“I respect the protesters’ right to peacefully assemble and express
their views. … However, the protesters must respect city laws and
regulations, and while they have been allowed to camp on City Hall
lawns, that cannot continue indefinitely.”
their views. … However, the protesters must respect city laws and
regulations, and while they have been allowed to camp on City Hall
lawns, that cannot continue indefinitely.”
That’s how Antonio Villaraigosa, as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, summed up his position on the Occupy movement in an article published today in the New York Times.
This reflects the mayor’s considered judgment more than a month after approving the use of City Hall grounds for an encampment by up to 1,000 Occupy L.A. protesters and holding a conference call as a national leader with seven other mayors to discuss how to
handle the Occupy movement and its the impact on
transportation, city services and costs.
handle the Occupy movement and its the impact on
transportation, city services and costs.
We know after years of experience with Antonio that he respects the constitutional rights of those he agrees with — after all, he is a former ACLU leader.
We know from from experience the high respect he holds for the city’s laws and regulations — after all, he was fined $42,000 for Ticket-gate, a quarter of the penalty that could have been imposed for his flagrant abuse of the city’s ethics laws.
And we have learned over time that he can go either way or both ways on any issue as he has in this case by allowing the illegal use of City Hall park as a campground and deciding after $1 million in damages to decide it can’t continue indefinitely, whatever that means.
Given our experience over the years, we can only guess the mayor will bring in the helicopters and squadrons of cops in the middle of the night in early December while he is off on a junket enjoying Asian delights in Beijing or Seoul.
We learned very early on in the reign of mismanagement of Antonio Villaraigosa that he likes to boast about how much political courage he has for the odd speech criticizing the teachers union but that when it comes to action instead of cheap talk, it is a different story.
It was his gift for gab, his charm, that after four boring years with Jimmy Hahn, people all over the city wanted to believe real change was possible, that we could come together in all our diversity of values and interests and work for the common good.
Antonio inspired us for a moment to believe in our better selves, to believe even in this city built out of greed, that we could put what was good for L.A. ahead of what was simply good for ourselves as individuals or classes..
But within weeks of taking office in the summer of 2005, Antonio showed his true colors by signing off on a five-year contract that gave Department of Water and Power workers raises of up to 6 percent a year.
It was a contract negotiated before he took office so he could have just said no to it and taken on the bully boy of L.A. politics, IBEW boss Brian D’Arcy, despite the lavish contributions had made to the mayor’s campaigns and to the campaigns of the majority of city elected officials.
From that moment on, we have seen the same thing over and over: Gifts of the public’s wealth to wealthy contributors, corporate contributors, union contributors without regard to the common good of the people of the city.
An army of public relations manipulators and lobbyist-advisers spin a story for consumption by the press and public that has nothing to do with what is going on the back rooms of City Hall.
We wanted and needed a bold and courageous leader. What we got was a two-faced milquetoast who wanted nothing more than to live like a rich man on other people’s money with a mansion and chauffeurs and bodyguards and servants and sycophants all around him while he joined the ranks of famous celebrities in Tinseltown.
Antonio doesn’t have any landmark achievements that will survive the test of time. He doesn’t need a building named after him as his legacy.
The fitting symbol of his reign as mayor would simply be a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He earned that.
The Mayor will ask LAPD to get them to move and if there is resistence, injuries will happen and camera’s will be rolling, channel 7 ABC NBC, the ZimaCam, “whatever”! So ok then there is overtime and if their is strong resistence for days, weeks, months, LAPD will be RAKING in the o/t that tax payers will pay in borrowing of more money with interest. Bankruptcy is possible at this juncture. Let’s face reality, many citizens, if we took a POLL, I think we can ignore the current law under the provision of “extenuating circumstances” – Stay as long as you want says Eric Garcetti.
At the US Mayors – that was really a Commerical of Villaraigosa. Ron summed it up nicely, ALCU.
Constitutional VS Local Law (Fed Law superceed local inconveniences)
We have a potential crisis on our hands. Bashing protestors after a rather friendly welcome and President of City Council, Eric (Navyboy)Garcetti-and by the way VETS, Eric never did a day’s work in the Navy, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, and I can stand here and say this as a VET. As a vet we stand to protect the people; not corruption. The crisis will be when the police come. Villaraigosa can avoid this now and forever, and let the Angeles do their work.
police is not conducive
,the police protecting criminals. Police have families too. Children who will inherit debt from the devil. I want to make a clear point to our Navy Boy who said City Hall was like a Temple
Tony Villar is not worthy of the steam off my piss.
Tony Villar is not worthy of the steam off my piss.
Ron-I hesitate to agree on the star. How about the city names one of the Occupy tents after him?
Speaking of the encampment-is it true they have children there? How cold does it get at night?
This is America. Move the bums out. They should get jobs and do something useful rather than complaining — it’s un-American to complain.
The mayor is a fine man — just ask his mistress. The mayor loves the people, just as his girfriends. The people love the mayor, just as the workers who will be building the wall around his Hancock Mansion to keep out the riff-raff. Really, Hancock? Shouldn’t they re-name the neighborhood?
The only thing that make Tony V look good are the gaggle of city council creeps who wanna be mayor.
This is America. Move the bums out. They should get jobs and do something useful rather than complaining — it’s un-American to complain.
The mayor is a fine man — just ask his mistress. The mayor loves the people, just as his girlfriends. The people love the mayor, just as the workers who will be building the wall around his Hancock Mansion to keep out the riff-raff. Really, Hancock? Shouldn’t they re-name the neighborhood?
The only thing that make Tony V look good are the gaggle of city council creeps who wanna be mayor.
This is America. Move the bums out. They should get jobs and do something useful rather than complaining — it’s un-American to complain.
The mayor is a fine man — just ask his mistress. The mayor loves the people, just as his girlfriends. The people love the mayor, just as the workers who will be building the wall around his Hancock Mansion to keep out the riff-raff. Really, Hancock? Shouldn’t they re-name the neighborhood?
The only thing that makes Tony V look good is the gaggle of city council creeps who wanna be mayor.
Please direct the Occupiers to the secured, better-homes and gardens Hancock Park front-yard of Mayor; also to every Council member’s, every elected and appointed bureaucrat’s neighborhood.
The enlightened leadership must suffer the consequences of their decisions. Justice.
HOw pathetic the Mayor is showing the entire Nation he no balls or the guts to get rid of those losers sleeping all day and ruining our City Hall landscape the tax payer pay for. The Failure of a Mayor has be quoted in a paper out of the City because he’s a whimp and where are all those other losers city council members hiding out? Great, all we need is another lawsuite
Head of the LA Deptt of Rec and Parks sent a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday warning that the city could potentially be responsible if anyone is injured while participating in the protest on and around city property.Public health and safety may not be the only issues that could leave local taxpayers on the hook.
To clarify LAPD doesn’t get any over time money since the Mayor and council cut their budget $120 million. All the valuable resources that have been spent babysitting Occupy LA has come out of their budget. I would like to know how money has been spent so far.
Yeah, let’s get guns and shoot them down like Syria. Let’s hurry! Syria is ahead with 3,500 dead protesters.
Occupy LA highlights the failure of our governmental institutions. They should stay as long as it takes. And afterwards, consistent with a call from the LA Times garden writer, let’s replace the damn grass with native and drought tolerant plants instead of some guzzling landscape that frankly is overgrown and quite ugly.
I understand Occupy LA has started to grow dope on City Hall property.
At what point can the Feds come in and do an asset seizure on City Hall?
Of course all the “progressive” losers in city gov support the OWS losers; they share the goal of destroying the producers of wealth. The most amusing part of this article is the assertion that people actually believed that this moron, mayor tony, could bring people together. He’s just another phony politician.