"Another Soulvine Thursday" via South L.A. Columnist Betty Pleasant

Longtime South L.A. Wave Newspaper Columnist Betty Pleasant and her "little short guy" City Council President Herb "Mini Amin" Wesson. CD 10's "newest power couple".

Blogger's notes: Pardon us for being tardy with our regular Thursday feature on the musings of the lover of "little short guys" who become City Council Presidents/ dictators. In outreaching to those who "jones" for their weekly dose of the Soulvine, we reach back to bring you Betty in her best "bash Parks" persona (even after asking for free USC tickets from the CD 8 City Councilman)---Scott Johnson.

Betty and Mayor Villaraigosa find common ground:

ON THE PARKS FRONT — Councilman Bernard Parks issued two pitiful documents since we last spoke, but I will only comment on one today. He issued a press release in which he abruptly stopped blaming Council PresidentHerb Wesson for making him unhappy about the redistricting of his 8th District, and put the blame squarely on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whom he charged with having launched “a racially motivated assault on South Los Angeles” with the new district maps. Parks wrote: “It’s ironic that the mayor, who enjoyed 55 percent of the African-American vote to get elected is now working through his appointed commissioners to disenfranchise African-American voters...blah blah blah.”

Now you know that I am not, by any means, an apologist for the mayor, but this particular Parks rant makes me wonder: When did Parks become Black? He certainly wasn’t Black when he was police chief. Remember how, back then, apart from outright police brutality, the biggest problem facing Black people in Los Angeles was racial profiling by the LAPD? When Black drivers and pedestrians — rich ones and poor ones — were stopped anywhere at anytime by Parks’ cops for no reason other than the color of their skin?

Betty has some kind thoughts about District Attorney Candidate Carmen Trutanich:

Trutanich has zero integrity; his word, pledge and promise mean nothing. He will obviously say anything to get what he wants. Do we need or even want a district attorney like that? Steve Cooley is bad enough, but Trutanich would be worse. When Cooley told the Black Journalists Association he would eschew politics and pursue justice in the county in a fair and even-handed manner, he lied. But we didn’t know he lied until after he was elected. But Trutanich is saying, “Yeah, I lied, but elect me anyhow. I’m better than anybody else.” No. In fact, everybody who’s running for D.A. is better than Trutanich because they’re not in-your-face liars. How can the county of Los Angeles’ chief arbiter of law and order and primary procurer of justice be an unabashed liar? We won’t be able to believe a word he says nor rely on any agreement he makes.

Betty takes exception to Parks ........ again:

Councilman Bernard Parks has been on such an unprecedented hysterical, maniacal rampage this week in an effort to maintain the current boundaries of his 8th Council District that I and several other people have actually voiced concern for the physical safety of Council President Herb Wesson. For the past 10 days, Parks has responded to the Redistricting Committee’s early drafts of new council district boundaries with escalating public attacks on Wesson and outlandish assertions as to Wesson’s and the committee’s motives behind the proposed changes to the 8th District. In his frenzy, Parks has communicated more with his constituents over redistricting than he’s communicated with them about anything in the past, and he’s saying stuff — verbally and in writing — that a person of sound mental hygiene would not.

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14