Caspa On The Radio and Mickadeit on White Supremacists
MEDIA DAY AT THE CAULDRON
The day is still young and it's already very interesting. First, I listened to Dr. Humberto Caspa speak about his book and his view of conditions in Costa Mesa during a fifteen minute interview this morning on KPFK radio, public radio in Southern California. In an unfortunate bit of programming, his fifteen minutes of fame, literally, followed a prolonged rant by a rabid Palestinian supporter. I'm not sure how many people hung around for Caspa's interview - besides me, that is.
CASPA NAMES NAMES - AND SPELLS THEM, TOO
Caspa had the opportunity to expand on the thesis of his recent book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government". He emphasized the influence of one local activist, not only naming him, but spelling it for the audience to be sure they got it. I couldn't help but smile. You can hear Caspa's segment on KPFK HERE.
FRANK MICKADEIT TODAY
Then I grabbed my copy of the Orange County Register and began reading the headlines, looking for issues that interest me. I came across columnist Frank Mickadeit's contribution to the "Local" section of the newspaper - an entry entitled, "Racism, bullying top ADL agenda", HERE. I like Frank's work, which ranges from the politically relevant to flights of fancy, depending on his mood.
HITTING THE BRAKES
As I quickly scanned down the single column I came across the name of Costa Mesa Police Lieutenant Clay Epperson, so I jammed on the brakes, backed up and began reading more slowly from the top.
ADL ON WHITE SUPREMACIST GANGS
The focus of Mickadeit's column is a recent dinner hosted by the Anti-Defamation League in which the subject of white supremacists in Orange County was discussed. He quotes Kevin O'Grady, director of the local ADL office as saying, "Southern California does have more white supremacist activity than the rest of the U.S., and (within Southern California) Orange County has the most". Yikes!
EPPERSON HONORED
His mention of Lt. Epperson was in the context that he and Orange County probation officer Lowell Smith were honored because they, according to Mickadeit, "independently did groundbreaking work studying, documenting and suppressing white racist gangs".
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 DISCUSSED
Mickadeit goes on to discuss what he describes as the local gang of greatest concern, Public Enemy Number 1, about whom the ADL has produced a 12 page brochure. He mentions that Orange County is the hotbed of PEN1 activity and includes Costa Mesa as one of the four cities, along with Anaheim, Garden Grove and Huntington Beach, in which it is flourishing.
WHY?
Why do I mention Caspa's interview on the radio and Mickadeit's column on white supremacists in the same posting? Funny you should ask...
DENIAL AND RACISM
In our city there are those who deny the presence and influence of white gangs, focusing, instead on Latino gangs. Some of these same people - the guy mentioned by Caspa during his interview, for one - are also holocaust deniers. All credible law enforcement sources admit that white supremacist gangs - with their violence, drug manufacture/sale/use and their identity theft activities - are a big problem in our city. During a sweep 18 months ago, when nearly 60 white supremacists were snatched up throughout Orange County, a third of them - 20 - were apprehended at 17 locations in Costa Mesa. To this date our then-mayor, Orange County Deputy Sheriff Allan Mansoor, has never uttered a public comment about that sweep - a fact made even more difficult to understand because one of the reasons for the sweep was because those miscreants had put out "hits" on law enforcement personnel, including sheriff's deputies and prosecutors! How do we explain his silence on this issue when, at the same time, he was jumping up before the media every time a person of dark skin was arrested for any kind of crime? How do we interpret this curious double standard?
FORCING LATINOS OUT
Personally, I think the denial of the impact of white supremacist gangs in our city, coupled with the obsession about Latino gangs, is indicative of the influence one man has had on the leaders of our city. It's clear to me, and to Dr. Caspa based on his views presented in his book, that the emphasis on the Latinos among us is a racist effort to expunge men and women of color from our city.
A CAMPAIGN ISSUE, FOR SURE
This will be an issue during the upcoming campaign season, regardless who runs for City Council. Members of the current majority - Mayor Eric Bever, for example - and others that follow the drumbeat of intolerance in our city who chose to run for City Council, will be subjected to intensive interrogation on their position about race in our city throughout the campaign.
Labels: Caspa, Frank Mickadeit, Mansoor, White Supremacists
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 5/21/2008 12:35:00 PM
7 Comments:
I hope that gangs are a campaign issue as well. We should target all gangs equally and make sure not to avoid dealing with any of them due to political correctness.
I had forgotten about the fact that a certain prson is a Holocaust denier. True proof of his extreme intellectual corruption. Stunning.
Hey, if the facts don't support your theories, make up new facts! Pathetic. Let's see how he spins this one...
Mr. West brings the truth & all i hear is crickets!
The funny part is people like cmpress & that waste of of a blog cmwatchtower do not accept comments on their blogs for one simple reason, they can't back up what they preach!
Millard is a prime example, he won't debate or entertain comments, he only uses his blog to spit FALSE propaganda & he will only speak at council meetings with his 3mins of rhetoric where he again can't be debated. Yet today he calls for the eastside phonies to be exposed to their neighbors. I say expose them mr-you-know-nothing I look forward to seeing you expose people with more non fact based tirades.
cmtruth,
I totally agree about CM Press and CMWatchtower. CM Press KNOWS DAMN WELL that many of his "facts" won't hold up to ANY scrutiny. I have had long exchanges with him when he was contributing via pseudonym on the Pilot, and he would scurry away from any factual challenge faster than you blink your eye. He also resorts to the childish insult by proxy.
As I've said before, he makes some good points, but they get lost in the mix. He called the FLDS child seizure issue correctly - a court in TX overruled the State agency decision seizing 450+ kids from the YFZ Ranch.
He is right on about the El Camino Center and he is right on about the need for more affordable housing and the seeming sell-out to developers. I agree with him completely about the job center as well.
Jeff,
I just came across your blog this morning. I moved from Costa Mesa to San Jose exactly one year ago after 21 years in the great city of Costa Mesa (I miss it everyday). I always enjoyed your comments and letters one of the few in the Daily Pilot that weren't some right wing bullet points or nazi nutjob like Millard. I have some personal knowledge of the subject of gangs in Costa Mesa. I knew personally some Latino gang members and having spent most of my life in the punk rock scene have seen/interacted with many white gang members as well. Not that punk rock and white gangs have anything to do with each other but it seems like a lot, if not most of the white gang members start out as so called skinheads. Believe me Costa Mesa is thriving with "peckerwoods" (a term for a white boy gangster etc.). During the 90's at the club which is now the Detroit Bar on 19th Street was a great club called Club Mesa, which had great bands and great fun. But there was a period where the locals called it "Club Nazi". Local NLR and PEN1 members as well as others were always there on a Friday or Saturday night, most of the time causing trouble for those there to have fun. It got really bad at one point with plenty of violence. These guys are all over Costa Mesa, selling meth, doing home invasion's which you don't read about in the news because the victims are tweakers to afraid to report the crimes. The list goes on and on. Now the local Latino gangs make the news in the Daily Pilot much more often, I can think of several reasons why this is including racism. Some of these gangs tend to be more up front about their crimes like a drive by shooting where the white gangs are doing the same things behind the doors of West and East Side Costa Mesa homes and motel rooms. There is a good series you can find by a English man by the name of Ross Kemp on PEN1 and some mention of NLR, most of it is based in Costa Mesa and they ride along with Costa Mesa P.D and talk to Mr. Epperson as well. This video should be shown at the next city council meeting, I'd love to see what guys like Millard and Monsoor would say about that. A few years back NLR members on a west side house shot it out with the Costa Mesa PD, something I don't remember any local Latino gangs doing. Anyway before I rant on anymore I suggest people do some research on PEN1 and NLR to name a few, just google Public Enemy Number One and NLR you'd be amazed the amount of info and how often Costa Mesa or O.C get mentioned.
Keep up the good work Jeff!
Pat G.
Pat G,
Thanks for the informative comment. I have, in fact, seen the Ross Kemp video clips on YouTube before they were removed for copyright problems - very powerful stuff, especially the segments about White Gangs in Costa Mesa.
You're right - Costa Mesa is a great city but if you listen to guys like the racist buffoon over at the CM Press (you know his name), you'd think it's a festering slum and a hotbed of Latino gang activity. What's amazing is his outright denial of any kind of white supremacist gang problems in Costa Mesa, despite clear facts showing the depth of the problem.
Thanks, again.
re: the video being removed,
coincidence?
Do a search on youtube for ross kemp, you will find the only doc that was removed was the oone orange county, there is still over 20 pages of ross kemp doc's on other gangs, very very interesting, i wonder if one of those fake tipsters blew a whistle.
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