Posted on 04/05/2007 8:32:32 AM PDT by sportutegrl
LOS ANGELES — There are times when, much as I love my adopted city of Los Angeles, I can only shake my head and think, “This couldn’t happen in a real city.” By real, I don’t mean to be measuring tinsel content, but civic engagement. People don’t pay attention to politics here the way they do in other cities, the media doesn’t cover it the same way (don’t even get me started on that), and the result is that politicians get away with murder. Or worse.
Watts is a place that most people who don’t live in don’t set foot in. The closest we ever come is riding the freeway over it. Once upon a time there were famous riots there, but now it’s just poor and gang infested. Middle school kids who don’t join gangs get beat up and are afraid to tell anyone; for protection, kids join gangs that require girls to subject themselves to gang rape as part of their initiation process. The graduation rate at the local high school, one of the absolute worst in Los Angeles, is 3 percent.
So when the most successful charter school group in Los Angeles approached community leaders with the idea of essentially taking over that high school, and replacing it with eight new, smaller charter schools, there was overwhelming interest and support. Why wouldn’t there be? I serve on the Board of Directors of Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 10 charter schools in similar areas, with very different results.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Whoever did her plastic surgery is a miracle-worker. What a transformation.
It’s a consequence of a ‘sound bite’ society; rhetoric displaces action and it’s all about feeling good without cost or sacrifice. It’s all the people expect and the pols will gladly deliver. Talk isn’t just cheap; it’s free.
I know! That's got to be a first.
Still, as a conservative, I have a duty to criticize her for something, so I should mention that her claim about girls being gang raped to get into gangs isn't really accurate. Most girls are admitted into gangs the same way that boys are - they're beaten by the other gang members for a certain amount of time. Some girls choose to get in by sleeping with all the male gang members, but those girls never truly gain the respect of the others.
I was raised in Los Angeles many, many years ago. They had some of the best schools around. I’m sad to say that when the racial culture changed, so did the schools. It’s a double whammy in L.A. First, you have students and parents that really don’t care, then you have the teachers unions that don’t care. You end up with gangs and ghetto’s. Include in that the gangs. When you have over 70,000 gang members in the city and you only assign less than 300 cops to control them, you loose. L.A. is almost uncontrollable now. It would take a massive police action to turn that city around and I doubt very much if you would ever see that. All the schools care about are their football and basketball teams. The city is basically uneducated and it’s difficult to convince them of anything that concerns the real world. All we do is pandar to them in the hopes that you don’t have a riot instead of slamming them to the ground and telling them that the city will not put up them.
I was raised in Los Angeles many, many years ago. They had some of the best schools around. I’m sad to say that when the racial culture changed, so did the schools. It’s a double whammy in L.A. First, you have students and parents that really don’t care, then you have the teachers unions that don’t care. You end up with gangs and ghetto’s. Include in that the gangs. When you have over 70,000 gang members in the city and you only assign less than 300 cops to control them, you loose. L.A. is almost uncontrollable now. It would take a massive police action to turn that city around and I doubt very much if you would ever see that. All the schools care about are their football and basketball teams. The city is basically uneducated and it’s difficult to convince them of anything that concerns the real world. All we do is pandar to them in the hopes that you don’t have a riot instead of slamming them to the ground and telling them that the city will not put up them.
....it is the only job he is qualified for....taking a run down crime infested city an cleaning it up....
His own inimitable (but fascist) style will make LA livable again.
(but please Rudy, stay out of the POTUS race, your anti constitutional style, is death to our republican form of government...)
Fox News does hire the best makeup artists in the industry.
But who cares about the rule of law when the teachers’ union is saying no?
While the source is suprising, in a way it shouldn't be. The Democratic "coalition" is nothing more than an alliance of those who want the government (run by them) to control things and those who want the government to give them things they haven't earned.
When liberals attempt on a personal basis to do something about an obvious problem, they often run into the real cause of same....their own coalition.
-Eric
Last time I was in LA I needed to buy some floppy disks. Unbelievable. Eventually found a computer store and they had to rummage through the storeroom to find some. Also, the TV news seemed primitive compared to almost anyplace else. The morning farm and hog report in Indianapolis was a step up. The whole place appeared to be on autopilot and the only sentient people were the manual laborers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.