L.A. County Sheriff Takes Metro's Money—and Runs! And Street Brawl Video.

It took all of a moment to grant the L.A. County Sheriff a contract renewal to the tune of nearly $16 million dollars. It was a foregone conclusion, and only the formalities had to be observed.

One might be wondering what the above video of a downtown Los Angeles street brawl has to do with any of this. Well, lemme tell ya.

Yesterday (Thursday, 20 Nov. 2008), at 5th and Hill, a street fight took place in downtown Los Angeles. More than 100 people were standing round watching at the corner of 5th and Hill, while perhaps another 100 or more stood on the east side of Hill as well as the parking lot across the way. The melee occurred round 2:45 in the middle of Hill Street immediately north of 5th Street. Despite the obvious commotion (which I and several other people observed as we exited the south entrance of the Pershing Square station), the mob of potential rioters was passed up by a sheriff's deputy going north on Hill. Crowds of people on every corner, traffic stopped, people in the street and lawn tools as weapons did not appear to make the motor deputy suspicious as he motored casually by. Even when some gawkers shouted at him he kept going, and the resultant laughter was loud. (This appears at exactly three minutes into the four-minute video.)

There are usually two to three deputies loafing at Pershing Square Red Line station round this time, but they may have been celebrating their contract renewal elsewhere. (In any case, three of the usual suspects, er deputies were on hand round 6:30 p.m. to watch the hideous traffic snarl as well as tens of cars and several Metro busses block the box at 5th and Hill as well as 5th and Broadway. The three deputies all stood round, joking and laughing and with hands in pockets.)

It is rather obvious that the L.A. County Sheriff and his deputies either do not care or are incompetent—or both.

-BusTard

Note: I dropped some of the audio near the beginning, owing to the extremely foul language of the person who later runs into the street and gets into the middle of the skirmish.

Comments

[Donna]

I'm going to guess that you have no idea how difficult it is to manuever a motorcycle on the obviously crowded downtown streets of L.A., or have a headset in one ear with almost non-stop radio traffic that you have to listen to because the info may be for you, oh, and in the other ear you attempting to take in all that is around you...including all of that traffic noise. Did the deputy actually see what was going on? I saw a bus and a van going by...Is it possible that his view was very different in the seconds he was driving by from your perspective?!?!

You are very quick to criticize but until you actually do that job, you should reconsider. As for "loafing" and "goofing", could you please tell me what their jobs are? What should they be doing while standing at the different Metro stations? My understanding is that they are there for a "presence". They don't provide janitorial services, etc., so you won't see them pushing or broom or cleaning the windows of the light rail as it comes into a station. And yes, they do, God forbid, talk to each other so it would appear like they are a group of like-minded, like-dressed individuals.

Seriously, instead of filming the argument, perhaps your energy would have been better spent calling LAPD for some help if you were so concerned!

[ShameTrain LA]

Donna,
You would be wrong. I have many years' experience riding many sizes of motorbikes—from 100s to 750s and 1000s—in many different environments and situations.

Now, if nearly 100 people looking and pointing in the same direction while standing on a downtown street corner is something that does not interest a constable, perhaps that constable should find work in another line.
As for that "bus and van" going by, well, take another look. The deputy had ample time to see ahead of him what was going on as he motored north on Hill. He was not going fast, and one of the primary tenets of being a constable of any kind is OBSERVATION. If the various motorists could see—hear the honking?—from both directions, why not could he? I clearly stated the many aspects of the incident that should have attracted his attention. I have seen far less activity attract the attention of deputies whose headsets were no less noisy but who managed to see and hear things nearly a block away FROM THIS VERY SPOT, activity that failed to attract so many persons' obvious attention for so long a time to boot.

In any case, I have posted a fair amount of footage of deputies doing things with bikes that do indeed exhibit high manoeuvrability. That is why there are motorbikes!

Feel free to go to the Subway sandwich shop at 5th and Hill and tell those folk—who are in the video for a moment and who saw the incident unfold from the beginning—that their duty is to call LAPD before a situation escalates. After all, they have a telephone on hand and were standing there watching when they could have been dialing, correct?
Now, please understand that I do not mind arguments to the contrary or criticism of my posts. But please keep in mind competence. I took the time to think out what I was stating when I published the bit, and I do appreciate reciprocation if responding.