California assemblyman cites racism over badge investigation

SACRAMENTO -- A veteran black lawmaker says an investigation into his practice of giving replica Assembly badges to friends and donors is racially motivated and called the Democrat leading the inquiry "the most racial legislator" he has known.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, made the statement about Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, Thursday in an e-mailed response to a capital news service.

"Assemblyman De La Torre is the most racial legislator I have encountered in over 40 years," Dymally wrote in the e-mail to CTNS television service.

The service sent a transcript of its e-mail interview to its subscribers on Thursday, including television stations around the state and some offices in the Capitol. The e-mail was being circulated throughout the Capitol.

Dymally spokeswoman Jasmyne Cannick told The Associated Press that the e-mail transcript accurately quoted her boss. On Friday, she said Dymally would not comment further.

Dymally, leader of the Legislature's Black Caucus, told The Sacramento Bee for a story published this week that he felt race was behind the inquiry.

"It's nice and proper and polite to say that racism doesn't exist in American society and politics. But it exists," he told the newspaper. "People have to deal with that. Why am I being singled out?"

His statements came after De La Torre condemned the Assembly's most senior lawmaker for handing out about 30 replica Assembly badges to supporters or friends, a development first reported by the Los Angeles Times. They are similar to the Assembly's official badges except they read, "California State Assembly Commissioner." That title is not recognized by the chamber.

The badges' distribution came to light after the Redondo Beach city attorney charged Dymally associate Pirikana Johnson, 27, with impersonating a state official.

This is pretty interesting:

Brawl Began Over Political Boss Charged with Rape Threats

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's fight with his fellow lawmaker, Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, is rooted in a longstanding feud over a South Gate political boss now in jail for embezzling millions. Four years ago, Dymally intervened to defend the corrupt official while De La Torre was trying to clean up South Gate's political cesspool.
...
In 2002, Dymally and De La Torre took separate sides when then-South Gate treasurer Albert Robles, in photo, was charged with threatening to rape then-state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) and shoot her husband, political consultant Leo Briones. Robles, the self-described "King of South Gate," also allegedly threatened to kidnap then-Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh (D-Los Angeles), drive him to Tijuana and shoot him in the head. Firebaugh died in March 2006 of liver failure.

Dymally testified on behalf of Robles, in an attempt by the defense to portray southeast Los Angeles County as a down-and-dirty place where profane language and threats are part of the everyday conversation. "You keep on trucking," Dymally told the L.A. Times during the trial, shrugging off the outrageous language. A judge dismissed the seven felony charges against Robles after a jury deadlocked on all counts.
...
In 2003, South Gate residents voted overwhelmingly to oust Robles and his political allies, Mayor Xochitl Ruvalcaba, Vice Mayor Raul Moriel, and city councilmember Maria Benavides. De La Torre backed the effort. This year, a judge sentenced Robles to a decade in federal prison for plundering more than $20 million from the city. De La Torre told the Times that Robles "brought the city to its knees," but the sentencing "stopped the car just before it headed over the cliff."

See also FR keywords: Albert Robles or Southgate

I hate Melvin Dymally, and I'm glad he's a withering old coot who will probably croak sooner rather than later.

Here's background on his little deputized army of phony 'Assembly Commissioners' and how the LAPD laughed at them and slapped the cuffs on the perp:

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(LA Times excerpt) Man held in DUI had badge issued by Dymally.

Police say Pirikana Johnson, 27, of Compton is charged with impersonating a state official and driving under the influence.

A Compton man was arrested Monday for flashing an official-looking state badge issued by the office of Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, Redondo Beach police said.

Police said Pirikana Likivu Johnson, 27, became agitated on two occasions earlier this year when police confronted him about loud music or asked him to stay in his car while waiting for a friend in the Redondo Beach Pier parking garage after closing time at a nearby club, police said. Both times, Johnson took out a police-style wallet containing a metal badge that identified him as an Assembly commissioner.

When officers told him he still had to comply with their orders during a confrontation March 18, he became belligerent, according to a police report.

"You don't know who I am," he told an officer, according to the report. He was later found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.10%.

"... Johnson did not respond to telephone calls and visits to his Compton home seeking comment earlier this year. On Monday night, he was being held in the Redondo Beach City Jail in lieu of $60,000 bail on charges of impersonating a state official, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license.

Dymally's office issued more than a dozen of the metal badges — which are emblazoned with a likeness of the state Assembly seal and the words "California State Assembly Commissioner" — to donors and constituents. Some recipients said they received the badges after making donations.

Dymally, 80, a Democrat from Compton, was in Sacramento on Monday to be sworn in for another term in the Assembly and declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the case. But in interviews earlier this year, he called the credential "a nothing badge" and said such honorary shields are commonplace.

"The possession of these badges is not an illegal act," he said. "If it is, then arrest everybody. Arrest some white people too..."

ROFL at the memo! I guess his daughter didn't get the message, either. Why wasn't she cited, as well?

After Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in March, Dymally and his daughter, Lynn, 48, went to the police station to try to get him released, saying that Johnson had to be in Sacramento for a meeting later that morning. Police asked Lynn Dymally for identification. According to a report, she responded by displaying one of the Dymally commissioner badges.
An officer asked her why she and Johnson had the badges, records show, and she said it was because they worked for her father. Her attorney, Anthony Willoughby of Culver City, said Monday that she did not flash the badge, but rather inadvertently showed it as she opened her wallet to retrieve her driver's license.
[source]

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