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EDITOR'S NOTE: At 9:30 a.m. today, fired library workers and their supporters among city employees and ordinary citizens will stage a rally at the Richard J. Riordan Central Library, 5th and Grand, in protest against the policies of the mayor and City Council that have closed libraries two days a week. At the same time as the protest, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will take his broken elbow to the South Los Angeles Animal Shelter for a fund-raising event for his girlfriend and her Lu Parker Project which plans to paint the shelter's lobby as its first effort on behalf of pets.

Don't bother going to your local library today to read a book, use a computer or just cool off from the summer heat.

For the first time ever, our beautiful new libraries that we built at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars will be closed on a non-holiday Monday. Just like that, we have gone from a seven-day-a-week library system to a five-day-a-week system, from one of the best library systems in the world to a dysfunctional one.

It is a crime against the city and its people.

Years of throwing away the public's money have led the city's bankrupt leadership to lay off several hundred workers, starting with the libraries, then the parks, then building code enforcers and neighborhoods planners.

It's a downhill slide. City workers who provide direct services to the public in general are the first to go, while those that provide bureaucratic services to the failed system itself and those that generate revenue -- like services to help developers -- are protected.

The reason is simple: The cost of wages and benefits for the city's 50,000 workers are too high and can no longer be afforded.

They are too high because the mayor and Council gave city unions one sweetheart contract after another in exchange for the campaign cash and political support that put them into office and kept them there.

The unions are at fault for not looking beyond their immediate self-interest and seeing the impact that inadequate public services was having on the quality of life in our neighborhoods, for not seeing how high taxation and poor services was killing jobs and driving business away.

But they are not the criminals.

Our elected officials are the perpetrators of this crime against the city. They are the ones who cut the deals with unions, developers and contractors that have left the city broke, and broken. They did it knowingly and willfully for their own benefit without regard to the public interest, which makes it a felony in moral terms at least.

Everything they have done to deal with the fiscal crisis that was looming for years has only made things worse. It's just one small thing among the thousands of wasteful things the city does, but dozens of library workers are at their jobs today in closed libraries,running up bills for air conditioning and lights.

The incompetence of our city officials extends to selling off valuable assets like parking structures and land holdings at the bottom of the market just to get through this year and have no plan to deal with the $300 million deficit next year or the $1 billion deficit the year after, no plan except more layoffs and new ways of squeezing more money out of the public through higher rates, taxes, fees and penalties.

And yet they party on with their lavish perks and enormous staffs and huge salaries, the nation's highest.

Our freeloading ceremonial mayor sets the tone by acting like Nero fiddling while his city burns.

Two days after the librarians announced their protest for Monday morning, he puts out a press release for his girlfriend's fund-raiser as if she were the city's First Lady, not his second TV newswoman mistress.

He mocks us all with his behavior, even as his political lackeys insult our intelligence with their specious attempts to deflect the public conversation from how we fix what he has broken to a theater of irrelevant absurdities.

The Council is no better, spending endless hours on inane parliamentary maneuvers and distractions but fail to openly and honestly debate the real issues, refusing.to bring the civic, business, labor and community leadership to the table to find solutions and bring the city together to solve this crisis.

City Hall's attempt at a preemptive strike against LA Clean Sweep and the effort to build a broad-based grassroots movement to elect better people for a greater city only shows how scared they are of the people, how intent they are on squelching the public conversation and protecting their privileged positions.

But it will fail like everything they do.

The community in all its diversity, with all its competing interests, with all its conflicts in values, will inevitably come together because our elected officials have neglected their sworn duties and are turning a crisis into a calamity.

It doesn't have to happen. There is another way. It's only a question of time and how much more damage is done before we come together.
 

In the face of LAPD 's adamant defense of every aspect of Special Order 40, former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates said Mondaythat officers were being handcuffed by City Hall politicians (click here gatesclip.mp3)from using it against illegal immigrant gang members.

In a hearing put off for six months by the council's Public Safety Committee Chairman, Jack Weiss, the wannabe City Attorney, emotional statements flowed freely from the family of Jamiel Shaw Jr. -- the South L.A. youth slain allegedly by a illegal immigrant gang member last spring -- and others who wanted tougher law enforcement and those who defended Special Order 40 and how it's being used.

Police Commission member Andrea Ortin, who was the U.S. Attorney for L.A. when Gates adopted Special Order 40 nearly 30 years ago, gave no ground in her defense of the policy or LAPD's use of it.

LAPD officials took the same tack, conceding only that it was being  applied unevenly in different parts of the city by officers. Training is now under way so officers will understand that they are to report when they believe people arrested for felonies or multiple misdemeanors might be in the country illegally

They argued they aren't authorized to enforce federal laws -- a contention that was challenged by Councilman Dennis Zine who introducted a motion to stregthen Special Order back in April shortly after the murder of Jamiel Shaw Jr. .

Gates traced the reasons he adopted Special Order 40 to the failure of federal officials to collaborate in his efforts to crack down on gang activity. He said it was necessary to get illegal immigrants who were victims of crime or witnesses to cooperate with police. It was never intended to protect gang members who engaged in crime from immigration law enforcement

In the end, the committee decided to do nothing more than ask the LAPD to provide periodic reports on training of officers in Special Order 40 without suggesting any changes to it.

So nothing changed. The Shaw family will continue to try to qualify Jamiel's Law for the ballot through the petition drive and the controversy over illegal immigration and the protection of the civil rights of all immigrants will continue.

Editor's Note: The  City Council refused to take up the issue of the city's failure to enforce the law against illegal immigrant gangbangers  for months and now says it will hold a hearing in October. If you want this issue addressed now, you should call, write or email your council member. Click here for the information you need to have your voice heard.

The long-standing constitutional limit on free speech is you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. The corollary to that is you have a moral imperative to warn people if you know there is an imminent danger.

That's why we all must stand up now and demand City Hall do something about enforcing the law against known criminals who are in this country illegally.

Enforcing the LAPD's Special Order 40 as it's written is all that has to be done. As it is, the only provision consistently enforced is the don't ask, don't tell language that is used to effectively look the other way at all questions of immigration status.

It's been more than five months since the senseless murder of high school athlete Jamiel Shaw Jr. allegedly by an illegal immigrant gangbanger released from jail the day before without the Sheriff's Department holding him for deportation. Outside of domestic disputes, gangs are involved in most of the murders in L.A. and a significant portion of them could be stopped and the  terrorism that holds so many neighborhoods in the grip of fear reduced.

Yet, Councilman Jack Weiss -- the man who has all but shined the mayor's shoes for the last four years to get his support to be the city's No.1 law enforcement officials -- has refused to hold public hearings on Jamiel's Law and the whole issue of criminal aliens.

Under presssure from last week's protest at his Westside office organized by KABC talk show host Doug McIntyre, Weiss ran to Chief Bill Bratton to ask what he should do.

Bratton told him to wait two months when he'll have a policy on gangs ready just in time to influence voters to support the proposed parcel tax -- the single most regressive tax there is.

Obedient as always, Weiss agreed and the mayor and City Council are on side with him.

There will be blood on the streets between now and October from violence by illegal immigrant criminals and the blood will be -- already is -- on their hands.

The least anyone can do it is to email or call you own council office and demand that immediate hearings be held and the council put on record on the issue: Do they support illegal immigrant criminals living in our city or are they going to do something about it?

A protest organized by talk show host Doug McIntyre and broadcast live on KABC 790AM drew several hundred people to Councilman Jack Weiss' Westside office in support of demands for a crackdown on illegal immigrant gangbangers.

Weiss ws nowhere to be seen. He was off dedicating a three-way crosswalk with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while other council members -- like Bernard Parks talking about banning all smoking near any other person -- were doing their best to distract public attention from the Jamiel's Law controversy

Even in the face of the planned protest, Weiss, the wannabe City Attorney, who has kept Jamiel's Law bottled up in committee backed down and agreed -- after asked Chief Bill Bratton what to do -- to hold hearings on the proposal but not until October.

That leaves the mayor, police chief and most council members in the high-risk situation of trying to explain the next killing of an innocent person like Jamiel Shaw Jr. by an illegal immigrant gangbanger with a criminal record.

Jamiel Shaw Sr. and his wife Anita, a soldier just back from assignment in Iraq, and Danielle Bologna whose three family members were gunned down in the Bay  Area by an illegal immigrant gangster attended the rally after appearing in studio with McIntyre.

"Weiss has been put in the position of being held accountable," Shaw Sr. said in a television  interview.

"Since April he's being trying to hide it...The issue is are you for illegal alien gangbangers or against them.".

Five months after an illegal immigrant gangbanger was arrested for the senseless murder of Jamiel Shaw Jr., Councilman Jack Weiss agreed Wednesday to hold hearings on a measure that would order police to investigate the immigration status of suspects at the time of arrest.

Weiss backed down in the face of a planned protest Thursday at his Westside office (see story below) organized by KABC talk show host Doug McIntyre who arranged to bring Shaw's family and the family of Anthony Bologna who was murdered along with his two sons in San Francisco in a road rage incident pinned on an illegal immigrant gang member.

The councilman -- who has positioned himself as the front-runner for City Attorney by a close alliance with the mayor -- said he conferred with Chief Bill Bratton before deciding to hold a Public Safety Committee hearing on Jamiel's Law. That appears to be why the hearing will not be held for two months to give Bratton time to come up with a strategy to defuse the raging controversy.

I have reviewed this issue closely and have worked with Chief Bratton, and as a result I am today announcing that we will be holding a public hearing in October to address issues related to Special Order 40,'' Weiss said.

Join McIntyre and the Bologna and Shaw families at the protest at Weiss' Westside office from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 at 822 S. Robertson Boulevard, Suite 102,

Meet Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, a well-funded candidate for L.A. City Attorney, who wants to get tough on gangs and illegal immigrant criminals.

Clearly, he's not City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and certainly not Councilman Jack Weiss, the man anointed by the mayor and L.A. corrupt insider political culture to perpetuate the soft on crime policies that are driving away the middle class, making it impossible for the working poor to get ahead and leaving vast neighborhoods terrorized by hoodlums.

"Nuch" is a different sort. He's raised half a million dollars which is half what Weiss has raised but more than enough to be competitive and he has a lot of support from law enforcement and  the backing of Sheriff Lee Baca, District Attorney Steve Cooley and former Assembly Speaker and mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg.

When you look at where their bundled money is coming from, you find Weiss is on the take big time from developers with massive projects that the community has gotten little or no say about, Trutanich is on the take from cops and judges.

I spoke with "Nuch" today in the context of Thursday's 9:30 a.m. protest at Weiss' district office at  822 S. Robertson Boulevard, Suite 102. It's being staged by KABC talk show host Doug McIntyre who is calling for an open public debate in City Council on Jamiel's Law, which Weiss has bottled up in committee (See next item).

"No ifs ands or buts about it," Trutanich told me, "I'd have a zero tolerance policy. Commit a crime, you're gone."

Shining the light on L.A.'s blind spot on illegal immigrant gangsters, talk show host Doug McIntyre is bringing together the Bologna family from San Francisco and the Shaw family from L.A. on Thursday -- families that lost loved ones to senseless murders by illegal immigrant gangsters.

Their grief over the loss of Anthony Bologna and his two sons and Jamiel Shaw Jr. has prompted them to lead in the fight to end "sanctuary city" policies that they -- and many others -- believe have allowed criminals who should have been deported long ago to terrorize San Francisco and L.A.

After talking to the families on his KABC 790AM morning show, McIntyre is going with them to the office of Councilman Jack Weiss -- the wannabe City Attorney who has pigeon-holed Jamiel's Law in committee and refused to allow a public discussion of efforts to get tough on illegal immigrant gangsters -- some 25 percent or so of the total gang population in LA  The protest is from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 at 822 S. Robertson Boulevard, Suite 102,

Imagine if we got rid of those gangsters and started dealing with the rest with intervention programs that sorted out those who need education, training or jobs -- and those who belonged in prison.

We might have a chance to do something about the gang problem that has ruined so much of the city and its reputation for decades.

A gang tax won't fix the city's lack of will to enforce the law or even to follow Special Order 40 which was adopted 29 years ago as a middle ground that recognized there were a lot of illegal immigrants who worked hard and lived in fear of reporting crimes against them or testifying against others who committed crimes.

Hard-nosed Chief Daryl Gates issued Special Order 40 and for a time the LAPD enforced it as it was intended which was to bar cops from initiating investigations solely to find out someone's immigration status.

It wasn't soft on illegal immigrant criminals; stating clearly that anyone arrested for 

"multiple misdemeanors, a high-grade misdemeanor or felony or has been previously arrested" for those crimes should have their files marked "undocumented  alien" and immigration authorities should be notified.

But over time, the widespread practice by LAPD officers became to totally ignore immigration status and officers who obeyed the actual policy often found themselves getting heat from their superiors.

I know now I will not be alone in a Bastille Day protest at City Hall.

So many others have stepped forward and said they too are fed up with the arrogance and failure of our city government that I know there will be a decent crowd at high noon on the 14th of July.

The question is whether there will be enough decent people to become an army that storms the bastille and shakes the foundation of L.A.'s corrupt political culture.

Saving L.A. -- that's the mission. Celebrating L.A. the place and demanding that it becomes a city, a real city where we all come together around a vision of something greater than ourselves, a great city.

We are at the tipping point. Too much greed. Too much poverty. Too many problems left  unsolved. Bad schools, over-development, traffic congestion, neighborhoods held hostage by gangs, official indifference to the values of the people, fragmented and weak communities -- L.A. teeters on the brink.

It doesn't have to be that way. We can have great schools and great neighborhoods, great streets and great parks, great busineses and great jobs. We can be greener and safer.We can be happier.

But we will never achieve that when all the leadership gives us is choices between paying twice for garbage collection or fewer cops, between power outages and water shortages and higher rates, between something bad and something worse.

City Hall has more than enough money to solve the city's problems. But too much is given away in sweetheart contracts and giveaways to developers and contractors for no purpose other than to maintain the system of failure. Too much is spent in ways that don't matter and too little on ways that would make our lives better and our communities more livable.

We need to spend our money smarter to create the kind of choices people want and the city needs. We need to raise the standards and create the kind of a city where we can choose to walk or ride a bike or take a bus or drive when we leave our homes to go to work or play. We need to able to choose between a good public school or a good charter school. We need good choices, not choices between the lesser of two evils.

The  leadership of this city is incapable of real change. It will take the people. It will take you to step forward and get the revolution started by joining the Saving L.A. Protest and make it a S.L.A.P. in the face of our elected officials, a wakeup call that the rules are changing, that the people are taking over.

I'm just a voice in the crowd. But people are stepping forward who have spent years working in the trenches to make their neighborhoods better, who know how to organize and make this happen. It will take more people to pull this off, to volunteer and turn this into something big and the start of something bigger.

So let me know if you're coming, if you want to help figure out how we make this protest a celebration of the spirit of L.A.'s people and their hopes for the future. We don't need to get mad to get even. We can come together and party and if there's enough of us there, they'll get the message.

This city belongs to you and me. So let's take our gripes and grievances down to City Hall and leave them there as a petition for redress. Every neighborhood, every group has their own set of issues, their own values. We don't need to agree on anything except our right to a government that serves us, not special interests, and our respect for each other's right to be empowered to affect public policy.

This S.L.A.P. in City Hall's face can be the beginning, the dawning of a new L.A. Come join the party!
 


 

This item was written by long-time community activist Noel Weiss, an attorney who played a key role in winning City Hall support in 2006 for doubling tenant relocation payments.

 

By Noel Weiss

West Side activist

 

Levels of trust begin to grow when people from the community can have 'heart to heart' discussions with the police; with the City Attorney; with the educators; with the politicians; with each other. The Watts Gang Task Force is a clearinghouse of not just ideas, but of emotions (both negative and positive).
 
So that is why, for example, the Watts community can put on a three day carnival which closed down (lawfully) some City streets and which drew people from throughout the community - gang and non-gang alike. People knew what was expected of them. The 'interventionists' from the community were there to provide a buffer, with the police providing  the ultimate back-up. There was not one incident even though rival gang members came.
 
Having pulled this off, and of course, there was no press coverage of the good news, the Community, the police, the interventionists, the churches, everyone, could take pride and satisfaction in being able to accomplish something which other parts of the City probably take for granted .
 
At the task force meetings, there is generally a Deputy Chief of Police, a Commander, and the local captain. This kind of concern and compassion results in a reciprocal kind of respect - such that now when there is a hint of a potential problem, a direct line (literally) exists between the community leaders (interventionists) and LAPD, so that the Police can, with confidence, know what is happening, what is being done, and what needs to be done to quell any problem.
 
In short, there is trust being built between the police and the community. This is important because the gangs rely on a lack of trust in order to stir up trouble and swell their ranks.

You got to feel sorry for poor City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. He's become the living embodiment of the cliché about no good deed goes unpunished.

A year ago, Rocky announced with Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Mother of Watts founder "Sweet" Alice Harris at his side that he was going to make Markham Middle School in Watts the poster child for a new anti-gang school safety initiative

"Mend Markham" involved everything from school uniforms to teacher empowerment to mentoring and adult supervised after school play with nearly $1 million in public and private funds.

Overlooked was checking out the criminal backgrounds of the people in charge of the school, particularly Assistant Principal Steven Rooney  who was transferred from Fremont High to Markham last fall after beating a rap for allegedly having sex with an underage student who refused to testify in court about their two-year fling. The transfer was part of LAUSD's notorious "dance of the lemons" policy to move its losers to one bad school after another, ensuring that the neediest students get the worst education.

Now Rooney is in jail accused of using force and molesting three teenage girls at Markham. So much for student safety. So much for protecting them from fear and violence.

But that didn't stop Rocky from sending out a mass mailing on April 29 boasting that his "Blueprint for Safer Schools, based on our Markham Middle School Safety Initiative...should inspire a dialogue about how we can do things differently with an eye toward ending fear and violence in our schools."