More Mellow Mayor? Not Likely!
Our young jailer/mayor has his mug all over the Daily Pilot again today. In a piece by Alicia Robinson he is quoted as saying he doesn't plan to go further with his ill-advised ICE proposal since that agency has placed an agent in the Costa Mesa jail. He didn't say he would rescind the motion made a year ago that started this whole mess, though.
I agree with an accompanying editorial in the Daily Pilot expressing the need for our city leaders to divulge the number of alien criminals identified by the ICE agent, and their disposition. One way or the other, this is still a very tender issue throughout the community and the public deserves to be informed.
According to the article, Mansoor apparently isn't in a very conciliatory mood when it comes to the minority on the City Council. And, he dismisses criticism that he is "unfriendly" to the city's Latino community and blames ill feelings on those who fought his immigration plan - like me, I guess.
It doesn't surprise me that Mansoor doesn't plan to establish a better working relationship with the minority on the council now. I watched him at the last council meeting and at the recent study session during which the City Manager proposed some techniques to re-establish harmony on the dais. Mansoor isn't buying it. Now that he has an unshakable majority again, he doesn't have to worry about harmony. He's going to do what he wants, period!
I know some of you who read this blog disagree with my assessment. That's fine. Let's just wait a little while and see who ends up being right. Honestly, I hope you are, because if Mansoor continues on the trail he's been following for the past couple years it doesn't bode well for the city. I hope he has a change of heart and decides to include the minority views expressed by other council members during the deliberations of important issues.
However, since he was looking for ways to institutionalize the quashing of debate during the last study session, I don't think it's likely that he will change for the better. Quite the contrary, I think he will become even more tyrannical.
By the way, still no comment from our young jailer/mayor regarding the arrest of 20 people at seventeen locations in Costa Mesa during the sweep of alleged white supremacists throughout Orange County. Curious silence from a guy who says he's a real crime fighter. How do we explain this silence? I'll leave it to you to contemplate.
Well, that should put you in the old Christmas spirit. Sorry about that, but that's the way it looks from my little perch these days.
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 12/17/2006 11:10:00 PM
2 Comments:
I explain his silence the same way I explain his silence on the number of illegals caught so far in our jail. He has not been made aware of all the details and he has not been asked by the press. Our mayor does his homework first, he is not a microphone jumper like Foley who most of the time puts her foot in her mouth. What is YOUR hurry for a response? Chomping at the bit to criticize whatever he says?
"6"...
It's not so much that I'm in a hurry to get his response, it's the fact that he has been invisible on the issue. In recent months he threw himself in front of the press whenever a crime was committed by supposed illegal aliens. He jumped up on his campaign soapbox to declare he was going to offer a reward before "doing his homework" and realizing that offering such a reward was already within the purview of the Chief of Police. His boneheaded comments following the murder of Israel Maciel was a low-water mark, even for him.
I expect more from my mayor, and especially so when he's a sworn law enforcement officer, to boot. I expect him to be even-handed on the issue of crime. The sweeps by various Orange County law enforcement agencies rounding up white supremacists was big news and even more so in Costa Mesa, where more than a third of those arrested were snatched up. I think it's very curiously inconsistent on the part of the mayor to raise such a ruckus over crimes by assumed Latinos and virtually ignore this event. In my view, it cannot be simply explained away by saying he wanted to "do his homework" since that's not stopped him in the past.
As far as me "chomping at the bit" to criticize the mayor, that's not a problem. History has demonstrated that he will provide ample opportunity for criticism. One only has to watch him in action - he will provide the opportunities.
In the meantime, you Mansoor apologists just keep on writing. I enjoy reading your views, predictable as they might be.
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