Fires, sex offender and a machete in prison point to leadership failures
I’m Just Saying by Austin Rhodes
Powered by Roof Savers
School books and lectures have their place, but there is nothing like real world events, happening in real time, to bring real education to the masses.
The fully-woke left wing leadership in California is putting on a masterclass in head up your own fanny politics and the human damage that results when you are book smart and people foolish.
Let’s put hideous diversity, equity, and inclusion-driven personnel decisions and safety appointments to the Los Angeles public safety hierarchy aside for the moment. Instead, let us concentrate on what happens when you allow wacko environmental policy to take precedent over the welfare and safety of citizens and the property they call home. In other words, the Los Angeles Fire Department may be a rainbow colored, multi-gendered, ethnically, and sexually diverse group of hims/hers/theys/whats, but it has been sadly abandoned without the proper tools to do its job.
Experts have stated that billions of gallons of water from reservoirs, rivers, and snow runoff in the northern part of the state have been withheld from the arid regions of Southern California, all to ensure the survival of an endangered fish species. It is true that untold aquatic reserves have been lost to the region for that purpose, which sends the liquid gold directly into the Pacific Ocean after it has been used to prop up the smelt population.
The resulting lack of water for metro Los Angeles is a concern because it keeps public spaces, right-of-ways, parks and other publicly maintained areas crispier and more fire-prone than is wise, but the issue is much deeper than just a lack of well-maintained reservoirs.
One issue virtually all experts agree upon is the seriously inferior and inadequate water delivery infrastructure there. It is outdated and undersized for the purpose of fighting the kinds of fires that regularly threaten that area. The elected and appointed local government officials know that and have for years!
That is not a theory. It is a fact. High winds and the terrain of the area, aided by months of routine drought create the tinderbox that erupted this week claiming thousands of acres, and the residences and businesses occupying them.
The notorious environmental conditions of the LA basin don’t come close to supporting the daily lives of more than 18 million people without a lot of manipulation of natural resources. It is folly to think that you can scrimp on the water infrastructure and firefighting resources needed to safely maintain that area and not sacrifice precious souls, real estate, and history in the process. Turn on your TV, the proof of that is all over the screen.
Fire hydrants in that area have been dry, and that the water kept from the area in favor of supporting those fish could have been put to good use to keep the blaze under control.
As the Democrats in charge of virtually all public policy in these fire-ravaged areas start to regroup, let us hope they decide to refocus their priorities with a focus on protecting humans and their homes, and not some lowly cousin of the sardine instead.
Locally we have also experienced a few great examples of what poor municipal leadership and screwed up policies and priorities can give you. A few played out in the headlines over the last few days.
The search for a notorious indecent flasher who had been exposing himself along well-travelled foot and bike paths came to a quick conclusion once witnesses and victims started posting pictures of the portly pervert in action. Several of those witnesses contacted yours truly, and the Austin Rhodes Show Facebook page saw more than 660 thousand hits on one such video in less than 48 hours.
While some said earlier complaints about the creepy dude had been largely ignored when reported, newly sworn in Richmond County Sheriff Gino Brantley and his command staff made identification and apprehension of the perp a top priority the minute they were brought up to speed on the issue.
Not surprisingly the suspect, a 58-year-old man named Timothy Marcus, is very well known to the criminal justice system as a certified sex offender. He has a history that includes not just public indecency complaints, but a child molestation conviction as well. That Marcus has been accused of this most recent behavior is not a surprise. That the State of Georgia allows him to walk free given his prior record is.
We were able to confirm that Marcus had been working (until this arrest) at Goodwill in Augusta, despite his lengthy criminal history and sex offender designation.
Not good.
Another crime related viral video discovered and released this week by the Jail Report highlighted another dangerous and shameful failure of our criminal justice system. This time it was a convict producing his own damning documentary.
Augusta native Devon Crews, currently serving time at Valdosta State Prison for assault and gang activity, used an illegal cell phone and internet connection to show off the very illegal homemade machete he had stashed in his jail cell.
You read that right.
Crews, obviously as stupid as he is felonious, was broadcasting from his cell on Facebook Live when, thanks to a tip, he was discovered and recorded by the Jail Report. Check out the video for yourself here and watch the look on the idiot’s face when he realizes who has joined his streaming audience. A word of warning, language does get a little colorful.
We are told Crews faces additional years added to his existing sentence for the multiple crimes captured and broadcast by his own hand. No confirmation yet on whether the incarcerated producer/photographer plans to enter his work in any documentary film festivals.
In all seriousness, here we have Exhibit Number 4,494,328 as to why cell phone signals should be blocked at all prison facilities.