THE WRONG BLOGGER IS LEAVING TOWN

ADIOS, NOT FOOLYA
We bid a fond adieu to our fellow blogger, Not Foolya. His two sites, Goat Hill Harper and Bizarro Tolip have been interesting reads. He tells me that "Fortune has it that me and mine are to exit Costa Mesa". I wish him well, where ever he lands, and hope he will find the time to read about the events swirling around his old digs and comment when he feels so moved.

Speaking of which...

KNEE-JERK REACTION BY MR. U. KNOW-WHO
Our old nemesis, the blogger who calls himself Mr. U. Know-Who, has responded to the recent decision by the Newport Beach City Council to move forward with the annexation of the Santa Ana Country Club and nearby neighborhoods, HERE.

Following his comments bemoaning the loss of "upwardly mobile citizens", he goes on to create a laundry list of things he feels the current council have not been aggressive enough in pursuing. It's important that we pay attention to this guy because the council majority does. Like a much-less-rhythmic Barry Manilow, he writes the songs for them to sing. He scripts their actions and uses the threat of non-support - as he did by taking credit for getting perpetually inept Chris Steel un-elected a few years ago - as a billy club with which he bats them around when he's ticked off at them.


EMINENT DOMAIN?
In his epistle, Number 1 of the eight items on his list - and probably closest to his heart - is this instruction to the council:

"1 - Work much harder to put homes on our view bluffs to attract upwardly mobile people back to Costa Mesa. If surgical eminent domain is needed, so be it. Get the job done!"

Did you get that phrase, "surgical eminent domain"? You will recall that I've consistently warned you about this from the very beginning, when the so-called "improvers" began to flex their muscles after Eric Bever took his seat on the dais. If Mr. U. Know-Who is writing the words you can darn bet that it won't be long until one or more of the majority on the council will echo it. Every member of the council has consistently said they are against eminent domain... we'll see.

READING BETWEEN HIS LINES
This character has in the past called for bulldozing what he refers to as, "barracks-style apartments", which he thinks are havens for gangsters and other miscreants. He's not fooling anyone - he means those Latinos in our midst.

THE DIMWITS AMONG US
Further on in his little rant he says:

"7. Stop listening to the anti-American haters, brown racists and assorted dimwits with small brains and big mouths and start listening to citizens who want Costa Mesa to be a first class American city, not a Third World slum."

It's clear to me that this guy means anyone who doesn't agree with his white supremacist rants and his plans for the expulsion of all brown skins from our city. I suppose he's including me as one of those "assorted dimwits with small brains and big mouths", which is just fine with me. I view things in this city very differently than he does. I view it through the prism of what is best for all residents, business owners and stakeholders in this city. It's clear from his actions and public pronouncements that his goal is to satisfy only the wishes of a very small minority. Many of those who follow his mantra obviously share his intolerance for anyone who is not white.

LEST YOU DOUBT ME
Do me a favor. I know it's asking a lot, considering the subject matter, but please read the following excerpt from his recent essay published on the New Nation News web site entitled, "Our Identity Comes From Our Genes":

"Race is not evil. It is to humans what breed is to dogs. It is nature's way. It is a step along the path to differentiation from others and to eventual specieshood. Blending back in by mixing unlike chromosomes is a folding of humans back into the undifferentiated mass. This is just the opposite of evolution. Evolution is a distillation from out of the mass. It always has been that way and it always will be that way. Humans need to face that fact and use it to their advantage. And to do this, they must not deny race and genes and human differences or try to overcome them to become Tan Everymen. They must seek to be unblended so that evolution can work and they must seek those qualities and characteristics in mates that will move them forward, via their children, on the path that goes to ever higher consciousness."

If that sounds vaguely familiar, just harken back to Germany in the late 1930s when a funny looking little guy with a tiny little mustache and a big mouth began preaching exactly the same thing - the purity of the Aryan race. Is this really the philosophy you want guiding our city?

BRIGHT ISN'T NECESSARILY RIGHT
Most people I know who pay attention to things in this city acknowledge that Mr. U. Know-Who is a smart guy - maybe the smartest guy in the room at any one time. With absolutely no sign of humility, he waves his alleged Mensa membership around like a battle flag. However, being smart doesn't necessarily mean he's right. As I've said in the past many times, his prodigious intellect is wasted on his vile, vicious racist rants that are published on the internet for the world to see. Never has this been more true than his most recent anti-Barack Obama publications on his blog and other sites. I'm not an Obama supporter, but Mr. U. Know-Who's comments about him are incendiary, to say the least. You may take a deep breath, hold your nose and read two recent essays HERE and HERE.

WATCH HIS CHOICES
As we move forward in this next election cycle I'm sure he will, as has been his practice in past elections, strongly express his views about candidates. Since he's been berating the current majority and, based on several years of written and verbal comments, appears to hate Katrina Foley's innards, it will be very interesting to see which candidates he will be supporting - who he thinks he can manipulate once in office.

DON'T FORGET HIS GOAL
Through the smoke screen Mr. U. Know-Who throws up about "making Costa Mesa a nicer place to live", remember what that means to him. It doesn't mean simply fixing potholes, which he has brushed aside as meaningless. The litany of things he has espoused to "make Costa Mesa better" - whether it's closing the Job Center, displacing the Westside charities, dislodging the industrial business on the Westside, to be replaced by upscale homes, the disbanding of the Human Relations Committee or his attempt to shut down the Orange Coast College Swap Meet - all have a common thread. That thread is the discomfort and dislocation of the Latino population in our city.

ARE THEY ALL RACISTS?
Do I believe every person who is moved by his rhetoric is necessarily a racist? Of course not! I do firmly believe, though, that there are more than a few folks in this town who follow his drumbeat of intolerance but ignore his real goal because they are uncomfortable with the changing demographic in our city. Many of those jumped on the Allan Mansoor/Wendy Leece anti-immigrant band wagon in 2006 because they apparently believed what they were being told - that the Latinos among us as the root of all evil in our city. The flames of that intolerance were fanned furiously by Mr. U. Know-Who and his small cadre of sycophants.

THE WRONG BLOGGER IS LEAVING
While Not Foolya and I disagreed on many issues, I'm sorry to see him leave town. However, given Mr. U. Know-Who's obvious unhappiness with Costa Mesa, I'm thinking HE might be a whole lot happier elsewhere. Instead of spending all his energy trying to turn our city into a throwback from the mid-1950s deep south, perhaps he could just find a place with his intolerant philosophy already in place - somewhere in northern Idaho, for example. I'll provide him with a road map out of town...

Newport Affirms City Hall In Park, Spits in Costa Mesa's Eye. Caspa Pokes Other Eye With Stick

The big news in the Newport-Mesa area last night came out of the Newport Beach City Council meeting.

NEWPORT BEACH COUNCIL AFFIRMS CITY HALL IN THE PARK
As reported by Briana Bailey in the Daily Pilot, HERE, the council voted unanimously to support the will of the people and move forward to build the new City Hall on that 12+ acre parcel adjacent to the Main Library. Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the shrub-huggers, this was a good decision - one that made sense from so many standpoints that it was hard to see how any reasonable person could have opposed it. However, as we have seen over the past couple years, passion and reason are not usually found snuggled up together. The only remaining clinker in this scenario is activist Allan Beek's lawsuit. Hopefully, the well-intentioned Beek will see the light and drop the suit and save the city from having to spend some much-needed money on it. We'll see.

COUNCIL THUMBS NOSE AT COSTA MESA
All was not goodness and light, though. Bailey reports that the council, with a 6-1 vote, chose to ignore the recommendation of their City Manager, Homer Bludau, and decided to move forward with the annexation of the Santa Ana Country Club and some adjacent residential areas. By ignoring Bludau's advice, made quite clear in the last few days in an article by Bailey, HERE, the Newport Beach City Council effectively thumbed their collective noses at the Costa Mesa City Council at a time when it has appeared that there had been progress made in the relationship between the two bodies recently. I fear this new harmony has been blown out of the water.

BYRON'S WRONG, BUT HE'S RIGHT, TOO
My pal, Byron de Arakal, in his column that appears on the pages of the Daily Pilot this morning, HERE, was assuming too much when he projected a wiser vote in Newport last night. You can't really blame him, though. Bludau's recommendation was the right way to go. The council simply ignored it. The title applied to Byron's column by the editors, "Annexation to worsen Newport-Mesa rift", got it right. Even though Byron's assumption of the outcome was wrong, he nails the reasons why there must be harmony between the leaders of our two cities. There are just too many regional issues - Banning Ranch, John Wayne Airport Expansion, the 55 Freeway extension - that will require close cooperation between our two cities if there is to be any progress made on them.

LOOKING FOR STATESMEN
Having watched the Costa Mesa City Council majority in action for some time, I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to look for some way to get even with their counterparts in Newport Beach. That, of course, would be small-minded and petty - but not entirely unexpected of them. It's time for them to shake off this loss and get focused on the other battles to be fought on our behalf. I know it's almost too much to ask, but I'm looking for some glimmer of statesmanship - the maturity to move forward on important issues. In a campaign year, when our mayor is running for re-election and the "improvers" look to solidify their stranglehold on our city government, that seems like an unrealistic hope. We'll see.

HUMBERTO CASPA ADDS SALT TO THE WOUND
And then, in an unfortunate bit of timing, the Daily Pilot published a commentary by former columnist Humberto Caspa, HERE, that is guaranteed to pour salt in the wounds opened by the Newport Beach City Council's annexation vote. Caspa, long a critic of the current majority, and Allan Mansoor in particular, attempts to outline the path to power taken by Mansoor on his way to becoming an international media star who made our city a metaphor for anti-Latino actions. Yep, I can see a rebuttal being pounded out by Mansoor any time now.

Naghavi Promoted and Civil War Coming?

Amidst all the political rhetoric smothering us via the national media these days, and stories about Barack Obama dressing as Osama bin Ladin and Hillary wearing her bumblebee suit, some interesting things are happening in our neck of the woods that require comment.

NAGHAVI PROMOTED
First, the City of Costa Mesa announced the appointment of Transportation Manager, Peter Naghavi, as the new Public Services Director. This is good news for the city. Naghavi has served this city with distinction for 18 years and has proven to be a skilled, hard-working, dedicated professional. The city will benefit from his selection for this new assignment. We extend our congratulations to Peter Naghavi.

CIVIL WAR TO COSTA MESA?
The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, at their meeting on Wednesday should be interesting. Two groups, the American Civil War Society and Marching Thru History Exposition, have asked to be permitted to conduct a Civil War re-enactment event at Fairview Park the first weekend of April this year. Apparently, this will involve battle re-enactments, firing of cannon and display of Civil War memorabilia.

I find it ironic that such an event would be proposed for Costa Mesa. I mean, considering the way things have been going in this city for the past couple years we've had our own little "civil war".

One wag has suggested that another blogger and I should get involved in this extravaganza. He suggests that I go as General U. S. Grant and Mr. U. Know-Who go as Robert E. Lee. I'm not so sure about that... I don't really see an Appomattox in our futures...

I find myself thinking that, considering the state of our relationship with the Latino community within our city, that it might be more appropriate to re-enact the Battle of the Alamo.

Head Lice Ain't Nice & A Green Quandary

The news today brings us some interesting issues that made me smile.

HEAD LICE AIN'T NICE
First, my Google Alert system spit an article out this morning that caught my eye and made me chuckle. Having been called a nitpicker more than once in my lifetime, I thought I'd better read on. The headline reads:

Head Lice Removal Salon Opens in Orange County, CA Offering Free Head Lice Treatments One Day Only

With the dateline Costa Mesa, CA, February 21, 2008, the article tells us that Lice Control - described as "a leading head lice removal company and clinical salon" will open their second salon on Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa. You can read the entire article HERE.

I guess those self-anointed "improvers" are right - Costa Mesa is a "lousy" city. Now they have a chance to fix it and get their first treatment free! I nominate Your Neighbor to be first in line.

While you're scratching your head about that one, here's another:

GREEN QUANDARY
Then, in keeping with the current movement in our city to Build Green, an article in the Orange County Register today seemed to be quite appropriate. The dateline is Sunnyvale, CA. The headline reads:

Neighbors wage legal fight over trees shading solar panels

It seems that Mark Vargas, a resident of Santa Clara, installed a batch of solar panels on the roof of his home. Unfortunately, trees owned by adjacent neighbors Richard Treanor and his wife, Carolyn Bissett, cast shadows on the panels. So, after six years of legal wrangling, the court ordered Treanor to cut down two of their eight redwood trees, basing the decision on what is described as an "obscure state law that protects a homeowner's right to sunlight".

According to Treanor, the Solar Shade Control Act means that homeowners can "suddenly become a criminal the day a tree grows big enough to shade a solar panel".

According to the article in question, the law requires homeowners to keep their trees or shrubs from shading more than 10 percent of a neighbor's solar panels between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun is strongest. Existing trees that cast shadows when the panels are installed are exempt, but new growth is subject to the law."

This law has the potential to make for some very strained relationships between neighbors and is certainly something to consider as Costa Mesa sprints down that Green Road.

Your Neighbor's Songbook of Intolerance

YOUR NEIGHBOR?
Costa Mesa resident, prolific writer and gadfly M.H. Millard - a man who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor - provided us with a view into his mind with his recent Mailbag contribution. ("Fix holes in city structure, not holes in the road," Feb. 20). You can read his comments HERE

GUARDED PRAISE, THEN MARCHING ORDERS
Millard begins by cautiously praising the current council majority, Eric Bever, Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece, for their efforts, then proceeds to criticize them for not doing enough to implement "structural change" in the city. He then provides them with a blueprint for that change, including reduction of industrial zoning, primarily on the Westside, removal of what he calls "barracks-style apartments", also predominantly on the Westside. He also suggests a change in the owner vs. renter ratio in Costa Mesa, which currently has 60% renter occupied housing and bemoans his perception that Costa Mesa looks more like Santa Ana than Newport Beach - literally.

CHANGING "COMPLEXION"
Millard's message, as usual, is directed specifically at the one-third of our residents of Latino ancestry - and I don't mean only those here illegally. For nearly a decade he has been leading the charge to dislocate and cause discomfort to the Latinos among us. In addition to those subjects in his current column, the closure of the Job Center, his attacks on the charities on the Westside and his attempt to have the Orange Coast College Swap Meet shut down are among the many attempts he's tried to orchestrate to expunge the Latinos from our midst. His ideas of "change" in our city are anchored in changing the "complexion" of our residents - fewer brown faces, more white ones.

INSTITUTIONALIZING INTOLERANCE
He has been trying to institutionalize intolerance in our city since the late 1990s, providing the song book for "improver" elected leaders and chiding them from the speaker's podium when they don't toe his line. It's clear that most are listening to him because they echo his comments from the dais frequently.

MANSOOR'S EXAMPLE
There may be no better example of the pervasiveness of this institutionalized intolerance than the comments uttered by former mayor, and current mayor pro tem, Allan Mansoor at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 19th.

HEAD IN THE SAND - OR WORSE!
Following the brief presentation by a representative of the Orange County Human Relations Commission - a group that tracks hate crimes and provides tolerance training throughout the county - which reported to the council recent activities in our city, Mansoor used part of his "council member comments" time to state categorically that he wasn't interested in hearing any further reports from the Commission. Apparently inflamed by unsubstantiated critical comments directed at the Commission by one Costa Mesa resident, he seemed angry that "some council member" invited them to speak. He wasn't any happier when told by the City Manager that, as a matter of practice, the Commission speaks before all city councils each year to report on instances of hate crimes in each city. Mansoor said that he won't support further reports to the city by the Commission, which tells me he is either ambivalent about hate crimes in our city or, even worse, supports them.

NO SURPRISE
As distasteful as Mansoor's statement was, this is no surprise, since he led the move to unceremoniously disband the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee not too long ago, ending nearly two decades of work done to mediate conflicts between factions in our city.


HISTORY OF INTOLERANCE
For nearly a decade M. H. Millard has been the source of racially intolerant views in this city. He is an articulate, persuasive speaker who rants before the city council and other official government bodies frequently. His local web log is widely read by many elected and appointed officials.

INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE
Millard has become an influential person in our city, a fact recognized by the Daily Pilot which has named him one of its 103 most influential persons two years running. He has been an insidious activist, wheedling his way onto important committees - like the 3R Committee, where he used his influence to attempt to de-fund charities on the Westside. In 2006, when his activities on that committee became widely known, he resigned under a cloud - apparently not wanting to hamper Mansoor's re-election campaign.

HIS REPUTATION
Millard's prolific writings on far-right wing web sites have been embraced by such notorious racists as David Duke, former head of the Ku Klux Klan, who publishes and praises Millard's work on his own web site. The New Nation News web site archives hundreds of his repugnant essays written over the past decade. Millard has been tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a purveyor of hate for a decade - ever since one of his essays bemoaning the dilution of the American populace through racial interbreeding, creating what Millard referred to as "Tan Everyman", was widely denounced. I've read many of his essays - they make you want to puke.

WILLING PAWNS
I wonder how many of the residents of this city are comfortable knowing their elected leaders not only follow the drumbeat of intolerance as practiced by M. H. Millard, but seem eager to actually institutionalize the practice in our city. It's as though they've become willing pawns in Millard's plan to recreate our city into someplace found in the deep south during the middle of the last century, when intolerance was a way of life. What a sad commentary this is about our city - that we would elect leaders so easily led by the intolerant among us.

HANGING OUT WITH THE "WRONG PEOPLE"
Remember when your parents used to caution you about hanging around with "the wrong people"? They were concerned that those "wrong people" would lead you astray and get you into trouble. Someone should be warning our elected leaders similarly.

HOPE FOR ENLIGHTENMENT AND REPUDIATION
One can only hope that most voters will see through the veil of Millard's rhetoric, understand the underlying motives and repudiate them. One way to demonstrate this repudiation is at the ballot box next November.

Mansoor's Self-adoration And Deception

MANSOOR HEAPS PRAISE - ON HIMSELF
Our young jailer/former mayor, Allan Mansoor, scratched out an opinion piece for the Daily Pilot which was entitled "Improvers living up to namesake" and was published in print on Sunday, February 17th. It can be read in all it's glowing entirety HERE. After I finished reading it I feared for Mansoor's well-being. I mean, how is it possible to pat one's self on the back like that without getting at least a cramp or pulled muscle?

POLITICAL POSTURING
As you read it you'll see that Mansoor is obviously setting up Eric Bever's candidacy for re-election in November. Such obvious political posturing is laughable.

SLOGANEERING - GAG ME!
No one can deny that some good things have happened during Mansoor's tenure on the City Council. Much of that would have happened if he wasn't there - like the improvement of many of our major thoroughfares, for example. He does go to great lengths to quantify the "accomplishments" of his cadre of buddies - the self-anointed "improvers". And, it appears that he's coined Bever's new campaign slogan, "Action taken, results delivered". I suspect that in the summer we will see signs all over town in stunning red, white and blue bearing Bever's name and that little bit of political tripe.

MANSOOR'S DECEPTION
Mansoor attempts to explain the genesis of the "improver movement" by telling us that, "..there is no organized group with some type of official membership." Hogwash! Like much of what he has tried to tell the residents in this city over the years he's been an active politician, it's untrue. There have, in fact, been many official groups attempting to "improve" the city - mainly the Westside - well before he became a politician. These dated back into the late 1980s, when the Wallace Area Improvement Group was formed. In the late 1990s the Westside Improvement Association was formed, which included many current familiar names - Mike and Judi Berry, Christian and Kathleen Eric, Eleanor Egan, Paul Bunney and our very own mayor, Eric Bever.

JANICE BAILS AND WAILS
Very shortly thereafter Janice Davidson split from the group - apparently in a disagreement about it's direction - and formed Citizens for the Improvement of Costa Mesa. As part of that activity the Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens website was created, on which many activists vented about ways to improve the city, including Allan Mansoor. He, in fact, precipitated the demise of that web site when he posted an anti-homosexual entry he ripped from Focus on the Family. That got the folks from the Orange County Human Relations Commission snooping around. The site quickly shut down and the participants scurried back under their respective rocks.

WHO?
One of the most prolific posters on that site will be a name familiar to most who read these entries. He's the fellow in town, who doesn't live on the Westside, by the way, that has his own blog and has recently referred to himself as "Mr. U. Know-Who". I refer to him as "Your Neighbor". While the site was still active I logged on and had a chance to read many of the archived 6,000 posts. Some were boring, but many - especially those by Your Neighbor - were enlightening and provocative. It was my encounter with those posts that got me curious about his other writings and subsequently discovered his closet full of racist rants as published on many far, far right-wing sites throughout the World Wide Web.

MORE ORGANIZATIONS
Other organizations have also existed with the avowed intent to "improve" our city. Among them are the Latino Advisory Committee the Latino Business Council, Latino Business Network, the Coalition of Auto Repair and Service Professionals and Bob Graham's 19th To The Beach group. And this doesn't count the official, city-sponsored groups - CRAC and WROC.

CHECK THE ARCHIVES
If you wish to review some entries from the Daily Pilot archives that address the activities of these various groups you can find articles and letters to the editor HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
So, Mansoor continues to deceive the populace - there were plenty of identifiable, organized groups with membership lists and agendas in place that have, in fact, formed the nucleus of the so-called "improver movement".

THE REAL PLAN
With few exceptions, under the guise of making our city "better", the thrust of the "improvement movement" has been to harass and displace nearly a third of our population - the Latinos. The closure of the Job Center, the disbanding of the city's Human Relations Committee, the attempts to defund and dislodge charities on the Westside, the failed attempt to close down the Orange Coast College Swap Meet and the pervasive drumbeat of criticism of the impact the Latinos are having on our school system are clear examples of this Latinophobic attempt to "improve" the "look" of our city.

HE WRITES THE SONGS....
And, of course, the music and lyrics for this little opera have been written by Your Neighbor. This council majority and many other "improvers" echo his writings and comments with regularity, including in Mansoor's commentary.

CHANGE THE NAME
Yes, many good things have been accomplished in this city during Mansoor's tenure, but most of those were unanimous votes by all the council members - not just the "improvers" among them. We're going to see this kind of shameless political posturing from now until November as the "improvers" try to perpetuate their stranglehold on the city and their relentless move to "de-latinize" Costa Mesa - ironically, a city with a Latino name. Maybe we should just rename the city "Nobrownsville" and be done with it.

Mr. U. Know-Who's Vendetta Against the Daily Pilot

Human nature is interesting, don't you think?

HARD HEART
For example, there's a guy here in town - he calls himself Mr. U. Know-Who - who writes a Costa Mesa-centric blog who has a very hard place in his heart for the Daily Pilot, our newspaper of record for the Newport-Mesa area.

THE ODD COUPLE
This guy is a prolific writer, but his pontifications were absent from the pages of the Daily Pilot for a long, long time. There was a time, shortly after I first began writing to the Pilot on local issues many years ago, that the editors would amuse themselves by pairing us up as their version of The Odd Couple - placing his commentaries side-by-side with mine. That was in the days before the Daily Pilot blog, but I have no doubt that juxtapositioning would have evoked many comments from readers. Then, a couple months ago, his views began appearing once again - perhaps due to a change in management at the Pilot. Lately, though, we've not seen his words published on those pages - and have not missed them at all.

U. KNOW-WHO THROWS A FIT
I think I understand the problem. I think - my opinion, mind you - that this guy is peeved at the editors of the Daily Pilot because they recently imposed a registration requirement on those of us who wish to post comments on their articles, editorials and commentaries. This spoiled his fun because he was prolific on those internet pages - posting under several names on the same comment thread in a twisted attempt to bolster his feeble views and make it appear that his views were widely supported. He immediately began whining on his blog about the requirement to be identified. He was much more comfortable throwing stones while hiding behind a tree. Since the registration requirement the volume of posted comments has dropped off but the level of dialogue has been elevated since only those folks willing to be identified with their comments - if only by the Pilot editors - now appear.

WISHING THE DAILY PILOT ILL
Now, with the impact of the purchase of the Daily Pilot's parent company, The Tribune Companies, still unclear he's begun speculating about the future of the Pilot and it's staff. The tone of his mini-rants has been negative - apparently he's hoping for the demise of the Pilot as we know it.

CHEERING THE EXECUTIONER
It the past couple days he's published a couple blog entries, which can be read HERE and HERE, cheering on the new owner, Sam Zell, as he goes about de-constructing the beleaguered Tribune Companies and it's component parts.

BULLYING STYLE
Actually, Mr. Who's reaction doesn't surprise me at all. It's typical of his bullying style. On his blog, and in the vile internet essays he publishes at places like former KKK leader David Duke's web site, he bemoans the demise of the white race and lashes out at anyone who criticizes him. He's the same way in his dealings here in Costa Mesa - berating everyone who doesn't toe his line, including council members and commissioners that he has supported in the past.

CHUCKLES ABOUND
I can't help but chuckle as he rants and raves, particularly against the Daily Pilot. That organization is doing things right - and it stands out in the crowd among the various Tribune properties as such.



A SAD GUY
What I find curious is that Mr. Who has attempted for more than a decade to re-create Costa Mesa in the image he prefers - pure white. Of course, we all know that's not going to happen, so I wonder why he just doesn't seek happiness among folks with a common complexion someplace like Sweden or Norway. Heck, parts of Idaho might even suit him. I doubt moving is in the cards for him because is seems he's only happy when he's causing discontent in this community. What a sad, sad man.

Red-Light Violations Ignored

THE REGISTER REPORTS ON RED-LIGHT SCOFFLAWS
The Orange County Register, in a report by Jennifer Muir today, tells us that the red-light camera program as currently administered in Orange County, is an abysmal failure, with thousands of drivers who ignore the tickets having their cases dismissed while those who identified themselves faced hefty fines, driving school and possible increases in their insurance rates.

COSTA MESA LOSING BIG BUCKS
One segment jumped right off the page at me. Early in the report there is the following paragraph:
"Because of the failure to follow up, taxpayers in some cities are subsidizing the cost of the red light cameras. When the cost of paying the camera vendors is subtracted from ticket revenue, Costa Mesa appears to have lost more than $250,000 for the year ending October 2007; Laguna Woods appears to be short $22,000. And those numbers don't include the cost of city personnel."

Now, that really ticks me off!

A GOOD IDEA GONE ASTRAY
When this program was first launched I thought it was a good idea - a way to effectively cite those careless clowns among us who brazenly run red lights throughout our city. I recall thinking to myself that this is a great way to make folks much more aware of the dangers of running red lights and, hopefully, making our city a safer place in which to drive. Now we are told that, because it's too difficult to follow-up on these people, we just let them get away with it and - even more distressing - it's costing the city a quarter of a million bucks a year, to boot!

IT'S TIME FOR COUNCIL ACTION
This issue has been discussed by the Costa Mesa City Council in the past and it's time to address it again. If the scofflaws are simply thumbing their noses - or using another digit to express their disregard for the law - we need to address this issue. If the darn lights are actually costing us money maybe we should just cut our losses and get rid of them. If we don't, we'd sure better find a way to make the system work.

READ IT AND WEEP
The entire article can be found HERE. You may have to register with The Register to read it.

Costa Mesa - Bastion of Intolerance

SURPRISE!
I don't know about you, but I've passed the age when I expect the world to be full of surprises. As an old coot, I figure I've pretty much seen it all. Sometimes, though, something pops up that you just didn't expect.

HOW BELGIUM VIEWS COSTA MESA
For example, late last week I received a telephone call from a fellow who identified himself as a correspondent for Belgian Public Television, seeking some face time with me. He's based in Washington, D.C. and had an assignment to do a story on racism in America. After researching this subject a little he decided to jump on an airplane and come to Costa Mesa, California, which he perceived to be a hotbed of racism in our country! I'm not kidding - that's what he said!

Well, as you might expect, that comment rocked me back a little.

INTERVIEWING BOTH SIDES
Due to social obligations over the weekend I had to beg off any personal, on-camera interviews, but did provide him with a few names of activists on both sides of the issue who might have time for him, including one he already knew of that writes his own blog here in town. I have no idea if he made contact with any of them. His piece was supposed to air sometime this week, but I doubt if many of us have access to Belgian Public Television, so we won't be seeing the results of his handiwork - at least not first hand.

MANSOOR'S LEGACY
I'm very disappointed that our city has become internationally notorious for the perception of it's position on race, but I guess I'm not surprised. Ever since former mayor Allan Mansoor attempted to cross-designate every Costa Mesa Police officer as an immigration screener two years ago and had his face plastered all over the national media as a "brave crime fighter" our city has become the tip of the lance wielded by the far-right-wing screamers in the battle of illegal immigration in this country.

GILCHRIST'S INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE
The presence and interference of Minuteman Grand Pooba, Jim Gilchrist, and his not-so-merry band of miscreants added fuel to that fire as they paraded around our city blockading businesses and stood before our City Council professing the righteousness of Mansoor's crusade against the invading brown hoard from south of the border.

HAM-HANDED HANDLING
Mansoor's ham-handed handling of the Benito Acosta affair, which was widely reported in the local and national media and can be viewed on YouTube ad infinitum, only exacerbated the situation. Mansoor's ill-timed and insensitive comments throughout the following summer when gang violence erupted amplified the perception of our city as a bastion of hate.

THIS IS NOT NEW
I've written many times about this subject. For most of this decade I've watched as frustrated residents followed the lead of a small knot of malcontents with racist views who guided them down this dark path. I've been amazed that the anti-Latino sentiment has been so widespread and pervasive in our city. I, naively, thought the residents of this town were more tolerant and intelligent - that it would take more than the rants of an articulate racist and the cherubic smile of our young jailer/mayor to direct them down this path. I was wrong.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
I look forward and see the year ahead, which will bring yet another election, and hope the voters of this city will not be swayed by the ongoing drumbeat of intolerance. The character assassination and lies that have become far too prevalent in politics - and our local politics in particular - has already begun. The City Council election in November could end up with a super-majority - a de facto absolute majority - of self-anointed "improvers" on the dais. That, in my view, would be catastrophic for our city. It would hand our future to the forces of intolerance and forever scar our city as a place where only white people need apply. It would eliminate any check and balance in our system of governance and permit them to, literally, plow the earth where Latinos live in our city and effectively expunge them from our borders.

TYPING WITH FINGERS CROSSED
I sincerely hope that does not happen. I hope the good voters of this city finally see what's going on around them and reject and repudiate those who would perpetuate this systematic march that has made our city a metaphor for racism and intolerance.

The "Missing 33 Comments"

Much to the chagrin of some of the folks participating, on a comment thread in the Daily Pilot about the teenager fatally stabbed in the El Metate parking lot recently, the first 33 comments were inexplicably deleted from the thread. This, of course, caused some confusion and frustration on the part of the folks attempting to participate in the debabe of the issues. While we don't know for sure, it's possible these comments were dropped during the installation of the "new look" online version of the Daily Pilot.

Unfortunately, the missing comments are apparently unretrievable by the Daily Pilot staff.

A Bubbling Cauldron to the rescue! With the cooperation and permission of the editors of the Daily Pilot, the following is the complete text of the article and every comment posted through 2:30 p.m. Saturday, February 2, 2008. There are 50 comments at this point, including the "missing" 33. For any comments posted subsequently you are on your own.




Published Sunday, January 27, 2008 10:32 PM PST
Public safety
Teen fatally stabbed
Costa Mesa man arrested as a suspect, charged with criminal street gang activity. Police are still investigating the incident.

By Daniel Tedford

A 17-year-old Costa Mesa male was fatally stabbed during a fight in Costa Mesa Saturday night, according to Costa Mesa police.

The teen was pronounced dead early Sunday morning at Western Medical Center, police said.
Police believe the incident was gang-related.

Authorities have arrested Scott Santana, 23, of Costa Mesa as a suspect in the slaying of the teen whose name was not released, police said. Police are also charging Santana with criminal street gang activity. Santana was booked at Costa Mesa jail Sunday morning.

The stabbing took place at 9:15 p.m. Saturday during a fight in the parking lot of the El Metate Market, 817 W. 19th St., police said. Police responded to the call and Costa Mesa Fire Department paramedics treated the victim at the scene before transporting him to Western Medical Center, authorities said.

Santana fled the scene in a vehicle, possibly a sport utility vehicle, according to authorities. He was arrested at his residence Sunday morning. Bail for Santana has been set at $1 million.

Police did not release further information due to the pending investigation.

Reader Feedback
There are 50 comment(s) comments on this story:

Tommie Griffon wrote on Feb 1, 2008 10:19 PM:
" Rob...Would you or any other knowledgable reader mind answering my question...What exactly is a gang injunction? And what is involved in getting one? It does seem to me like things are getting out of control, and perhaps the CMPD should look into some more drastic measures. Thanks. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Feb 1, 2008 4:35 PM:
" Of course, to prevent the recurrence of gangs, some intervention programs will be needed, but giving the CMPD the tools to make life extremely uncomfortable for gang members should be on of the City's top priorities. An injunction will prohibit known gang members from wearing gang attire, associating with each other, etc. and allow CMPD to contact them much more aggressively. CMPD is a great agency, and they should have every possible tool available to shut gangs down in Costa Mesa. Enough is enough, gangs are totally unwelcome in Costa Mesa. "

JayGee wrote on Feb 1, 2008 3:54 PM:
" The Daily Pilot seems to do its share of censorship. Too bad. This forum could be so good. If users can flag offensive items, why do comments have to be approved before they are posted? "

Rob Dickson wrote on Feb 1, 2008 3:41 PM:
" The OC District Attorney's Office states that there are 306 gangs in OC, most of them are Hispanic. Costa Mesa is considered one of the "hubs" for gangs. It is time for a gang injunction in Costa Mesa. There should be ZERO tolerance for ANY type of gang activity. Hopefully Chief Shawkey will intensify CMPD's gang activities so that we can stomp these gangs into extinction. Intervention has failed when gang violence exlopdes onto the streets as it has recently. Make it so that these thugs are scared to leave their houses. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Feb 1, 2008 9:13 AM:
" There were 33 previous comments on this aricle that were deleted by the Pilot. This page has been viewed over 1900 times, and it is imperative that the Pilot maintain the integrity of the blogs by restoring the previous comments. I understand that it may have been a technical glitch, but I also know that the Pilot has access to the previous comments. Please restore them immediately. "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 30, 2008 11:39 PM:
" Street gangs are certainly something the CMPD should be concerned with and addressing. In March of 2007 the CMPD Police Chief made an exhaustive report and recommendation to the City Council. Unfortunately, the City Council decided that they were better prepared to determine what the CMPD should do to address gang activity in the city and decided to pick and choose what of the CMPD recommendations they would fund. The city council certainly has that authority, unfortunately for us, they do not have the background and expertise necessary to second guess our professionals at CMPD. "

CMMV Resident wrote on Jan 30, 2008 5:57 PM:
" I agree with Rob D.---too many people are naive about the gang problem and its potential to destroy a city, schools, etc. Donot accept any activity. Place gang injuctions as So. County has done. Sorry, but we need to act strongly, consistently and now! "
Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 30, 2008 5:36 PM:
" Thanks for the clarification - I do mean all crimes by all people. This article happens to be talking about our well-established and active street gang problem that caused the murder of this young man and has been responsible for other violent crimes recently. "
BKrochman wrote on Jan 30, 2008 3:52 PM:
" Rob, I know you don't mean that crime you see is more important than crime you don't see! I know you want all crime eliminated. "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 30, 2008 3:43 PM:
" MesaCosta, your concern is one shared by others in this community. We all agree that crime needs to be reduced and that gang related crimes must not be tolerated. My personal concern is that, ostensibly, in the interest of reducing crime, some members of our community would target possible gang members based on racial stereotypes. We need the latino community to help reduce crime. Blaming our latino neighbors for the problem is not the way to accomplish anything. Asking everyone to pitch in equally regardless of their background is the only solution in my opinion. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 30, 2008 3:28 PM:
" MesaCosta, when they start stabbing people in busy parking lots, beating/robbing people at gunpoint, spraying graffitti on my dumpster, carjacking, brawling and shooting in the streets in broad daylight, kidnapping folks, I'll notice. I'll pay attention and I will demand that the police do something about it. This isn't a which criminal is worst contest, this is about eliminating crime from the streets of our city. Don't bring race into this - too many people are already using it to slow progress down and cloud the issue. Criminals are criminals and they must be dealt with regardless of race. "

MesaCosta wrote on Jan 30, 2008 1:16 PM:
" you people know that every city in orange county except 2 or 3 have gangs? costa mesa is no exception. its sad that latino gang crimes are more street oriented where as the HUGE amount of both PENI & NLR living in costa mesa are more into meth & identity theft, but based on many peoples here ignorance im starting to think you dont mind the huge amount of racist tweeker criminals that live in our city because your white. "

Gericault wrote on Jan 30, 2008 6:38 AM:
" Western Medical in Santa Ana has a really good trauma unit but if I get stabbed down the street from Hoag, take me there, and fast. "

timbo wrote on Jan 29, 2008 3:09 PM:
" Gang activity is bubbling. Not only here in Costa Mesa but the cities that surrond us. The majority of the gang problem in CM is hispanic. In other cities it consists of other races black, white, vietnameese, hispanic. But we need to face the fact that hispanic gangs are here and we do need to get to the root of the problem. Gang police are on our campuses at high schools. Our city leaders need to get a game plan and try to get a handle on the problem "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 1:56 PM:
" you put them where you think they best fit as adding them in makes your error even greater. So Gang/Non-Gang crime looks like this: Murder 1/3, Robbery 10/61, Assault 16/73, Burglary 2/241. I don’t think your statement that “in almost all cases involving major crimes, killings, car jacking, kidnapping and rape, all have been done by Hispanic gang members.” Would you like to try again? "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 1:55 PM:
" MDM Resident, do I know you? My apologies for sounding preachy as that was not my intent. In any case your facts are flawed. In the FBI Universal Crime Report for 2006 Costa Mesa had 3 murders 18 forcible rapes 61 robberies, 73 aggravated assaults and 241 Burglaries. The CMPD reports at the March 13, 2007 council study session that in 2006 Gang related crimes included 1 murder, 10 robberies 16 assaults with a deadly weapon and 2 Burglaries. Now I don’t know where the CMPD categorized rapes, unless there were none related to gang activities. I will let (cont.) "

knoodelhed wrote on Jan 29, 2008 1:52 PM:
" Begs the question: why did they haul the kid ten miles away to WMC when Hoag is just down the street? "

mdm resident wrote on Jan 29, 2008 12:26 PM:
" Bruce - all your preaching does not deter from the fact that in almost all cases involving major crimes, killings, car jacking, kidnapping and rape, all have been done by Hispanic gang members. Those are facts. Another fact is the CMPD, our city leaders paid and elected are not doing a darn thing to fix the problems. That will require hard-core enforcement of low income, predominantly Hispanic areas. Our city leaders are silent now and are showing us not confidence in their ability to deal with serious issues. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 12:22 PM:
" BKrochman, I agree that the problem is a community problem. Why is up for debate. This is "Us vs. Them" - "Them" are the gang members and murderers, not illegal immigrants or any other group/demographic. I'm not trying to demonize illegal immigrants, they aren't evil or responsible for all our ills. Perhaps the City should investigate assisting long-time residents with immigration paperwork, or partnering with ICE in that regard. But I sincerely believe that crime begets crime, and that widespread tolerance of illegal activities contributes to our Westside crime issue. If I'm wrong, let me know, I seek solutions. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 12:02 PM:
" I agree that there would still be gang members, but they may have less free-reign on the Westside. This is pure assumption on my part, by why else do these things happen in front of El Metate or El Toro Bravo and not Ralph's Fresh Fare or Mi Casa? I don't know, but the concentration of crimes on the Westside is hard to ignore. If you know that the guy watching from across the street, or getting into their car 10 yards from you won't immediately call the cops, you may not hesitate to commit an assault. Maybe not. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:52 AM:
" Sorry to go on about illegal immigration, but I sincerely believe that the concentration of violent crimes in Costa Mesa's immigrant communities is related in part to the illegal immigration issue. I agree with you completely that race has nothing to do with it, so where does that leave us? Is it alienation, disenfranchisement, economic desperation? Why do young Latino/Hispanic members of our community join gangs? We're not going to know if our police department doesn't acknowledge that our gang problem is largely Latino/Hipanic and that graffitti isn't art! As for the effect of expunging all illegal immigrants (cont) "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:46 AM:
" Of course illegal immigrants are people. They work, attend church, raise families, and the VAST majority don't commit crimes other than those related to their illegal status. If you REALLY care about them on a human level, help them obtain legal status. But perpetuating illegality is a non-starter. Until federal laws are changed, the reality is that they are continuously breaking the law, and that has a corrosive effect on our society. Their illegal status is a handicap that they impose on themselves, and it prevents them from being equal partners in our society/community. That is a fact. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:38 AM:
" Think about the reality of ignoringthe myriad crimes associated with illegal immigration. We talk about code enforcement being utilized to improve our community. We take our leaders to task for not slowing down traffic in neighborhoods. We have a DUI/license checkpoint every month on Newport at Flower, yet one was proposed on the Westside and the whole city governemnt is racist? We can't talk about up to 10,000 people here breaking the law EVERY DAY because of racial politics? Nonsense! There is NO upside to illegal immigration - NONE. This city needs to get past this issue ASAP. (cont.) "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:31 AM:
" I have no studies to back up my assertion that illegal immigration creates a culture of impunity, but I have read books, articles, and studies that suggest that the disregard for basic laws leads to pervasive lawlessness. If your very existence here is illegal, and you must continuously break the law to drive and work, what is another law broken? When you live outside society's boundaries, societal norms are less relevant. I don't want to share the roads with 10,000 unlicensed, uninsured drivers, for instance. I follow the rules, that's part of participating in this society. (cont.) "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:24 AM:
" BKrochman, I agree that race alone is not the issue that should consume Costa Mesa's public discourse. If you take the number of arrestees in CM who were illegal immigrants over the past year, approximately 10% of our population is illegal. That's a large number. I am opposed to illegal immigration regardless of race, and I will freely admit that I do not want illegal immigrants living in my city. Do I want them seized from the streets and their homes and deported? No, but I want them to do whatever is necessary to acheive legal status immediately. (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:45 AM:
" outlived any necessity to look at our community in terms of Us VS Them. To quote a famous fictitious character, "We have met the enemy and he is us." By the way, these are tough conversations to have in 100 word clips! "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:45 AM:
" in Costa Mesa. We need to quit being blinded to reality by the fear mongers in Costa Mesa. They use insults, intimidation and flawed logic as their tools to focus your attention on those they would like to remove from their presence. Let’s refocus on the real problem. Let’s ask the CMPD what they are doing to make our community safer, and listen to their professional assessments and insight. Let’s offer our support as citizens to them in whatever capacity they most need us. But let’s please get past the focus on race. I think all mature adults have (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:44 AM:
" have. I propose that any family that has an income below the Orange County median (about $80,000 as I recall) be removed from Costa Mesa. There! The problem is fixed. Now what shall we do with all of our civic energy? Grandparents missing? Too bad. Young families can’t live here? Boo hoo! Where will our service industry workers reside? Who cares? Is that ridiculous? Just as ridiculous as blaming all of the crime in our community on gangs, all of the gangs on illegal immigrants and by association inferring that illegal immigration is the root of our crime problems (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:44 AM:
" crime. Will they reduce? I predict that crime would be reduced in actual numbers because the population of our community would be reduced, but as a percentage of the population, not measurably. So you are right, we need to move the discussion past that of illegal immigration and on to what can be done to reduce crime. I will give you one idea that is obvious: remove all low income individuals (regardless of race) from the community. It is a proven fact that higher income communities do not have the same measure of social ills that lower income communities (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:43 AM:
" to do more research to defend that position. I’ll get back to you on that one. We can therefore conclude that all gang members are not illegal immigrants. If we removed all illegal immigrants from the community we would still have gangs. This is the fact that many people seem to have a problem with. Illegal immigration is not the root cause of criminal activity. I know this is shocking, but those are the facts. You could expunge all illegal immigrants, those criminal Canadians, those villainous Vietnamese and even those malfeasant Mexicans and we will still have gangs and (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:43 AM:
" almost always a predictable outcome of immigrant population concentrations. This is historically true and I have no doubts will always be true. Now, we all agree that we have gangs in Costa Mesa. We all agree that some maybe most, but not all, of those gangs have predominately Hispanic members. We all agree that all Hispanic members of our community are not gang members. We all agree that all Hispanic members of our community are not here illegally. I would hypothesize that only a minority of the Hispanic population in Costa Mesa is here illegally, but I will have (cont.) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 29, 2008 10:42 AM:
" Rob, your observations seem correct to me with respect to the geographic location of the problem in Costa Mesa, although the CMPD would be the best source to validate that premise. My point is that the problem is not an immigration problem, it is a community problem. First, illegal immigration is not the root cause of gangs. If you research the material publicly available form the US DOJ you find that “gangs” are a complex association with numerous physiological, social and economic inputs. By the way, crime is not always a predicable outcome of gang activity. Gang association is (cont.) "

jim fisler wrote on Jan 29, 2008 9:40 AM:
" Rob, good job in telling it like it is! FYI, two years ago I enrolled in the Citizens Police Academy. When we did the module on gangs the whole two hours was only about white gangs in the city. They passed around pictures of arrested gang members, all white, sporting their tatoos of PEN1. When it got to issues of graffitti, the police showed us pix and said it was not gang related in most cases, just sort of "art". Hopefully, the CMPD will give up this politically correct nonsense from Snowden's days as chief. "

CM resident wrote on Jan 29, 2008 9:05 AM:
" well lets se ive been a resident of the west side . for 33 years. and we have always had a gang problems ... the c.m p.d knows were these gangs reside . so lets start inforcing a curfu.. like we did about 15 years back. we do have a lot of ilegal residents in costa mesa but they are not the problem its their kids that were born here that are the gang problem . i am mexican american born and raised in costa mesa .and i know that these kids . are influenced by gangs from near bycitys "

Tommie Griffon wrote on Jan 28, 2008 10:17 PM:
" Wow Rob...that was awesome. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 7:29 PM:
" My main point is to strip racial politics from this issue COMPLETELY and deal with reality. I respect you and your points, BKrochman. All I am saying is that this nonsense will continue, more people will be killed, more graffitti will be sprayed, more assaults will take place, etc. if we don't do something about our gang problem. We have come a very long way since the bad old days, but the discord that seized CM after Mayor Mansoor's ICE proposal, caused by opportunist on boths sides of the debate, has set us back. Time to welcome reality back. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 7:22 PM:
" Man stabbed outside a bar in broad daylight; man beaten and robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight; youth stabbed to death in busy parking lot; man shot to death on a residential street, man carjacked at gunpoint in broad daylight; youth gunned down in alley; man stabbed at a party; 8 kids, many armed, arrested in shooting in residential neighborhood, etc. These are just the ones I can remember in the recent past. They were ALL on the Westside. Unless you are saying that Westsiders are inherently more violent than Eastsiders (pretty alarming discriminatory statement!), there IS a correlation. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 7:12 PM:
" My point is simple. Illegal immigration on a large scale produces a culture of impunity. When your neighbors and friends live outside the law, the law becomes less relevant. A city doesn't have a gang problem without complicit residents - family, friends, neighbors. Neighborhoods with large populations of illegal immigrants also are transient by nature. Criminals and gangs knoe that illegal immigrants are less likely to report crime, so the cycle continues. I don't have statistics, but I do have facts. These violent crimes happen on the Westside, in heavily immigrant neighborhoods. Is that correlation enough? (cont.)

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 7:04 PM:
" It doesn't matter what ethnicity a gang is, if our gang problem was Caucasian, I'd be saying the same exact thing. Without being honest about the nature of the problem, the problem cannot be solved. We are no longer able to have a rational discussion about the reality that exists in our beautiful city, a serious gang problem, because of the racial politics that have paralyzed the city since Mansoor's ICE proposal. The Pilot won't publish ethnic descriptions for fear that people will make ethnic assumptions. Are we really that beholden to rampant political correctness? (cont.) "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 6:59 PM:
" BKrochman, the study you cite has the following premise: "The concept of laissez passer – freedom of movement – is a bedrock corollary of market economics." The study does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigration, so unfortunately, it is not applicable in the context of the crime problem on the Westside or my point. Latinos, or immigrants of any ethnicity, are NO MORE responsible for crime than any other demographic. Our gang problem, however, IS Latino/Hispanic. Despite that fact, CMPD spent time and money preparing a gang report which ignored that fact. Racial politics at work. (Cont) "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 28, 2008 6:07 PM:
" between our immigrant community and gang activity can be backed up by anything other than an enormous amount of social and political rhetoric which can be found in abundance on op-ed pages and all over the internet. I would be happy to review any credible sources you propose, however. Even the US DOJ reports that their statistics on illegal immigrants involved in gang activity is incomplete due to lack of statistical reporting. I can appreciate that some believe it is just common sense, but I would personally prefer credible research over gut feelings any day, wouldn’t you? "

BKrochman wrote on Jan 28, 2008 6:06 PM:
" Rob, you may want to review a study by Richard Nadler of the Americas Majority Foundation, whose About Us page reports “Americas Majority was founded to increase the constituency for conservative causes: free market economics, international anti-totalitarianism, and morals based on Jewish and Christian scriptures.” The study is here: http://www.amermaj.com/ImmigrationandWealth.pdf . He concludes that “In 2006, the total crime rate per 100,000 residents was lower in the high immigration jurisdictions than in the 32 other states.” I am not sure your direct correlation (cont.) "

mdm resident wrote on Jan 28, 2008 3:11 PM:
" Rob – you are 100% right- something must be done now! I sent my complaint about the car jacking to the City Manager, the Council and the PD. A nice Sergeant called me back telling me they do everything they can to fix the problems. I know this Sergeant does everything he can, but why do our leaders push away this issue just like they pushed my concern to a Sergeant? Why won’t they address it and get serious about it? Until they do CM will continue to suffer "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 12:37 PM:
" Instead of producing gang reports that only identify white supremacist by ethnicity when the main gang problem is Latino, the CMPD needs to be brutally honest. Racial bias stems from ignorance. No racial/ethnic group in CM is any more responsible for CM's crime than another. Criminals are criminals, regardless of skin color or language. Not talking about the true nature of a problem because of political correctness simply allows the problem to persist. Pretending that a large presence of illegal immigrants doesn't contribute to a culture of impunity on the Westside is dangerously ignorant. Pervasive lawlessness is a result. "

Rob Dickson wrote on Jan 28, 2008 12:26 PM:
" The CMPD Gang Unit knows who these punks are. It is time to truly empower the CMPD Gang Unit. We should look into a gang injunction, if that would be practical. We should also immediately dispense with the politically correct nonsense that has hobbled this city's progress. Our street gang problem is Latino in nature, deal with it. We need to get to the root of the problem and find out how this gang problem persists in our city. The Sheriff's Dept. got serious about in South County, now it is time for Costa Mesa to do the same. "

laylow1198 wrote on Jan 28, 2008 11:41 AM:
" Gang enforcement I can understand, but what does immigration enforcement have anything to do with the violence that goes on around our cities?... No one can disagree that violence and gang activities are bad, but not everything comes from Latinos in the community. What about the skinheads?.. Just because you don't read about it in the news doesn't mean it doesn't happen. No one lives by the "sword" because swords are not used in these times. Before adding any skepticism to the events surrounding your community... contain at least some knowledge of it. "

MDM Resident wrote on Jan 28, 2008 11:10 AM:
" I second CMMV Resident's proposal for another town hall meeting with all city leaders. This time though we need a commitment of action from these leaders and not the same old platitudes of politics. Time for Costa Mesa to take serious actions against known criminal elements, root them out and make it known that CM is no longer providing sanctuary. We need to thin out the slums in all areas of CM. "
Tommie Griffon wrote on Jan 28, 2008 10:40 AM:
" I agree with CMMV Resident. This definitely NOT good news. "

CMMV Resident wrote on Jan 28, 2008 9:01 AM:
" Chief Shawkey,
Its time for several town hall meetings in the city so you can present your Gang Suppression program to the concerned residents of Costa Mesa. The Pilot is reporting Gang activities almost daily, attempted Gang Kidnapping recently on 19th, carjacking at gunpoint in Mesa Del Mar, and now a gang killing on 19th. Its time Chief to meet with us. "

Dmarshall wrote on Jan 28, 2008 7:42 AM:
" This is odd..by reading comments on other issues some say the Hispanics and Gangs are not a problem. Yet the headlines are dominated by these stories. It is a shame another young life is lost, Live by the sword,Die by the sword. So when is stricter gang enforcement and immigration enforcement going to take place? What is the death and crime threshold that calls for more enforcement? These issues cannot be ignored, they are FRONT PAGE NEWS! "