Mr. Bush, tear down that wall!
A video and song by Mexican MC Boca Floja about one element of the tragedy of our failed and cruel immigration policy.
Thanks to the Unapologetic Mexican, who is (by his own description) "prettier than Lou Dobbs and smarter than ten Aryans."
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Venice's Criminal Element
Every now and then, Venice Beach is cursed with an overzealous cop who thinks it is his duty to root out the special spirit of the eclectic and tolerant beach community. Someone who equates individuality with deviancy, someone who equates freedom with anarchy, someone who feels it is duty to save us from ourselves and remove the dirtbags from out midst.
One such character is Mark Arnesen, who served as the sergeant overseeing the LAPD's Venice beach detail in the late 1990s. Known derisively as "the Cowboy," Arnesen tried to impose his will on disorderly Venice, treating denizens with disdain, and famously overreacting one day to a crowd at a concert, ordering in helicopters and a riot squad.
So what ever happened to Sgt. Law and Order? He is currently a criminal defendant in the celebrated Pellicano case, accused of racketeeringand running hundreds of unauthorized background checks for Pellicano.
Arnesen had a particularly tough day on the stand this week.
I don't take any delight in Arnesen's downfall, but having seen him at work here in Venice, it is hard not to believe in Karma.
One such character is Mark Arnesen, who served as the sergeant overseeing the LAPD's Venice beach detail in the late 1990s. Known derisively as "the Cowboy," Arnesen tried to impose his will on disorderly Venice, treating denizens with disdain, and famously overreacting one day to a crowd at a concert, ordering in helicopters and a riot squad.
So what ever happened to Sgt. Law and Order? He is currently a criminal defendant in the celebrated Pellicano case, accused of racketeeringand running hundreds of unauthorized background checks for Pellicano.
Arnesen had a particularly tough day on the stand this week.
I don't take any delight in Arnesen's downfall, but having seen him at work here in Venice, it is hard not to believe in Karma.
Common Sense
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has finally spoken about the controversy swirling hysterically in local political circles over Special Order 40, a decades-old LAPD policy that prevents officers from scaring undocumented immigrants shitless and preventing them from reporting crimes or serving as witnesses.
Bratton, as the LA Times reported this morning, said that pretty much everyone in Los Angeles misunderstands the policy, which does not prohibit officers from helping deport criminals who are in this country illegally.
The issue, a long-simmering issue for right-wing talk show hosts, racists, and anti-immigration crazies, came to a boil a few weeks ago, after fringe mayoral candidate Walter Moore sucked the family of Jamiel Shaw into his crusade. Shaw, a promising youth athlete, was tragically killed last month. His accused killer is an undocumented immigrant with a long criminal record.
Moore and his supporters tried to link the killing to Special Order 40 -- although, as has been reported, there is no connection.
In today's paper, Bratton promised to clarify the LAPD policy, which he said even some cops don't understand or enforce properly:
Bratton said the recent criticism is based on a faulty understanding of the rule.
"There is a misrepresentation, misinterpretation, misunderstanding on the part of all the concerned parties here -- whether it is immigrant advocates, immigrant haters, the talk shows, drive-time radio talk-show hosts," Bratton said. "When it comes to our situation in L.A ., . . . the vast majority of them don't know what . . . they are talking about."
Bratton acknowledged some of his own officers were also confused about the policy. For example, he said, he has heard accounts of officers who believe they are prohibited from calling federal immigration officials to report known gang members who have committed crimes and reentered the country illegally."
Bratton continued:
"If you are an illegal immigrant out there and basically you are obeying the law and you are not preying on others, you don't have anything to fear from the Los Angeles police in terms of us approaching you solely on the belief you are here illegally," Bratton said.
Bratton acknowledged that his position was likely to infuriate both sides of the immigration debate, but he said he was confident he was acting in the best interest of the community.
"It is a tempest in a teapot," he said of the controversy over the policy. "It is so hopelessly, totally misunderstood by just about everyone."
Bratton, as the LA Times reported this morning, said that pretty much everyone in Los Angeles misunderstands the policy, which does not prohibit officers from helping deport criminals who are in this country illegally.
The issue, a long-simmering issue for right-wing talk show hosts, racists, and anti-immigration crazies, came to a boil a few weeks ago, after fringe mayoral candidate Walter Moore sucked the family of Jamiel Shaw into his crusade. Shaw, a promising youth athlete, was tragically killed last month. His accused killer is an undocumented immigrant with a long criminal record.
Moore and his supporters tried to link the killing to Special Order 40 -- although, as has been reported, there is no connection.
In today's paper, Bratton promised to clarify the LAPD policy, which he said even some cops don't understand or enforce properly:
Bratton said the recent criticism is based on a faulty understanding of the rule.
"There is a misrepresentation, misinterpretation, misunderstanding on the part of all the concerned parties here -- whether it is immigrant advocates, immigrant haters, the talk shows, drive-time radio talk-show hosts," Bratton said. "When it comes to our situation in L.A ., . . . the vast majority of them don't know what . . . they are talking about."
Bratton acknowledged some of his own officers were also confused about the policy. For example, he said, he has heard accounts of officers who believe they are prohibited from calling federal immigration officials to report known gang members who have committed crimes and reentered the country illegally."
Bratton continued:
"If you are an illegal immigrant out there and basically you are obeying the law and you are not preying on others, you don't have anything to fear from the Los Angeles police in terms of us approaching you solely on the belief you are here illegally," Bratton said.
Bratton acknowledged that his position was likely to infuriate both sides of the immigration debate, but he said he was confident he was acting in the best interest of the community.
"It is a tempest in a teapot," he said of the controversy over the policy. "It is so hopelessly, totally misunderstood by just about everyone."
The Quality of Mercy
A coalition of gay groups is urging that teenager killer of Lawrence King, who was shot at his Ventury County high school for being gay, not be tried as an adult.
This an admirable position, one is search of justice rather than vengeance, mercy rather than rage.
The alleged killer, 14 year-old Brandon McInerney, deserves to be punished. But he is clearly a messed up child -- and a civilized society meets out justice toward children in a different way than it does adults.
The coalition of groups includes Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Equality California, Gay Straight Alliance Network, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
The full report comes from the exceptional and always informative Towleroad blog.
This an admirable position, one is search of justice rather than vengeance, mercy rather than rage.
The alleged killer, 14 year-old Brandon McInerney, deserves to be punished. But he is clearly a messed up child -- and a civilized society meets out justice toward children in a different way than it does adults.
The coalition of groups includes Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Equality California, Gay Straight Alliance Network, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
The full report comes from the exceptional and always informative Towleroad blog.
Monday, April 14, 2008
It's the Infrastructure, Stupid!
Yesterday's Los Angeles Times "Opinion" section featured an essay from St. Zev the Panderer about the coming populist revolution against density in Los Angeles.
Puh-leeeze.
Yes, people in Los Angeles are angry about density. Yes, people in Los Angeles feel like developers own the government. And yes, people feel that elected officials who keep approving development after development are clueless. But the sentiment rings hollow and shallow coming from Yaroslavsky -- despite the unquestioning affection the media has been giving his recent pronouncements on the subject.
The problem is not density; it is infrastructure.
We know the population of Los Angeles is going to increase. We can't stop time. We can't prevent people from having children. We can't forbid people from moving here. And unless we build more housing, the existing housing stock will become even more unaffordable.
The real issue is not whether to build more housing, but how to accommodate it. It is about infrastructure. The quality of the infrastructure largely determines whether additional population blends in seemlessly or results in gridlock. How do we move all these people around? Do we have mass transit to get them to and from work? Do we have enough schools and parks for their children? Do we have enough capacity in our sewage lines or on our electrical grid?
These are the questions our elected officials need to be answering. It is not enough to approve housing developments because we need more housing. It is absolutely essential that we concurrently build the infrastructure that we know the additional population will require.
Zev has been one of the top ten most influential Los Angeles political figures for a couple decades, so it is fair to hold him accountable. He has been on the City Council, the Board of Supervisors, and the MTA. So where's our mass transit? While he has been a force behind the Orange Line in recent years, let's remember that Zev made a career for himself fighting the Expo Line and the Wilshire Subway.
It's time Zev got off his high horse about development and got into the trenches to build some infrastructure.
Puh-leeeze.
Yes, people in Los Angeles are angry about density. Yes, people in Los Angeles feel like developers own the government. And yes, people feel that elected officials who keep approving development after development are clueless. But the sentiment rings hollow and shallow coming from Yaroslavsky -- despite the unquestioning affection the media has been giving his recent pronouncements on the subject.
The problem is not density; it is infrastructure.
We know the population of Los Angeles is going to increase. We can't stop time. We can't prevent people from having children. We can't forbid people from moving here. And unless we build more housing, the existing housing stock will become even more unaffordable.
The real issue is not whether to build more housing, but how to accommodate it. It is about infrastructure. The quality of the infrastructure largely determines whether additional population blends in seemlessly or results in gridlock. How do we move all these people around? Do we have mass transit to get them to and from work? Do we have enough schools and parks for their children? Do we have enough capacity in our sewage lines or on our electrical grid?
These are the questions our elected officials need to be answering. It is not enough to approve housing developments because we need more housing. It is absolutely essential that we concurrently build the infrastructure that we know the additional population will require.
Zev has been one of the top ten most influential Los Angeles political figures for a couple decades, so it is fair to hold him accountable. He has been on the City Council, the Board of Supervisors, and the MTA. So where's our mass transit? While he has been a force behind the Orange Line in recent years, let's remember that Zev made a career for himself fighting the Expo Line and the Wilshire Subway.
It's time Zev got off his high horse about development and got into the trenches to build some infrastructure.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
What's Left Unsaid
The Los Angeles Times did a remarkably pathetic job this morning of covering a nasty, racially-charged dust-up between a prominent African-American leader and an influential Jewish philanthropist.
Earlier this week, Daphna Ziman, a major force in wealthy Los Angeles Jewish and entertainment circles, circulated an email alleging that Rev. Eric Lee, head of the Los Angeles branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, had launched an anti-Semitic diatribe during his keynote speech at a King Day event where a major African-American fraternity was honoring several people, including Ziman.
The Times reports that Ziman's email - which has circulated by now to tens of thousands of people - claimed that Lee said "The Jews have made money on us in the music business, and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us."
The Times story goes on to quote Jewish leaders who are outraged by the allegations in the email. The story mentions that Lee flatly denies making the remarks, and also apologized to Ziman for whatever it is she thinks she heard. That Times also manages to make mention of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Nice.
What the Times fails to mention is critical:
1) According to Ziman, Mayor Antontio Villaraigosa, Councilman Bernard Parks, State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and other prominent officials were there. Why did the Times leave the allegations as a "she said/he said" matter? Why not interview some of the other attendees?
The Jewish Journal published an online story a few days ago, quoting a few people who say they never heard the comments Ziman talks about. It also mentions that the people corroborating her story are two of her employees and a friend of hers.
2) Ziman is a MAJOR supporter of and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In interviews following her hysterical email, she has used the controversy to attack Obama, going so far as to hold him partially responsible for tensions between blacks and Jews.
3) This is at the very least Ziman's third email broadside maligning Obama. Last month, Ted Johnson reported on his Wilshire & Washington blog that Ziman had sent out a mass email questioning whether Obama had changed his name, and whether there had been a "naming ceremony." A month prior, she forwarded an email from the Republican Jewish Coalition questioning Obama's support of Israel.
Why didn't the Times report any of this?
Bitter Aftertaste
The blogger known as Iowa Liberal has the right take on this silly flap over Obama's comments about some voters being bitter over generations of failed politics:
"This is about the sickness of our modern political culture and its inability to be intellectually honest. Neither Clinton, McCain, nor-Quist believe what they’re saying. Three intelligent Washington veterans? Please. They simply recognize Obama’s words as something that can be easily misconstrued, so they leap to be the loudest one to do so. Via said action, they reveal their own contempt for the intelligence of the electorate, trying to punish Obama for, once again, talking to the public like they’re adults. And, in another indefensible move that should surprise nobody at this point, Hillary Clinton is actually sending out e-mails with soundbites from Republicans attacking Obama."
"This is about the sickness of our modern political culture and its inability to be intellectually honest. Neither Clinton, McCain, nor-Quist believe what they’re saying. Three intelligent Washington veterans? Please. They simply recognize Obama’s words as something that can be easily misconstrued, so they leap to be the loudest one to do so. Via said action, they reveal their own contempt for the intelligence of the electorate, trying to punish Obama for, once again, talking to the public like they’re adults. And, in another indefensible move that should surprise nobody at this point, Hillary Clinton is actually sending out e-mails with soundbites from Republicans attacking Obama."
Friday, April 11, 2008
Walking the Walk
This coming week, April 15-17, the diverse face of organized labor in Los Angeles will take to the streets of Los Angeles as part of a "The March from Hollywood to the Docks."
Actors, janitors, longshore workers, and many other workers along with members of the community will march 28 miles from Hollywood to the docks of San Pedro. For three days straight, these workers and community supporters will walk and camp overnight along the route.
These individuals will symbolize over 350,000 workers who, this year, will be fighting to stay in the middle class or move themselves out of poverty. The march will conclude on April 17th with a massive rally at the Port of Los Angeles at 6:00 pm.
All along the route marchers will be talking the talk by walking the walk, talking to all of L.A. about the fight for middle class jobs, the battle to organize workers and the importance of voting in order to win the 2008 Fight for Good Jobs.
Here is Tommy Munoz, one of the many walkers:
Here is a calendar for the three-day march.
The event is being sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The War on Art
I'll have much more on this in an eventual later post, but it is quite clear government officials in LA City and LA County don't know shit about art. If it isn't 400 years old, framed, and hanging in a gallery heavily subsidized by Eli Broad, it can't be art, can it?
It sure as hell can. Los Angeles used to be a world capital for murals, and this city is home to some of the most talented graffiti artists on the planet. Unfortunately, the distinction between tagging and spray can art is more than bureaucrats can handle.
The Associated Press has details today on the latest travesty.
I'll write more again soon about LA's war on art. In the meantime, here are a couple links to organizations that know a thing or two about art that is indigenous to our city:
In Creative Unit (ICU)
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
It sure as hell can. Los Angeles used to be a world capital for murals, and this city is home to some of the most talented graffiti artists on the planet. Unfortunately, the distinction between tagging and spray can art is more than bureaucrats can handle.
The Associated Press has details today on the latest travesty.
I'll write more again soon about LA's war on art. In the meantime, here are a couple links to organizations that know a thing or two about art that is indigenous to our city:
In Creative Unit (ICU)
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Talking Back
For the past few years, officials with the City of Los Angeles have been talking about waging a war on homelessness -- while effectively waging war on the homeless themselves.
There is no real policy in Los Angeles to address the problem of homelessness, so we get treated to lots of press conferences, lots of lofty policy debates, and precious little action. Into that void, however, jump the forces of NIMBYism, which manage to convince politicians to take punitive actions against the homeless in the lull between the policy debates.
Well, today, some homeless advocates decided to talk back.
When Mayor Villariagosa and a couple councilmembers showed up on skid row to promote the latest phase of the Safer Cities Initiative -- which some homeless advocates claim locks scores of homeless people for frivolous violations -- a handful of volunteers at a local soup kitchen booed and heckled.
The video is at the LA Times local news blog.
The Times Dave Zahniser typically goes the extra mile for a more nuanced account.
The problem with LA's effort to clean up Skid Row is typical of how city government operates: officials proclaims the need for a multi-pronged solution to a complex problem -- and then inevitably deliver on only a fraction of the promise. When it comes to homelessness, they deliver on the crime crackdown, but fail to produce the affordable housing and social services. When it comes to gangs, there are injunctions and drug raids, but too few job training programs and even fewer jobs.
There is no real policy in Los Angeles to address the problem of homelessness, so we get treated to lots of press conferences, lots of lofty policy debates, and precious little action. Into that void, however, jump the forces of NIMBYism, which manage to convince politicians to take punitive actions against the homeless in the lull between the policy debates.
Well, today, some homeless advocates decided to talk back.
When Mayor Villariagosa and a couple councilmembers showed up on skid row to promote the latest phase of the Safer Cities Initiative -- which some homeless advocates claim locks scores of homeless people for frivolous violations -- a handful of volunteers at a local soup kitchen booed and heckled.
The video is at the LA Times local news blog.
The Times Dave Zahniser typically goes the extra mile for a more nuanced account.
The problem with LA's effort to clean up Skid Row is typical of how city government operates: officials proclaims the need for a multi-pronged solution to a complex problem -- and then inevitably deliver on only a fraction of the promise. When it comes to homelessness, they deliver on the crime crackdown, but fail to produce the affordable housing and social services. When it comes to gangs, there are injunctions and drug raids, but too few job training programs and even fewer jobs.
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