OC Politics Blog | Category Archives: Crime

Solorio using Facebook to fight Anaheim gangs

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Anaheim, Crime, Democratic Party, Gangs, Jose Solorio, Police, Public Safety 1 Comment

For Immediate Release: August 10, 2012

For More Information Contact: Carol Chamberlain – office: (916) 319-2069, mobile: (916) 804-5355

State Assemblyman Solorio Launches Facebook Page To Support Anaheim’s Anti-Gang Efforts

City Leaders and Police Officials Need to Maintain Their Resolve

ANAHEIM – State Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) created a Facebook page to show his support for Anaheim’s anti-gang efforts, and asks residents and businesses in Anaheim to visit the page and join the effort. In less than 24 hours, more than 300 people have already weighed in against gangs on Facebook. Continue reading→

Should Edgar have been prosecuted for breaking the law in Los Alamitos?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Courts, Crime, Los Alamitos, Republican Party, Troy Edgar Leave a comment

Los Alamitos Council Member Warren Kusumoto said he wants the city to determine whether his colleagues, Troy Edgar, Marilynn Poe and Ken Stephens should be prosecuted following an Orange County Superior Court judge’s ruling last October that the city violated its own law in awarding a trash contract to Consolidated Disposal Services, according to the O.C. Register. “A city ordinance at the time stipulated such contracts should be awarded to the “lowest responsible bidder.” Consolidated was not the lowest.”

It is unlikely that Kusumoto will be able to get his colleagues to vote on this issue – as the unethical trio of Edgar, Poe and Stephens won’t play ball. However this scandal should at the very least convince Edgar’s supports to cut bait. Continue reading→

Mexico dissolves their FBI and moves to legalize drugs

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Chriss Street, Crime, Drug Reform, Drugs, Marijuana, Mexico Leave a comment

Pot prices will be going down soon in the U.S. as Mexico moves to legalize drugs

By Chriss W. Street

In a stunning development, President-elect Enrique Pena and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI). Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. With rival drug cartels murdering between 47,500 to 67,000 Mexicans over the last six years, the move by the PRI represents the total surrender of Mexico’s sovereignty back to the money and violence of Mexico’s two main drug cartels, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States. Continue reading→

UPDATE: OCDA blocks release of Drakodaidis letter regarding county corruption

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in Alisa Drakodaidis, Brian Probolsky, Carl Crown, Carlos Bustamante, Crime, Jess Carbajal, Orange County, Pat Bates, Republican Party, Tom Mauk, Tony Rackauckas, Women 7 Comments

UPDATE: District Attorney Tony Rackauckas Monday quashed the release of a politically explosive letter sent to the Orange County Board of Supervisors by an attorney representing Deputy CEO Alisa Drakodaidis, who abruptly went on a medical leave in the wake of sex crimes charges against former county Public Works executive Carlos Bustamante, according to the Voice of OC.

“Indications are that Orange County Deputy CEO Alisa Drakodaidis is the latest high-level official heading out the door in the wake of the Carlos Bustamante sex crimes scandal,” according to the Voice of OC. Continue reading→

Why did the County fire Bustamante’s boss and not Mauk too?

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Bill Campbell, Carl Crown, Carlos Bustamante, Crime, Jess Carbajal, Orange County, Tom Mauk, Tony Rackauckas, Wylie Aitken 1 Comment

“Orange County Public Works Director Jess Carbajal was fired Monday, just a week after District Attorney Tony Rackauckas charged one of his former top executives, Carlos Bustamante, with multiple sex crimes,” according to the Voice of OC.

“The move comes after Bustamante, a Santa Ana city councilman, was charged earlier this month with more than 12 felonies in connection with the alleged sexual assault of more than seven women over eight years, according to the L.A. Times. Continue reading→

Shouldn’t Daly be investigated for alleged Bustamante-like behavior?

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2012 Elections, Carlos Bustamante, Corruption, Crime, Orange County, Tom Daly, Women 3 Comments

Santa Ana Council Member Carlos Bustamante’s arrest is a tragic situation that should have been resolved many years earlier.

I am deeply disappointed by our County government’s inability to quickly identify and take swift action against all those who didn’t do their job – upholding a workplace that is free from sexual harassment, abuse of authority and abuse of women.

It is a tragedy that many in our County government choose not to listen or turned a blind eye, possibly thinking an investigation would be too embarrassing, too financially costly or as seemingly apparent, a way to protect one of their own, regardless of the potential for serious criminal charges. Continue reading→