"Another City Hall Journalist Shoved. Why LAPD Is Dodging Transparency, Again." by Daniel Guss
#AntiSLAPP ahead?
No surprise, here.
Someone, perhaps an aide to LA City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson, shoved KTLA-5 reporter Annie Rose Ramos before this morning’s City Council meeting.
Apparently, this is now a pattern and practice in LA City Hall if a reporter inquires about The Great LA Inferno and, perhaps, Harris-Dawson’s culpability in it as Acting Mayor when “Cocktail Karen” Bass was on the other side of the planet lifting a few.
Though doing this under any circumstance is unacceptable.
Knowing how City Hall works, would it surprise anyone if the City Attorney’s office refuses to recuse itself due to conflicts of interest that I identified for the detective in my similarly abusive experience (at the hands of three Harris-Dawson staffers in January) in order to unlawfully imply that a charge should be filed against this column?
If they do, my response will be an anti-SLAPP motion, which says that the City is misusing legal action in order to censor the public and, in my case, a journalist. A successful anti-SLAPP would require City Hall to pay for its cost.
That’s why I asked the LAPD detective to also explicitly bring the clip to the City Attorney’s attention.
Apparently, that’s an issue.
Our dialogue this morning went as follows in my email to the detective with the subject line Please add this clip to the evidence:
DanielGuss.Substack.com: “It supports my point about physical contact by a Council staffer against, this time, a TV journalist. Please confirm. Dan”
LAPD Detective: “I sent you a new link. please upload it there.”
DanielGuss.Substack.com: “Done. Please confirm receipt. KTLA reporter being shoved, possibly by same female Harris-Dawson aide who attacked me. You may see the back of her head at the beginning frames. Happened this morning. Whether or not SHE complains, I want it included in MY matter.”
LAPD Detective: “I will add it to the case folder. The City Attorney will determine if it is relevant.”
DanielGuss.Substack.com: “Okay, thanks. But please explicitly bring it to their attention because I have seen their ‘we never saw it’ line many times in other issues. If they are angling to claim I am responsible for this incident, my anti-SLAPP motion will want to show that the LAPD did its diligence and explicitly brought it to their attention. Please confirm whether or not you will not only add it to the case file, but advise them of it.”
LAPD Detective: “Yes. I submitted the case to the City Attorney. They have an internal process for recusal and if they determine that there is a conflict, they will send it to the District Attorney.”
DanielGuss.Substack.com: “All due respect, I am asking you to explicitly let them know that I have provided NEW evidence. My requesting this is for transparency, honesty and fairness, not about the aforementioned recusal issue. I am asking for you to explicitly let them know that a new piece of evidence from me has been added to the folder.”
DanielGuss.Substack.com: “If there are no further responses about this request, then I ask for you to include this particular email chain in the evidence so it is there if/when I need an anti-SLAPP lawsuit.”
That’s how abusive, unaccountable government works.
And it’s why I am making it publicly known.
The City Attorney’s office must recuse itself from this case for all of these reasons and more. It’s too bad that the LAPD seems eager to give an assist for intransparency.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to the Daily Mail, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)