Law Enforcement • Media

WLA Named Best Cop Blog by LA Weekly

January 15, 2010
by Celeste Fremon
33 Comments


I am, naturally, very, very flattered by this happy designation—especially since:

1. Once in a very great while I’ve been a bit snippy on the subject of some of the LA Weekly’s own cop coverage (but I’ve always meant it in the nicest possible way).

2. A few of my law enforcement commenters have suggested that WLA is in reality a gang, criminal and therapeutic poetry blog.

All joking aside, a big thank you to LA Weekly.

And, as always, I am daily grateful to the officers of the LAPD and to our Los Angeles County sheriffs—even if I sometimes criticize y’all.

(BTW, does this mean I get to wear a sidearm? Look, I’m just asking.)

Here’s the link to the Weekly’s full list of blog awards.

33 Comments

  • Along with makeup in that stunning purse you might want to pack the “Judge” by Taurus Arms? It’s sweet little revolver that loads either .45 cal or .410 shotgun shells, and is an always popular addition to a lady’s ensemble. Although many fashionable women on the town this year are choosing Springfield Armory’s compact “XDM” semi-auto in either 9mm. or .40 cal. It was chosen 09’s handgun of the year and is both reliable and enduring with 19rnds in the mag and one in the pipe. There’s a certain amt of confidence that goes with a well appointed outfit worn by a wm who can make her way in this predatory world.

  • Celeste, this was a reader poll (of people including moi) – NOT, most decidly. a poll of who the Weekly’s writers like – so you don’t have to give them TOO much credit for being “big” about criticism. THAT is something I’ve never seen.

  • LA’s best “local activism site,” streets blog: well, maybe. If you’re a biker, especially. And they DID interview lots of candidates for major city offices as well as council, on a more nitty-gritty level than other blogs AND they don’t censor comments. (Nor does this site, exc. maybe when it gets TOO weird…)

    Tho I’d have chosen some other blogs in this regard, MAYBE lately, Griffith Park Wayist.

    Best “local news blog” was LAist. Kind of more of a culture blog AND maybe a bit of news, but OK. Fishbowl LA is actually about as ambitious: wonder how close the various choices came on the reader polls?

    For “best food blog:” Eater LA, fine. They’re right on top of the latest openings and closings and trends, so even if you don’t go out anymore as much as you used to, you can look like you to in a pinch. And I still read the NYC version to get a bit of a kick about how much they spend there and how eager they are for food and ambiance we take for granted here. NOT just for that, though: to get a sense of the trends. AND I love the NYC version of Curbed LA, too: it’s such fun to read that the thinnest house in Manhattan, at 9′ standing at 3 stories, just went for $2.7 million, considered a bargain. Without parking. BUT you’ve got to admire the architectural ingenuity – it manages to look really cool inside, and the fact that the skinny kitchen actually looks out onto a fairly lush-looking tree, must have been worth a million alone.

    BUT “best politics blog,” LA Times Top of the Ticket? Just how many of their writers and contributors did they get to keep voting?

  • I am not exactly down with Top of the Ticket either. I would, however, defend LAist as a reasonable choice. I read LAObserved first but LAist is doing original reporting and they get better all the time, particularly Zach Behrens.

    I’m just happy that LA Taco got something. Love LA Taco.

    To me, however, to choose anyone for a cultcha blog (high brow art) other than The Elegant Variation (http://marksarvas.blogs.com/) is sheer madness.

    PS: I like Eater LA too.

  • # Gava Joe Says:
    January 15th, 2010 at 7:18 pm

    Along with makeup in that stunning purse you might want to pack the “Judge” by Taurus Arms? It’s sweet little revolver that loads either .45 cal or .410 shotgun shells, and is an always popular addition to a lady’s ensemble. Although many fashionable women on the town this year are choosing Springfield Armory’s compact “XDM” semi-auto in either 9mm. or .40 cal. It was chosen 09’s handgun of the year and is both reliable and enduring with 19rnds in the mag and one in the pipe. There’s a certain amt of confidence that goes with a well appointed outfit worn by a wm who can make her way in this predatory world.

    …………………..
    I swear to god every blog has that one 60 year old dude trying to sneak in his sex fantasies. Please STFU.

  • I swear to god every blog has that one 60 year old dude trying to sneak in his sex fantasies and that 30 something homo stuck in his mom’s basement who only comes out of the closet on the internet.

  • This guy Stillnoscript is obsessed with BITH, yet he quit posting there. Perhaps his obsession stems from being thrashed with logic and reality every time he tried to debate a topic there. Embarrassment caused him to quit posting but that obsession causes him to keep mentioning BITH. LOL.
    Congrats on your accolades Celeste.

  • I can handle Rob Thomas, BITH Crusher, I Just Own BITH’s criticism just fine. I think Celeste realizes my “fashion accessory” comment was tongue-in-cheek, and any extra wisecracks from the detractors causes me no undue stress.
    I had my active hunting years out here on the prairie, have stalked some fantastic wildlife and ended their lives. The heads on my wall bear witness to their demise. Nowadays I do my hunting with a sweet little Nikon digital SLR camera.

    I’m up early 5:oo (3AM on the West Coast) to try and catch this 10-point Whitetail I’ve scouted for weeks now. The old boy has made it through another year of hunting season and will soon shed his antlers and before that I hope to get some shots of him (not AT him). he’ll live to breed through another rut season, do battle with the horny upstart bucks, and I’ll be watching. Bonehead my German Shorthair wants to go, but he’s yet to learn “stealthy”. He’d rather flush pheasants, and he did it well last year. We’ll walk the wheat stubble again next season God willing and if he flushes a covey of quail or a big cock pheasant, and finally looks back at me asking in dogspeak why I didn’t fire I’ll call him in, give him a liver snack and we’ll continue to enjoy the day.
    Sometimes when instinct tells you to squeeze the trigger it’s better just to embrace the quiet and leave it on “safety”. Have a good day, LA.

  • Gava Joe, I understood that your fashion suggestion was made in exactly the same spirit as was my original side-arm remark in the post. (Ditto those remarks by Jim H., Mavis, Santiago and Hiroshi.)

  • Thanks for the plug for Elegant Variation, Celeste – definitely something someone with my moniker should read more often. Their top must reads sound spot-on. And you’ve gotta love a blog whose self-promo adds, besides the usual “best of” lists, NPR’s: “really brave…or really stupid.”

  • Checked LAist to see if maybe I’m wrong there, and they DO have a story I haven’t seen elsewhere, that the owners of the LA Daily News/ Daily Breeze etc. is filing Ch. 11 today to reorganize, get “breathing space” and figure out what kinds of papers they want to be publishing these days. That’s big news, potentially changing the local media scene further.

    However I’ve generally found that the blog including Zach Behrens, hasn’t so much done original reporting as regurgitating the one-sided biases of the relatively small handful of angry community activists who’ve helped determine recent elections for good and bad, in some cases, very bad (like the Trutanich case, who became a darling of the blogosphere and manipulated it adroitly or anyway, his campaign manager did). The CD2 election was more of an about-face, with the newcomer Essel being seen as the “city hall insider” because she raised the most money. Behrens has always gone with the prevailing winds of these certain blogs, unlike say someone like the more quirky and out-of-the-box thinking Griffith Park Wayist these days, which IS doing some original reporting as well as reposting links in the fashion of LA Observed, maybe with wry commentary.

    None of this is to diss Behrens in any way; he seems to be sincere at what he does and maybe is growing into his job. He has interviewed people like Garcetti in more detail than I’ve seen elsewhere. Politics aside, it IS a must before deciding what to do on a weekend.

    I concur that L A Taco is fun, even though I support the restaurant owners who complain it’s unfair to make them jump through hoops to open and maintain a business, paying the taxes and getting health inspections and so on, while a taco stand can set up outside on a sidewalk for cheap. But they do seem to form an instant community, foster comraderie among devotees who follow them everywhere – that korean taco phenom for example.

  • Great job! Though I tend to think of your blog as more about community issues. I had no idea you were going specifically for police-related content.

  • How can WitnessLa be such a great police blog when its so anti-police?
    It must have to do with all the great rebuttals on all the bullshit postings that goes on here…..
    What else could it be???

  • Yes Poppycock, I’ve no doubt that this distinction is thanks to your “great rebuttals.”

  • To tell the truth, I thought of pOplOckerOne and his comments when I saw that Celeste won the award. I believe that he does add something to the discussion that makes this site a better one for covering the police.

    Inquiring minds want to know…where is Alan working these days?

  • “all the bullshit postings that goes on here”

    So Celeste’s postings are “bullshit”? And this adds something to the discussion how exactly? Pretty disrespectful to your host.

  • I think probably popazit was refering to the COMMENTS which by no means comprise what warranted any awards. On the other hand our host should get kudos for her tolerance. She seems to practice what she preaches. Good job all around, Celeste.

  • Gava Joe,

    I agree Celeste always had kind words to say about me.

    I also read this blog to learn about police policies and tactics, Celeste has been especially helpful when it comes to the immigration issue.

  • I figured you probably wrote the book on policies and tactics, Sheriff Joe. Your unauthorized migre roundups, the green bologna sandwiches, the chain gangs and pink jail togs all served to make your Maricopa Co. tent jails a real testament to 21st Century law enforcement and corrections. Good job, Dorian Gray.

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