CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-Prior to the advent of Donald Trump, the choice of Sarah Palin to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008 was the GOP’s most egregious misstep.
Ironically, Joe Biden seems close to repeating that error by selecting Sen. Kamala Harris to be his running-mate. Sen. Harris’ liability does not come from her being an ignorant, addlebrained flop. Rather, it is her role in systemic racism and corruption.
When she first began her run to be the Dem President candidate, Spencer Custodio wrote in the February 12, 2019 issue of Voice of OC about Kamala Harris’ relationship with the use of lying jailhouse informants. In 2016, the 4th District Court of Appeals affirmed Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Goethals that removed Rackauckas’ team from the trial of mass murderer Scott Evans Dekraai because of repeated evidence violations involving secret jailhouse informants. The use of lying jailhouse informants had become systemic under Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. By the time, Judge Goethals made his ruling in 2015, Kamala Harris had been state Attorney General since January 3, 2011.
As the adage goes, a fish rots from the head down. While an occasional miscreant can be uncovered in any system, when it is habitual and an “open secret,” people realize that the behavior is condoned by higher ups. In fact. In January 2015, Kamala Harris had been called on the carpet by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for her role in the use of not only a lying jailhouse informant but also her protection of a prosecutor who took the stand and lied in the Johnny Baca trial. January 31, 2015 LA Times, U.S. Judges See 'Epidemic' of Prosecutorial Misconduct in State, by Maura Dolan
Not only did AG Harris fight to keep Johnny Baca convicted after the misconduct had been uncovered and lower courts had confirmed the use of a lying jailhouse informant and the perjuring prosecutor, but she had taken no action to stop the injustices. As Gerald Uelmen, of the Santa Clara University School of Law observed, “"It is a cumulative type thing. The 9th Circuit keeps seeing this misconduct over and over again.” If the appeals court is frequently seeing the misconduct, the corruption must an widespread. That is exactly why federal Judge Alex Kozinski complained that such misconduct was an epidemic in the California state courts. Only after Judge Kozinski had threatened to identify AG Harris’ role, did she stop her the unjust prosecution of Johnny Baca.
In 2019, former Orange County Sgt. William West revealed that between 2013 and 2017 an audit of the OC Sheriff Department had found over 60 internal affairs complaints which had not been investigated. These were not from disgruntled citizens, but most were from captains and supervisors inside the Department. This degree of misconduct does not permeate a system unless the perpetrators have no fear. When captains’ and supervisors’ complaints are ignored, one knows that the protection from a much higher level. No one officially talked about OC corruption, but everyone knew about it.
People who place their personal political ambitious over truth and justice do not want to find systemic injustices. They want to only gather accolades to enhance their careers. Who is more willing to give praise than underlings who know that their praise of the Attorney General will buy protection?
As Black Lives Matter are showing, racism is systemic. That means we do not have one of two bad cops, a couple dishonest judges or two corrupt city councilmembers. “Systemic” means the system itself is corrupt. Presently, two prominent aspects of systemic corruption are the news.
(1) In California, the racist treatment of Blacks, Browns and other disfavored people in the courts is based upon judges’ constitutional right to use their own personal bigotries in running their courtroom. Since a majority of criminal court judges are former prosecutors, they recognize when prosecutors are cheating. The legal justification for the epidemic of prejudice among California judges came along long after the practice had been deeply ingrained. In August 2015, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye approved the right of California judges to use their personal biases rather than Due Process. (Case S227630, 8-15-15). When judicial immunity is coupled with the judges’ right to use their personal ethnic and racial likes and dislikes in running their courtroom, the state has systemic racism. Kamala Harris has never objected to California judges’ using personal racism; yet she parades herself as a progressive. In fact, “reactionary” would be too mild. “Opportunistic” would be more descriptive.
(2) The other epidemic of corruption is found at LA City Hall and in the FBI’s selective prosecution of only a couple councilmembers when every single city councilmember has engaged in vote trading which Penal Code, § 86 expressly criminalized. The entire time that Kamala Harris was state Attorney General she knew for a fact that the LA City Council was a criminal enterprise, but she did nothing. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars were involved and she did nothing. If you think LumpyTrumpy was bad, just wait.
The FBI makes such a big deal that councilmember Jose Huizar got about $1.5 M in bribes, but back in 2010, when Councilmember Eric Garcetti cheated the city of about $1.5 M by concealing the CRA’s appraisal at 1601 N Vine, Kamala Harris looked the other way. As Ron Kaye’s column, as the old LA Weekly and as CityWatch explained in great detail, the Cesspool at Vine was textbook fraud. One might opine that the local DA might be politically compromised as Eric’s Daddy had been the District Attorney. The Cesspool at Vine is exactly the situation where a state Attorney General should swing into action. But for Kamala Harris’ inaction in face open and notorious corruption, Los Angeles would not be in its present mess. On the other hand, if the corruption been stopped, then a lot of LA politicos and judges would not be half as wealthy.
As we have seen with LumpyTrumpy, people have their characteristic ways of behaving. They do not improve when they reach high office; they become much worse. Oh, there is much more to tell about Kamala Harris like her misadventures with the mortgage frauds.
-cw
Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)