Criminal Justice LAPD

The Death of Lily Burk: What We Know – UPDATED

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Here’s what we know about the death of 17-year-old Lily Burk.

This terrible thing happened within a comparatively short period of time and started with no hint of anything dangerous when Lily went to run an errand for her mother in the middle of the afternoon.

She left her parents home in Los Feliz around 2:30 p.m. and drove to Southwestern School of Law that is located on Wilshire Blvd. just east of Vermont. She was going to pick up some papers that her mom, lawyer and law school prof Deborah Drooz, needed from the school. She arrived at the law school at about 2:45.
At around 3 p.m., on her way back to her car, Lily encountered a 50-year old man named Charlie Samuel near to the school. Somehow Samuel allegedly persuaded/ threatened/forced Lily back into her own car and the two drove into downtown Los Angeles where Lily tried more than once to get money out of various ATMs with her credit card, presumably to give to her abductor.

It does not appear, according to police, that Lily’s kidnapper was armed with a gun or a knife.

But he had some kind of sharp weapon.

During that same time period, she called her parents twice to ask how to withdraw funds from an ATM with a credit card (as opposed to an ATM card)—one call to her mother, Deborah, one to her father, music journalist, Greg Burk.

Greg told Lily that she couldn’t use a credit card to get money from an ATM. They arranged that Lily would drive home to get the money from from her dad. It appears Lily kept her head and was acting strategically. But she did not make it home.

Sometime in the next two hours Lily Burk struggled for her life and died in her car. The exact cause of death has not been released, but we do know there was blunt force trauma.

UPDATE: And we now know that her throat was slashed.

Sometime within that same two hours
Samuel allegedly drove Lily’s black Volvo to 458 S. Alameda Street, where he abandoned the car with this lovely, smart, funny, talented girl’s body inside in the passenger seat.

He walked less than a mile away where he began to drink. A little after 5 p.m., two Metropolitan Division, mounted division officers, Miguel Dominguez and Gary Copeland, were patrolling downtown when they spotted Samuel drinking in public. They detained him and found a crack pipe in his possession. (Samuel is on parole, thus subject to search at any time.) At around 5:30 p.m., Samuel was arrested for Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia, which would have been a violation of the terms of his parole at the very least. (Samuel was downtown to take part in a court-mandated drug treatment program that was a condition of an earlier conviction.) The mounted police had no way of knowing that their drunk would soon be accused of having caused the death of a promising young woman and ruining a string of lives in the process.

[Zach Behrens at LAist has constructed a Google map showing the locations. I don’t know why this seems important, but it does. For those of us who sometimes must report grief-producing stories, drowning ourselves in details is a productive way of coping. ]

When Lily never came home, her parents, Greg Burk and Deborah Drooz, realized that something was terribly wrong. Too much time had passed after those odd calls. Lily was not the type of kid who would have just left her parents waiting and wondering. At around 7 p.m., they called the LAPD and reported their daughter to be missing. The case landed at the department’s Northeast division missing persons and sex crimes desk.

In the meantime, Greg and Deborah did everything they could think to do to find their daughter. They called Lily’s cell phone carrier to find out where exactly she had been when she made those two calls and found that they had been made east of the law school. They also called the bank to find out about the withdrawal attempts. Greg and Deborah gave all this information to the Northeast officers.

Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, the commanding officer for Central Bureau of the LAPD, which includes Northeast, said that, from the beginning the case was treated seriously. Lily was not considered a runaway. Northeast detectives searched all night but found nothing, he said.

Everything changed at 6:15 on Saturday morning. That is when an employee of a downtown business saw a woman’s body in a parked car and called 911. The dead woman turned out to be young, a teenager. It was Lily Burk.

Central division homicide was quickly called in. The lead detective on the case was Robert Nelson.

The Central detectives—a group that eventually would quickly grow to six detectives, and some additional uniformed officers—- caught one small break because Samuels was stupid. Or maybe he just panicked, or was too high to think rationally, or alternately was too desperate for a fix to cover his tracks very thoroughly. In any case, police found fresh fingerprints on the driver’s side of the car that were not those of a young woman. On Sunday morning, he discovered that the prints matched a man who was already in custody.

However prints alone are not enough for a case. For the next nearly 48 hours detectives worked in the field getting what they hoped would be the rest of the evidence needed for a solid prosecution.

At 9 p.m. Sunday night, Samuel was officially arrested for Lily’s murder. According to the sheriff’s department inmate information site, he was booked at 11:27 that same night.

A law enforcement source told the LA Times that Samuel had a “previous history of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and kidnapping.”

Although the arrest was made Sunday night, Central homicide detectives had not yet gone home when officers came into the station for the 6:15 a.m. shift change on Monday morning, a Central officer told me.

The official announcement of the arrest was made around 7. After that Detective Nelson, Detective Thayer Lake, and their core crew went to breakfast.

The department held a press conference at 11 a.m on Monday.

“This case strikes close to home for all of us with children,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz when he was in front of the press microphones. “This is really a parent’s worst nightmare.”

Yes. It does. I have already talked to my own 23-year-old son twice today because I had the irrational need to hear his voice.

I know that Chief Diaz was speaking—not just in the professional abstract, but personally. He has two kids of his own on whom he completely dotes. Two smart and talented and beautiful daughters.

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, who was also at the press conference, has a daughter too. She is 17.

Just like Lily Burk.

36 Comments

  • Between the Times and Daily News, it emerges that Samuel was released from State prison in February with a rap sheet that including felony gun possession, drugs AND KIDNAPPING.

    He was arrested April 23rd for a parole violation and sentenced to a drug rehab program instead of prison — WHY, when he had a prior for kidnapping, which he did to Lily? Aren’t drug rehab programs supposed to be alternatives for non-violent offenders? This second release would have been from the County jail system run by Baca — haven’t you written here about Baca’s preference for such rehab programs over jail time when possible? Could you clarify what you know about the Sheriff’s policies on this?

    When Samuels was picked up Friday night being seen using drugs, it was completely independent of this history — but apparently the LAPD was in the process of doing a background check so luckily he was already in jail when they found Lily’s body and car. Sadly even if they’d found her much earlier the cops couldn’t have done anything since Samuels seemed to have killed her soon after meeting her.

    The fact that a kidnapper and felon with a rap sheet for violent crimes including robbery and assault was released into a drug rehab program for a short time then back onto the streets within two months is just outrageous. Clearly he was far from “cured” as a junkie, either. This is one crime that tragically was “in the cards” sooner or later.

  • Just like with the paroled serial killer in N.C. and S.C., you can’t release prisoners that the parole system is either incapable, incompetent, or unwilling to control. If they can’t keep up with what they have, what will 27,000 more do to them?

  • WBC, I am trying to sort out the details of Samuel’s past crimes (convictions), his sentencing, the time he actually did in prison, the conditions of his parole etc. I’ve not put anything up more than you see because I don’t have all the puzzle pieces.

    Just talking hypothetically, if Samuel served his term and his parole violation was drug-related—like say he tested dirty—then drug treatment would be logical.

    And what would you have us do with people who have committed serious crimes but have served their sentences? We don’t attempt to help, rehabilitate or fix them while they’re inside, that’s for damn sure. Instead we dump them on the street in most cases, more screwed up and damaged and less able to cope than when they went in, and then we act shocked when bad things happen. (I don’t mean you, necessarily, I mean generally.)

    Anyway, I’m on the trail.

  • You first three commenters should be ashamed of yourselves, though I know you won’t be. This is not yet the time to politicize this case. For one thing, we don’t know everything about Samuel’s prior record, his prior parole violation, or any of that. For now, with everyone’s grief so fresh, you should let this tragedy be or at least adopt a more respectful tone. It’s ugly to turn this tragedy into nothing more than another opportunity for you to snark at liberals.

  • NOT criticizing your take here, and appreciating you want to get the facts and not shoot from the hip, but to consider: For one thing, someone who had a rap sheet for drugs among the other felonies (seems he was in possession of illegal weapons while busted for drugs, and can you find out if the kidnapping was in connection to this or to robbery? Carjacking?) didn’t just “test dirty” for drugs at a parole check. Was the kidnap in connection to the carjacking and robbery: in other words, exactly like or very similar a crime to this?

    Also WHO authorized his release when he was clearly back on crack in the middle of the street for cops to see (a sign of someone who’s nowhere near rehabilitated, seems to me) right after his release June 24th, after just 2 months? Is 2 months the “standard treatment” cured or not, or did someone certify that he was good to go?

    And wasn’t he released early from prison in the first place — how did THIS guy get picked? Exactly how many/ what priors did he have and in what combination? How much time did he get each time? How much of it did he serve? Was he plea-bargained out by the DA’s office?

  • Just read the “oakwood” post after mine and you’re the one who should be ashamed for attacking without basis and jumping to conclusions. WHO is “snarking at liberals?” You mean, at the Republican DA and Sheriff? Since when is asking questions about how OUR justice system does and does not work inappropriate and “politicizing” in a “shameful” way? To the contrary it’s our duty and obligation.

    And while we don’t know “everything about Samuel’s prior record, his prior parole violation,” excuse me, we do know the facts discussed here and seek to piece together the rest.

    The context of this thread is PRECISELY ‘What we know” about this as a homicide case, the timelines being given and followed in the papers and media, etc. In no way is it disrespectful to the victim and her family to put it into this context and the greater context of what went wrong and what we can do to prevent similar crimes — to the contrary.

    Your hostility and lumping in all the “previous commenters” is misplaced and inappropriate.

  • Earlier the police stated that there was no indication that the killer had a gun or a knife, yet the L.A. Times is reporting that the coroner’s report indicates that her throat was slashed, though it is not clear if that was the main cause of death.

  • Lily’s death is one of the most soul-crushing and bone-chilling stories I’ve ever read. A promising teen, an only child, murdered while running an errand for her mom. Could there possibly be anything more cruel? My heart breaks for her parents. While I’m glad that the police seem to have caught her killer (so at least we know he can’t hurt anyone else), nothing changes the fact that Lily is gone. Nothing will bring her back.

    This is the kind of event that can tear people’s lives apart. Lily’s parents seem like kind, wonderful people who were doing the right thing and raised a lovely young woman. My hope is that they can somehow remain whole as they work through their devastating loss.

    I hope this story will also lead parents to talk to their kids about how to be street smart. From the reports it appears the abductor did not have a weapon. When he was attempting to withdraw cash, could Lily have run away? Perhaps she was afraid to abandon her car. Or maybe she thought she could control the situation and then things got ugly. I keep running different scenarios through my mind, wishing for a different outcome to this story. Lily causes a scene, Lily runs away, Lily breaks out of the moving car and breaks a leg but lives. Anything, just any other option.

    I don’t have kids, but if I did, I would agree with them on a secret, innocous-sounding word to use if they ever called when under similar circumstances to Lily’s. A word that would signify “I’m in distress, please call the cops NOW.”

    Examples: “Hi Dad, it’s POOKIE…” or “Hi MUMSY, it’s Lily”

    What I don’t get is why banks don’t let customers use a second “Mayday” code to access their accounts. Such a code could trigger a call to police to show up at the location because a customer had withdrawn cash under duress.

  • I wish the state would not waste any effort, time, or money on a repeat kidnapping offender and now a murder “suspect”

    This is the perfect candidate for a swift death penalty, forget reforming such a dangerous person.

  • All the commenter’s input, Celeste’s concerned updates, all the emotion flying around this unspeakably tragic story. The pitiful senseless travesty this poor excuse for what’s left of a human perpetrated. The morbid loss of this bright child leads my proactive redneck brain to create a scenario where this young woman pulled a sleek little .38 revolver from her bag and blew this predator to Hell. I can only dream.

  • This is just so, so sad. It makes me sick to know this beautiful, smart child who was looking forward to her future was murdered by a piece of scum crack head. My heart goes out to her parents-I can’t even imagine the heartbreak they are experiencing. The shame of it all is something I can’t even comprehend-a model child taken away by a cockroach who had no business being on the street in the first place. God be with you Lily and be with your parents at this terrible time in their life.

  • I’m reading that he was booked and jailed as a “low-level offender” based on his “commitment crime” of testing for drugs during a parole check. He was then released after drug treatment with the lowest level of parole supervision.

    HOW does someone with all those prior felonies including kidnapping, aggravated assault, weapons, drugs, robbery get treated based on his latest “commitment crime” and not his whole record? The TV news is summing it up as being “a lifetime criminal.” Truly scary.

  • My younger brother died a few weeks after he turned 23. I won’t go into the circumstances but there were a lot of questions surrounding it. My parents NEVER got over it. Lily’s parents will NEVER get over it. There is no closure. There is no answer. Nothing will stop the pain. Everyone wants to believe that there is at least one positive thing to say when something goes terribly wrong — there is a lesson, a message, a belief — whatever. Until you are in the shoes of the person that has lost a young, beloved child with so much promise, you will NEVER KNOW just how terrible, terrible, terrible it is. Unimaginable. The pain never ends. Yes, you learn to cope and live life. But … there are really no words. Oh, I am soo sooo soooooo so sorry … I am so sorry, Lily, and I am so sorry, Lily’s mom and dad … I am so very sorry.

  • What Lisa said: every word. My wife lost a brother at the age of 25 and the loss devastated the family. My deepest, most heartfelt condolences.

  • BTW I’m also the mother of a teen just a couple of years away from driving and I take this personally and worry every time I hear about anything like this, a shooting at a club, etc. We will all have to let our kids “go” into the world, but want to do all we can to keep them safe. That’s why my first thought is that this shouldn’t have happened, should never happen again.

    A career criminal with all those prior felonies including the very thing that took Lily’s life, being booked and treated and released just for his “commitment offense” and therefore at the lowest level of punishment – a 2-month drug rehab that wasn’t effective — with the lowest level of parole supervision to boot, is shocking and outrageous. After he allegedly got early release from the state prison in Feb. While we do indeed hear about people locked up “with the book thrown at them” for stealing a pizza if it’s the third strike. This makes no sense, it shouldn’t have happened, shouldn’t happen to anyone or especially a child.

  • Oakwood: You…should be ashamed of yourselves… This is not yet the time to politicize this case.

    Oh, bull. You’re like the person who puts their hand over a camera lens at a tradegey — not because there is a good reason but because you think that somehow, with no rationale at all, it makes you look caring.

    I didn’t know the young girl or her parents. I’m sorry for them. But, the time to discuss why she is dead and what could have been done is now, while people are focusing on it and learning what mistakes were made.

  • This is a terrible tragedy. Parents should never have to bury their children.

    Was it a preventable tragedy?

    Celeste’s take:

    And what would you have us do with people who have committed serious crimes but have served their sentences? We don’t attempt to help, rehabilitate or fix them while they’re inside, that’s for damn sure.

    The major reason voters demanded and got very strict law enforcement and some mandatory sentences (3 strikes, for all of its faults) was the failure of the “rehabilitation” thinking. Most criminals can not be rehabilitated. There is no effective treatment I am aware of for borderline personality disorder and related psychopathies.

    There are a lot of people who need to be locked up for a long time – not for rehabilitation and not for punishment, but to protect the rest of us from them.

  • There is no effective treatment for borderline personality disorder. That is the truth. Making us all culpable for talking to the Anonymouse, who is diagnosed by LAPD as borderline personality disorder that will become violent in future time. Look at yourself Celeste and the rest of us for providing her a forum without questioning her loonieness. We answer her questions, respond to her posts, and all the while LAPD KNOWS that one day she will become violent and attack an innocent person. Let the one of us who is without sin cast the first stone. Or in other words, we’re hypocrites.

  • About three weeks ago, three traditional mexican brothers, twins and a younger brother were at the local soccer/sport shop to buy some soccer equipment when a car driven by a wanted gang member boxed them in as they were trying to leave the soccer shop. From the car, two gangsters unloaded round after round to the back of the vehicle’s window – one of the twins was struck through the head and died.
    A sonabitch gang member that knew he was green lighted to be killed – sold his piece of shit car at a really cheap price to these kids family.
    Good kids playing soccer – end up dead. thanks to the violence of gangs and the early release program of criminals. Did this story make it in the Headline News? NO? Why? Because no one cares about some good first generation poor ass Mexican kids trying to live a good law obeying life in a gang ridden area…..NO ONE!
    Fuck gang members and those who support them, love them, want them to have special treatment in prison, rights, or early release. I support captial punishment.

  • Poplockerone gets my vote for gang czar, he eloquently sites another example of violent gang members who should be executed and not expect special treatment or early release.

  • That’s a terrible, terrible, tragic story. Great evil was done.

    You know what caused that kid’s death? Two murderers. And the guy who sold the car, who is equally culpable, equally criminal, equally evil in his actions.

    But the fact that you need to globalize blame for this tragedy is its own form of banging.

  • What is most tragic in this story is that if her CREDIT CARD could have been used to get cash from the ATM and it was given to this homeless criminal..perhaps she could have let him take the car and the cash and been alive. Secondly, I agree with one of the above comments that there should be with every ATM bank code, a 911 option that looks to be something else so as to not alert the kidnapper. Then the police could be immediately alerted to seize the criminal at the ATM with the victim. Simple solutions that may have perhaps saved her life.

  • Gava Joe said – “The morbid loss of this bright child leads my proactive redneck brain to create a scenario where this young woman pulled a sleek little .38 revolver from her bag and blew this predator to Hell. I can only dream.”

    I agree with Gava Joe. I read where this young girl had volunteered at a needle-exchange program in L.A. last summer for drug addicts, and was going to do so again this summer. All well and good, but instead of, or at least in addition to, a needle-exchange program, she should have been sent to a self-defense course. Even if she had not carried a weapon, she might have known some ways to fight back or to hinder or avoid the kidnapping in the first place, or even escape once taken. A women in the big city, away from her place of safety, should be like a white-tail deer, always alert, always aware of her surroundings, always ready to flee from danger.

    One of the rules that is stressed for women in self-defense courses is to NEVER get in the car with an abductor. Kick, scratch, fight back, scream, feign a faint, throw up, do anything you can think of, but at all costs try to avoid being forced into that car. Statistics show that once you get in the car your chances of surviving go way down.

    It is sadly ironic that her killer was one of the very type of people that she was trying to help through the volunteer program.

    And, to “Oakwood Alum” who says this is not the time for this kind of talk. This is the perfect time for parents to teach their children that REALITY bites and it can bite horrifically hard sometimes. Fine to have empathy for the less-advantaged and down-trodden, but best to also have some street smarts.

  • Good lord, some of you people are really sick, using this awful tragedy to indulge in violent fantasies, dreaming of retributive murder, or just urging us to “learn” lessons you think you already know or assumptions that you wish to be validated. Some of this is tip-toe-ing up to the line of victim-blaming, implying she shouldn’t have cared about the less fortunate or that her parents should have made her take defense classes. As the new post up top says, you all know much less about this case than you think you do. Please take this opportunity to be a little respectful and know that some things are more important than your venting.

  • Oakwood Alum – you can twist it around and read anything that you want into what I said. I was not trying to blame the victim. I feel terrible that it happened and great sympathy for her family. I think it was a horrible waste of a young and promising life, as I have said in previous posts, if you lool back.

    I was simply pointing out that the reality is that women and children are usually the victims of these type of crimes and that it would behoove parents to try to help their children be aware of that danger, and to perhaps help them learn how to “try” to self-defend and deal with those situations, if possible.

    She was too young to carry a weapon and I am sure that is not what her parents would have wanted in any event, but she could have carried pepper spray or mace, or a pocket siren or perhaps even activated the alarm on her car, if she had that type of key. I was also trying to point out to other women that statistics show that their best bet is try to fight off abductors, if at all possible. I realize that she was very young and a very small girl, and that we do not know what his build was, etc., or even what the exact circumstances were, such that it might not have been possible for her to fight him off or escape. I most definitely do not blame her or her parents.

    With regard to her volunteering to help the homeless and drug addicts, I think both she and her parents are to be commended for that. In no way did I mean any disrespect for that. I am sorry that you took it the way that you did. I was using that example to point out the need for a safer approach to the “real world” and the dangers that surely are out there. I still think the whole unfortunate situation serves as an opportunity for that. I truly believe that since this happened that there are many parents who have since sat down with their children and “talked.”

  • Celeste: You know what caused that kid’s death? Two murderers.

    No, no, Celeste. It was the gun! Blame the gun! If you blame the gun, then the buy-back program will work, the 2nd Amendment repealed, and criminals will have to use hammers. Then, we can outlaw hammers!

    – – –

    Don’t be stupid, Oakwood No one here is blaming the victim. You sure seem anxious to overlook the fact that other parolees will kill innocent victims in the future. The longer that action is delayed, the more that others are put at risk.

  • This girl looks so sweet and innocent in the pictures… so sad that a stranger thought nothing more of her life than to take it so ruthlessly.

    I hope he never gets out of prison. I feel for the parents for their loss. God help them! The young lady appeared to have such a gentleness about her… would have made a fine adult someday.

    God help us all!

  • This case is similiar to the Eve Carson murder/kidnapping/robbery/carjacking that took place in North Carolina in 2008. In that case the Federal Government took over the prosecution from North Carolina and is seeking the death penalty because of the homicide in the commision of a carjaking. I really think this case should also be taken over by the Feds and the death penalty should be imposed. Is there anything we can do to get the Feds to take this case?

  • I cannot stop thinking about Lily and the deep sadness this tragic event brings. I was carjacked after just turning 22, and I had no emergency training, but working as a cocktail waitress I knew to look around my car late at night. Even being aware to this extent, a male predator had followed me without me knowing it, and popped out of the darkness and jumped into my car after I’d parked. I had a gut feeling the man was going to kill me. Turns out he had a record of violence, and was on drugs. After trying to ask him what he wanted, he just said “drive or I’ll hurt you” so I drove, and took the first red light as a chance to escape. He grabbed me and we fought while he took over driving, but I was able to attract several cars who followed me by screaming and pulling out all and any of the hysterics inside of me. This was before cell phones. One car following me flagged a taxi, and told him to call the police. I didn’t see any weapon, but witnesses said they saw him grab something he’d put in to my back seat when he later tried to flee. I sustained numerous injuries from the struggle, but none serious, and got away from the guy through my own wits and nerves within probably the longest and most terrifying ten minutes of my life. I keep wondering why Lily’s mother sent her alone to that awful neighborhood, and why she did not have some type of training to know what to do in such a circumstance. Also wonder why her parents were not alarmed when she called making such an atypical request, why she didn’t have an “alarm” trigger word for them to know she was in trouble, why none of the cameras at the ATMs she visited were set up to assist her. I blame no one, but cannot help but run it over in my mind, wanting Lily to have survived this ordeal somehow. My deepest condolences to her family & community.

  • The only thing one can do is to teach your children, your friends, girlfriends, spouses & wives that no matter what the abductor tells you or threatens you with, NEVER get into a car. Most victims who get into the car are dead within a hour of their abduction. That is a statistic from a friend of mine who is a retired LAPD homicide detective.

    Scream, kick, fight, let them shoot or stab you, but don’t get in the car.

    A friend of mine was raped, tortured & murdered, there was great forensic evidence, an eye witness. The killer was charged with murder with 4 special circumstances. He had recently been released from jail. The homicide detective thought he committed similar murders in the SF Bay area, but there was no $ to send him up there to investigate it. The L.A. D.A. at the time (was up for election) and he allowed the killer to plead GUILTY to life with parole… which means you are eligible for parole in 6 years. Her killer got out in 9 years. He has since committed other crimes & is back in jail.

    So, don’t let it shock you that the pig who killed Lily Burk got out, or that he won’t eventually get out unless the family insists to the D.A. that he not be allowed to plead guilty to life with parole.

  • This is just such a terrible, terrible situation. I have been so affected by this tragedy as I have 2 daughters, 19 & 15. It is obvious that Lily had hope during her ordeal, thinking it would turn out OK, and she operated out of love, but this animal had no compassion. I’m really scared for our future. There was one commentator who talked about the different scenarios running around in her head about how Lily could have gotten away. I, too, had the same thoughts running around in my head. I so wish we all could have been there to help her get away and get rid of that piece of scum. This is a situation where I wish we had a real “Dexter” that could dispose of this piece of scum quietly so he doesn’t get to live a life of relative luxury in the prison system. May God bless you Lily and may somehow, someway, your family find some peace in this lifetime.

  • Welcome to my reality.
    The murder of Lily Burk was a tragedy that was bound to happen. I’m a cop who has worked the skid row area for a decade. I deal with these animals on a daily basis. Believe me…those on skid row are not there because of misfortune. They are there by CHOICE. We (our society) have been the enablers of this lifestyle, and ultimately, this tragedy. On a regular basis I read articles and opionions in the local rags (like the LA Times and LA Weekly) about how the police in skid row harass the “homeless” by giving them jaywalking tickets and arresting them for petty crimes like drinking in public and blocking/sleeping on the sidewalk. This behavior is UNACCEPTABLE in the liberal west side enclaves like West LA. To the critics though, it seems to be okay in skid row. Just as long as it’s “NOT IN MY BACKYARD!” We (our society) make excuses for criminal behavior by saying that the “homeless” have no choice. What a bunch of bull! Come down to skid row someday. See your liberal policies in full force. Daily we arrest DRUG DEALERS for 11352 H&S, Cocaine Sells. For a first time offense, they are offered Proposition 36 (3yrs probation and drug treatment) by saying they are an addict and want help. Two days later they’re back out dealing. If you saw the rap sheets of these “poor homeless” people, you’d see a string of violent crime arrests, to include, murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon. The next entry is either a dismissal, or guilty plea to a lesser charge, followed by a minimal sentence of which only half the time is served.

    Charlie Samuel is a posterboy of liberal legislation run amock. A career criminal who had many of his most heinous crimes pled down, then serving minimal time. A PAROLEE who viloated the conditions of his parole, spent a whopping two months in jail, then given “another” chance by being put in a drug treatment program. And who arrested him? A couple of cops who stopped him for drinking in public and found him with a crack pipe. The same type of Chick Sh*t enforcement that our lovely westside Angelenos complain about! (“Don’t you guys have a murderer or rapist to catch??”)

    Four days after this crime, my unit and I were arresting a drug dealer (complete with his still packaged for sales rock cocaine) when along came LA CAN (Community action network) complete with their liberal, white westside lackies, video cameras, and clipboards. They scowled at my coworkers and I as they took notes, filmed us, and took down our car numbers. Obviously we were just harassing another poor homeless person! Too bad they weren’t there to film the horse cops picking on poor ol’ Charlie Samuel just for drinking in public. Belive me, I can go on and on and on, on this subject.

    Wake up Angelenos! This horrible crime was of our own making! We, and our enlightened liberal policies, were the enablers for Charlie Samuel. Sadly a young innocent girl had to pay the horrific price for our moronic liberal policies. Get used to it though. If we continue on our current path, it won’t be the last of this type of incident.

  • What happened to Lily Burk was sad and unfortunate. Robbery and murder is unacceptable in any society. Unfortunately, however, both are going to increase as the economy gets worse. The fact that he had her go to all of those ATM machines tells me that this was a robbery, and not just an attack/rape, etc. There are a lot of Lily Burks out there. In Compton, Inglewood, South Central, Long Beach, East LA, surrounding suburbs..innocent victims of mad criminals perfectly willing to spare a life just to get a buck. The fact that places like Silver Lake are losing people to this “California quicksand” (as Ice Cube calls it) is a sign that our economic crisis is now turning areas that were once safe and trendy into ghettos, too. That’s what happens in a Depression. A lot of people wonder…what will a depression look like? You don’t need a history book. Just drive down Central Avenue, from the 10 freeway all the way into Compton, and that’s what it will look like. But it will look like that everywhere (rich fortresses excluded), as opposed to just the areas designated to be ghettos either by white flight (west side of south central, compton, the many east county suburbs turned barrios) or by architectural design (projects on east side of South Central, Hazard in Boyle Heights, etc.). These sick people like the guy who attacked Burk need to be imprisoned for life, at the very least. Most of us agree there. But until we stop pretending that economic conditions dont’ play a role in these types of crimes, and pretty much most violent crime in general, we’re not going to get anywhere in regards to a long term solution to this madness.

  • CLF…I couldnt agree with you more. I met Lily’s 87 year old grandmother yesterday. I was shocked when I saw her picture and innocently asked “is that your granddaughter” only to hear of her story.
    It is mind boggling to even conceive such an unthinkable loss. Her grandmother says she speaks to her every day. Incredible how someone could actually release such a monster. I will definitely incorporate a CODE WORD with my baby daughter so if I ever get that call I can at least do whatever I can to help her. I truly wish Lily had a chance to be helped that awful day. Rest in peace sweet girl. Glad you keep your grandma company. 😉

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