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(June 24, 2020, 6:30 a.m.) -- They held a Public Safety Committee hearing Tuesday [June 23] to finally get to the bottom of the unspeakable horror that unfolded in the downtown area of our beloved city on May 31st in an event that has become known as the Great Long Beach Memorial Day Pillage & Plunder Festival.
And after listening to the gentleman who was in command of the forces that failed to prevent at least 214 Long Beach businesses from being looted -- I'm talking about the sterling LB Chief of Police, Mr. Robert (Asleep At the Switch) Luna -- offer his insufferably Byzantine reasons for it occurring, I suffered a sprained neck shaking it so violently. I mean, yes, Mr. Luna did say "we failed our individual business owners" and, yes, he did say "this will never happen again." And, yes he did say -- he really did! ---"`we did a good job." But he also said, oh, at least 1,000 times that his greatest priority that evening was the preservation of life. He certainly succeeded on that level as, blessedly, no one died as he held his cops -- about 50 of whom stood at rapt attention at Pine and Broadway as though they were rehearsing for a Dawn of the Dead zombie sequel -- back as establishments up and down Pine as well as the Pike area were being ransacked. [Scroll down for further.] |
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It's been widely speculated that Mr. Luna was told by the illustrious Long Beach Mayor, the Honorable Robert (Ol' Blood And Guts) Garcia, to have his troops stand down, but he said at least another 1,000 times that such reports are untrue and that no one high up in the Long Beach political leadership issued such an inane edict. Sure, and that's the reason at least five of his police officers the following day went over to what was left of the iconic Italian restaurant, L'Opera, and apologized to its owner Terry Antonelli, a long-time Long Beach police supporter. Mr. Luna said that his field supervisors were in charge on the ground -- and that the proceedings became quite chaotic as he sat in his office at police headquarters where he found time to give an interview to a Channel 11 reporter while deplorable images were being streamed across local TV channels of all those Long Beach businesses and restaurants being looted without interference from Luna's cops. "I'm not trying to de-emphasize what happened to some of our Long Beach businesses," said Mr. Luna who did de-emphasize what happened and gave long, complex, disingenuous reasons for his department's memorably embarrassing performance without accepting any accountability on his part. Naturally, the chair of the Public Safety Committee, 3rd District Councilwoman Suzie Price, oh-so politically savvy, didn't dare press Mr. Luna for his lack of leadership, keeping the questions towards him within the safe bounds of the political proprietary that reeks odiously among our sainted local leaders, all of whom seem to agreed with one another in raising taxes, blowing money on ridiculous projects, caving in to the police union, etc., etc., etc, ad nauseam "There were times when it became a little, shall we say, dangerous and I've never heard so much cussing, but fortunately I was never forced into any physical confrontations," says Mr. DiMarzo, who had more than his share during his Medal of Valor L.A. County Sheriff career which included a year working at the County Jail. "But there was a moment of slight embarrassment for me when a Fox News alert sound when off on my cell phone and a CNN anchor said to me, 'Oh, the irony. I'm actually being guarded by a Fox News fan'.". . . He is a retired prominent orthopedic surgeon, and was active in the medical field for more than 60 years. He resides in Spinnaker Cove. . . Mr. Trani didn't move his bar, but did modernize it and did expand the seating and did put in a beautiful huge mirror, which will prevent me from ever sitting at it since I haven't looked into a mirror for 20 years. The last time I actually gazed at myself I was so horrified by what I saw that I've never dared looked at myself again. Incidentally, Trani, whose Long Beach Blvd. restaurant opened in 1989 and has been visited so often by so many famous athletes across the decades, held a birthday party Thursday afternoon for the renowned Orange County deputy district attorney, Heather Brown, with four of her cohorts attending. . . That's about as likely to happen as, well, those Board of Education members being recalled as they should be for voting to give her such a bump these harsh Pandemic times in which the LBUSD has slashed its budget by 10 percent and $72 million. Is there any school administrator in America other than Dr. Baker who has received such a ghastly handout from a school district suffering vast monetary cuts?. . . Viewpoints and op-eds on LBREPORT.com are proudly those of their bylined authors but not necessarily those of LBREPORT.com or our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com. Previously by Mr. Krikorian:
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