"The Risky Political Abacus of Karen Bass" by Daniel Guss
The nation's second largest city is not only in shambles, it is in greater danger than ever.
Last November, in my column “Sanctuary City Charade,” I wrote that the LAPD is “woefully unprepared for terrorism.”
“Shortly after the Hamas terror attack on Israel, I had a brief dialogue with then-LAPD Chief Michel Moore, because it was abundantly clear to me that a city which can’t control copper theft, street takeovers and mass shoplifting incidents is woefully unprepared for terrorism.”
DanielGuss.Substack.com
November 20, 2024
I believe that Los Angeles is in even greater danger now, as Brian K. Williams, the now-former deputy mayor for public safety in Karen Bass’s administration, agreed to plead guilty 12 days ago to the felony charge of threatening to bomb Los Angeles City Hall last year.
Each decision Williams made while working for Bass should have been immediately and transparently scrutinized — last December — for vulnerabilities, because anyone who throws away his life while endangering a city that embodies western culture to the rest of the world, was not prepared to protect any of us, let alone all of us.
And every terror-minded entity, from George W. Bush’s axis-of-evil to lone wolf incels, knows it.
But what concerns me more is that it wasn’t until this weekend’s anti-Semitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, that Bass — now — calls for an “emergency meeting” to assess the substantial risk to LA’s Jewish communities.
Now???
Didn’t her political abacus call for an emergency meeting last December when the FBI raided Williams’ home???
At the time, her spokes-hole Zach Seidl claimed in a quote published in the LA Times, “the Mayor takes this matter very seriously.”
But not seriously enough to transparently assess everything Williams did, from people he hired to public safety policies he endorsed.
That’s a big, red flag, my friends, because Tom Homan, a top Trump administration official, is “convinced,” as I am, that the “US will see major terror attacks because of Biden’s lax border policies,” according to a column in today’s New York Post and other media outlets not beholden to Bass et al.
Hunch: Bass’s corrupt, unprepared and vulnerable LA provides plenty of opportunity for that, and not only at LA Live.
Bass is reacting to the Boulder incident, rather than proactively assessing every risk to all of Los Angeles.
That only happens when a politician is more concerned about how news headlines impact her odds of re-election rather than the immediate safety and security… of everyone. Like a risky political abacus playing into her every utterance, appearance and finely tuned press release.
Part of the blame goes to LA’s incurious (read: Lazy) news media, to which Bass’s office feeds neatly tailored packages with quotes from Bass-flattering sycophants and “b-roll” footage that gives them a few easy minutes to lead their broadcasts.
Meanwhile, LA City Council is pre-occupied with censoring critics, playing shell games with its meeting schedule and handing out costly calligraphy certificates (the framed ones reveal which honorees are of higher caste) before setting-sail for its sleepy summer recess that should be canceled.
Not postponed, but canceled.
Like the bad guys are seeking to do to the rest of us.
(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.)