I attended the August 17th, 2015 Huntington Park City Council meeting expecting just about anything to happen.
I knew that it was going to be a knock-down blow out, and the protesters who voiced their vehement frustration with the rogue city council did not disappoint.
Chanel Temple of Hawthorne California did not get to speak until later in the meeting, much later — the public commentary against the City Council for appointing two illegal aliens went for nearly three hours.
Temple was spot on denouncing any comparison between African-American slaves and illegal aliens who enter the country of their own free will. Temple shouted down the city council for ignoring the terrible history of destruction and humiliation waged against African-Americans before and even after the American Civil War: lynched from trees, with no white jury willing to convict, dogs sicced on them. One of the most stirring lines still stands out throughout the social media sphere:
"When my people break the law, they go to jail. When your people break the law, they get amnesty!"
Linda Caraballo shouted at the city council earlier in August for their illegal and unjust commission appointments of two illegal aliens. She showed up the second time to remind the audience that Mayor Macias does not legally reside in Huntington Park, and should never have been elected in the first place.
Oh — and the stories I heard from other members of the audience before and after they spoke to the podium – they were head-turning, to put it all mildly./
Ephrain Martinez, a political consultant, is running the show in HP. The Mexican Mafia and gangs have taken over the city.
With nearly half the city residents illegal and thus ineligible to vote, is it any wonder that so much corruption has taken over a once thriving LA suburb?
One resident, Betty Retama, explained to me that the city has turned for the worse with the rising number of illegal aliens residing in the city, not respecting their neighbors, not honoring the personal space and property of legal residents, either.
Most residents in the 1960s opted to move to another city. Retama refuses to do so: "If I move to Downey, it will be a matter of time before I have to move somewhere else again."
This unwillingness on the part of city residents, even homeowners, to confront city councils animates much of the frustration then devolution of Southern California communities. City residents even in more affluent coastal communities have gotten complacent. Focus on state or federal politics is more immediately engaging, but the short and long term effects on one's quality of life begins at the local level. We the People have the most and immediate effect at the city level, and more conservatives must take the fight to school boards and city councils, holding elected officials accountable/
That is exactly what Huntington Park residents are doing. Alan Reynoso ran for city council once, and is likely to run again as part of a growing recall effort to take down the corruption in Huntington Park.
Final Reflections
A number of members in the audience railed at the whole forum because official public business was going on in Spanish: "This is America. Speak English!" one lady shouted out. In order to understand some of the public comment, I needed a translator to interpret for me through a headset. What is going on? Is this arrangement not a violation of federal and state law?
The police required orderly decorum, but with the majority of the city council choosing to flout the rule of law in their own city, why should anyone behave and listen to them or the police?
One older gentleman slammed the council for allowing such rampant, blatant illegality in the city. He then retold a story I had to hear and endure many times over as a teacher in the South Los Angeles: "What are you going to say to your kids when you tell them ot clean up their room? They can just fire back: 'I don't have to. I'm going to call ICE'".
Teachers in communities with large illegal alien populations, whether parents or students, have witnessed this terrible break-down in family life. Children of illegals learn that the state accords them more rights and privileges, and they in turn turn on their parents, who are too fearful to discipline them.
By the way, Huntington Park was noticeably diligent about posting all council meeting video recordings online under Granicus, until July 30. Now, there are no videos currently posted of the August 3rd and August 17th meetings. Why is that? It certainly has something to do with their decision to appoint two illegal aliens to city commissions on the 3rd, and the massive public outcry which followed on August 17th.
What is going in "The City of Perfect Balance?" Imbalanced voter influence with inordinate politicking, corruption, fraud, and now flagrant defiance toward federal law.