Phil_Shuman's Blog

Welcome too 2009 Southern Cal style... waking up Saturday morning to read the paper ( Yes.. it's still published apparently.. even still shows up magically at the end of your driveway every day !).... on the one hand.. the great articles about 'SC's dominance..a  nice piece by  always insightful columnist Sandy Banks on the ''day after'' Rose Parade float viewing.. then... the bad news... the killing of an apparently innocent couple in Long Beach.where the mother leaves a little boy  behind... . the shooting death of a young man in Studio City  after a New Years eve party.. apparently over a plate of food in some macho showdown with a 'bouncer.  ...And every day  an update on the shocker in Covina on Xmas Eve.... The violence is never ending and just sickening. What kind of world are we continuing to live in where this is happening every day, not just  in So Cal of course... and it's tolerate ?    Yes if people are caught they're proscecuted.. but where's the outrage ???I mean it's just enough to make you wanna give up .    Are we just all going to walk around in fear and hope... as victims always say... '' i never thought it would happen to us ' ?   And these are just  the stories that get headlines... the fine print is full of murder victims that we never hear about...beyong a quick paragraph ( check out pg 2 of the "California" section... ) or a voice over with stringer footage.   I don't have all the answers.. but i do have one .. Ban guns... simple... not easy.. but  simple.. get rid of 'em... let hunters use bows and arrows, ok ?   they   do without guns in the publics' hands  it in plenty of other countries... aren't we smart enough ?  Sure. do we have the political will.. Obviously not.  Now i know all the Second Amendment arguments ...I know that it's not law abiding citizens committing the crimes.... I know about the right to defend yourself and your home.. all of it...  How's that all been working out so far ?

Xmas eve in Sierra Madre..one of those beautiful, tree lined communities they use for movie locations and that you wished you could live in but you probably couldn't afford it.   Had an assignment to cover storms which didn't happen, which was fine.. but it brought us to the Sierra Madre Volunteer Fire Department. Those folks, along with the Police Dept , which is like thru the door, walk a couple buildings down to Cith Hall where for .. oh... 50 years or so, they give out candy -filled Xmas stockings to any kid who happens to come by.   It's just a nice thing to do... so.. while the news is dominated by psychos in Santa outfits gunning down innocents.. just keep in mind that the good guys still outnumber the bad. Fortunately.  For now. 

Am I crazy , or is it ridiculous to talk about people's skin color in this day in age ...in terms of whether or not they deserve to keep their job.. .. in terms or whether or not they're competent to hold an office... a Superintendents post..... or anything. ? Call me naive.... but last time i checked didn't we just elect a black President. ?? Isn't the first new member of the LA County Board of Supervisors in like 24 years black. ? So what the hell does David Brewer's being black have anything to do with the attempt to oust him from his job ? ? In the LA Times the whole point of the article seemed to be that because Brewers black.. the members of the school board who are trying to get rid of him have to be careful of what they do so they're not accused of somehow being racist ? This from the Latina president of the school board ? If they wanna get rid of Brewer fine.. get rid of him.. don't play around with the race angle.. it's absurd. He can either do the job or not... If he gets the axe no one can credibly say it has anything to do with race. Surely the board members aren't that lame. Yet it appear that the board waited to act because the lone black member of the school board Marguerite LaMotte was going to be out of town ... and they apparently didn't want to make am move without her for fear of being perceived as targeting a black person ? If that 's true it's totally absurd. Are you kidding me ? If you wanna get rid of Brewer ( and admit you made a huge mistake in bringing him in the first place , when Mayor Tony was out of town if you'll recall ) then do it. Have some guts. If the black board member wants to object let her object .... on performance grounds... not skin color.

Granted, i'm not a minority so maybe i'm not uniquely qualified to make these kind of judgements.....but it seems to me that it's insulting to everyone in 2008 to even have to have this discussion.. Give me a break.

     If you go to a police officer's funeral and don't at least tear up... you're not human.  At Spree DeSha's mass and ceremony today, the female LAPD officer who died on the Metrolink train ....there were a lot of tears ... cops know how to do funerals... unfortunately....the doves, the riderless horse, the missing man formation..the 21 gun salute, the honor guard,. the formality, the folded flag presented to the grieving parents... and spouse.. and in this case... the spouse of Spree De Sha was also  a 'she' .. or perhaps the correct term is 'life partner.''. and the great thing was.. it didnt matter.  The fact that an openly gay officer , and her partner, also an LAPD officer, was laid to rest with full honors as she should be and her sexual orientation just a fact along w/ her age and her years of service is a remarkable occurence in this organization.  As my colleage Tony Valdez put it while we were discussing this, the LAPD  , 'had to be dragged kicking and screaming'' down the road to gay rights and equality.   Not unlike many other macho organizations.. acceptance of gays in the ranks came w/ a considerable amount of , blood and tears and lawsuits ....I think of former LAPD cop Mitch Grobeson who may still be battling various appeals of his landmark fight against the LAPD for all i know... of the days when gay cops or cops even suspected of being gay would roll on calls and suddenly find themselve with no backup.  So when an LAPD Deputy Chief presents a flag and hugs the 'life partner ' of a late officer and no one blinks an eye.. that my friends is real progress.  I hope no neanderthals in the ranks were rolling their eyes. if they were, they need a vacation.. a permanent one. it's 2008. 

I wouldn't necessarily call him my 'friend' but i've become close with Brad Burlingame over the years.  We first me in 2005 in an '' anniversary'' story for 9/11.  Brad, who is the Pres. of the West Hollywood Visitors and Convention Bureau, is an outgoing smiling type who's world was shattered when the brother he idolized, "Chic'' died.. Chic was the pilot of United flight 77, which hit the granite walls of the  Pentagon at 500 miles per hour carrying 5000 gallons of jet fuel and 63 other people.  What's remarkable about Brad is how well he's dealt with this tragedy... in terms of being able to speak about what it meant to him and so many others.. and why we must never let down our guard.. and what kind of threat we continue to face.  

Many others are weary of the media and our  annual stories where relatives of victims vent...... and i totally understand that.. but Brad feels his brother would want him to speak out and continue to warn people to stay vigilant and stay strong.. and not just once  year.  He reminds us that there are people who don't like our freedom and way of life... and would love to hit us again... it's cold but it's true...  that's the bottom line.... and that's why Brad is doing his brother and 3000 others proud by carrying the flag, so to speak, loudly and clearly

 This year I made another visit to Brad's office... which  still contains a lot of momentos of his and his brothers lives... you can tell they had a lot of fun... Behind the LA County Museum of art is a grove of trees dedicated to United 77's crew... Brad helped get that planted .... and in North Hollywood Park.. the name '' Burlingame'' is one of many victims names inscribed on a stone monument amidst hundreds of trees planted there in honor of 9/11's California victims..   Brad isn' t  defined by 9/11, but he doesn't shy away from talking about it.. the loss.. and the warnings

( P.S)... in another tragic postcript.. Chic's adult daughter, and only child, died a year ago in an accidental apartment fire in NY . 
 

Had the opportunity to cover Maxine Waters call for a federal investigation into the Inglewood PD after their latest shooting. Say what you will about her, she can work a crowd and she is wildly popular among her constituents... It may be the Inglewood PD is mismanaged and populated by a larger percentage of incompetent trigger happy cops than other departments. It may also be that it's just a really really bad streak of incidents and that fate put that same cop Regan at the scene of two shootings in a few months.. ( statistically almost impossible.. most cops go thru their whole career and never even draw their gun).  At any rate, i'm all for finding out the truth, or as close to it as you can ever get in those situations.  Remember the inglewood cops that bounced the poor teenager off their car hood and got away with it claiming the ''testicle defense "... couldnt get a conviction.. at least the DA had the ____ to try.  Here, who knows what exactly happened that nite.. it sounds bad... guy answers door with a gun in his hand. guy gets shot.  Normally end of story.  However..not with that cops recent history..... (note that  none of the other cops fired)... this guy Regan recently shot an unarmed person...   Yes hindsight is 20 ==20 and a cops first job, to be blunt about it, is to go home to his wife and kids at the end of their shift... but........ Yes.. we  give them a badge and a gun and expect them to be perfect.... it's not easy.. but we have to hold them to a higher standard..... we need them to do the job the right way... protect us, and protect themselves... most do. ... but of course, ultimately nobody is perfect.. it's just that  a cops mistake can leave people dead. 

I covered the sentencing for convicted Metrolink mass murderer Juan Alvarez in Criminal Courts. if you've never been to a trial or a verdict or a sentencing... you should go.... in case you didnt realize it, the courts are open to the public.... talk about drama... reality... emotion.  At any rate, the guy got life w/o parole rather than death.. which was a headline. But.. what didnt get reported very much, beyond the excellent Tony Castro of the Daily News.. is that according to three of the jurors who were brave enough to talk to the news media after it was over, they didn't believe Alvarez actually intended to kill anyone that morning.. rather, they thought he was just trying to create a spectacle.  Essentially they bought into the defense's theories.. even sympathizing w/ Alvarez's troubled upbringing. In fact, were it not for a legal technicality called the  "felony murder rule " they wouldn't have even convicted him of 1st degree murder and he would not have been eligible for the death penalty and would've been able to get parole at some theoretical point in the future.  The technicality was this.. in simple terms... because he was also found guilty of a felony... arson.. and in doing so people died.. he must automatically be found guilty of first degree murder.  I'm not a lawyer so if i'm not quite precise on this feel free to correct me.. but that's the deal... Jurors wouldve convicted him of the lesser crime of 2nd degree murder.. but they correctly followed the law and the judge's instructions which in essence required them to convict on 1st degree.   At any rate, after all that, to talk w/ the victims relatives who were hoping for the death penalty was quite interesting....they wanted Alvarez to die... can you blame them ?   Though to be honest, getting ''death'' in California really means life.. as there are no current death sentences even scheduled due to a dispute over lethal injections... and there are some 680 people on death row right now !

    On a side note, i happened to be sitting in the courtroom next to Deputy DA Alan Jackson and his boss Pat Dixon who you may recall prosecuted Phil Spector to a hung jury ( ridiculous) and will soon be trying them again. Yes even veteran prosecutors want to be in court for the big moments even though they've lived through enough of their own.  I couldn't help but wonder what Spectors money and attorneys would have been able to manufacture if they had Alvarez for a client.  His public defenders didnt do half bad w/ what they had.

Spent a morning with a task force of cops from federal state and local agencies.... out on a sweep looking for people with outstanding warrants  . business is good. there are ''only'' two million folks like that out there in the u.s. of a.     I came away from it with the impression, cultivated over many years and confirmed.. that most cops.. the vast vast majority of cops...want to do one thing.... PUT BAD GUYS IN JAIL.  it really doesn't  matter if they're white, brown, black, green, or purple.... man or woman .... young or old... If you're a criminal, they'd love to put you in jail.. legally.... If. say.. you''re walking down the street,  you happen to be an illegal immigrant and you're minding your own business and earning a living or whatever, you're not likely to get hassled... but if you happen to say...shoot someone ... rob someone... you're going to jail,  whether you were born here , there , or anywhere... 

Before you tell me how naive i am, i'm not.   I 'm watching a story on the news now that the la times broke about cops allegedly lying to put someone away in a drug deal. believe me i understand they aint all angels out there.. i've been in la. since '83 and have see it all along w/ the rest of you.... i've even been arrested  a couple of times myself and it's not a lot of fun.... having said that, again, my point is that the majority of cops want to do the right thing and keep the streets safe for my wife and kids and yours.  You got a problem with that ?

Controversy.... that's another word for '' offshore drilling'... The prez says we need to increase domestic oil production cause gas is like 9 dollars an ounce.   ... so now the argument begins again... should we sink new wells and explore like miles off shore which we'll never see,  and run the risk of an oil spill like the one in 1969... ( 30 years ago !  that's all you got for me ???)... well.. it's tough to argue against protecting the environment... and keeping beaches clean.. and fowl from becoming fouled... we're all for that.... on the other hand, should we do nothing and continue to help assorted  saudi princes buy more yachts and planes and countries ?   probably not... no easy answers... Opponents of any new energy source are formidable... case in point.. long beach's now aborted plans to build an in -port liquified natural gas terminal.   opponents raised the spector of a new terrorist target, of the risk to population, etc etc... and arguments that say, there were already enough oil tanks and other terrorist targets in the highly industrialized long beach port to create a major disaster  were not effective.  result.. no lng... 
 Any new oil drilling will require congressional approval and that  will no doubt be tied up in lawsuits if and when that permission is granted.. and i'll have great grand children by the time any oil flows off the coast of california.. or , more accurately, any new oil... oil is drilled off the coast every day, you can see the platforms off the 101 on the way up north..... an untold # of leases exist with existing permission to drill that have not yet been tapped. the prez hasn't discussed that aspect of the controversy..... and the question of 'what are they waiting for '' is an excellent and still unanswered one...... So..... folks on both sides are well meaning and make strong arguments.... but the betting here is that the ''no '' votes will ultimately triumph... in particular if barack is the new man in the white house.. that's a no brainer.  meantime, we continue to pay a small fortune for gas with no realistic alternative in the short term except not driving as much or at all.... or as far.. or as fast..... .. in covering this story about lifting the 27 yr old federal ban on offshore drilling, at a gas station today in santa barbara, it was instructive the the ''person on the street'  interviews in reaction to the prez's proposal yielded a ''yes'' from a woman who could only afford to put 25 dollars in her block long suv... and a ''no'' drill vote from a young man who was literally putting 2 gallons of gas in his small car.  so.. no easy answers.. if there were, any one could figure it out and we wouldnt be in this mess... meantime, while oil companies are making profits even larry flynt would consider obscene, as how long is that waiting list for the prius ? and figure out where you can pump up your bike tires....  later.

To reinforce what my friend and fellow reporter Al Naipo wrote... last nite I had the remarkable good fortune of attending and reporting on the 8th annual Holocaust remembrance event at Chapman University in Orange, which is a gem of a school in a most unlikely but charming setting.  There were literally some 100 survivors of the Nazis there.. it was just overwhelming to hear about their experiences and the horrors they witnessed and overcame.  One man was among a brave few in the Warsaw Uprising who held off hundreds of trained German soldiers for days with nothing.  Another, now ''only'' 78  was the youngest of the famed ''Schindler's list " group... Schindler managed to get him a factory job when he was only 13 when most young people were immediately exterminated... that man was extremely fortunate in that his parents and other siblings were also spared due to Schindler and he went on to have a long career as a teacher in the LAUSD.  Another man, in his 80's immediately broke down and wept telling me that he lost 70 members of his extended family.  Another, 91, told me that if he survived he'd dedicate his life to preserving Jewish tradition and has funded Univesities in Israel.   I mean these memories are as raw and real as yesterday...... So... the reason i bring this up, because we've heard these terrible stories before, is that it's a reminder to stop and think about your supposed 'problems' and keep things in perspective.  This was only 60 years ago.... these folks are still with us, as are their children and grandchildren,  they can appreciate what it's like to live in America free ( mostly ) of persecution , and they're a powerful reminder of the worst and also the best of humanity. 

White Rolls Royce.... Range Rover... Mercedes... Lamborghini ( orange ? ) ... another Rolls...( black...)    Bentley... Mercedes... Lexus ( get that out of there ).... Navigator... Mercedes... Bentley .... Escalade... Bentley... Mercedes.... Navigator... Jag..... you get the idea.. no it's not the LA Auto Show.. it's the LA Lakers auto show.. specifically the valet parking area outside Staples after a Lakers game... it's an ostentatious unbelievable display of automotive excess and conspicous consumption.... as one obvious tourist said '' it's LA baby"... So for all of those worried about 4 dollar a galloon gas, the housing crunch, the scarcity of rice, the declining economy, the election, health care, child care, education.... paying for more cops... etc etc.... rest assured.. there are PLENTY of really really rich folks in LA who could care less as long as they get their front row seats and their cars back from valet parking QUICKLY.    Enjoy the show.. it's free.. and appearing every nite at a Lakers home game near you.  As for the Clippers crowd..... well.....  
(( p.s. I recognized a lot of those rich folks.. and i dont really really think they don't care. completely.. i know they give money to good causes... also , Jerry Buss, who has his own brand new black Rolls the size of Montana, was escorted to his car by some young babe ( surprise) and like 4 aides... He climbed into the right front passenger seat ! and pulled away slowly.  His vanity license plate read 9Xchamps   .. which means he got this like 5 championships ago... or didnt count Milwaukee ? i havent researched it yet... anyway,,, nice wheels but the Doctor was moving mightly slow )

     This is about gangs.. or more specifically how to 'get rid' of them.   Forests have been sacrificed to writings on this subject, however, that shouldnt stop us from trying to contribute.  "Gangs" are hot right now, to be cynical, because of some high profile gang murders and Mayor V's budget , but that's cyclical.  ( Not of course, to the families and friends of the dead)  .  Much has been made of late of the need to spend money on the programs that work, which would be a lot easier if we could figure out which programs work  . Having said that, i'm thinking that the key to all this is basically two words... education and jobs.  Again, not radical concepts.  But in spending a long nite w/ some honest to goodness gang bangers... past and present, tough and not so tough, and hearing their stories,  it was crystal clear to me that if we offered a way to see them thru school, and a guaranteed job with health benefits in exchange for saying good bye to their local clique... we'd be a long way down the road towards ridding ourselves of the gang violence that is bred by turf wars, the drug trade, and macho posturing.  Father Greg Boyle has been proving this for years .  and dont even start in about another whiny liberal in the media who wants to provide babysitting services for gang bangers...

       Now this is of course way too simplistic.  There is a small percentage of gang bangers who are hard core criminals and to them I say lock em up and throw away the key, and if they happen to have something worse happen to em along the way i will shed no tear, but they didn't get that way overnite.   

    So, how do we do this.. hmmmm  let's see... money..?  that's the key, as always... and we aint got enough, right ?  Well, it's a question of priorities.  The last LAPD budget in round numbers i believe is a billion dollars... The amount of money the city of LA spends on intervention and prevention is about 20 million.. you do the math..... and we aren't even talking about LA County yet.... So that's why community leaders and politicians who have the courage to be ''non P.C.'' say that much of the talk about fighting gangs is lip service cause we ain't putting the cash on the line to fund the programs that can make a difference...,and if someone like Janice Hahn proposes a 'parcel tax " to specifically fund anti gang programs, everyone criticizes her for wanted to raise taxes....  but she and many others have been to the funerals and also been to the intervention and prevention programs that make a difference.... so the basic concept is 'put up or shut up' and continue to live in violence and fear and tragedy and another generation or two of gang bangers lives are wasted when  they should be able to  say '' i want help'' and get it.

    It's tough to not want to watch the news when you do the news.... yet I understand and often sympathize with people out on the street when I ask them what news they watch and they say  " I don't.... it's depressing, it's scary''.  I hear ya. it is, but ,  sometimes it's uplifting too and even fun and ecuational,  but you gotta watch closely to get that.   Just this morning while getting ready for work i've got Good Day LA on and I see Suzanne Marques w/ the shooting of a man on the 101 freeway in the Valley, .. Sherman Oaks!!! Wow.. even white people might start getting scared at this point..... What ? oh .. a relief in this his death might be an unfortunate and bizarre suicide in an apparent reaction to his girlfriends suicide the day before. .. then Bob De Castro's in Glendale w/ a police gun battle there... in Santa Ana a man and an off duty cop apparently exchange gunfire.... This isn't even the ''gang'' violence that we've become almost numb too while proclaiming outrage.  So... as Gigi wrote in another post.. things seem crazy lately..crazier than usual. Is it because we're in such a big area that there's always something violent and bad going on ? Would we have this in Bar Harbor Maine? Probably not... but that's small consolation. This is our home, where we're raising our kids,  and when it's a disaster zone, we don't like it....but do we do anything about it ? Volunteer ? TEach ? Mentor ? Join the Neighborhood Council ? Write a letter ?  Who are are heroes that will help once and for all to get rid of the guns and the gangs and the crime and restore the pride we should feel in living in one of the most beautiful and diverse places in the world?   Maybe it's easier just to fight traffic alone in your car... get home, and lock the door.

 Sitting in traffic on my home away from home, the 405 , listening to radio news... and hear the state's likely laying off thousands of teachers due to our alleged budget crunch.. i'm thinking.. what kind of country do we live in when we're spending a    BILLION  and change per month in Iraq for very dubious reasons while we lay off teachers ?  Don't get me started. 

Have we no shame ? I'm flipping around the channels and I see Larry King the Ancient and a guest named Jason Itzler.. the second line under his name is " Ashley's Pimp".. as in Ashley the hooker that cost Spitzer his job... He's on national TV talking about it like it's the best thing on his resume.. which it probably is. .... . I'm thinking his mother must be so proud " My son's on national TV... !!!! ...But he's a pimp... !  Oh.. but he's on national TV !!!!   Last time I checked... being a pimp is still illegal in this country ?   He's on TV talking about it ? Is he retired ? Has the statue of limitations run out ?   And we have to have  Dr. Laura, who has her own issues believe me.. come on and chastise Larry for having the pimp on and treating him like he's some honored distinguished guest.  I'm not sure Larry got the point.. I"m not sure Larry has a pulse. THAT'S  a job I would love to try.    Later