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Reckoning With Cosby

Terelle Jerricks
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Reckoning With Cosby

Exclusive Showtime Docuseries Continues Through Black History Month

Bill Cosby was a role model for comics like W. Kamau Bell, who produced and directed the docuseries, showing that you could be smart and funny in equal measure. In We Need to Talk About Cosby, he asks the question: “How do we talk about Bill Cosby? Here’s all the good he did and all the other things that I and many other people believe he did.”

NPR’s television critic Eric Deggans interviewed Bell for the NPR Storytelling Lodge at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. During that interview, Deggans asked why he made a film with pundits, comics, assault survivors, experts and more speaking on Cosby’s legacy.

A big part of the reason, as Bell has told in other outlets, was that few people wanted to speak about Cosby on tape, for a variety of reasons.

Kamau referenced a segment in the docuseries about Black stunt performers. It begins with Black actress and model Gloria Hendry, who appeared in the James Bond film Live And Let Die, saying there were no Black stuntwomen to film a scene where Bond fights her. Instead, a white man dressed in a white sleeveless outfit with his skin colored black, served as the stunt double.

Bell tells how Cosby on the set of I Spy, his very first TV show, told the producers he would not work on the show unless they got him a Black stunt performer after watching a white stuntman getting painted black. Bell said that changed the whole industry.

Reportedly, when Bell heard a documentary on Black stuntmen pulled a Cosby interview, he worried the rush to not talk about the comic would also eliminate important information. In Bell’s estimation, if something wasn’t done to reckon with the two sides of Cosby — the side of him known as America’s Dad and the other, a serial rapist, critical Black history could be lost if mishandled.

A spokesperson for Cosby released a statement earlier this week calling Bell’s project a “PR hack,” noting the superstar comedian has denied all allegations of drugging and assault and claiming, “despite media’s repetitive reports of allegations against Mr. Cosby, none have ever been proven in any court of law.” Cosby was found guilty on three counts of assault in 2018 and served almost three years in prison before the conviction was overturned on appeal.

The docuseries features stories from several women who say Cosby drugged and raped them, using a timeline to compare dates of the assaults to important milestones in the comic’s career. Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy model, told Bell that Cosby assaulted her in 1969. This was years before Bell was born.

Bell doesn’t ask Cosby for comment. He deliberately chose this course of action in order to make this docuseries a conversation about Cosby, rather than with him, and did so in part out of concern for the survivors.

“Once you get the buy-in from some of the survivors to do something that is very delicate — we’re going to tell your story,” Bell said. “But there’s also going to be stuff in here that is about the good parts of Bill Cosby’s legacy — to get them to buy into that part is big. It would feel like a total betrayal to then go, also, we reached out to Bill Cosby, and we’re going to interview him.”

Deggans notes that what Bell’s work does differently than documentaries like Surviving R. Kelly and Framing Britney Spears is it asks audiences to reexamine how we all may have shrugged off past controversies. Bell is after something different.

“The commonality is not listening to women,” Bell said. “The thing that we all need to do, and specifically as men, is we have to do a better job of prioritizing, centering and platforming the voices of women, especially brothers like me and you who are in positions of power and privilege.”

I would go so far as to argue that Bell is also after a reconciling of the two sides of Bill Cosby — the side that advanced civil rights in film and television, the side that championed historically Black colleges and universities; a trailblazer for actors and comedians who followed him — with the side that sexually assaulted scores of women over the 50 year span of his career; the side of Cosby, whose power and prestige silenced many of his victims. In other words, exacting accountability doesn’t have to mean the erasure of the good and the admirable in Cosby. But it does mean there has to be accountability no matter what.

In the old media landscape, traditional network television dominated and Americans with a television in their household organized their time around their favored, shows. For better or for worse, the old media landscape allowed for a collective experience of ground-shaking events. We Need to Talk About Cosby is airing only on Showtime with no plans of it being aired on Netflix or any other platform without a Showtime subscription for the foreseeable future.

Subscriptions are available for purchase through Apple, Roku, Amazon, your cable provider or the Showtime website. The four-episode docuseries began airing on Jan. 30. The second episode airs on Feb. 6.

POLA Announces ‘Green Shipping Corridor’ Plan

Paul Rosenberg
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POLA Announces ‘Green Shipping Corridor’ Plan

Detailed Implementation Plan Promised By Year End

On Jan. 28, the Port of Los Angeles announced a partnership with Port of Shanghai, and C40 Cities to work with leading industry partners to begin transitioning to zero-carbon fueled ships by 2030, with a commitment to deliver an implementation plan by the end of 2022. But, as with the Clean Truck Plan, transitional fossil fuel use remains a troubling concern, among others.

“International collaboration is essential to decarbonize global supply chains,” said Port of LA Executive Director Gene Seroka. “It’s time to get started on this important work.”

“I am impressed with the commitment, however, I’ve learned that, when it comes to these things, it’s a lot easier to make promises than it is to keep them,” said Joe Lyou, president and CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air. “I’ll be a lot happier when the green shipping corridor becomes a reality.” Lyou’s comment was typical of initial responses from activists, which combined a mixture of praise and caution.

“Note that, as with the Clean Trucks Plan, the commitment doesn’t reduce climate and air pollution. It’s the fulfillment of the commitment that matters,” Lyou explained. “When they development their implementation plan, they will need to make sure that the time lines and deliverables are enforceable commitments that include meaningful consequences for failing to make good on the promises.”

Perhaps the most enthusiastic response came from Xiaoli Mao, lead author of a 2020 study from the International Council on Clean Transportation, assessing the possibility of such a corridor using hydrogen as a fuel.

“This is exciting news,” said Mao. “We’ve shown in our 2020 study that technically speaking, 99% of a container shipping lane traffic between Pearl River Delta in China and San Pedro Bay in the US can be powered by green hydrogen with just minor changes on ship operations. This announcement, which involves a very similar shipping lane, provides added confidence that a green shipping corridor this long could become a reality very soon.”

But she added a note of caution: “We need to be aware though, to make sure that the corridor considers shipping decarbonization solutions based on their life-cycle greenhouse gas reduction potentials.”

“With ships being a huge contributor of the most harmful air pollution and greenhouse gases, I’m overjoyed [with the plan],” said Richard Havenick, San Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council and Harbor Community Benefits Board member.

“Though less lofty than the Clydebank Declaration goal of six green corridors by mid-decade, I am grateful to the C40 for their immediate goal to develop the Green Shipping Corridor Implementation Plan by year-end 2022 to include deliverables, milestones, and partnership roles.” Balancing caution and hope, he added, “I hold the expectation that green shipping means free of carbon and free of methane and that the San Pedro Bay Port complex is the venue to gather the great minds necessary to achieve the goal by 2030.”

“We thank Mayor Garcetti, C40 Cities, the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Shanghai, and leading industry partners for advancing a horizon of hope,” said Dawny’all Heydari, Ship It Zero Campaign Lead at Pacific Environment. “In 2021, fossil-fueled ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach increased cancerous particulate matter emissions in Southern California by the equivalent by 100,000 big rig trucks per day. With our port neighbors and oceans dying now, we need urgent action to end ship pollution in 2022 — and a 100% zero-emissions international shipping future this decade.” But, Heydari added, “Inclusion of the term ‘low carbon’ in this announcement is concerning: We call on leaders involved in this corridor and all ocean shippers to reject LNG and interim fuels and rapidly invest only in 100% zero-emissions solution from well-to-wake.”

The plan “sets a climate leadership bar for ports, shipping companies, and the retail brands that ship their goods on heavily polluting container ships,” said Kendra Ulrich, shipping campaigns director at Stand.earth. “Climate laggards like Target and Walmart should take note: the massive pollution impact of this industry on our climate and public health will no longer sail under the radar.”

“While we celebrate the announcement, we also urge companies and governments to ensure that this green corridor is truly fossil-free,” Ulrich added. “Too often, the oil and gas lobby have derailed climate action, and have been pushing the shipping industry to switch to LNG as a false climate solution. Now is not the time to be blown off course by yet another GHG-intensive fossil fuel.”

“We welcome more such collaboration to be announced in coming years,” said Mao. “As mentioned in the announcement, a green shipping corridor is a great venue for multi-stakeholder partnership to ensure that cargo demand, transport service, fuel demand and required infrastructure can be developed coordinately to deliver a fast and economic transition to decarbonizing the shipping industry. I am especially glad that the announcement mentioned zero-carbon fuels since that’s an area that the much needed early investment is still lacking right now.”

African American Leisure Yesterday and Today

Melina Paris
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African American Leisure Yesterday and Today

Historically, leisure and vacationing in the United States was solely the province of the wealthy. By the late 19th century, attitudes to leisure and vacations began to expand to more types of workers, including the lower economic classes. In the 1890s, companies and local councils and governments began to pay or even subsidize leisure and vacation time for their employees. But this period was also oppressed by the heyday of Jim Crow restrictions.

In 2020, historian and author Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson released her book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites During the Jim Crow Era. In it, Jefferson examines how African Americans pioneered America’s “frontier of leisure” by creating communities and business projects in conjunction with their growing population in Southern California during this period.

This past month, Jefferson discussed her book with First Things First on KBLA TALK 1580 host Dominique DiPrima. They talked about the role of community and media in spreading awareness about social justice issues and the legacy of Bruce’s Beach. It was moderated by Los Angeles County Library director Skye Patrick and included Supervisor Janice Hahn.

The story of Bruce’s Beach provided a framework in this virtual discussion. In 2021, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn initiated efforts to return the Bruce’s Beach property to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce. The Bruces purchased the ocean-side property in Manhattan Beach and built the Bruce’s Beach resort between 26th and 27th streets.

Soon after, the Bruces and their customers were harassed and threatened by white neighbors including the Ku Klux Klan. Within one day of the resorts’ opening, local property owners acted through public power to contest the leisure of Bruce’s Beach patrons. Jefferson referenced a June 1912 Los Angeles Times article stating “landowner and city founder, George H. Peck, [of San Pedro’s Peck Park] staked off and installed ‘No Trespassing’ signs on his acreage between the Bruce’s property and the ocean.”

Jefferson noted that though Bruce resort patrons were warned not to cross Peck’s land to reach the ocean, the one-half mile walk around Peck’s land did not deter Bruce’s Beach patrons from going to the breakers.

The Manhattan Beach City Council moved to seize the Bruce’s property as well as surrounding property using eminent domain in 1924, purportedly to build a park. The City of Manhattan Beach took possession of the property in 1929 and it remained vacant for decades.

In December 2021, the Board of Supervisors voted to accept from the state the amended land deed for the property that was once Bruce’s Beach Lodge to finally, legally transfer the property to the Bruce family.

Jefferson will continue to discuss these ideas in an upcoming California African American Museum exhibition in December 2022 about these leisure sites.

More Los Angeles county leisure locations Jefferson examines in her book include Santa Monica’s South Beach and Ocean Park, Venice and Eureka Villa in Santa Clarita. In Riverside county she includes Lake Elsinore and Corona’s Park Ridge Country club and others.

Historical Travel Tour: Leisure sites that are still operating today:

Murray’s Dude Ranch

Sometimes called the Overall Wearing Dude Ranch, it was a guest ranch in Bell Mountain, California from the 1920s until the 1960s. The ranch was located in Apple Valley, just outside the city limits of Victorville.

Operated for nearly 20 years as a dude ranch with a pool, several small houses, tennis courts, and riding stables, the ranch was used by entertainment personalities and by ordinary families. It was open to all who could afford to come. Murray’s was a recreational favorite for African Americans and a marker in the history of Black recreation.

Highland Beach, Maryland

The oldest Black resort town in the country, this location was founded by Frederick Douglass’ son, Charles, and his wife Laura in 1893. In 1922, Highland became the first black town incorporated in the state. Today in America’s first Black vacation-home community, prices for homes on the market range from $250,000 to $950,000.

American Beach, Florida

Located on Amelia Island near Jacksonville, American Beach was founded in 1935 by Florida’s first Black millionaire, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, who co-founded the Afro-American Life Insurance Co. American Beach attracted some of America’s most influential politicians, celebrities and athletes. It began to decline in 1964 after Hurricane Dora destroyed many homes and businesses. The American Beach Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The beach still exists, although many of the Black families that once owned homes there migrated to other areas.

Sag Harbor, New York

Located on the North Shore of Long Island in the towns of East Hampton and Southampton, Sag Harbor is one of the most expensive and exclusive of the Black vacation-home communities. Today, second and third generations of families still own homes in Sag Harbor, along with some affluent newcomers.

Idlewild, Michigan

“The Black Eden” was a resort where Black writers, business people, physicians and entertainers spent their summers in the 1940s to 1960s located amongst the wilderness. Today, you can still enjoy that open-air experience while exploring the town’s stores, restaurants and activities or traversing through Newaygo Park.

Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

The community of Oak Bluffs has a long history. In the early 1900s when African-American professionals began looking for property to buy or build vacation homes, Oak Bluffs was the only town on Martha’s Vineyard that welcomed Black families. Oak Bluffs is famous for its Gingerbread houses, some of which have been owned by the same families for several generations. (The Obamas purchased a home on Martha’s Vineyard in nearby Edgartown.)

Details: Find Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson’s book at www.alisonrosejefferson.com and Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites During the Jim Crow Era, video link:

Walker’s Cafe May Live On

Hunter Chase
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Walker’s Cafe May Live On

Local activist submits application for historic-cultural monument status

Walker’s Cafe was one of the places that convinced Emma Rault to move to San Pedro. So, when it closed down in October, she was very concerned.

“The first time that my wife and I visited here … we just had this really wonderful experience,” Rault said at the Jan. 18 meeting of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. “It kind of drove home that this might be a place where you can find things that … can be quite difficult to find in Los Angeles, which are community and historic continuity. And Walker’s Cafe kind of represents both of those things and is now under threat.”

The café, which is right next to Point Fermin Park, has been a beloved mainstay of San Pedro since its founding in 1944 by Bessie Mae Petersen and Ray Walker. Before its closing, it was open on and off during the pandemic.

Bessie Mae Petersen, one of the founders and owner of Walker’s Cafe until her death in 1996.

Rault, who is a board member of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, began looking into ways to preserve the café shortly after it closed.

“I was very concerned because suddenly the prospect of this place possibly disappearing from the community forever began to seem very real,” Rault told Random Lengths News.

Rault was already somewhat familiar with preservation advocacy, so she started a petition on change.org to preserve the café, which has gathered more than 2,500 signatures.

“I had a lot of people reach out as well … and share these memories, about … how much the place meant to them,” Rault said. “They were kind of devastated about the prospect of it possibly disappearing from the San Pedro landscape.”

Her efforts paid off. On Jan. 20, the Cultural Heritage Commission of the City of Los Angeles voted unanimously to consider declaring Walker’s Cafe a historic-cultural monument.

Rault laid out the reasons why it should be made a monument at the Cultural Heritage Commission meeting. She said that it was an example of early commercial development in San Pedro, as well as its longest continually running café. In addition, the café is associated with multiple transportation mode histories of Los Angeles, including jitneys, streetcars and motorcycles. It has been in lots of movies and TV shows, such as Chinatown and the recent Perry Mason prequel.

“But above all, it is significant as a much-beloved institution central to the identity and social fabric of San Pedro over 80 years,” Rault said.

When a building is declared a historic-cultural monument by the city, it allows the Cultural Heritage Commission to delay its demolition for up to 180 days, plus an additional 180 days if approved by the city council, according to Los Angeles City Planning’s website. The reason for this is “to create opportunities for preservation solutions to emerge.”

In addition, if designated a monument, the Office of Historic Resources must review and approve any alterations. After an application is submitted for the consideration of making it a monument, a temporary hold is placed on all permits for demolition or alterations. Rault submitted her application in December.

“The desired outcome of landmarking would be to see this iconic place protected and pave the way for continuity of use,” Rault said. “A number of local stakeholders have expressed serious interest in stepping in to take over the business, if indeed the owners are looking to move on.”

Derek Brummett, the trustee of the café, confirmed his family intends to move on when he spoke at the Cultural Heritage Commission on Jan. 20.

“Since my grandmother, Bessie Petersen, passed away, her son, my father, Richard Brummett, has been the sole proprietor of Walker’s Cafe,” Brummett said. “My father is currently 89 years old and is in poor health, which is why the restaurant had to be closed in October. And he will no longer be able to run the café. The remaining family members will not reopen the café. It will either be sold or closed permanently and boarded up.”

Brummett said that neither he nor his family had been told about the application and were surprised when they heard about it from something they received in the mail.

Brummett also said that for the café to continue to function as it was before closing, it would need certain exemptions. He said the alcohol permits had been grandfathered in.

“I believe it’s been re-zoned as residential from commercial,” Brummett said. “If that wants to continue as an operating café as it is, then any new owner, I believe, would need to have the ability to maintain that sort of operating stature.”

The café passed into Richard Brummett’s possession when his mother died in 1996. His father, Ray Walker, died in 1953, but Bessie Mae Petersen continued running the café for nearly 50 years.

Walker’s Cafe, which has been in operation since its founding in 1944, closed in October.

Unfinished Business

Rault is not the only one refusing to give up on Walker’s Cafe. Nick Noussias, who has worked for the café for many years, is refusing to leave the property — at least until he finishes repairs he started back in 2008.

“I own all the appliances,” Noussias said. In addition, he said there is a garage in the back that contains new electric parts.

Noussias has his mail delivered to the café, and has lived there on and off since its closing. He has also spent time at his sister’s house, who was the manager of the café. He said that Richard Brummett’s daughter locked his sister out of the café. Prior to that, he had not been paying his sister fair wages for years, Nussias said.

“I looked at the labor board laws,” Noussias said. “He owes her $78,000 since 2008. He paid $126 as a manager, a week since 2008. That is not appropriate for a manager in California to manage a restaurant, seven days a week 10 hours a day.”

Noussias said he has had $15,000 worth of materials dropped off at the café and that he could finish it within five days if he had help — and if he could get the proper permits. But Noussias is still recovering from a spider bite, which he was hospitalized for. And Richard Brummett and his family are no longer returning his calls.

“I was going down to the city [to] get the permits to extend it two feet by 10 feet on one side, and four feet in the back, raise the ceiling up, and make it a 1,000 meal kitchen, instead of the little tiny grill that was there,” Noussias said.

Noussias said that Richard Brummett still owes him money for the construction job. While he wants to be paid, he does not want to sue.

“I want to finish what I was doing,” Noussias said. “And then we can talk about what’s going on. Either give me the 10-year lease, let me finish it, and then I’ll buy the place, whatever. Or let me get my stuff out and just pay me what he owes me.”

In addition, the Brummett family has declared a no trespassing order. Noussias spoke with the police a week before Jan. 27. They told him to leave, but that they could help him get his stuff. Noussias refused.

“I said, ‘You want to fight with me?’” Noussias said. “I have LAPD in my family, Orange County Sheriff and U.S. Coast Guard. Let’s do this and I know the law, I know administrative law.’”

Noussias said the café has been broken into three times since closing. It’s boarded up to prevent further break-ins, and Noussias has someone else watching the property when he’s not there.

“I didn’t do all this work for nothing,” Noussias said. “I’m not just going to walk away.”

Next Steps

Since the Cultural Heritage Commission has voted to consider making Walker’s Cafe a monument, the next step is for two members of the commission to visit the property in person, according to Los Angeles City Planning’s website. After that, the Office of Historic Resources makes a final staff report on whether the building qualifies as a monument.

The Cultural Heritage Commission then holds a hearing on whether to recommend the nomination to the city council. This must be held within 75 days of the commission’s initial vote to consider the nomination.

If the commission approves the nomination, the city council has 90 days to act on it, with a possible 15-day extension. Then the planning and land use management committee holds a hearing and makes a recommendation to the full city council, followed by a vote by the city council.

“There’s sort of multiple stages of … checks and balances built in,” Rault said. “And multiple levels of discussion, and seeking input from members of the public.”

Richard Brummett could not be reached for comment on this story.

Trump Confesses!— This is An Admission, and A Massively Un-American Statement

Paul Rosenberg
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Trump Confesses!— This is An Admission, and A Massively Un-American Statement

“he [Pence] could have overturned the Election!” — Former President Donald Trump

“This is what prosecutors call guilty knowledge. And also, intent…” — Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance

A year after the Jan. 6 coup attempt, crimes hidden in plain sight — the insurrectionists’ seditious conspiracy, Donald Trump’s election-interference phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the submission of fraudulent electoral college slates — are finally getting the public attention they deserve. It’s causing many to question why Trump seems immune to scrutiny, while Trump himself provided possible reasons at a rally in Conroe, Texas on Jan. 29. He raised the specter of violence if he’s charged with any crimes, while baselessly accusing two Black prosecutors of being racists, and also dangling promises of pardons, which could constitute obstruction of justice. He followed up by openly admitting he had tried to get Vice President Mike Pence to “overturn the election.”

“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt,” he told his audience, in the midst of an 80-minute lie-packed speech. Minutes later, he promised to “treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” if he runs and wins in 2024, “And if it requires pardons we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”

In fact, as early as late August, the Washington Post reported that, “Federal judges in Washington are questioning whether rioters who have admitted to storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 in support of President Donald Trump are being treated too leniently.”

Never-Trump Republicans were quick to condemn Trump’s most recent remarks.

“Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election,” said Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, co-chair of Jan. 6 Select Committee on Twitter. “He’d do it all again if given the chance.”

On Jan. 30, Trump released a statement attacking recent congressional efforts to definitively close any loopholes in the Electoral Count Act. It concluded by saying, “he [Pence] could have overturned the Election!”

“‘He could have overturned the election.’ This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, another GOP Select Committee member, tweeted. “It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side… Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore.”

To understand Trump’s seeming immunity in a non-sinister light, there’s no better guide than legal/national security blogger Marcy Wheeler’s late August post, “How A Trump Prosecution for January 6 Would Work.” In it, Wheeler argues that if Trump is charged, the DOJ will follow the patterns it’s already established: “Of around 200 January 6 defendants charged with obstruction, I can think of few if any against whom obstruction has been charged based solely on their actions on the day of the riot, and Trump is not going to be the exception to that rule …. DOJ would rely on Trump’s words and actions leading up to the event to prove his intent,” and “they would charge him in a conspiracy to obstruct the vote count that intersected with some of the other conspiracies to obstruct the vote count, possibly with obstruction charges against him personally.”

She also cites two stand-alone crimes that might be charged separately: Trump’s call to Raffensperger and his public statements that made Pence a target for assassination threats.

Wheeler went on to note the “Manners and Means” alleged in the conspiracy indictments, and laid out what might be alleged against Trump. These include things that aren’t criminal in and of themselves, but that cumulatively contribute to a criminal enterprise, as well as things whose criminality might be in doubt. Examples include:

  • Agreeing (and ordering subordinates) to plan and participate in an effort to obstruct the vote certification
  • Encouraging the Proud Boys to believe they are his army
  • Personally sowing the Big Lie about voter fraud to lead supporters to believe Trump has been robbed of his rightful election win
  • Asking subordinates and Republican politicians to lie about the vote to encourage supporters to feel they were robbed
  • Encouraging surrogates and campaign staffers to fund buses to make travel to D.C. easier
  • Using the Jan. 6 rally to encourage as many people as possible to come to D.C.
  • Applauding violence in advance of Jan. 6 and tacitly encouraging it on the day
  • Recruiting members of Congress to raise challenges to the vote count
  • Asking members of Congress to delay evacuation even as the rioters entered the building, heightening the chance of direct physical threat (and likely contributing to Ashli Babbitt’s death)

With this in mind, it’s much easier to understand how pressure is building up against Trump, whether or not the DOJ ultimately decides to charge him. Let’s consider four recent coup-related developments, and where they could lead.

The Oath Keepers conspiracy

On Jan. 12, the Department of Justice charged 11 Oath Keepers with seditious conspiracy, including the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes. Not only does it break new ground in terms of the seriousness of charges, it has implications that go far beyond the specific individuals involved, as Wheeler explained.

First, it “makes it clear that the intent of mobbing the Capitol was formulated well in advance of the event.” (This doesn’t absolve Trump of responsibility for inciting the mob that day, due to other evidence of Trump’s involvement in wider efforts to overturn the election.)

Second, it’s one of several recent indictments that eliminated coordination between the Oath Keepers and the Willard Hotel, where Trump allies had set up a “war room,” not because it’s unimportant, but because “I think they’ve just decided to move onto making other people sweat about their communications with now-charged seditionists appearing in the indictment, while hiding how much more they’ve learned about the Willard in recent weeks.”

Third, there are other indications of broader connections, including a potential shared interlocutor between Stewart Rhodes and Sean Hannity. In short, a wide range of people not part of the Oath Keepers may have their own questionable, if not criminal, conduct exposed in an Oath Keepers conspiracy trial, including figures like Sean Hannity and Roger Stone (who had Oath Keeper “bodyguards”) who are very close to Trump.

Coordinated slates of fraudulent electors

On the week of Jan. 10, several outlets began reporting on fraudulent electoral college slates submitted by Republicans in seven states, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These existence of such slates had been known at the time of the insurrection, and the group American Oversight first obtained copies of documents from the National Archive in March 2021, with the blatantly fraudulently claim to be “the duly elected and qualified Electors or President and Vice President.”

But they finally gained high-profile attention as a result of references in two key coup-related documents, the how-to-overturn-the-election memo prepared for Trump by attorney John Eastman, and the draft letter to Georgia state officials written by former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, intended to bully them into invalidated Joe Biden’s win in their state. “Under state law, I think clearly you have forgery of a public record, which is a 14-year offense, and election law forgery, which is a five-year offense,” Michigan Attorney general Dana Nessel told MSNBC, even as she referred the matter to federal prosecutors, as did several other state attorneys general.

On Jan. 20, news broke that Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, were responsible for coordinating the effort. That night Rachel Maddow played a tape recording of a Trump campaign official leaving a scripted voicemail message for a Michigan state legislator, requesting their help to “send a slate of electors that will support President Trump and Vice President Pence.”

More details emerged, culminating on Jan. 28, when the Jan. 6 Committee subpoenaed 14 people involved as chairpersons or secretaries of the slates from seven states. Electors in several states refused to go along with these schemes, recognizing their illegitimate nature, and had to be replaced. Threats of both state and federal felony prison terms will likely produce significant witness cooperation. Because the Trump campaign was involved in coordinating this effort, Trump himself could conceivably be criminally charged.

Seizing voting machines

On Jan. 20 the National Archives and Records Administration turned over more than 700 pages of contested Trump Administration documents to the Jan. 6 Select Committee. Politico reported that among them was a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines. It claimed authority derived in part from National Security Presidential Memoranda 21, a document not publicly known before, an indication it was drafted by a knowledgeable high-level advisor.

Further details emerged slowly until Jan. 31, when the New York Times reported that Trump had been intimately involved in exploring the possibility of using two other departments as well to seize voting machines — the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Trump had already rejected using the military, and Attorney General William Barr had rejected using the DOJ before Trump directed Giuliani to ask DHS to seize the machines, the Times reported.

Trump’s active involvement in pursuing this radical scheme casts an even more sinister light on his last-minute leadership replacements at the departments of Justice and Defense, and provides additional evidence that would go to establishing criminal intent in a possible conspiracy charge. In an instructive parallel, the Oath Keepers’ conspiracy indictment includes planning and preparation for moving arms into the Capitol from a safe house in Virginia, which was similarly not followed through on.

Election interference in Georgia

As already mentioned, Trump’s election-interference phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” is a prime candidate for charging Trump with a stand-alone crime; but there’s no indication it’s being pursued by the DOJ.

However, it is being pursued by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, though as part of a broader inquiry. On Jan. 20, Willis wrote a letter requesting a special grand jury for the probe, which would allow her to subpoena witnesses, including Raffensperger, who thus far “have refused to cooperate with the investigation absent a subpoena requiring their testimony.”

The request required a majority of judges to be approved, which was done within just four days. The grand jury will convene on May 2 and continue for up to 12 months. Trump isn’t the only person being investigated. Willis has previously confirmed that she’s also investigating a November 2020 phone call between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Raffensperger, the abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021, and comments made during December 2020 Georgia legislative committee hearings on the election.

But Trump is clearly in the cross-hairs, and he knows it, as shown by his remarks in Texas, and Willis was quick to respond to his threats, with a letter to the FBI’s Atlanta field office, requesting protective resources that would include “intelligence and federal agents,” as well as a risk assessment of the Fulton County Courthouse and Government Center.

“Security concerns were escalated this weekend by the rhetoric of former President Trump,” she wrote. “This rhetoric is more alarming in light of his statements at the same event regarding those convicted of crimes, including violence, for actions at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He stated that if elected President in 2024, he may pardon people who have been convicted of crimes related to illegal acts related to the attack in the U.S. Capitol.”

More darkness ahead —and a ray of light

“He promised pardons for people who are enemies of our country,” former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuaid said on MSNBC. “It’s a dangerous place to be going down the road,” which could get him charged with a crime.

Threatening violence on the one hand, and promising pardons on the other are typical of how Trump has sought to thwart the justice system since he first became president. But he has a much longer history of evading accountability. A forthcoming book by criminologist Gregg Barak, Criminology on Trump, argues that “By most measures, Donald Trump belongs in the same annals where we place our now-legendary crime bosses,” according to a preview article at The Crime Report website.

“To understand how we got to this point, my book examines three generations of Trump businesses. It attempts to show how long before he became president, he was operating a criminal enterprise composed of various illegal schemes and rackets as part of the Trump Organization,” Barak explained. “This book is also an historical account of the intermingling of illegal and legal activities that Donald Trump pursued in order to obtain the power of Commander-in-Chief, what he did with that power once he had obtained it, and finally the lengths to which he would go to keep from losing that power.”

Before Trump came right out and admitted his intent to overthrow the election, proving criminal intent had routinely been cited as a major obstacle to prosecuting him. That obstacle is now gone. But Barak shows that there’s another way past it as well — and it’s always best to have multiple angles of attack. That way past is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which has been used to take down other crime families, and could be used against the Trump family as well.

“RICO could be employed for much of but not all of Trump’s diversity of lawlessness, civilly and/or criminally,” Barak told Random Lengths. “It could be potentially very effective especially in the case of conspiracies but not necessarily with respect to overturning the election conspiracy, but I would not rule it out.”

But when asked about a related matter — if it could be used with respect to Trump’s money-making off the “stop the steal” campaign, Barak responded enthusiastically.

“Absolutely,” he said. “And, the beauty is that the government could confiscate and freeze all the money raised by the fraudulent ‘stop the steal’ campaign while the adjudication/litigation process plays out for months/years. Prosecuting for this type of fraud not using RICO would not allow for such state intervention/sanctions.”

In short, there is a clear path forward to extricate America from Trump’s extravagant lawlessness. All that’s necessary is a firm resolve to take it.

Train Robbers and Other Bandits

James Preston Allen
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Train Robbers and Other Bandits

Buscaino Calls for Investigation into Union Pacific Thefts

On Jan. 26, Los Angeles City Councilmember Joe Buscaino called for an investigation into the Union Pacific rail thefts calling this a “crisis.” Multiple entities have been pointing the finger about who is ultimately responsible for the protection of rail cars, and the responsibility for arrests and prosecution of those responsible for the thefts.

Buscaino, who is now running for mayor, thinks that the city council is an investigative body like Congress and he should hold hearings to investigate the current incidents of train robbing in LA. I doubt he knows what he’s talking about and I doubt even more he understands the historical context. Let me explain.

Many of America’s most well known folk heroes have been bank robbers and train bandits. Think Jesse James, Pretty Boy Floyd, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to name just a few. The folklore of the “wild west,” popularized in paperback novels and Hollywood films, have only exaggerated the myths of these bandits beyond recognition but rarely contextualizes the history behind their banditry nor their economic motivations.

The first known train robbery in the U.S.

On Oct. 6, 1866, one of the first train robberies in America took place when a group of bandits known as the Reno brothers boarded an eastbound train in Indiana wearing masks and toting guns. After emptying one safe and tossing the other out the window, the robbers jumped off the train and made an easy getaway. A wave of train robberies followed the Reno brothers’ startling hold-up success. Within two weeks, two trains were derailed and their safes were robbed. During another robbery in Indiana, an expressman aboard the train was thrown out the window before safes were emptied of $40,000.

During and after the American Civil War, there were many disaffected Southern Confederates and Copperhead sympathizers in the North. Most of them had been left without jobs or property, but with training in warfare. Some, like Jesse James and his brother Frank, chose to make their living by robbing banks and trains because as the famous bank robber Willie Sutton once quipped, “that’s where the money is.” They probably thought it was justified as the railroads were mostly owned by wealthy Northern interests and carried large cargoes of gold and cash. The post-war era wouldn’t end until the late 1890s.

What a review of American history tells us is that great inequities following war often aggravate the conditions where robbery seems like an opportunity, and not just a crime. Just where are we today?

We are in the post-Afghanistan war era. We’ve been at war for 20 years and a number of trained war veterans have now come home, many suffering PTSD or homelessness. There are news reports about billions of dollars of cargo stuck in the supply chain starting at our ports but parked right in the middle of Lincoln Heights, one of the poorer neighborhoods in Los Angeles. To top it off, the Union Pacific poorly guards one-hundred-car-long container trains. Each container is secured with a simple padlock — easily broken with a bolt cutter. This is sort of like dangling red meat in front of a hungry tiger.

So as any junior detective could assess, there’s motive and opportunity. And yet the Union Pacific and others are blaming George Gascón, the LA District Attorney, for his “liberal prosecution” policies and never once thinking that they might want to beef up their own security for what is ostensibly their corporate responsibility to keep their trains secure.

What has become even more troubling about all of these train robberies is the revelation that some of these shipping containers are carrying weapons and ammunition, which one can only presume have been the target for LA street gangs trying to restock their arsenals with untraceable guns. This, of course, is in direct response to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies attempting to take illegal firearms off the streets as the homicide rate increases.

All of this and much more can be ascertained without Buscaino grandstanding and calling for “an investigation” of facts commonly reported in the press. This “investigation” would only result in months of testimony, more grandstanding and a report issued that would be better used as a doorstop than a plan of action. What the railroads need to do is hire more security, use better padlocks, perhaps use some drones to surveil their trains and keep the cargo moving.

What Buscaino and others at city hall need to do is figure out how to end the economic disparities with job creation, and provide housing and better options for people other than robbing trains­. Yet, it is understandable (without condoning it) why breaking into a parked container on a lonely railroad track in the middle of this city that holds conceivably ten times what a low wage worker makes in a year would be a tempting option.

Buscaino has had a decade to bring better options to the people of Los Angeles, particularly his district, and yet we are still plagued by homelessness, street crimes and homicides. And with him being a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who thinks more ordinances against the unhoused is the answer, I only have one piece of advice: If ordinances, police enforcement and posting “no camping signs” could solve the homeless crisis, it would already have been solved!

In the end, he states the obvious: “The communities that UP tracks go through in Los Angeles already suffer disproportionately from quality of life issues.”

This only calls into question the one area that city council members actually have some power to change — quality of life issues. Where’s the budget item for this all along the railroad tracks through the city and the neighborhoods that are invisible to the rest of us? Joe Buscaino only reacts to the problems once he sees them on TV. He’s had a decade in office to address them before they became a “crisis.”

One just might ask, “who is actually being robbed?”

Jesse James might have argued that he was just “redistributing the wealth.”

Deaths on the Waterfront

RLn
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Deaths on the Waterfront

Random Lengths News has learned that two deaths occurred in the San Pedro Bay Ports, one in Long Beach on Jan. 15 and the other at the Port of Los Angeles on Jan. 18. After more than two weeks, investigations are still ongoing with little information released to the public.

What is known at press time is that on Jan. 15, Long Beach port police responded to a call to a deceased male at 3:34 p.m. It is reported that he was hit by a transtainer. [The transtainer is a machine developed for handling containers. The equipment can be designed to handle a wide range of shapes and dimensions, offering different configurations for stacking and lining up containers].

Chulaih Ang, 64, an ILWU member died on Jan. 15 in an industrial accident causing blunt force traumatic injury at ITS Terminal in Long Beach. Long Beach Police and Long Beach Fire were the first responders. The county coroner was also on scene.

The decedent was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach where he died.

The Port of Long Beach public information officer reported that the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners adjourned its Jan. 24 regular meeting in Ang’s honor.

According to the LA County Coroner’s office on Jan. 18, a 911 call was made at 7:02 a.m. in response to another death that occurred at the 400 block of S. Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro. However, that reported address is inaccurate. The accident actually occurred at pier 400 on 2500 Navy Way on Terminal Island, East San Pedro. The Port of LA port police arrived at 8:09 a.m. to this incident and accompanied the victim to the hospital until the family arrived.

The Los Angeles County coroner reported that 37-year-old Edgar Ruiz (37) died in the hospital Jan. 18, from a blunt force trauma neck injury by a piece of equipment that fell from a crane. It is reported that Ruiz worked for a contractor, BHCcrane whose motto is, “committed to ensuring a safe and healthy work environment.” The terminal is operated by APM Maersk Terminals Los Angeles and is the largest container port terminal in the Western Hemisphere, featuring over 507 acres of world-class infrastructure and was the focus of the conflict over automation.

According to the GoFundMe page set up for his fiancée and unborn child, Ruiz was crushed by a 4,000 lb. piece of metal. The GoFundMe page has a $100,000 goal. It’s reached a little more than $20,000 so far.

RLn has also contacted the Long Beach Fire Department in regard to these incidents but has not heard anything further.

LA Unified to SP Residents: Rat Problem is Not Our Problem

Hunter Chase
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LA Unified to SP Residents: Rat Problem is Not Our Problem

In the Jan. 20 edition Random Lengths News reported on two residents who live next to San Pedro High School who said their houses were infested with rats and mice — and that construction on the school was to blame. One of the neighbors, Shannon Black, said that once the school tore down trees on its property, the rodents that lived in those trees went into the surrounding neighborhood.

The Los Angeles Unified School District responded to these claims on Jan. 26, denying any responsibility.

“After completing a thorough investigation, our technicians found no indication of any vermin infestation on our project site that could have been the source of any rodents that may exist at a few nearby homes,” representatives from LAUSD wrote.

LAUSD representatives wrote that their community relations team received the first homeowner complaint in December 2021, and that this was five months after completion of demolition, tree removal and laying of the foundation. Black said that she first saw the rodents at the end of September.

“During that time, we found no signs of rodents on campus, heard no complaints from staff or students about vermin and saw no signs of the pests, such as droppings, nests or burrowing that would indicate their presence,” LAUSD representatives wrote.

Black previously reported that LAUSD representatives told her they set traps at the school but did not catch anything.

“I’m like, set them across the street at the houses,” Black said. “Why are you setting the traps at school? …. There’s nothing left.”

In addition, LAUSD representatives denied there was any money set aside to reimburse residents for vermin damages.

“As for alleged rumors of a special fund or “allotment to reimburse neighbors for vermin damages,” we have no such program, nor do we know how that rumor may have begun,” LAUSD representatives wrote.

LAUSD representatives finished their statement by commending the residents who live near their campuses.

“Our neighbors have been great partners in our work to improve the educational facilities for our ​students. We value their understanding and support and will continue to listen and share information with the neighborhood.”

Whether these neighbors include the neighbors whose houses are infested with rodents is unclear.

School Safety Measures Continue to Drive Down Positive Tests Among School Staff and Students

Reporters Desk
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School Safety Measures Continue to Drive Down Positive Tests Among School Staff and Students

LOS ANGELES — Schools across the county continue implementing safety measures that are helping to drive down several COVID-19 metrics among students and staff. For the week of Jan. 24 to 28, schools conducted 486,616 tests that resulted in 21,472 positive tests (with 14,872 positive tests from LAUSD). This is a 47% decrease from the 40,694 positive tests from the week prior. The test positivity rate also decreased by 37% to 4.4% compared to 7% for the week prior.

While test positivity and the number of positive tests in schools continue to decline, the number of outbreaks increased slightly. As of Jan. 31, there were 52 active school outbreaks, including 18 new outbreaks (14 in elementary schools, three in youth sports and one in a high school) between Jan. 23 to 29. Although the number of new outbreaks in schools rose, the number is relatively modest thanks to school-based safety measures, including masking and testing, that reduce spread.

Public Health continues working with schools across the county to implement a comprehensive strategy that includes over 900 school-based vaccine clinics scheduled for February where first, second and third doses will be available. Additionally, Public Health has begun distributing an additional 1 million home test kits this week to public, charter, and independent/private schools in areas of high need. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC has also approved an additional 615,000 professional rapid tests for LA County schools through the White House rapid test kit program and the state is delivering over 170,000 at-home test kits this week to be distributed to schools.

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or FDA has approved the license for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine after a thorough evaluation of the quality, safety, and effectiveness data by a panel of scientific and medical experts. The vaccine is now fully approved for use in people 18 and older.

Public Health has identified a total 2,683,644 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County. Today’s positivity rate is 8.8%.

There are 3,515 people with COVID-19 now hospitalized. Testing results are available for more than 11,091,800 individuals, with 22% of people testing positive.

Details: www.publichealth.lacounty.gov

Carson Parks and Recreation Workshop

Reporters Desk
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Carson Parks and Recreation Workshop

Join your community members and play a part in shaping the future of parks and recreation in Carson.

This first workshop will focus on what the public sees as community recreation characteristics, issues, current opportunities and constraints to address the community’s needs.

For those interested in participating, please call 310-952-1735 and leave your name, phone number and the number of attendees.

For more information, you may visit the project’s website, below to keep up to date, take surveys and provide your feedback comments at any time.

Time: 6 p.m. Feb. 16

Cost: Free

Details: www.CarsonSurvey.com

Venue: Carson Event Center, 801 E. Carson Street, Carson

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