LA DA's Race 2020

LA’s Critically Important Race for District Attorney Heats Up With Attack Ads, Questionable Donations, & New Endorsements.

Celeste Fremon
Written by Celeste Fremon

We are just slightly over three weeks away from the primary election for what continues to be described as the most significant district attorney’s race in the nation.

In the past week, the competition to lead the nation’s largest DA’s office has heated up to a scorching level, featuring flying accusations, some questionable big bucks donations, and at least one impressively creepy attack ad.

This is the contest in which two-term Los Angeles County DA Jackie Lacey, 62, the first woman and the first African American to hold the position, is facing two serious opponents, each of whom says that they intend to use the office to take LA County much farther down the road of justice reform than Lacey seems to be willing to go.

As most readers know, the first of Lacey’s two challengers is former San Francisco District Attorney, George Gascón, 65, who in addition to his 8 years as SF DA, spent 27 years in the Los Angeles Police Department, winding up as 1st Assistant Chief, under William Bratton, then moving on to become the Chief of Mesa, AZ’s PD, followed by an appointment as Chief of Police for San Francisco’s department. He is also well-known for being the co-author of Prop 47, which reduced punishments for certain nonviolent crimes.

Lacey’s other challenger is public defender Rachel Rossi 37, who, while less well known than Gascón, has represented clients in the LA Public Defender’s office, the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, and as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California. After her years of courtroom experience, Rossi took her legal skills to Washington D.C., where she worked on criminal justice policy on the House and Senate sides of Congress, an experience that she says gave her a valuable big picture view of justice reform on a national level.

Since Gascón and Rossi announced their candidacies in October and November respectively, they have each characterized the race as a referendum on whether or not Los Angeles County will get the justice reform both candidates say it very much needs.


Debate barbs & attack ads

The fact that the knives were truly coming out in the race was evident on January 29, which was the first time the candidates were on the same stage for a debate. That night, the two challengers tossed sharp-pointed accusations at Lacey, and Lacey shot back furiously at Gascón and Rossi, most particularly at Gascón.

In return, later that same night, Gascón’s campaign people sent out an emailed fact-checking statement, “On DA Lacey’s Lie-Laden Debate Performance.”

Rossi tweeted the following day that Lacey announced during the debate that she — Rossi — wasn’t a “real lawyer,” a statement that quickly ignited the ire of public defenders on twitter.

A few days later still, Lacey semi-apologized to Rossi in a letter to the editor in the Daily Journal.

(If you’ve not seen the debate, which was sponsored by KPCC and the LA Times, it’s very much worth watching, including the yelling audience members, one of whom advanced toward the stage in his state of upset at Lacey. The man turned out to be Greg Akili, an organizer with Black Lives Matter.*

Then, on Friday, February 7, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) — the LAPD’s union — hit a very different level of hostility when it released a surprisingly malicious attack ad against Gascón, that is somewhat reminiscent in tone to the infamous Willy Horton ad that George H. Bush used in his race with Mike Dukakis.

Yet, in the case of the LAPPL’s offering, the content of the ad (see below), which depicts Gascón as a rumpled and sleazy white guy (although Gascón was born in Cuba), interestingly appears to be aimed, not at law-and-order voters, but at LA progressives, hoping to peel them away from the former SF DA, who has been characterized as the most reform-minded prosecutor in the U.S.

That same morning, the Los Angeles Daily News announced they were endorsing Gascón.

(This means that the Pasadena Star-News and the Long Beach Press-Telegram has also endorsed the former SF DA.)

In explaining their choice, the Daily News editorial board wrote, among other things, that Lacey had “opposed reforms backed by majorities” of Los Angeles County voters, “including Prop. 47, but also Proposition 57, and measures legalizing marijuana and ending the death penalty,”

Gascón, on the other hand, “has vowed to prioritize and use data to focus on violent and repeat offenders, while pursuing alternatives to incarceration when it makes sense to do so,” wrote the board. “With L.A. County’s justice system full of people with mental health and substance-abuse problems, it’s time to try something new.”

Lacey has her own extensive list of endorsements, which includes the LA Sentinel, which arrived in mid-January, and a great many high-profile political names such as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, four out of five of the members of the LA County Board of Supervisors, Congressman Ted Lieu, and Congressman Adam Schiff, among lots of others.

Yet, Gascón’s list appears to be increasing in size. Now, in addition to the much-coveted endorsement by the L.A. County Democratic Party, he’s gotten nods from a growing number of Democratic voter clubs. And, as Sheriff Alex Villanueva demonstrated with his 2018 underdog campaign, members of local voter clubs tend to, you know, vote, and then they drag all their friends to the polls as well.

Rossi, too, has an endorsement list that has been growing. It includes the Black LA Young Democrats, the Latino Coalition of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles African American Women’s Political Action Committee (LAAAWPAC), the Baptist Ministers Conference of Southern California, and more.*


Donations — the good, and the not so good

Since the race began, according to public records, Jackie Lacey has appeared to be bringing in the biggest piles of bucks in donations, with much of the money coming from law enforcement organizations.

For example, in mid-January, the LAPD’s rank-and-file union (LAPPL) mentioned above, put up $1 million, separated into two separate donations, both of which were designated for an anti-Gascón political action committee, with the aforementioned TV commercial evidently marking the beginning of the union’s new attack dog strategy.

The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, ALADS, has given at least $50,000 to her campaign. And the politically active Peace Officers Research Association of California — PORAC — has given $100,000.

The notoriously anti-reform Association for Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) came in with their own donation of around $94,000, and has also been active in sending out aggressively anti-Gascón emails.

The above donations are not at all surprising since Lacey, the protege of her predecessor, Steve Cooley, generally gets along well with the police. Yet, in that she and her office have repeatedly been criticized for not holding law enforcement to the same legal standards as everyone else — even when then Chief of Los Angeles Police Charlie Beck asked for an officer to be charged in the killing of Brendon Glenn near the Venice boardwalk, for example, and when former LASD deputy Giancarlo Scotti got a softball plea deal after he was credibly accused of sexual assault by at least eight different women who had, at the time, been locked up in the county’s women’s jail, where Scotti then worked as a guard.

With these and similar issues in mind, rightly or wrongly, opponents claim that high ticket donations from these particular quarters could carry with them a sub rosa quid pro quo.

Last spring, the LA Times wrote about other conflicts-of-interest in Lacey’s donations and fund-raising, pointing to a murder suspect’s parents who made donations, and other questionable fiscal supporters, such as “a felon from Sun Valley convicted of trying to smuggle missile parts to Iran,” according to the Times. After LA Times reporters inquired about the problematic donations, Lacey’s campaign reportedly returned a bunch of them.

But then this past December, a defense attorney named Mark Werksman hosted a $1,500 a seat fundraiser for Lacey, a situation that also appears to be drenched in conflicts of interest, since Werksman is defending a client that Lacey’s office is prosecuting. Furthermore, it turns out that the client is somehow tangentially involved in a labyrinthine and disturbing whistleblower case inside the DA’s office.

In any case, the point is that parts of Lacey’s donation situation still appear to need some rigorous dry cleaning.


A new alliance

On Gascón’s side of the race, while thus far, Lacey has been the clear leader when it comes to fundraising, that imbalance is starting to change.

On February 5, musician and justice advocate John Legend headlined a well-attended fundraiser for Gascón at the Warwick nightclub in Hollywood, where he gave Gascón a strong endorsement.

Two days before, on February 3, an unusual alliance of labor and community organizing groups announced that they were pledging $1 million to launch “an all-out, million-plus dollar voter engagement program to help elect George Gascón as the County’s new District Attorney.”

The alliance is made up of SEIU Local 99, the education workers union, LA Voice Action, which does interfaith organizing, the Community Coalition Action Fund, a social justice and community organizing group based in South LA, the civil rights organizing group, Color of Change, and the California Donor Table & Open Philanthropy Project, all of which together represent 100,000 LA County residents, according to the organizers.

“We’re going to be out in droves knocking on doors, calling folks, going boots-on-the-ground style to spread the word about the power of the district attorney and why George Gascón is the person for the job,” said Max Arias, Executive Director of SEIU Local 99. “The stakes can’t be underestimated, and we can’t leave any efforts on the table in electing George Gascón as the new District Attorney.”

The game, in other words, is now on in all quarters of the race.


The debate issue

So far, Jackie Lacey has appeared only at the LA Times/KPCC debate that we’ve linked to above, although there have been at least two other such events.

The ACLU hosted a debate in mid-December, which Lacey declined, saying she had a scheduling conflict. And, on Saturday, February 1, a few days after the January 29 debate that featured all the candidates, the three were invited to participate in an unusual town hall meeting-style debate inside Lancaster State Prison.

Rachel Rossi and George Gascon both attended, while Jackie Lacey “politely declined,” according to the event’s organizers. (It is not clear if she had a conflict or other reasons for skipping the event.)

Yet, for a race in which each candidate is claiming to be the most capable of leading the county toward justice reform, the town hall, which allowed men who were locked up to ask questions, and to tell the candidates what they thought was important, was sponsored by the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), attended by other well-respected justice reform advocates, and moderated by Spectrum Media’s Alex Cohen, might have been a good campaign stop to put on one’s calendar.

As of now, there is at least one more debate scheduled that will allow voters to see the candidates answer questions spontaneously and in person before voting day.

At first, Lacey said she would attend the debate, which will take place on the evening of February 13, and is organized by the nonpartisan LA City and LA County chapters of the League of Women Voters.

The forum will be held at the offices of the National Council of Jewish Women, on 543 N. Fairfax Ave., and will be co-hosted by a coalition of additional organizations, such as the So Cal ACLU, and Loyola Law School’s Center for Juvenile Law & Policy.

Lacey, who originally was going to attend, has reportedly dropped out of the event.

We hope she changes her mind.

This might also be a good time to remember that former LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell blew off nearly all of the candidate debates during his 2018 re-election campaign.

After the race was over, post-election analysts told WitnessLA that they believed the choice to stay away sent voters the wrong message.


*Note Corrections, 2/11/2020, 11:12 p.m.

It turns out that Rachel Rossi does have a Donations page. When we first checked her site, some days ago, we didn’t see it. But it’s up now.

Also, we misidentified the man at the January 29 candidates’ debate who rushed the stage. We have now identified him correctly.

53 Comments

  • Celeste, I thought you said the ad by the LAPPL was anti-Gascon? I assumed it was pro-Gascon and directed at the rank and file since it claims Gascon charged innocent people and manufactured evidence. No doubt they will vote for him after seeing the ads thinking he is one of them.

  • Has it ever occurred to Celeste that there are 10 million residents in Los Angeles county, and the overwhelming majority are law abiding citizens who DON’T have an axe to grind against the criminal justice system? BTW, we don’t want our neighborhoods looking like San Francisco cesspools of “justice-involved” transients taking a dump in front of our kids while hitting their meth pipes.

  • Hey gj, you never did say what your opinion on law enforcement reserves is, they do it for free, what do you think of that?

  • “The former SF DA that has been characterized as the most reform-minded prosecutor in the U.S.”

    San Fransisco, would you like to comment?

    SF-…………..Sorry was cleaning poop and syringes off of the public streets. What was the question again?

  • I sincerely hope this clown wins. The liberal agenda has completely devastated this state. Voters get what they deserve. Make it happen!

  • Don’t underestimate Rachel Rossi. You mention the Sheriff but you forgot to mention Rossi has the same Campaign Manager that led the Sheriff to victory, Paula Ramirez.

    Is this another liberal upset victory I smell? His campaign slogan was “Reform Rebuild Restore”. Hers is “Change Starts now.” Pretty close.

    Is the Sheriff supporting his old Campaign Managers new client and potential future ally? Time will tell.

  • DA Lacey has in fact pivoted with regards to the Steve Cooley no non-sense approach by embrassing less prosecution and incarceration. The DA’s Office only prosecutes the most violent offenders and routinely “diverts” criminals away from jail. A sign of the political times I guess. Do we really want a DA that has even less desire to hold any criminals accountable for anything they do?

    San Francisco is not a glowing example of a city that promotes law, order and quality of life for all of its residents.

    LA City is in bad shape with drug overdoses, mentally ill and homeless lining the streets. The mayor and police know it’s a problem and have no solutions to address it. State laws assured that.

  • Lets start with building a wall to keep homeless people from Red States from coming into California. States Governed by Republicans send their inbred (mentally ill ) people to CA because they know CA will house, feed and give free medical care for free.

  • Shit show-Well who’s fault is that? The Red states you talk about? Or this stupid ass blue state called California? If California is so open to illegal immigrants coming here for the same stuff, why cant American citizens from other states come here for the same reasons?

  • California is imploding. I hope Lacey gets the boot so the state will accelerate its collapse and lead to a flip in power in Sacramento. Once Republicans are back in charge, the state will climb from the sewer.

  • Sure we can deport all the illegal Mexicans from East LA, Cudahy, Lynwood, South Central, Paramount – you know all the one’s who voted for the Current Sheriff in office.

  • Madame Kong, I’ll bite, who is GJ?

    Skippy, you are still living in this, as you call it, “stupid ass blue state called California.” And, I must say, you are correct. If we are open to undocumented folks coming here on top of trains or crossing the desert on foot, we should welcome those coming in trailers or pick up trucks. Its not as if they will take our jobs away.

    Early warning, maybe you were asleep during that time or you spent so much time at Winchell’s that life passed you by, but this state was previously Republican. This was the land of Pete Wilson, of 3 strikes, and of props 187 and 209. How much redder can you get. All you managed to do was piss off people and now those days are gone. I hope you know Spanish.

  • The last Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger violated Marcy’s Law without telling a family that he commuted the killer’s sentence, a family friend.

    Never mind that he did it hours before he left office, what a sneaky ass. The victim was stabbed in the heart and his family was stabbed in the back by Arnold.

    While in office as Governor not only did he screw California residents, but apparently his housekeeper also.

    A nice prelude before cleaning California’s sewer.

  • Celeste, talk about biased reporting. Eluding to LAPD’s add as racist. Let’s talk facts.

    If you looked at Gascon, and knew nothing about him most people might think he’s a “White guy.”

    The add shows a guy quickly doing sleazy (your word) stuff, but how do you know the actor is “White guy?” Maybe he’s a light skinned Cuban actor? Hmm! I’m not sure. Are all Cubans light skinned or dark skinned?

    You didn’t have to waste all those words. All you had to say was I support George Gascon because I think we should be more lenient on criminals and people should be free to steal, use drugs and victimize others, because they are actually the victims, and merely misunderstood.

    Do us all a favor and erase the numbers 911 from your phone, and if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate circumstances of being victimized, take the time to slow down and understand the “poor” suspect. He needs love too!

    As far as Jackie Lacey participating in debates, what’s the point?

    I was at the last one and the rational audience couldn’t hear a word she said, because the Gascon supporters wouldn’t let her talk.

    The belligerence and disrespect of his supporters speaks volumes of his character, and yours too apparently.

    When Jackie told the story of her father being shot and a Gascon supporter yelled out “good,” while others laughed, pathetic!

    I’ll leave you with this, be careful what you wish for and the picture you paint, because one day you may find out the brush you used has become a deadly weapon, because of the lawlessness that comes with it.

  • Ron, Did Gascon say anything to his supporters that rejected their behavior?

    While there are certainly other elements of the position (i.e. supporting crime victims) the core responsibility of a District Attorney nationwide is to bring to court cases of those accused of breaking the law. All DAs work closely with the police in that process. If Gascon does not have the support of the LAPD, that worked with him for many years, that’s a problem. Anyone know how the folks with San Francisco and Mesa, AZ felt about him?

    There should be room for humanity and good sense in handling cases at all levels of the criminal justice system, no matter who the accused is but Prop 47 has been a failure. No accountability for repeated violations of the law sends the wrong message. I suspect that George is really using this spot as a stepping stone for higher state office. Based on the current candidate pool, if Lacey is not re-elected, the citizens of Los Angeles are going to find themselves even further disappointed in the justice system.

  • “Seriously” the answer to your question is no. In fact he pandered to the behaviour.

    I could almost see the light go on as he made this a “people of color” issue.

    As a person of color I was embarrased by his behaviour as were many others around me who became frustrated.

    Jackie did well in shooting down his assertions and misstated facts.

    Gascon participating in the creation of prop 47 speaks volumes about him. People may not see that until it’s too late.

    Mark my words IF (God help us) Gascon gets elected, that same group will turn on him too!

    There will unfortunately be justified LE shootings, as the vast majority already are, so by the book that he will be helpless, and he will then be the target.

    The scary part is lawlessness will prevail, initially!

  • No brownie points for you Ron.
    If you have a axe to grind with Celeste, I’m sure you can email or call her.

  • Hey Ron, I do understand your sympathy towards Jackie Lacey. After all you line her pockets with ALADS money. Quid pro quo. You finance her campaign and in return, she declines not prosecute Deputies for committing crimes.

  • George Gascon implemented Compstat Plus under the leadership of Bill Bratton. Compstat is described by leftist as the fuel that encouraged “Stop and Frisk”. Ultimately the unrelenting drive for lower crime rates lead LAPD to underreport violent crime. Compstat, according to leftist, resulted in aggressive and targeted policing, largely impacting communities of color. Gascon is now a reformist! Or is he just a political opportunist. If all in Law Enforcement have to pass purity tests based on past performance, why does George get a pass…

  • Without casting judgment, it was awfully peculiar that it took Jackie Lacy so long to reel in Ed Buck even with evidence against him attributing to the two deaths in his West Hollywood apartment.

    That biased and lengthy process for justice also includes the Sheriff’s Department West Hollywood Station who were slow to move their feet.

  • Do your home work and tell that to the Deputy currently indicted for voluntary manslaughter.

    You see in the real rational world, decisions are made looking out for the good of everyone in the entire community, not just a particular group.

  • If this story had only been sent to me and not a public forum I would have done exactly that!

    Exactly what brownie points am I seeking?

  • Too bad that the “named” deputies on the “shielded” Brady list overshadow the deputies who are sacrificed for effectively doing their job.

    Hopefully ALADS is funding his whole legal bill.

  • Ron – I have done my homework. In the 4 years Lacey has been the DA how many LE personnel were prosecuted – One just one ( the Deputy is just a political pawn for Lacey). Looks like dirty Lacey likes her pockets being lined with ALADS money. Hey btw what happened to the case involving the special donor for the Sheriff’s campaign. If I could remind you – the one involving one campaign donor using multiple employees of his to fund the Sheriff’s campaign.

  • I call BS on that claim. LASD homicide were being stonewalled by the DA for months about making a filing or referring it to the US DOJ, which has a different set of laws to prosecute with. During the time Lacey dragged her feet, it cost another victim his life. Don’t try blaming the LASD when you can blame first Ed Buck and then the DA’s for failing to do their job in a timely fashion. The alert WHD deputies were the ones who put two and two together on the third OD case and tied it to Ed Buck, which put the ball in motion for justice that came too late for the first two victims.

  • The 3rd overdose, really?
    Obviously you’re only getting bits and pieces to protect the Sheriff Department who works in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office.

    Many excuses and finger pointing comes out only after the fact, unfortunately.

  • I’m not sure what happened to the donor case. Not my job to review the validity of the case, or what happened to it.

    Apparently, doing your homework is reading the newspaper and social media. What you don’t know or see is what doesn’t make the paper.

    I have been a Detective for 25 years. I’ll put my knowledge and experience of who gets away with what up against yours any day of the week. The DA’s office is always cautious and fare, which is presumably to a fault if a LE officer is the recipient of the fairness.

    I could tell you hundreds of stories where people in our communities got away with assaults, domestic violence or theft, because the victims or witnesses where scared to testify. And these are cases where the evidence speaks for itself.

    At the end of the day quit tap dancing around reality! You, and many others like you, want to see LE held to a Godly standard and all criminals are poor lost souls!

    We should all be held to the same standard of fairness, but you believe what you want.

  • Ron, you are correct DA Lazy is “cautious and fare,” “cautious” with those in uniform but black and brown folk “fare” badly with her. Of course there are people that committed crimes walking around free because some people were afraid to testify. The difference is that even when people are willing to testify against crooked and cowboy cops, DA Lazy sits on her ass. And, if you are such a great detective why don’t you tell us who killed Tupac and Biggie. How many “gang” crimes did you solve by labeling some kid a “gang member” like your porcine brethren have been busted of doing. And, they are still not fired. Pull shit like that at Walmart and your ass would be in the unemployment line.

  • Hey shit, that “special” donor you speak of apparently was also a “special” donor to none other than McIdiot back in 2014, and raised a lot more money in that campaign exactly the same way. I guess it was of no concern to the DA when it was her buddy doing the fundraising, but heaven forbid the upstart challenger tries the same, LOL. BTW, why would the DA focus only on Latino donors to a Latino candidate, but not white donors to a white incumbent? Good luck with that one.

  • If it’s easier for you to believe the mantra Cops are bad and criminals are simply misunderstood, with little to no wiggle room on your stance, then discussion is pointless.

    I recently had a conversation with a very nice African American lady who is married to an actor. They are pretty well off, as far as I can tell.

    She asked me “why Cops murder so many people of color.”

    Instead of ignoring her comment, I sat down and asked her to explain why she believes that to be true. She recited the several deaths reported in the news. I asked if she was aware that all, but 13 had guns and only one was completely unarmed, and unfortunately, information later revealed that he was suicidal and appears to have acted like he had a gun, using the dark to accomplish the outcome. She was not aware!

    She then said, she and her husband are deathly afraid of getting stopped by the police. I asked her to share her bad experience with me. She responded by saying she or her husband have never had a bad experience, but she “reads the paper and watches the news.”

    I gave her my card and told her to call me if she would like to further our discussion. That was over 2 months ago.

    Sometimes people choose to believe what is shoved down their throat and put in front of their face instead of doing their own research.

    There is an agenda behind justice reform, and IT IS NOT to simply hold Cops accountable for when they commit crimes, because if it was, me and 99.9% of my partners would be for it.

    The agenda is to keep Cops from doing their jobs, so there will be less accountability.

    I don’t want to live in that world, and neither do you, you just don’t know it yet!

    If Gascon gets elected you may experience that reality.

  • Ron , “cf” is just a goofball ex LASD reserve desperate for attention. You probably knew him from ELA. Aside from getting kicked off of Facebook constantly, he’s been trolling this blog for years. He’s not looking for a discussion, he just wants to rail against cops.

  • Ron – Appreciate you taking the time to educate in the community and here. Being in law enforcement has a unique set of challenges made worse by a tendency for people to stereotype others based on a bad prior experience and take those initial media reports as “the story” without following up and learning the facts. The many good folks in law enforcement do indeed support positive change and detest the problem children that embarrass them and their agencies. But meaningless reform – the committees that go on for years, the changes that ignore the true realities of those impacted, the creation of new forms or duplicate processes are worse than no reform at all, make a mockery of moving forward and build distrust and resentment.

    PS – cf, As you surely know, the LASD didn’t investigate the shootings of Biggie Smalls or Tupac.

  • For the record, being a Station Level Detective at LASD is another short story for another time in which Ron has a few.

    Funny how ALADS goes mum when questioned about doling out CA$H to fund local politicians.

    I know that when ALADS listens to the voices of the majority of deputies, there will money spent on members needs without asking deputies to fund ALADS CARES.

  • @Tan and Green, was you pointing out I’m a “Station Detective” supposed to be an insult, or maybe I’m just too sensitive, anyway, we don’t hide our endorsements or money spent. All members are free to ask.

    Are you insinuating we shouldn’t be involved in political races. So we should sit back and not have a voice in legislation and who is in office? Think about that, because clearly you didn’t before you submitted that remark.

    As far as ALADS C.A.R.E.S, so it’s a bad thing to collect money on behalf of the members to support them in their time of need.

    Let me guess you work a one man car, or should!

  • A annual financial review that is printed out and given to every, yes every, contributing deputy not just “voting members” would be in first order.
    Asking you a question pertaining to financial or coming in to look at books and not just the face page of finances doesn’t cut it anymore.

    Secondly, members should not have to be “pocket checked” every time when endorsing political puppets.
    The current Board of Supervisors have all been endorsed by ALADS with funds but look at the relationship there.

    Without going through each and every controversial payout, show the members and hear them out.
    Talking without proof is aka hearsay

    My point about ALADS CARES is the money that has gone out to political flops and other unknown amounts (unknown to members) can give deputies in need, an abundance of resources.

    Only you know your sensitivity level which sounds like a personal matter. More to come…

  • Additionally, the pie chart showing outgoing spending you had last year in the Dispatcher does not fly. Names, numbers ($) in addition to percentages.

    That is the bare minimum to provide the members of the largest deputies union in North America.

    Don’t get stuck on your “voting member” schtick, we all pay something, even those who don’t agree with you on every issue.

  • Tan and Green, no, not everyone pays. Did you here of the Janus decision?

    We could go on and on, on this blog or you could get involved, if you are still a member!

    Do you get tired of the members in the community who constantly complain about what YOU can do better, but never do anything to help resolve their gripes.

    At the last Rep meeting two members approached our Exec Director and asked to see the finances, he showed them everything.

    I’m not aware of any POA who publishes every detail of their finances, are you.

    As far as “pocket checking” for endorsements? Now your throwing BS to stir the pot.

    A very small portion of your dues goes into a PAC/PIC fund like every other POA, check that most other POA’s put allot more into their PAC/PIC, and you can opt out and have your portion go into ALADS C.A.R.E.S. if you’d like. Oh that’s right you don’t want to contribute to that either.

    Sorry brother, I’m finally at a loss for words. I guess the only other option for you is to come down and run the organization, since you have all the answers.

    Sadly I doubt you will step up to the plate, because as long as you sit in the bleachers you never have to worry about striking out.

  • Are you open to have a candid conversation with deputies who do not agree with ALADS political posturing and spending.

    The surveys from ALADS have a long way to go, but it’s not your fault that a large percentage of deputies are clueless of their potential power in having a say-so regarding ALADS Board decisions.

    Every deputy is not on board with every liberal thought and action decided solely upon ALADS Board of Directors. Many deputies are NOT liberal and NOT Democrats

    It’s very easy to vacillate and attempting to be all knowing as you claim to be “the voice” for deputies.

    Many are reluctant to speak to you because of the obvious brush off with standard answers from the ALADS Playbook.

    More to come…

  • Tan and Green, sure let’s have that conversation. Pack the house, obviously I haven’t been able to!

    Brother, I don’t know who your talking about when you say brush off and standard answers. This whole conversation we’re having, on a public blog, destroys that accusation.

    I don’t know if you are aware, during the Governor’s race, I heard a lot of people on social media raving about Travis Allen, and many said ALADS wouldn’t listen.

    So, we put more work into getting a candidate to come down and interview, than we ever have, even though he had not requested our endorsement.

    He would set an appoint and then cancel and we would accommodate with a new appointment, until we finally got one.

    We put it out in an email blast and social media that he was coming down. We had a total of six people show to witness the interview, and if I remember correctly three were retirees. Oh, yeah and in the interview he couldn’t commit to leaving our pensions alone, so we didn’t endorse anyone in the primary, but we endorsed Cox in the general.

    Look, I have no idea who you are, but unfortunately I’ve got this bad habit of battling people with bogus claims.

    If you really have ideas to make ALADS, your union, better then come down and help. Is this where you give me your schtick about you’re too busy working?

    I suspect your true goal is to simply try and make ALADS, or me, look bad, and that’s why I respond.

    By the way we have a Political Endorsement Committee who interviews all candidates, and makes recommendations to the Board. Oddly enough I can’t hardly get anyone to be part of it, even though we ask people all the time. Here’s your opportunity. We have openings on the committee!

  • Definitely have to agree with you,Ron, on the Gascoon issue. If he gets elected we are going to be in a world of hurt. As it stands trying to get the DA’s to file in LACO is turning into a nightmare……Why even hook anybody anymore cause the local DA’s probably will not file regardless how tight the case is….AND trying to book a body with all of the requirements(e-book,forms for medical, arrestee children notification,warrant attestation) absolutely ridiculous…but hey we have plenty of command staff to come up with new rules/regs….lol

  • Ron Hernandez:
    The pot calling the kettle black, really?
    Be careful how you chime in on Facebook with regards to California politics.
    The Sheriff that you and ALADS endorsed is equally involved.

  • Ron of that 13 how many pointed their weapon at LE in a threatening manner. I’m just asking cause I don’t know. Most African Americans are scared of being stopped by LE. Hell I was scared to be stopped even when I had my badge and gun on me.

    Apparently race out of place is against the LAW in LA County.

  • “Anonymous,” I don’t know what’s more irritating the fact that you make a vague accusation, as if Ihave something to hide, or the fact that you troll me on FB and then come on hear and hide, while making said accusation.

    I’m not worried about anything I say on FB, or about politics. I can explain myself, whatever it is you’re talking about.

    The unfortunate part of what I’m doing right now is defending myself against haters, like yourself, who have a bone to pick with me, or ALADS.

    But, I’ve been doing it for over 3 years and have learned that it’s part of the job.

    “Wowzer,” go to the mirror and hand yourself the mic, and come back and hit me again as “Anonymous,” or use the name “Obvious,” because it is, that you are the same person.

  • “And 1” I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. That would require me to have intimate knowledge of all the justified shootings.

    I feel bad, that as a LE Officer, you may believe that our partners are out there randomly shooting people.

    It’s easy to judge who you would have or wouldn’t have shot from the benefit of “20/20 hindsight!”

    Good thing that’s not the standard, or we would have a lot more dead LE partners than we already have.

  • The only thing “obvious” is that you’re playing coy as well as being reluctant to address the sentiments, silent and otherwise, about your endorsee who defies County and Federal Government.

    You paid the tab Ron, so drink up.

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