LA Weekly

Greens Seeing Red

Having read Marc Cooper’s “Green Party, RIP— McKinney’s shenanigans sent the party further into irrelevance” [Dec. 14–20], I have to question his qualifications [as] a political journalist. Although I do not claim to support Cynthia McKinney in total, she has been a lone, courageous voice in Congress [while] her peers have been relegated to the ranks of spineless, whining prostitutes for government malfeasance. When McKinney speaks of the obvious coverup of the events of 9/11, she speaks for millions of Americans who do not have a voice. In case you decide to actually begin a little “investigative journalism,” I suggest you start with these Web sites: www.ae911truth.org, www.stj911.org and www.911truth.org.

Cooper’s characterization of the 9/11 Truth Movement is an affront to the many victims’ family members who are pushing for a new investigation. Someone get him David Ray Griffin’s book Debunking 9/11 Debunking— before he keeps writing things that he’ll later regret.

In addition to these letters, there were many pro-McKinney comments.

McKinney is the only one in Congress with the guts to challenge the whitewash 9/11 Commission.

What’s with the “Wack Job 9/11 Truth Movement” comment? Over 1/3 of Americans believe 9/11 was an inside job, and if you did your homework you would to. If you want to be a yellow journalist who spreads miss-truths, maybe Bill O’Reilly has room for you.

It looks like [Cooper] is shilling for the Democrat Party, which is deathly afraid that the minority voters they rely on might actually have alternative candidates. When Democrats take their constituents seriously instead of pandering to wealthy Wall Street contributors and military contractors, then they will deserve support. Until then, they have people like Cooper saying “don’t look behind the curtain.”

Are you people serious? [McKinney] is an embarrassment even to an irrelevant political party, i.e the Green Party. Well . . . maybe not. Good riddance. Good writing Coop.

To editors of conscience (I’m hoping there are some of you): I was stunned to see the cover of L.A. Weekly [“Nine Miles and Spreading,” Dec. 14–20]. What a racially polarizing cover, seemingly intended to create fearfulness and distrust of our black neighbors! Reminds me of The Birth of a Nation.

I can’t think how you could undo this appalling harm, but you could mitigate it by publishing a balancing cover story about the pervasive, consistent imbalance of justice and sentencing, as well as exclusion, that has been the daily reality of our black friends.

I work in Watts. I believe that Watts’ many flaws don’t make it the safest place in the world. However, Watts also has a rich community of families, stakeholders, and other people who sincerely care about and invest in the city. Someone should write an article about that.

Peter Landesman’s article is an exceptionally fine example of field reporting. Without exaggeration, it is Pulitzer-quality journalism. Please give us more from Landesman.

The article “Nine Miles and Spread­­ing” focuses on two gangs located in Watts, the Bounty Hunter Bloods and Grape Street Crips. Specifically, it outlines a confrontation between these two gangs in December 2005. Unfortunately, the article leaves an impression that conditions are still the same in Watts. Nothing could be further from the truth!

In early 2006, Councilmember Janice Hahn brought together community members, the police, public agencies, private entities, clergy, school officials, gang intervention/prevention workers and others to address the problem. The group calls itself the Watts Gang Task Force. It meets weekly to listen to and address concerns. While much work still needs to be done, the hard work of the Task Force, as well as other community members, has led to a substantial decrease in Part I Crime in Watts, the Nickerson Gardens Housing Development and Jordan Downs Housing Development.

These reductions are significant accomplishments that cannot be achieved by the community or police alone. They occur when people are willing to pull together. They bring hope for the future instead of despair. Hopefully, L.A. Weekly can do a follow-up article on what is really going on in Watts today.