Tag: los angeles

LA Mayor Karen Bass cut fire department funding by $17.6M — months before wildfires turned city into hellscape

The Los Angeles Fire Department had its budget cut by a staggering $17.6 million this financial year, records show — as fire crews continue to battle out-of-control blazes ravaging the City of Angels.

The drastic decrease in funding for the fire department was the second-largest cut to come out of embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass‘ 2024-25 fiscal year budget, according to city figures.

The police budget, meanwhile, increased by $126 million, a graphic shared by LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia shows.

Bass had initially wanted to cut the fire department by even more — a staggering $23 million.

The details on Bass’ budget slashing resurfaced as the mayor faced widespread backlash Wednesday after it was revealed she was away in Africa for the Ghana president’s inauguration — even as wind-whipped wildfires turned parts of her city into an apocalyptic hellscape.

In her absence, Bass found time to praise firefighters and other emergency crews for working “overnight to protect Angelenos affected by fires.”

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‘Anti-Hate’ Art Exhibit in LA Featured Participants Kicking Around Donald Trump’s Head

An “art exhibit” in Los Angeles designed to protest against Donald Trump “spreading hate” featured participants kicking around a soccer ball shaped like the former president’s head.

Yes, really.

A a rubber or latex object made to look like Trump’s dome was booted around by players during an indoor game at Superchief Gallery in Los Angeles last weekend.

The art installation was created by a group called INDECLINE and was first debuted the Trump soccer ball four years ago when they invited people at the Mexican border to kick it around.

Laughably, the art collective claimed the point of the display was to demonstrate against Trump “spreading hate.”

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LAPD raid goes from bad to farce after gun allegedly sucked onto MRI machine

An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department found out the hard way that you can’t take metal near an MRI machine after their rifle flew out of their hands and became attached to the machine during a pot raid gone bad, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week.

The incident’s details were described in a lawsuit filed by the owners of a Los Angeles medical imaging center, who allege that their business was wrongly targeted by LAPD during a raid in October 2023 The lawsuit was first reported on by Law360.com.

The owners of NoHo Diagnostic Center are suing the LAPD, the city of Los Angeles and multiple police officers, alleging they violated the business owners’ constitutional rights and demanding an unspecified amount in damages. Officers allegedly raided the diagnostic center, located in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, thinking it was a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility, pointing to higher-than-usual energy use and the “distinct odor” of cannabis plants, according to the lawsuit. 

Officers raided the facility on Oct. 18, 2023, and detained the lone female employee while they searched the business, the lawsuit said. However, they didn’t find a single cannabis plant and only saw a typical medical facility with rooms used for conducting x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, the owners said. 

The officers then released the employee and told her to call a manager, the lawsuit said, while they continued to wander around various rooms of the facility. The plaintiffs say the officers’ behavior was “nothing short of a disorganized circus, with no apparent rules, procedures, or even a hint of coordination.”

At one point, an officer walked into an MRI room, past a sign warning that metal was prohibited inside, with his rifle “dangling… in his right hand, with an unsecured strap,” the lawsuit said. The MRI machine’s magnetic force then allegedly sucked his rifle across the room, pinning it against the machine. MRI machines are tube-shaped scanners that use incredibly strong magnetic fields to create images of the brain, bones, joints and other internal organs.

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LA CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS FUNDING FORMER IDF SOLDIERS TO PATROL ITS STREETS

THE LOS ANGELES City Council is considering whether to give public funds to private, armed security patrols to protect its religious communities, following a protest against the marketing of West Bank settlement properties at an LA synagogue last month that turned violent. 

In the immediate wake of the incident, city council members introduced a motion to give $1 million to several Jewish security organizations that would expand their work around Jewish schools, religious institutions, and neighborhoods. 

Magen Am, a nonprofit that runs armed patrol services and firearm training programs for the Jewish community, was named as the recipient of $350,000 in the motion. The group is largely made up of former Israeli soldiers, along with U.S. military veterans, according to the group’s website and social media posts, and was founded by a former MMA fighter with ties to the National Rifle Association. The majority of the former Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the group are “lone soldiers,” according to several reports, the term for individuals with no direct ties to the state of Israel who immigrated there to serve in the nation’s military.

The city council has since introduced a new motion, which would give $2 million to various faith groups that want to hire additional security and does not mention Magen Am or any recipients by name. But LA activists are still concerned that city funds will go to an armed group with hard-line political stances.

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LA City Council Removes U-Turn Signs In Gay Neighborhood Because They Are “Homophobic”

Another bizarre virtue signal just in time for pride month.  Street signs that LA officials said previously targeted LGBT community members were taken down from a Silver Lake neighborhood this week.  The signs that read “No Cruising” and prohibited U-turns were installed in 1997 when neighbors allegedly complained about gay men stalking back and forth in vehicles looking for “dates” in certain residential areas. 

In other words, the signs interfere with the gay pastime of “cruising” (sexual solicitation).  Whether or not they were actually posted specifically to ward off gay people is not confirmed, but the simple act of obstructing LGBT people from doing whatever they want to do is now considered “homophobia” by progressives.   

“For me, growing up in South Central Los Angeles, cruising had a very different meaning. It usually meant folks in their lowriders or their cars, a lot of hip-hop music, just going up down Crenshaw Boulevard,” Council member Soto-Martinez said. “But here in Silver Lake, cruising, of course, meant something very different. It meant an opportunity for the LGBT community to try to find human connection and intimacy and to be able to express themselves in a society at the time that was not very welcoming to the LGBT community.”

The history of “cruising” in the gay community had very little to do with dating and far more to do with anonymous encounters as well as prostitution.  With the advent of more socially accepted gay society in the US in the 1970s, a cultural problem of sexual solicitation and lewdness arose in public bathrooms and public parks in cities across America.  The habit naturally attracted crime to certain areas and is even cited as one of the primary causes for the rapid spread of AIDS in the early 1980s.  

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‘The beginning of an OnlyFans video’: Jailers were watching porn and didn’t notice noose hanging in jail cell, inspection report says

Eight jailers at a beleaguered downtown Los Angeles jail were watching porn when they overlooked a noose hanging in the jail cell of a suicidal inmate, a new inspection report said.

The jailers — LA County Sheriff’s deputies — were caught during a recent inspection of “1750 Unit” at downtown’s Men’s Central Jail, which inspectors noted was extremely hot and humid with no natural light, had trash in the hallways and a whole host of other problems, according to the report by Haley Broder and Eric Miller, commissioners with the LA County Sybil Brand Commission on Institutional Inspections.

“To me, it looked like the beginning of an OnlyFans video or something,” Miller told the LA Times. “It was women in underwear, and it certainly didn’t look like they were going to put more clothes on. It looked like they were going to take them off.”

Broder told The Times the conditions in the lockup were terrible.

“There was just continuous neglect and bad conditions,” she said. “People were saying they were hungry. We saw people with giant open wounds. The trash was just everywhere — there’s so much trash. It smells. There are fires. And it seems, in general, there is just a genuine lack of interest in changing that situation.”

The porn watching came to light as commissioners conducting the inspection discovered a “self-constructed noose” hanging from the ceiling of a cell.

“Though unlikely to support the incarcerated person’s weight, the noose was obvious to anyone looking into the cell and its presence was consistent with the suicidal ideation articulated by the incarcerated person while taking his shower,” the report said.

When the commissioners reported the noose to deputies — eight of whom were sitting in an office watching a video on a large-screen TV — they said they’d check on the cell later and continued watching the video, the report said.

The commissioners left, completed their inspection of the various rows in the unit and returned to the office where the deputies remained watching a “sexually explicit video on their wide-screen television,” the report said.

It was only when a female commissioner walked in that “the deputies hurriedly removed the video from the screen.”

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Soros-Funded California DA Gascon Dropped Charges Against Konnech CEO for Political Reasons After He Was Caught Storing US Elections Data in China – The FBI Also Mysteriously Dropped the Investigation – What Are They Hiding?

In October 2022, Konnech CEO Eugene Yu was arrested in Michigan in connection with “theft of personal data.”

The alleged stolen data belonged to poll workers and was the subject of TrueTheVote’s “PIT” in Arizona in August 2022, in which Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips singled out the Michigan-based company.

During the PIT conference, Phillips and Engelbrecht alleged they were cooperating with the FBI in Michigan about data being sent overseas by this company. The investigation quickly turned on them after the FBI distanced itself from it for some strange reason.

Journalist “incognito” Kanekoa covered this company and researched Konnech.

Here is the link to the LA County website after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on October 4, 2022, announced the arrest of Konnech CEO Eugene Yu on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information by investigators at the LA District Attorney’s office.

The theft of data only impacted the election workers, alleged Soros-funded Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon at the time.  The LADA seized hard drives and other digital evidence from the Michigan software firm with the assistance of Meridian Township Police in MI.  The LADA was seeking Yu’s extradition to Los Angeles.

Following the CEO’s arrest Fairfax County in Virginia announced they stopped using Konnech’s PollChief election officer management software.

True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht and investigator Gregg Phillips were then hauled into court by lawyers representing Konnech who sued Catherine and Gregg for defamation for reporting on the company and its actions.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt demanded the conservative nonprofit group disclose their sources of the information central to the case, about sensitive poll worker data managed by Konnech Inc.

After Konnech sued True the Vote for defamation, Hoyt ordered True the Vote to turn over any Konnech data the organization still had and disclose the name of the individual who’d helped them obtain it.

Gregg and Catherine refused to “burn” their source in the Konnech reporting and spent 10 days in prison for not turning over their source to Konnech and their corrupt attorneys.

The Soros-funded LA District Attorney dropped the charges against Konnech the day after the 2022 midterm election.  The reason for the dismissal was never explained – until recently.

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LA’s District Attorney Sued By Game Of Thrones Actor Over Dismissed Pedophilia Charges

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is facing legal action after a “Game of Thrones” actor filed suit over dismissed pedophilia charges.

Joseph Gatt—best known for his role as “Thenn Warg” on the popular HBO television series—is suing the city of Los Angeles, the LAPD, and the District Attorney’s office.

The 52-year-old is seeking $40 million in damages, and says the allegations made against him were not only career-ending, but ruined his reputation by branding him as a “serial pedophile.”

The charges stem from a 2022 arrest after Mr. Gatt was accused of engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor across state lines. He notes the claims were inadequately investigated prior to his felony charges being publicly announced in an LAPD press release.

The alleged interaction resulted from a video on Cameo Mr. Gatt recorded for a fan’s 16th birthday, before being contacted by the teenage girl via social media on multiple occasions. Mr. Gatt did respond, but according to the suit it was in a manner that was “wholly appropriate and consistent with typical celebrity-fan exchanges.” The two, however, never met in person.

Cameo is a video-sharing website often used by public figures. Users can purchase a personalized video for the individual receiving it. This gives fans a chance to connect with their favorite celebrities with a video message for any occasion. A crucial bit of information the lawsuit says backs claims that the teenage girl was an “admittedly obsessed fan of Gatt.”

The 16-year-old went on to claim to have pictures of the supposed inappropriate conversations, but the defendants failed to “interview or even remotely assess for credibility.” Mr. Gatt was arrested in April of 2022 following a search warrant on his home. He called the act an “invasion of privacy” that deprived him of his “liberty and freedom.”

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South LA Man Is 13th To Be Exonerated For Murder In LA County Since 2020

It took only a single eyewitness testimony to convince a jury to wrongfully convict Stephen Patterson to a 50-year life sentence for shooting and killing 16-year-old Yair Oliva in 2005. That witness was 200 yards away, inside her home in South Los Angeles and peering through closed blinds.

Other witnesses contradicted that testimony or could not identify Patterson, who was only 19 at the time. Investigators also ignored that the gun used in Oliva’s killing showed up at another crime scene six weeks later.

But on Wednesday, Patterson was declared innocent after spending nearly half his life behind bars. His exoneration marks the 13th under Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s tenure. According to his office, those 13 people collectively add up to nearly 300 years of wrongful incarceration.

Gascón is running for reelection and touting his work on criminal justice reform that his competitors have criticized as being soft on crime.

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LA Innocence Project took wife-killer Scott Peterson’s case because of key evidence including blood spatter that might have exonerated him but was withheld from trial and other suspects ‘who were were overlooked’

The Los Angeles Innocence Project decided to take Scott Peterson’s case with a view to revisiting previously ‘withheld’ evidence that may exonerate him, court records reveal. 

The organization – which is separate from the more acclaimed Innocence Project – was contacted by Peterson’s team in March last year. 

Its attorneys have not publicly discussed the case nor vouched for Peterson’s absolute innocence.

A spokesman today told DailyMail.com: ‘The Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence. 

‘We have no further comment at this time.’ 

Paperwork submitted to the Superior Court of California in San Mateo however highlights why they think he may have a shot at clearing his name. 

Lawyers point to ‘blood spatter’ in the home where Peterson is accused of murdering his pregnant wife Laci, but insist it does not belong to him. 

They also say no other suspects were considered. 

Laci was 27-years-old and eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve, 2002. 

Peterson led the search for his wife but was arrested months later when her body later washed up in the San Francisco shoreline in 2003.

He has always claimed that she was killed by a panicked burglar after catching them ransacking the couple’s home. 

A jury however convicted him of the killing, deciding he was motivated by an affair he was having at the time with Amber Frey, a 20-year-old massage therapist. 

Peterson was sentenced to death, but the decision was overturned in 2020 by the California Supreme Court, citing potential juror bias that prosecutors failed to account for. 

In December 2022, Peterson’s request for a new trial was rejected. 

Now, the L.A. Innocence Project is spearheading his case.  

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