INSIDE INGLEWOOD-In Inglewood, California, there is a mayor named James T. Butts. In Toronto, Ontario, there is a mayor named Rob Ford.
Butts gained his seat during a questionable election that required a run-off after the Inglewood city clerk and the LA County District Attorney investigated the mayor’s residential requirements, Butts has admitted on video to being “on drugs,” has had “domestic incidents” as reported by the LA Times, has been videotaped a number of times exhibiting bizarre behavior and has been absent from situations involving residents in mortal danger and his staff did not know where he was.
While the same may not be said about how Ford was elected, the infamous “crackhead mayor” has admitted to smoking crack and has also been videotaped a number of times exhibiting outrageous behavior in public.
In a recent interview on “The Daily Show” regarding the recently published book, “Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story” (Penguin, 2014), author and Toronto city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle said, “[Ford] was…very aggressive. About a year [later], I started hearing about domestic problems at the mayor’s home, and then there were rumors of drugs…his staff didn’t know where he was at times.”
Butts appears to have a similar story.
In a video-taped interview at Inglewood’s City Hall council offices in October, 2012, Butts emerged suddenly from his office and immediately interrupted then-council member Judy Dunlap to state, “I’m on drugs!” (Owing to the mayor’s unawareness of the recording device that was intended only for Dunlap’s comments, California state law mandates that the footage is unavailable for public viewing.)
The mayor has also been videotaped involved in outrageous behavior and possibly threatening comments. Two such incidents were reported on CityWatch.
During a hostage situation in November, 2012 at which approximately 300 police officers and nearly 10 police agencies responded in Inglewood, the mayor could not be located despite later stating he was on the scene the whole time.
Butts has also had a number of reported incidents regarding spousal abuse and other alarming domestic behavior. According to a February 6, 1993 story in the LA Times, “The estranged wife of Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts has accused him of molesting and physically abusing their daughter, who is now 6 years old.”
The story went on to state that “Minnie Butts contended that the abuse occurred at the family's Ladera Heights residence [in 1991.]”
While the charges were officially said to be unfounded, the LA Times reported that “[t]he child also reported to the psychologist that she witnessed her father choke her mother.”
James T. Butts went on the record to call his then-wife a “manipulative liar.”
Minnie Butts was an Inglewood police officer (IPD) at the time of the story. James Butts met Minnie while both were IPD officers and prior to his becoming police chief for SMPD. He has since divorced her and remarried to Judy Rawls-Butts.
He has not been seen in public with Rawls-Butts since mid-2011, the time he was made mayor of Inglewood after the controversial run-off election against Danny K. Tabor.
Tabor replaced de-frocked mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn after Dorn was convicted of fraud for re-writing the City Charter to allow himself to be given a low-interest redevelopment loan for $500,000.
Dorn is often seen at private functions with James T. Butts.
Both Rob Ford and James T. Butts will be running for mayor of their respective crazy towns in 2014.
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 12
Pub: Feb 11, 2014
