Steve Lopez: Is Carmen Trutanich L.A.'s Mubarak? [Updated]
Nuch, are you kidding?
There's a lot I like about Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, a Pedro longshoreman in a suit. As a columnist, how can you not like a city official who calls you up and asks you to get high and drive a police cruiser in an experiment?
I also liked when he threatened to prosecute city officials and lock up a City Council member in a scrum over the enforcement of advertising restrictions.
But in threatening to lock up dozens of protesters involved in various demonstrations, giving them up to a year of jail time, Trutanich looks like the bully his critics have long accused him of being.
The protesters didn't get permits, so the demonstrations were illegal?
Oh, give me a break, Nuch. In this disengaged, apathetic society, we need more protests, not fewer.
[Updated at 8:35 a.m.: And Nuch, if you want to see the positive powers of protest, turn on the TV and watch what's going on in Egypt.]
Trutanich has been complaining about his staff being shrunk by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and this is how he wants to use his precious resources?
Nuch said the protests had cost the city thousands of dollars in police response.
But it'll cost many, many more thousands to prosecute and jail the protesters, won't it?
If you're not already racing over to the city attorney's office to protest, let me know what you think.
-- Steve Lopez
Photo: From left, Hamid Khan, Alma Soto, Chloe Osmer and Garrick Ruiz were among those arrested during protests last year at the Metropolitan Detention Center, background, against Arizona's immigration law. Under a new policy of the Los Angeles city attorney, they face the possibility of jail time. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
You obviously haven't been stuck in traffic due to some dumb protesters blocking the streets in the middle of rush hour...
I have a job I enjoy, and I'd like to keep - I have nothing against folks protesting, but please do so in an orderly manner, without inconveniencing those of us who have jobs. (and have worked hard to get them)
ps. We also live in a democracy, where people can vote for who they like - or run themselves for office if they don't like their choices... your reference to Egypt is ridiculous. That's a country where people DO NOT have other choice but to take it to the streets. Good for them for standing up.
Posted by: commonsense | February 11, 2011 at 09:02 AM
No it doesn't. They broke the law. Why do you think people can pick and chose which laws they can follow?
Posted by: Tornadoes28 | February 11, 2011 at 09:05 AM
Come on Lopez, are you LA's Tokio Rose?
Posted by: Jazz | February 11, 2011 at 09:20 AM
Sorry, but you're complaining to the wrong people. There's this thing that our elected officials have got to obey and enforce, and that's the law. You have to have a permit to drive, to sell goods and services and to own a gun. So why is upholding the law against illegal protests wrong? You block the way of lawabiding, hard-working citizens, cause gridlock and car breakdowns and waste my tax dollars-so take responsibility for your actions and pay the price! If you want to complain about something, do it legally by voting, writing letters and attending hearings, not by spending my money for your benefit!
Posted by: jjtbwriter | February 11, 2011 at 09:21 AM
...and it'll cost thousands more if he DOESN'T prosecute, because if he fails to slap these protesters hands, what's to stop the next batch from going to bat without permits too?
Posted by: Los Angeles Resident | February 11, 2011 at 09:22 AM
Not sure why Lopez is trying block this, my 3rd try here:
- Are you insulting lawyers or longshoremen?
- Too bad TMZ doesn't have a MECHA/La Raza desk - you'd be perfect for them.
LA Times is no TMZ, nor a good newspaper. Half tabloid half AP feeds.
Posted by: DangerMouse | February 11, 2011 at 09:23 AM
Thank you, Mr. Lopez, for your dose of democracy!
Posted by: Linda | February 11, 2011 at 09:30 AM
Good citizens that engage in peaceful protest play a vital role in our society. Let's listen to them! Trutanich is out of touch. He's recklessly wasting court, police and jail resources on this. Perhaps Trutanich would favor imposing an Egyptian-like "emergency order." If Trutanich was in office 48 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King might have written "Letter from a Los Angeles Jail."
Let's not forget that peaceful protest has been a building block for democracy - in Egypt, in India, and, oh yeah, in the... United States. Why is it that the radical right calls themselves the Tea Party?
Posted by: ReaderRyan | February 11, 2011 at 09:34 AM
Lopez, pro Reconquista punks who chain themselves up in the middle of busy streets are not protestors, they are a public PITA and should be locked up.
Your free speech does not entitle you to make me 4 hours late trying to drive to the childcare facility after work to pick up my 3yr old son.
Posted by: Richardo Longo | February 11, 2011 at 09:58 AM
Are you an kidding me? What kind of comparison is that. Protesters get arrested because of their failure to follow the provisions of their "permit." The "regime" of Trutanich you speak of is hardly on any type of level of whats going on in Eygpt. Stop trying to stir pots and writing dribble.
Posted by: Shappy | February 11, 2011 at 10:16 AM
As somebody who wasted many hours of his life sitting in traffic due to street blockers at the Federal Building, when I worked on Wilshire Blvd., I say GOOD ON NUCH!
People have an absolute right to protest. They do not have any right to steal my time with my family (or whatever else I shoose to do with it).
Is it any wonder that many of those who protested in an illegal manner did so on behalf of illegal aliens? There's obviously a part of the word illegal that they don't get.
Posted by: Robert C. J. Parry | February 11, 2011 at 10:42 AM
Lopez, you never cease being an absolute fool. It is idiots like you who degrade true oppresiveness by making such dumb comparisons.
Posted by: bobby | February 11, 2011 at 10:49 AM
I'm with Carmen on this one. Steve you weren't stuck in traffic for several hours while these protesters tied it up. Police asked them to move or face prosecution. They made a choice.
Tied up traffic, cost money for police deployment, and had little regard for everyone else. Since when are the people stuck in that traffic not important Steve? This will discourage futur protesters from tying up traffic
Posted by: Tom Morgan | February 11, 2011 at 10:52 AM
Let's make a distinction, please, between a hopeless autocracy (and soon to be a theocracy) like Egypt where a populist revolt might be a pathway to reform, and a civil society like ours, where citizens enjoy SOME democratic input on government policy and must abide by the law while exercising their first amendment rights.
So the tired and predictable "Well, these protesters might have broken the law, but so did the Egyptian people and the American revolutionaries" trope just won't fly.
And for the anti establishment crew, one more time - the justness of one's cause DOES not give you license to break the law, or infringe upon other's rights. The pro immigration groups have no more right to tie up traffic than the neo nazis. Civil disobedience can make a statement, but that's undercut when you whine about facing the consequences. Did Ghandi or MLK whine when they were jailed for open defiance?
Posted by: XM | February 11, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Couldn't agree more, Steve. As one of the protesters facing jail time for standing up against our inhumane, broken immigration system, the inspiring events in Egypt serve as a heartening reminder that we must keep protesting. Trutanich's attempts to quell dissent will NOT be tolerated.
Posted by: Leigh Shelton | February 11, 2011 at 11:40 AM
Well said, Steve!
Tell him to take to stop spending money in the name of a draconian interpretation of the public interest!
Posted by: E | February 11, 2011 at 11:53 AM
I suggest all hard working taxpayers of Los Angeles protest in and around the LA Times building down town. Blocking all streets and parking structures to keep Morons like Steve Lopez from getting to HIS desk. This will effect his ability to provide for his family and keep him from writing this kind of krap!
Posted by: Onceafan | February 11, 2011 at 12:24 PM
These protesters disrupted traffic and inconvenienced thousands in their day. Now you may think that isn't serious but it is. Many of those people were going to WORK to earn money. Many were probably low income people. To prevent people from going about their day for your own personal cause is very wrong and was selfish and self-centered. We cannot allow everyone with a cause to cause this kind of disruption.
I totally support Trutanich. Had the protestors remained peaceful and didn't block people, it would have been OK but they did not. They got in the way of others for their own means.
Posted by: Concerned American | February 11, 2011 at 12:26 PM
I am embarrassed for your family and employer Lopez. Attention whoring is not becoming on a frumpy middle aged man.
Posted by: you are a joke | February 11, 2011 at 12:35 PM
At least the commenters who mention Martin Luther King understand the inspiration and context for these PEACEFUL protesters who were arrested for acts of civil disobedience to defend fundamental civil and human rights, such as the right to an education, and the right not to be detained by police based on racial profiling.
Yes, civil disobedience includes breaking the law, and it means being willing to be penalized for your actions. But that doesn't mean the punishment is just. An infraction or a fine, that's understandable. But trying to lock up peaceful students for up to a year? In fact, in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, protesters who sat in at segregated lunch counters or marched when they couldn't get a permit were jailed for days or a week--not a year!
Please folks, think about important issues that you or your kids would be willing to protest peacefully-and THEN think about whether this is an appropriate response by Trutanich.
Posted by: Lee | February 11, 2011 at 01:32 PM
Nahhhhh he's just another sleaze ambulance chaser with teabag friends.
Posted by: Coriolana | February 11, 2011 at 01:35 PM
I wish our politicians would do more protesting, that way Trutanich can start enforcing campaign financing laws.
Posted by: R Baird | February 11, 2011 at 01:42 PM
Civil disobedience has a vital place in people’s struggle in the U.S. and across the world against civil, human and economic rights violations. Carmen Trutanich’s prosecution of dozens of LA residents who peacefully protested in this spirit shamefully ignores this important history. Trutanich is not working in the public’s interest but rather attempting to intimidate protesters and quell dissent at a time when it is most necessary. Trutanich, we demand that you drop the charges!
Posted by: Marissa Nuncio | February 11, 2011 at 01:42 PM
Trutanich is an idiot. I wish he would crawl back under the rock from whence he came.
Posted by: Thanks Steve | February 11, 2011 at 02:01 PM
No offense but if there's anything slowing me down from getting to where I need to go, heaven forbid, let it be an accident where someone might be hurt and/or maimed. Don't let it be a bunch of protesters, who may have the right to express their opinions, standing in public roads, impinging on my right to get to wherever the heck I'm going. I didn't force you to protest, nor did I do anything to provoke you to stand in my way to my destination. Have the decency to get the heck out of my way or suffer the consequences of not having the proper license to protest.
Posted by: O-town | February 11, 2011 at 02:06 PM