Sheriff Alex Villanueva Shines the Spotlight on the Incompetence of Elected Officials

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File

Sheriff Villanueva is doing the Lord’s work in Los Angeles County. A County and state where actual work by elected officials has all but been abandoned. We have the Mayor of its most populous city, who long ago abdicated his duties, now escaping them permanently to take an ambassadorship. We have a city council with several members trying to take that mayoral spot with nothing to show for their record except crime-ridden districts and craven ambition. And you have a County Board of Supervisors who are trying to get to their next high-paying political appointment and get as many kickbacks as they can along the way.

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Villanueva Touts His Work With Homeless on FB

All these elected groups who are supposed to superintend the concern and well-being of the constituents of Los Angeles County, have done anything but that. The rampant homelessness, crime, paroling of murderers, businesses shuttered, and citizens left vulnerable and afraid, are a reflection of their lack of effort. While they hold committee meetings, floss for the cameras, and rush to implement another one of Dementia Joe Biden’s harmful policies, Sheriff Villanueva has actually stepped into the community and taken action to help restore the community to its citizens.

In less than a year, Sheriff Villanueva has:

  1.  Deployed Deputies to compassionately address the rampant homelessness across the County.
  2.  Called out the crime and the policies that continue to encourage and exacerbate this crimal element.
  3.  Called out the corrupt District Attorney George Gascón and his refusal to do his job: protect the people of Los Angeles and prosecute criminals.
  4.  Assists citizens in protecting themselves through helping them form neighborhood watch groups and approving concealed carry permits for lawful gun owners.

So with all this actual work being done, which is making a difference in communities, why is the Los Angeles County Democrat Party calling for Sheriff Villanueva to resign?

Mark J. Gonzalez is head of the L.A. County Democrat Party, so will follow whatever the state and national party line happens to be. We know well that the national Democrat Party is wholesale about defunding the police and stripping local law enforcement of power. Gonzalez is also in league with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission, another arm of the Democrat Party. Civilian Oversight Commissioner Robert Bonner led the charge last October, calling for Villanueva’s resignation. Reports often bring up the fact that Bonner is a Republican and has served under Republican administrations. But as we are seeing unfold in our State and federal governments, Republicans can be actual bulwarks for the freedom and the well-being of American citizens, or useful idiots to the Democrat agenda.

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Bonner is that useful idiot.

The Los Angeles County Supervisors, led by Sheila Kuehl, and former Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, also drafted a resolution last year calling for Villanueva’s resignation. This was tabled, but the animosity against the Sheriff continues to run high, at least among the bureaucrat class.

Gonzalez wrote in his statement, in part:

“Tonight, marking the one year anniversary of the murder of Andres Guardado, Los Angeles Democrats stand in solidarity with the Guardado family, recognizing the systematic brutality of law enforcement that has continued to shake our county. Leadership and accountability starts at the top, and while strides have been made to reform police culture in Los Angeles, it’s simply not enough.

“Sheriff Villanueva has had multiple opportunities since his election to reign in long standing problems within his department, which is why tonight, Los Angeles Democrats are holding him accountable and calling for his resignation,”

“A failure to lead in Los Angeles, is a failure to serve Los Angeles. We will continue to hold those accountable who fail to live up to their obligations.”

Fascinating how Gonzalez puts failure to lead and serve Los Angeles on the shoulders of one man, when that failure falls into many laps: from the outgoing Los Angeles Mayor, to the Los Angeles City Council, to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. No one has clean hands.

In fact, this is probably one of the reasons the long knives are out for Sheriff Villanueva: he has no qualms about calling out the foolishness and the failure of elected politicians and bureaucrats. Villanueva hits them right between the eyes, and he pulls no punches.

“The elites of the Democrat Party. This is the very wealthy, Westside folks who don’t represent the people of Los Angeles County.

“The elites of the party want to see me resign; one, you’re going to be disappointed,” Villanueva said.

These elites have commissioned their enforcement arm, in the form of the People’s City Council of Los Angeles, a BLM-style group that formed after last year’s Floyd riots. With other astroturf organizations, their goal is to malign, harass, and reinforce the image of the Sheriff and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department as uncontrollable, lawless, and an enabler of police brutality.

From their website:

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 People’s City Council first formed in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. We are all organizers working with grassroots movements in Los Angeles, who saw the need for an intersectional coalition that could articulate the fights for racial, economic, environmental, and housing justice as a single fight for a more just Los Angeles. Many of our organizers are members of the LA Tenants Union, Street Watch LA, and KTown For All. Others organize with NOlympics LA and Sunrise Movement LA. Most of us are tenants. Some of us lost our jobs when Los Angeles shut down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Many of us were worried about paying rent.

The case they are attempting to brand Sheriff Villanueva with is that of Andres Guardado, an 18-year old who was shot and killed by Sheriff’s deputies, who claimed he brandished a gun.

From the local CBS 2:

 Andres Guardado died in Gardena on June 18, 2020, outside an auto body shop where he was working as a security guard after deputies from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department opened fire.

Officials said 18-year-old Guardado reached for a gun, and that’s why they decided to use deadly force, but the family of Guardado and other supporters in the community rejected the claim that he was armed.

After a short foot pursuit, Guardado was shot by deputies in the upper torso, LASD said.

The Democrat Party, along with the Civilian Oversight Commission, are conveniently using the almost one-year anniversary of Guardado’s death to destroy what Villanueva is trying to restore and establish. They want to force him out. If they cannot force him out, they’ll do their best to destroy him.

In a Facebook post on the Sheriff’s Department page, Villanueva talks about how the People’s City Council L.A. came out to protest him on Venice Beach, and one of its actors actually doxed him.

Villanueva Gets Harassed-Doxed by the People’s City Council LA

“I am disappointed that these paid activists interrupted our important work of getting homeless services to demand that I “take my shirt off” to prove that I do not have tattoos. I was not brought up to disrespect others in this way and would expect the same from others.

“But this is the guy who put my home address on the internet and I had to rush home because my retired wife was home alone.

“Los Angeles County, we can do better. We will do it.”

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One of the mandates of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department that Villanueva has vowed to uphold is the restoration of law and order in Los Angeles County. We know that the Los Angeles County District Attorney has no interest in this, which is why a campaign to recall him is running strong. We know the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has no interest in this, as they follow the line of the California Governor in paroling or vacating existing parole for violent felons with disastrous results.

We know that the People’s City Council L.A. has no interest in law and order, because they condone riots, and applaud the actors involved in such action. Their intent is to see the funding for police budgets reduced, and passed over to their activists to purportedly be used for housing and urban development. That is code for free rent with no evictions.

The backlash from this push is roiling Los Angeles even as I write. Housing in Los Angeles is limited, and what is not limited is unaffordable. Landlords no longer want to rent to you, and if they do, they ask for huge amounts in upfront costs. I know this from firsthand experience, and it has made my life more difficult, not less. So the People’s City Council L.A. can miss me on their so-called activism. They are simply around to stir the pot, foment unrest, and destroy quality of life for law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.

As I wrote in an earlier piece, Sheriff Villanueva is deadly serious about reinforcing the department’s mandates and missions, and he is actually putting boots on the ground to make it happen. Actions speak louder than words, and our state and local politicians are full up on words without those words translating into tangible action and measurable results.

The constituents of Los Angeles County like Villanueva, because he is delivering both tangible and measurable results:

In an effort to increase transparency, Villanueva has taken to Instagram and Facebook Live every Wednesday, to give updates on what the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been doing.

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Sheriff Villanueva Goes Live on FB and Instagram

Last Wednesday’s Live is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand the effectiveness of words that bring action, and the ineffectiveness of words with no substance.

“Let’s start with crime,“ Villanueva said, as he began the Live feed.

“We have some revised figures for our crime situation. We now have 135 murders to date in L.A. County this year. Last year at this same time frame we had 67 murders. So that’s only up 104 percent. So, for the Board of Supervisors that like to defund the Sheriff’s department operation, and eliminate detective positions, yeah, crimes don’t get solved when you do that, in case you didn’t get the memo.

“These numbers are troubling, and the response from the Board of Supervisors is let’s just continue to defund the Sheriff’s Department.”

The Sheriff did not soft peddle. He used no couched terminology. What he did was outline what the Sheriff’s Department is doing to combat crime, restore law and order, and improve quality of life for the county constituents, and why this is important. Villanueva called out by name the politicians who refuse to do their jobs, and make his job, and the work of his deputies, so much harder.

You want your transparency Citizen’s Oversight Commission and L.A. Board of Supervisors?

Well, here it is, and I can guarantee you, they despise it.

Villanueva reiterated his commitment to allow lawful citizens to carry their firearms with them, and talked about how many CCWs had already been approved. His plan is to continue to expedite these applications for those who apply and are approved.

When Villanueva dived into the homelessness crisis, that is when the rubber met the road. Here is where you can tell that Villanueva gives zero “effs” about what anyone thinks about how he should do his job. He only cares about actually doing it.

“There are a large number of people out of state who are descending on the [Venice Beach] Strand, who come in to enjoy the free services and the weather, and basically, really screw up the community for the Venice residents and the tourism industry.

“So, we’re taking action.”

City Councilman Mike Bonin, whose district encompasses Venice Beach, is one of those empty talkers who thinks he is going to run for Mayor. I have said in the past, that this is the Year of the Recall, and Bonin is on that list. The not-so-good Councilman was served with his notice today.

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We the People will no longer be silent; at this point, Mike Bonin should shut his mouth, but he can’t help himself.

Bonin took to Twitter and attacked Villanueva for his “harmful”, “disruptive”, and “counterproductive” efforts, telling Villanueva to leave outreach and housing to the “professionals”.

The professionals who Bonin so glowingly speak about get paid triple-digit salaries, and collect 74 million per homeless person.

If the professionals were doing their job, the streets would be empty, rather than overrun.

Bonin’s attempts at damage control to his reputation are as empty as his rhetoric, and the people realize this.

Villanueva pounced on Bonin, like a cheetah on an antelope carcass.

“Apparently, Councilman Bonin had a meltdown on social media,” he said.

“The point is Mike, if you haven’t figured it out yet—if you did your job, I would never be in Venice. If the Board of Supervisors did their job, I’d never be in Venice. But since they haven’t done their job, the City Council hasn’t done their job, you, in particular, of all people, have not done your job, that forced us to take action because now, lives are at stake.

When lives are at stake, I have to do something. And if you handcuff the local law enforcement in this case, the specific duties of the LAPD to not enforce the rule of law, well, bad things happen.

“The void is filled by people who are going to break the law. They’re going to harm residents, they’re going to destroy businesses, they’re going to drive the economy into the toilet, which was already struggling to recover from the pandemic. And all you can complain about is why is the Sheriff there?”

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Villanueva ended his rant with planting the blame squarely where it belonged:

“This is a crisis created by bureaucrats and elected officials who have failed to do their job.”

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