursday, August 14 from 4 pm to 8 pm. Donations for the dinner are $10 per plate. The Eagles Hall is located at 1596 Yosemite Drive at Townsend in Eagle Rock, 90041. 323-257-8869

All proceeds from this fundraising event and any donations will benefit a fund set up for Deputy Escalante's family.

Tuesday Hotsheet for Hot Streets

“I don't trust any police department to investigate itself”

Heat on the streets! The media sure know how to play Representative Maxine Waters against Southern California. Listening ad nauseam to her batty sound bites yesterday on KFI, you’d think nothing else was worth reporting in this town. By now, you know the story: Inglewood officer-involved shootings have killed three people in three months; Waters wants a federal investigation; yadda yadda yadda. Is anyone demanding a federal investigation into the San Francisco program that released a dozen felons to the streets of San Bernardino County? Or, into how AK-type assault rifles are finding their way into our communities? Or, perhaps, into the apparent lack of oversight that broke L.A. Bridges?

Speaking of which, Jeff Carr, the city’s gang czar has resurfaced. He and Mayor Villaraigosa recommend awarding half-million-dollar contracts to six anti-gang programs, effectively replacing L.A. Bridges:

“This is arguably the most pressing social problem in the city of Los Angeles. What we’ve been doing for the last 20, 25 years hasn’t been working. So we’re trying to do something different.”

Surely, we can question the mayor’s motives in hiring out-of-towners to handle such menial tasks as reversing multi-generational gang culture, fixing transportation, and city planning, but I will credit Villaraigosa for starting fresh (amazingly, there remain councilmembers who support sinking more money into L.A. Bridges). That said, L.A. Bridges should not be swept under the rug. An audit and investigation are long overdue.

The cool dudes over at LAist have documented a successful journey down the L.A. River by kayak. The purpose was to prove that the river is navigable, and thus, a river that can be “revitalized.” Blogger Zach Behrens declares, “we need this river for the people!” but with special interest man Ed Reyes’ involvement, isn’t this akin to Tom LaBonge’s Griffith Park for the people?

Finally, Los Angeles Downtown News threw a party last week to celebrate the winners of its annual Best Of. Those in attendance included many of our favorites; LaBonge, Greuel, and Reyes. According to reports, a highlight came when Councilmember Jan Perry… well, just click for yourself.

Priorities Redux

I guess we have to ask again.  What are the priorities of the Council and the Mayor? Banning plastic bags? Paternalistic protection of poor people who Jan Perry feels are too stupid to cut down their consumption of Big Macs without government intervention? Gladhanding for Barack Obama? Keeping hosebag Britney Spears safe from paparazzi?



In the meantime the real problems continue and yet another child is murdered as a result of gang violence.  Crime and violence is getting worse in this city and it's time to do something about it.  Without a safe city, no other issues can be succesfully addressed.



Ron Kaye, stop fighting duplexes and take a look how violence is ruining this city especially in places far from your disturbed suburban bliss.  It's time to pass Jamiel's Law (as a start) and it's time for the leadership in this city to stop burying their head in the sand and get serious and honest about crime.

Gavin Newsom futures fall sharply

thepartycow, Gavin Newsom, 18th November, 2005 (via Flickr)

San Francisco Chronicle:

The man charged with killing a father and two sons on a San Francisco street last month was one of the youths who benefited from the city's long-standing practice of shielding illegal immigrant juveniles who committed felonies from possible deportation, The Chronicle has learned.

Edwin Ramos, now 21, is being held on three counts of murder in the June 22 deaths of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16. They were shot near their home in the Excelsior district when Tony Bologna, driving home from a family picnic, briefly blocked the gunman's car from completing a left turn down a narrow street, police say.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom reportedly blames the N.R.A. for the killings. SFC

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

A FoxNews report on a gang member who claims he has been paid by Councilmember Janice Hahn for "gang intervention programs" is creating a huge buzz around City Hall. The gang member who has been arrested for issues ranging from indecent exposure to possession of marijuana and said that Hahn assisted him in getting out of jail. Now the individual has been convicted to life in prison in a rape case. Some community activists are calling for District Attorney Steve Cooley to investigate Hahn's actions and gang intervention projects funding. The report also details other gang members who have received gang intervention funds and police officers who claim that these gang members bragged about their city funding and laugh at Hahn for the irony of it all.

Those who wish Jamiel Shaw, Sr. would stop crusading in favor of Jamiel's Law and against Special Order 40 protection for gang members are getting more desperate. First off, as we reported here in an exclusive interview on the Sister City, the father of an innocent youth allegedly murdered by an illegal alien gang member said he had been "offered a better paying job" in order to give up the campaign for Jamiel's Law. Now, Shaw has told KFI's John and Ken that District Attorney prosecutors have threatened to paint a very different picture of his son's life who was not a gang member.

Hal Netkin chronicles Council Member Dennis Zine's flip flops on Special Order 40 over the years. I remember several years ago attending a Community Police Advisory Board meeting when Zine was still head of the Police Protective League. At the time Zine called for the elimination of Special Order 40 as one way police officers would be able to fight gang crime.

Gloria Molina is going against taco truck operators in unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County, including East Los Angeles. However Molina has found a gabacho led effort to save the trucks which dispense delicious regional specialties and often server as community gathering spots for Latin immigrants wishing a brief reconnection with the old country.

Britney Spears left her LA home to return to her native Kentwood, Louisiana for her 17 year old sister's baby shower. This is the first time that Spears had visited her hometown since 2006.

John Schwada to Break Jamiel Bombshell

Fox News reporter John Schwada will report on this evening's Fox News at 10 the explosive allegation that the murder of Jamiel Shaw, II was racially motivated as part of a reported black on brown gang race war. According to our information at this time, Schwada will report that Pedro Espinosa, who has been charged and plead not guilty to charges of shooting and killing Jamiel, was carrying out an ordered hit on an African American individual.

UPDATE:

From Schwada's exclusive report:

• Jamiel, Sr. believes that Jamiel was killed because he was Black.
• Comments by Sheriff Baca confirm there's a race war amongst gangs.
• Baca says that Latino gang members in jail "shot callers" ordered hits on Blacks on the outside.
• War is between the Black Keystone Gang and the Latino 18th Street Gang
• Jamiel's killing may have been revenge for the murder of a Latino youth outside a liquor store; like Jamiel this youth was not a gang member.
  

Shaw Family Headed to City Hall to Support Jamiel's Law

When Walter Moore first introduced Jamiel's Law, the usual third and fourth floor spin chamber (and their wannabe friends) dum dums put keyboards in motion to make the racist claim that there was no way that an African-American family who lost their teenage son to a criminal illegal alien gang banger was going to join with a White man to oppose the City's controversial Special Order40 policy at least against criminal illegal aliens, most of whom prey on black and brown neighborhoods.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

Last week, the parents of Jamiel Shaw, Jamiel Sr. and Anita, appeared with Moore on KABC's McIntyre in the Morning program to voice their support for Jamiel's Law. Since then there have been more appearances on all of the talk radio programs of record such as KRLA's Kevin James and KFI's Bill Handel.

Many local pols are not sure what to think about Jamiel's Law nor is it even certain they "get it." It's clear that many do not understand the depth of the feeling on the issue in the community. Ben Golombek, Communications Deputy for Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, reportedly spoke with one of our tipsters and said, "Who is Walter Moore? He is not elected to any post. He can not introduce legislation." (To see how patently absurd that statement is, view the history of "Megan's Law" which was not initiated by any elected officials.)

In my view, the reason for the hyper-activity out of Camp Spin-a-Raigosa and associated parties is there is a hugh fear of the fact that 1) African Americans are speaking up against Special Order 40 and 2) That Walter Moore is gaining considerable additional traction for his Mayoral campaign with this issue, and is even beginning to percolate beyond the blog-LA-sphere. Both notions scare the bejesus out of the Mayor.

Number 1 is particularly concerning. Its part of this liberal attitude, which is both hypocritical and racist at the same time, that minorities, particularly African Americans owe their complete and full allegiance to the Democratic party and liberal orthodoxy. Any deviation by an African American is considered treason and grounds for you to become the target of what would be considered absolutely a racist attack if it came from a conservative Caucasian. The Democrats and Liberals, supposedly the party of diversity and tolerance, are anything but when it comes to deviation from the lock step party line. There is no "Big Tent" within the Donkey party. We even see this with the attacks on minorities and women who do not support Hillary Clinton from the New York Senator, her husband the former philandering President and their minions such as James Carville.

Getting back to the Shaws, indeed, any thought they are not on board with the push for Jamiel's Law is wiped out by the fact that the Shaws are going to speak in favor of Jamiel's Law at Tuesday's Clowncil meeting. They will appear at City Hall to give their full support to Jamiel's law and are encouraging the community to join them.

Please help us change the law. As you know, our son, Jamiel A. Shaw,II was murdered on March 2, 2008. Now we are trying to fight back, but we need your help!

On April 8, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., The Shaw Family will be going to City Hall to speak to the Council Members about 'JamielsLaw'. We are asking you to please visit the website, 'JamielsLaw.com'. If you agree with JamielsLaw, we are asking you to support us and join us!!

Forget DWP or anything else going on. This is the number one political problem for Antonio Villaraigosa right now. The usual team will be going full force to put a stop to it. Let's hope that Walter Moore, the Shaws and their supporters go all the way. A move to help prevent the death of innocent teenagers is too important to let the usual LA politics quash it.

Official Negligence

The LAPD Chief’s New Clothes

Had our elected representatives an ounce of warm blood in their collective veins today, the story of Jamiel Shaw would have sent them scrambling for a microphone to be the first to beg for our forgiveness.

The cold-blooded murder of a true rising star—a kid who beat the odds of his own neighborhood, only to be gunned down by a foreign national with a domestic rap sheet—would not be tolerated in any other country, let alone world-class city. Sadly, leadership in Los Angeles is guided by a game of numbers, and in this instance, an ethno-political calculation that bleeds red ink.

If the mayor of Los Angeles is in town today, would someone please relay the news that there’s a crisis in his streets, on his watch?

Calling for our "BETTER ANGELS"

From the Long Beach Press Telegram

An 11-year-old boy was killed and a 20-year-old man was wounded in an apparent gang-related shooting in Long Beach Sunday night. The shooting occurred in the 2000 block of East 15th Street about 10 p.m. The victims were standing in front of a residence when they were approached by two suspects, police said. The 11-year-old and the 20-year-old did not appear to be related. Jose Luis Garcia Bailey, 11, was struck in the upper torso in the ensuing gunfire and declared dead at a hospital. The man was struck in the lower torso and is expected to live. - News report posted on presstelegram.com

By Dr. Mauricio Heilbron Jr.

I just finished sewing up a dead boy.
I pronounced him dead at 10:34 p.m. Sunday. It's now 11:27 p.m. I know I won't be able to get to sleep for a long time. I feel like I shouldn't.
I'm a trauma surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach. I was sulking in my call room on Palm Sunday because I missed yet another important moment in my 5-year-old son's life. A tarantula crawled all over him at his best friend's birthday party, and my wife had e-mailed me a glorious photo of this big, hairy arachnid on my son's face. The phone rings, and I am summoned to the ER for a "gunshot wound to the chest." That's bad, but around these parts, sadly not a surprise. Then the ER secretary adds, "... in a 12-year-old." That changes things a bit. As I hurry down to the Emergency Department, I out several horrific scenarios in my head - a mental exercise in preparation for what certainly was to be a difficult situation.

I arrive to a room filled to capacity with doctors, nurses, techs, volunteers, firemen, policemen and paramedics. The strictly medical people are swarming around an impossibly small figure, in a flurry of needle sticks in search of a vein, monitor-pad placement in search of a vital sign, stethoscopes vainly searching for a breath sound or a heartbeat. The non-medical personnel had formed a concerned and curious peanut gallery. One ER doctor blurts out the important points, "GSW to the chest, pulses in the field but ... ," while another ER doctor is prepping this small chest for an ER thoracotomy. In English, an "ER thoracotomy" is where you flay open a chest in a soon-to-be-dead patient, in the hopes of finding a hole you can quickly but temporarily fix. Once that is done, it gives you a chance to give the patient necessary things like blood and IV fluids (where they now will not simply flow out of those repaired holes), and get him to the OR so you can fix him properly. It is the trauma surgery equivalent of a Hail Mary football pass. This is not a "difficult situation"; this is a nightmare.

The ER doctor hands me the knife, as if to say, "Here. It's yours." I think the kid is dead, or if not dead, then he certainly is "unsalvageable," which is a horrible word to use for a human being. I don't think he's fixable. However, if he is to have any hope of survival, the only way to save him is to crack him open and try to plug up the holes. Cracking open an 11-year-old boy (he was two months shy of his 12th birthday) is going to tear my own heart in half, I think to myself, but this is part of what I do, so I slip the gloves on and take the knife.

There is precious little skin to cut through, and I'm in the chest in a few seconds. His chest cavity is filled with blood, which spills out of his chest like a macabre waterfall to the floor. There's a shredded tear in his lung, and a big, ragged hole in his heart. All the IV fluids that my associates are pouring into the patient are flowing out this hole and on to my shoes. I put my finger in this hole - such a big hole in such a small heart - but blood and fluids still flow unfettered. My other hand finds another, larger hole on the other side of his heart. My fingers touch. His heart is empty. Mine breaks.

The boy's family is brought in while I am bathed in his blood, as "studies have shown" that this is better for everyone involved, to be present as the end nears. I scramble for a way to just stop the bleeding. I just want it to stop. It's spilling over my hands on to the gurney. His mother is begging me to do what I can. I know I can't do anything. She tells me to take her heart, and give it to him. I know that's not possible, and she knows that's not possible, but she could not be more serious. The first ER doc is sitting alongside the mom, gently telling her that we've done everything we can do. His mother looks at me. My hands are still in the boy's chest, trying to do something, anything. In her eyes, I see a soul that I am about to crush with a little nod of my head. I do so.

As the howl of unimaginable grief shakes the entire ER, I am filled with anger. Why do we still sell guns in this country? What is this child doing on the streets after 10 o'clock at night? Why are we killing our innocent young soldiers overseas, and ignoring the merciless gangbangers - terrorists in their own right - that are invading ourstreets here at home? I try to put these thoughts away, because now, in front of his family, I have to sew him up. I have to close this huge gash in his left side, that I made. I place the first stitch, and as I'm tying the knot, I look at the boy's face. He's small for 11, not that much bigger than my son Ben. All the adrenaline is gone. My shoulders sag. I feel myself start to cry, and I know that I can't stop it. I have no way of hiding because literally everybody is looking at me, including his mother, and my hands are busy, so I can't wipe the tears away. I make eye contact with the mom, and whisper "I'm sorry." I finish closing his chest up, and shuffle off to the sink to wash this child's blood off my arms.
In the doctor's area, I start filling out the pointless paperwork. Several nurses and doctors come over to offer encouraging words, or a consoling hand on the shoulder. I want to quit. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to quit because that means I can go home. When I go home, I can quietly open the door to my son's room, and sit on the floor right next to his bed. I'll watch him sleep, that blissful sleep only found in young children. I'll watch him for hours, and tell myself how lucky I am to have him in my life. I want my son to put my heart back together.
But I can't go home, as I'm on call until 8 a.m. I can't quit. Tomorrow I have patients, surgeries, rounds - the usual stuff. Hopefully, I'll be home for dinner. When I come through the door, I'll hear his cheerful yell of "Daddy!" and he'll jump into my arms. He will in all likelihood never know how much that moment means to me, but it is precisely that resuscitative energy that will restore me. To keep coming back to this sort of work.

I will sneak into his room after he falls asleep. I'll give him an extra kiss good night. And then, just maybe, I'll close my eyes.

Dr. Mauricio Heilbron Jr. is chief of surgery at Little Company of Mary Hospital in San Pedro and a trauma surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.

My heart weeps.......

Jack Hoff's City Hall Mad Libs!

Since folks at City Hall seem to have plenty of time to play games and hurl insults over the so-called “gang crisis,” I thought that perhaps today all of us should take a moment to relax and join in on the fun!

So grab a pencil and paper and let's play:

City Hall Mad Libs!

First, number your paper from 1 to 13, then fill in the appropriate word – be creative!

After the jump, read your new creation out loud.

1. an adverb
2. a plural body part
3. an animal
4. a plural noun
5. another plural noun
6. your favorite cartoon character
7. your favorite Brady Bunch Family Member
8. plural unit of time
9. a body part or orifice
10. yet another plural noun
11. an adverb
12. another adverb
13. a bodily function

(With major apologies to our source: the Daily News and political scribe/hero/ombudsman Rick Orlov, who wrote an excellent article…after you play City Hall Mad Libs, please go out and buy a Daily News so we can keep Rick employed)

In a (adverb) awaited confrontation over the future of Los Angeles' anti-gang programs, City Controller Laura Chick and Councilman Tony Cardenas butted (plural body part) Friday over her proposals to revamp the city structure and move the programs under the authority of the Mayor's Office.

"The words `turf war' are gang terminology and have no place at City Hall," Chick said in opening remarks to the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and (animal) Development.

"I know there are many questions on what we are proposing," she told the panel, which is chaired by Cardenas. "But I hope we move (plural noun) to discuss what can be - and not what can't."

But after a three-hour hearing with impassioned testimony about the need for reforms of gang-intervention management, Cardenas said he still had too many (plural noun) to act.

Chick, joined by (favorite cartoon character) and (favorite Brady Bunch Family Member) swiftly countered that action is needed immediately.

The end of the hearing came (plural unit of time) after Chick and Cardenas began the day with a confrontation in which Cardenas retorted: "Get out of my (body part or orifice)."

Chick said she wanted to clear up some differences with Cardenas over whether her report on (plural noun) was delivered late.

Cardenas said later that the two were talking (adverb) and (adverb) when Chick made a (bodily function) - which he would not detail - that he considered an insult.

Mayor will address gang violence on KXOL 96.3

JM, Oddfellow Cemetary, 2.12.08

The recent spate of gang-related murders that have taken Los Angeles officials so much by surprise will be addressed tomorrow by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the family of Jamiel Shaw, Jr. on reggaeton leader KXOL Latino 96.3.

The show unrepentantly bills itself, some westsiders will be surprised to learn, as "Morning Invasion." The show is large enough to have landed President Bill Clinton the day before the California primary, helping to shore up Hillary's decisive Los Angeles victory. The station has been in the top ten LA market radio stations, but is currently 13th.

The scenic route

Photo by Riley Behling

Congratulations to Sunday’s first place finishers, Tatiana Aryasova, a Russian and Laban Moiben of Kenya. Aryasova crossed the finish line 4 minutes, 18 seconds ahead of Moiben to win the $100,000 "Banco Popular Challenge."

More than 26,000 runners, including participants from all 50 states and 100 nations, are participating in Sunday's 23rd Annual Los Angeles Marathon, making it the fourth largest among U.S. races and seventh largest in the world, according to organizers.

For the second consecutive year, the 26-mile, 385-yard race is being run on a "point-to-point" course with the start and finish in different places.

Previous: Marathon enthusiasm sandbagged by unpopular route

City Tries to Ban Music Video

Rapper Cam-Capone's latest video "Rialto City" is stirring up trouble in the San Bernardino town.

Capone, 30, grew in Rialto and insists his tune just represents "...how I grew up." The video which is laced with profanity and lots of gang imagery.

City officials worried about their image asked YouTube to remove the video, but YouTube sees no reason to do that. Of course, neither do I.

Wonder if Cam would like to record a song about Antonio Villaraigosa next?

Second Multiple Shooting in Week Contradicts Crime Progress Claims

In January, City officials were claiming Los Angeles that violent crime was edging downwards.

But one enormous SWAT tragedy in Winnetka that left an officer and a family dead, followed by a massive, multiple-party shootout at the base of Glassel Park, a part of town not known for shootouts, followed today by the second broad-daylight, multiple-victim street shooting in a week as well as a Suicide by Cop car theft in Van Nuys also today seem to belie the notion that much has improved. Worse, the perpetrator of the latest crime is still at large.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, chair of the City's ad hoc gang committee, stands in the way of putting gang intervention and management under the direction of the Mayor---he wants Council to decide what to do. But the Mayor wants the money himself for gang management, and Connie Rice and Laura Chick want him to have it. In short, the turf wars aren't just on the streets, they extend to City Hall.

More money, more control is always this Mayor's and this Council's solution to everything; slowing growth never is considered. One thing is certain: ever-burgeoning population growth during times of economic duress isn't going to make law enforcement, with its stagnant budgets and tepid personnel increases, any easier. As the economy falters even while the City continues to permit new homes for people who don't currently live here, and while developers continue to fail to supply affordable housing in sufficient numbers even after two decades of government manipulation, our City's most disenfranchised are at increasingly higher risk in 2008.

City adopts Gang Model without Fiscal Impact Statement

JM, Atwater Bridge Stairway, 2.13.08

City Council today passed Councilman Tony Cardenas's motion to adopt a Gang Intervention Model as presented to the City in a Human Relations Committee Report of February 6, 2008.

You get the feeling someone is about to be fleeced again when you read the motion's bottom line:

Fiscal Impact Statement: None Submitted by the Human Relations Commission. Neither the City Administrative Officer nor the Chief Legislative Analyst has completed a financial analysis of this report.

So what was the hurry, absent fiscal impact? NBC quotes Cardenas:

"The item before us today is about the city of Los Angeles having the will and the ability to look in the mirror and say, `What do we need to do to do it right?"' Cardenas said.

Evidently, we need to take Council's word for it that Council can tell what we need to do it right, even without a budget before it. Cardenas's Council office says the motion is simply all about defining prevention and intervention.

Monday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Subliminal Advertising? 12.21.07 - click image to enlarge


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

The Daily News this morning has a handy roundup of MLK Day events from Pacoima to Pasadena. Here's our favorite: "The California African American Museum will celebrate with galleries opening at 11 a.m. and a cake-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. CAAM director Charmaine Jefferson is expected to attend."

Lots of people have taken James O'Shea's dismissal as an opportunity to look silly. The cuts were no big deal, says Managing Ed John Arthur, sitting up a little straighter; which must be why O'Shea's only substantive public comment is that he's seeking an attorney. And Mark Lacter's appraisal is surprisingly clumsy. For instance, Lacter suggests Citi's and Merrill's bad quarters and BofA's recent acquisition of Countrywide somehow translates into "enormous pressure to keep down expenses" at the Times. But commercial bankers are highly siloed and only snicker at each other from across the industry groups they bank. They just don't face extraordinary pressures from problems elsewhere in their orgs that way. Besides---there is always pressure to perform well early in the life of acquisition financing. The front page ad discussion is a complete non sequitur; does it really have anything to do with O'Shea?

But in case you were worried, nobody beats MayorSam at looking silly, so you might want to visit our own item on the firing if you haven't yet done so.

The Daily Breeze revisits its own story on Saturday's party shootings in Long Beach, and suggests that gang members may have noticed the party on the Internet and then crashed it. One of the reason's Janice Hahn's gang tax is such a bad idea is that it would turn the policing of gangs into whack-a-mole; we'll spend all this money here but they'll pop up there.

Have a good day off, except for you folks in Sanitation, who apparently have to work. I don't get that at all.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Duke Helfand writing in the Former Fishwrap of Record says that Mayor Villaraigosa "faces a steep climb to California's top job." A number of self inflicted wounds have proably derailed his efforts to seek the Governor's seat in 2010 and greased the skids for others such as former Governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown. Of course, I told you that months ago.

Mayor Villaraigosa and Wacko Jacko announced a plan to make Pico and Olympic virtually one way streets in opposite directions in an attempt to deal with traffic. Riddle me this Batman, if the same number of cars more or less travel in different directions on each street, isn't this like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic? The cars have to go one place or another. The answer isn't changing direction but reducing the number of cars, one way or another. Stakeholders in the area claim that the Mayor and Jacko have done little to consult the community on the plan.

Walter Moore asks "Has Mayor Villaraigosa really reduced crime?" Good question, as the Mayor and Chief Bratton blow each other's horns falling crime rates are really based on a long term demographic shift and efforts taken back during the Clinton Administration. Nice try boys.

Not only is Sunland-Tujunga unfriendly to business, but formerly Republican Orange County has also caught NIMBY fever. Its so virulent that while folks in Huntington Beach are fighting a Costco in their city, BANANAs in neighboring Westminister are joining the fight. Perhaps some CAVEs from the Valley might want to join in.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes about a growing resentment among African Americans that Latino politicians are eerily silent on Hispanic gangs that have targeted Blacks with violence.

Urban legends to the contrary, public officials in both cities say that Los Angeles is not paying low income residents from housing projects such as Nickerson Gardens to move to Moreno Valley in the Inland Empire.

In celebration of the Dodger's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, the baseball team will play an exhibition game versus the World Champion Boston Red Sox at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the team's home before Dodger Stadium was built.

Where the Hell is Carrmen Sandiego?

A commenter on the previous thread raises a great question: where in the world is Rev. Jeff Carr? Google News offers few clues and relevant blog hits are pretty dated. So, tell me. Where is Los Angeles’ Gang Czar? Informed comments and conspiracy theories welcomed.

Smile! You’re On Camera

Chicago’s doing it. Baltimore, New Orleans, and D.C. are doing it—hell, even Frisco is doing it. So, should we be doing it? Should we accelerate police camera deployment in L.A.’s worst neighborhoods to help fight crime?

The idealist in me warns of a slippery slope, but the realist sees what cameras did for MacArthur Park (hat tip: CM Reyes), what they’re doing for east Valley residents (hat tip: CM Greuel), and wants the same for my neighborhood.

Of course, police cameras wouldn’t replace the need for police (we probably need seven times the 1,000 officers promised by Mayor Villaraigosa) but they would help officers police the streets more effectively—catching criminals in the act, helping secure convictions, and reducing response times.

Critics argue we are exchanging privacy for the promise of safer cities without accountability or evidence that cameras reduce crime, but the results have been real in Chicago; a drop in murders and over 1,400 camera-assisted arrests since February 2006. Once standoffish, residents reportedly now welcome them as the city mulls another phase of high-tech devices able to analyze images in real time.

I appreciate the privacy concerns. On the other hand, I see graffiti and gang activity trending upward, police recruitment barely keeping pace with retirement, inexcusable incompetence downtown, and I’m growing impatient.

What’s your take?

Things to Make You Mad About Los Angeles

Fodder for Monday talkradio progams...

Apparently We Are Not Taxed Enough
Get ready for yet another property tax to right a social wrong. Clowncilwoman Janice Hahn wants you to pay another $30 a year to fund "anti gang" programs, of course irrespective of the fact the current anti-gang programs spend millions and have had little results. The plan will be placed on yet another "special election" ballot during the February 2008 California Presidential Primary (to be followed by certain other special elections during the California Everything Else But Presidential Primary in June and General Election in November of next year).

Fortunately there is at least one sane voice in the wilderness. City Controller Laura Chick doesn't believe the move is wise until audits in progress of the current "programs" are complete. Imagine that! Fiscal prudence from an elected official.

If that's not enough for you, the buzz out of City Hall is that Los Angeles officials are currently crafting a plan for a personal income tax for anyone who works in the City. The City of New York imposes an up to 5.82% personal income tax on residents. Given the number of non-residents who work in the City (including many City employees) Los Angeles would probably want to seek to include them in the plan (New York does not tax non-residents except for some City employees who live outside the city - wonder what the unions will think of that?).

The Nanny State
Personal responsibility is no longer required in Los Angeles (unless of course you owe the City money). Are you fat? Its not because you eat too much. Clowncilwoman Jan Perry wants you to know that its because of bad zoning. Of course government intervention into your private life is not just an LA phenomenon. In Oregon apparently you can get in trouble for drying your clothes outdoor on a line.

Finally, if you want a few more items of nonsense from our City government to make your blood boil, read this piece from Jon Coupal.