"Heigh ho, heigh ho,
It's off to jail they go"
Today was a celebratory day in the small Southern California community of Bell, where city officials were pulling down salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and all kinds of strange financial deals were the order of the day. Eight current and former city officials have been arrested and charged with corruption.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/bell-officials-arrested-as-prosecutors-are-set-to-file-criminal-charges.html
For whom the "bell" tolls:
Mayor Oscar Hernandez-Mayor
Former City Manager Robert Rizzo
Former Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia
Councilmembers Luis Artiga, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal
former Councilmembers George Cole and Victor Bello
Today, residents of Bell turned out to watch their corrupt city leaders do the perp walk in their orange jump suits. As of today, three have made bail. Five others are still in jail as the court insures that none of the bail money posted is profits from the alleged crimes.
And for what it's worth, Hot Air is reporting that all 8 are Democrats.
Ho hum
I wonder how many other cities are like Bell?
ReplyDeleteThey are also looking at Vernon and Laguna Hills.
ReplyDeleteThey should look carefully at Trona. I once worked for a 501(c3) there and suspected the city council was on the take from the only industry in town.
ReplyDeleteIs it in bad taste to inquire into the possibility that those 5 out of 8 whose last names end in a vowel could be "connected"?
ReplyDelete.
I am very glad that these scumbags have been arrested. They exploit the system with their deceptive, dishonest and dispicable behavior. They cheat those who need help the most. I think the word "Sociopath" fits here.
ReplyDeleteSquid
The names sounded Italian. I was wondering if they were Italian and perhaps made.
ReplyDeleteI think last time I saw any names in print, Findalis, they were mostly Hispanic. Miggie, don't be shy about their ethnicity. The thugs and hooligans in America basically fall into the following ethnic identities:
ReplyDeleteItalian
Anglo
Irish
Jewish
Polish
Hispanic
Black
German
Hungarian
Native American
Canadian
French
Russian
Chinese
Vietnamese
Nigerian
...
and so on.
These culprits were bound to be one or another.
Or members of one gang or another. Remember that Al Capone effectively ran Chicago.
ReplyDeleteSo the idea that one or many might have gang/Mafia ties is not that far fetched.
Let's don't carry this racial thing too far. We don't want the charges to be dropped for political correctness sake.
ReplyDeleteNo, we don't. With all due respect to the presumption of innocence, there appears to be a mountain of evidence that these people are guilty. There is no more certain way to open the door to a defense of "racial discrimination" than to speculate about their ethnic background.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, Rudy Giuliani is Italian.
Yes and Rudy went after Gotti faster than you can blink an eye.
ReplyDeleteG-d how I love that man!
So I guess all Italians are not alike, eh?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the same goes for WHATEVER ethnic group these cretins are identified with???
Anyone ever read James Baldwin's late in life novel, If Beale Street Could Talk? I love the part where an immigrant Italian grocery store owner intervenes as an eyewitness to a non-black petty hoodlum's attempted groping of the protagonist, to prevent a racist Anglo cop from taking the real victim's boyfriend to the police station to beat out his brains against the basement wall on a charge of assault and battery after he defended the woman.