The lore has been out there practically since first I learned to read: It’s the legend of the totally out-of-control, self-and-everyone-else-destructive junkie. First, I think, came Frankie Machine, counterhero of Nelson Algren‘s classic, 1949 The Man With the Golden Arm. Then there was William S. Burroughs’ then-pseudonymous paperback, Junky, in 1953, and Jack Gelber‘s beatnik-era, […]
Category: LA Weekly
Flip a Coin
Got a call from Mayor Riordan the other day, or so he said. The Great Stone Voice identified himself: ”Hi, I‘m Mayor Richard Riordan,“ and then told me to vote for Assemblyman Wally Knox for state senator in the 23rd District.I immediately replied, ”Mayor Riordan, I gotta tell you one thing. This is Santa Monica, […]
Hiding behind Badges
It was very simple, as Chief Bernard Parks explained it last week. The Los Angeles Police Department is undermined by mediocrity, slipshod performance, bad management, and insidious and inappropriate cultures. These problems led to the Rampart scandal.Accordingly, this mediocrity-riddled LAPD should be left to clean itself up. This, essentially, was what the long-awaited 362-page LAPD […]
Bernie Dresses Down
The night Bernard Parks should have apologized to the district attorney for trying to derail the state constitution, he left his uniform hanging in the closet.The police chief wore his civvies when he made his evening appearance outside Rampart station — where he’s been rather scarce lately.Parks said he would cooperate with D.A. Gil Garcetti, […]
Gas Attack
Trying to get into the minds of the current majority of Los Angeles Unified School District board members is often like trying to crawl into an impossibly small, dark, unventilated space.Particularly when it comes to the fate of the accursed $200 million Belmont Learning Complex. It‘s now two months since the board majority sought to […]
Blight of Other Days
One thing kept the single most ridiculous police operation in the history of Los Angeles and Ventura counties from also being the funniest: An innocent man was killed. Now comes the final somber punch line to the Trail‘s End Ranch case: a bill to taxpayers for $5 million.You’ve heard similar stories: Police suspect a drug […]
Bad Conduct
It‘s a miserable LAPD practice that antedates Jack Webb and Dragnet, and it’s at least as antiquated: sending cops in civvies to entrap and entice men who like other men by posing as like-minded persons.But the Los Angeles Police Department — perpetually proclaiming itself short of law-enforcement personnel and now embroiled in a spreading and […]
God, the Mayor and Bernard Parks
The mayor once told us to thank ”dear God“ for Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks; as I recall, however, he forgot at the time to tell us why.But most of us realize that it isn‘t God we really have to thank for Bernie Parks. It’s Dick Riordan himself.So it was certainly appropriate for the […]
The Last Stand
The plaintiffs opposing Playa Vista this time around are called the Grassroots Coalition, Earthways Foundation and Spirit of the Sage Council. The last is, according to the filing, unincorporated. The Coalition, Foundation and Council‘s action, termed in its press release a “lawsuit,” was actually a petition for writ of mandate. In this case, this means […]
Daily Drips
”Tapping Toilet Water“ was the Hearst-like headline in the Daily News. It was both an attention grabber and a blatant falsehood in terms of what the story was about, which was something called the East Valley Water Recycling Project. This is our Department of Water and Power‘s planned dumping of some tertiary-treated sewage water into […]