Saturday 21 December 2019

Idolizing, Vocalizing, Chastising and Proselytizing - 1/10/2006


Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Idolizing, Vocalizing, Chastising and Proselytizing
Mayor Allan Mansoor's plan to train Costa Mesa police officers for immigration interviewing continues to boil. Our young jailer/mayor continues to lift his profile as he finds himself all over the media these days. The Minuteman Project founder and many of it's functionaries have made him the poster boy for their get-tough-on-immigrants stand. So enamored are they with him that I half-expect some of the Minuteladies to offer to bear his children!

I recently had a chance to view a video of a portion of the council meeting January 3rd that was shot by a spectator in the audience that night. This five minute segment showed the speech by the young man who was subsequently cut off short of his allotted time and removed from the chambers by the police and arrested. The segment clearly showed that the police used significant restraint dealing with him - until the situation appeared to be getting out of control. At that point Chief Hensley, wisely, instructed his men to remove the young man from the chambers. The city feed stopped when he was told to stand down from the podium. The video I watched continued, to show what happened later. After the young man was dragged from the chambers, his supporters became an angry, unruly mob, shouting at the police and council members. One young woman sang "We Shall Overcome" with passion and conviction, and was later "sung down" by a resident who belted out his in-your-face version of "God Bless America" at the top of his lungs. He needs to keep his day job. As decorum broke down, Westside activists could be seen and heard on the tape chuckling among themselves. After that raucous display, it's easy to understand why it took more than a half hour to reconvene the meeting.

Costa Mesa resident, Latino activist, college professor and former Daily Pilot columnist Humberto Caspa appeared on the local Al Rantel radio program on January 9th to talk about this issue. As hard as Caspa tried, Rantel wouldn't let him present his message his way, which was not unexpected. As a result, Caspa was verbally flogged mercilessly by Rantel and, later, by callers to the program. One caller, for example, commented that it looked like the Cal State University system was picking up their professors from the parking lot at Home Depot - a clever, but totally inappropriate characterization. But, then, that's what you hear from some of the screamers on talk radio these days.

Also on the 9th, during the Planning Commission meeting, commissioner Jim Fisler jumped up on his soapbox and tried to convince his fellow commissioners to issue a proclamation supporting the recent decision by the city council regarding immigration interviewing. Fortunately, the representative from the City Attorney's office kicked the box out from under him by reminding him that such a proclamation is appropriately the venue of the city council, and that the Planning Commission is charged with land use decisions, period. Some may recall that Fisler was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Commission by ousted incompetent councilman Chris Steel. The Planning Commission was his next step up the political ladder, when he was appointed to that body by his Westside pals last year. Now we hear it is likely that he will be candidate for a council seat in November. It looks to me like he's climbing on the brown bodies of Westside immigrants to get a toe-hold for his campaign. I guess we can look forward to similar such grandstanding by some potential City Council candidates as we progress to the November elections. Fortunately, not all potential candidates find it necessary to fan the flames on this issue, apparently choosing instead to let others spout rhetoric like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist".

As we move along toward the campaign season I imagine there will be opportunities to point out accomplishments, or lack thereof, by potential candidates. There's plenty of time for each of you to watch them in action and form some valid opinions about their qualifications and competence. I'll try to help with that process when I can. It's going to be an interesting year.
9:59 pm pst

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