Carmen "The Dude" Trutanich

Mr Trutanich is one who has little regard for the plight faced by much of the community he represents. Referred to as 'the dude', he reminds me of Stephen King's 'The Gunslinger' re:

his current attempt to jail persons who are SUPPOSED graffiti painters if they gather in a group;

his threat to parents that they will loose their homes if their gang-kids are caught in (the parent's) house (COME ON!);

What ever happened to DUE PROCESS and INNOCENT until PROVEN GUILTY Mr. Trutanich?

I commend law enforcement for their efforts to curb gangs by going after gang-members; however, these are examples of the lack of concern, ignorance of rights of the innocent, and (his) unrealistic expectation of what ANY parent can legally do. Trutanich needs to be replaced with another whose policies fall in line with protection of basic rights by those we trust to protect us. To threaten parents who may not even be aware of a goings on, is just plain WRONG!!

I am a parent, never in a gang, never graffiti, never a felon, just very afraid of the tactics and motives of Mr. Trutanich!

Trutanich is like a breath of fresh air in Los Angeles, plain talking and not constipated with political correctness. Yes, his plan to curb the criminal activities of graffiti gangs is alarming to some civil rights advocates, but frankly the rest of the community have had enough. It is time to treat the graffiti gangs the same way as the fully fledged criminal street gangs. An injunction limiting the rights of association of those convicted of vandalism (graffiti) is constitutional, sensible, and timely. Critics can complain, but do not realize that before Trutanich can obtain an injunction, a judge has to examine and approve it.

This self-styled "dude" talks and sounds like an old-school Vegas pit boss. I agree with david L about what one article called "Trutanich, Taggers and the Madness of Really Bad Injunctions." Like Trutanich's other core rightwing base, "Jack" doesn't get it or give a hoot about the constitution, civil liberties and those who have the bad luck to be poor or just live in a bad neighborhood where they may come into casual contact with taggers or have the worse luck to have one in the family.

When he ran he promised to distinguish between at-risk kids and real gangbangers, talked a blue streak about his "empathy" and all kinds of plans to expand on Rocky's work with schools, but he's only interested in consolidating his own power and being a tool against the Democrats who don't kow-tow to him and his mentor/ sponsor DA Steve Cooley. Of course, he also told Laura Chick flat-out lies he never intended to keep, promised the medical marijuana community to support them over "too tough" Jack Weiss, and now brushes off ethical critcism as "minor."

He uses his arsenal of lawyers to threaten to sue and ruin (not just "clash with") other officials, paid and volunteer like Board and Commission members, who don't kow-tow to his views and often arbitrary demands. He flat-out lies to make it sounds like he's won legal cases, and about handling cases in-house that are farmed out. Like telling Mantle a couple weeks ago that he "won" some case and handled it in-house when they paid $1.4 million to an outside firm for that. He has tried to do more in-house, with an overworked and angry staff - he insists on hiring 60 more lawyers and 200 secret police (copying what Cooley's got in the DA's office) "to police the police" and "flush out the cockroaches" as his friend/soulmate Kevin James puts it when they talk together on the radio.

He couldn't care less about the people who rely on the city attorney to be their voice because they're otherwise powerless and have "no juice," something he has always boasted about seeking for himself.

This is what people get when they are duped by what Chick called "fancy speeches and soundbites" and empty "plans" by a guy who hasn't lifted a finger in the public interest in the last 25 years, lining his pockets working for rich criminals and toxic polluter corporate clients. (Mislabeling himself "environmental attorney" when he's an anti-environmental attorney.) Secure knowing that not only will the DA not reign him in even for criminal collusion, in fact, with the DA's personal top staff now doing the legal work in the office, and he himself carrying out the Republican agenda, with an amoral ambition, he's a disaster and is getting more unrestrained by the day.

I think it's very wrong of KPCC to allow the sort of biased bitter partisan comments that appear above. 'Laura' doesn't care about the quality of life for the poor people who are plague by gang member who destroy the community; she thinks it's 'unconstitutional' to use the law to control them. It's fine for laura, I'm sure she lives on the Westside with her hero Weiss, but for the rest of Los Angeles, it's a living hell and only Trutanich seems to be doing anything for us. You, Laura, seem far more concerned with criminal liberties than civil liberties. If a family of gang members move in next to you, who are you going to call?

Scare mongering is the only way to describe the comments of david and laura. It is ridiculous to suggest that the parent of a kid who is not hanging around with gangs or tagging crews has anything to worry about. Any responsible parent knows what they're kids are up to, and if they don't then they are either irresponsible or culpable for what their neglected kids become. The gang problem doesn't happen because responsible parents allow their kids to hang out with losers, it happens because the parents themselves are or were gangmembers who see the gangster lifestyle as part of growing up. Trutanich said he's a parent of four kids, and he knows what the concerns of parents are. I really do not believe the allegations made above. I believe that Trutanich has the interests of parents at heart, as well as the interests of the community. If someone has a better idea of how to deal with the Avenues Gang and with the kids who get sucked down the drain of criminality with free access to 'medical' marijuana, then let's hear it. Instead all the criticism appears to be bickering about the fact that a democrat did not win. As a life-long democrat, I voted against Jack Weiss, not for Trutanich, because of the way Weiss had behaved as a councilmember and as a person. So far I am impressed with my anyone but Weiss choice, and while it won't change my politics, it strengthens my belief that the party must demand better from candidates before they embrace them.

As someone who campaigned for Trutanich and even posed with photos as he came to the local community meetings and made promises to be active in the community and uphold the laws of the great state of California. I could not be more disapointed in his behavior. As a man he has lied to our faces. As a politician he has lied to our faces. As our city attorney he has lied to our faces.

The above comments about kids being sucked down the drain of criminality with free acces to medical marijuana, is one of the most ignorant comment someone can write. California state law allows it and the Chief legal council for the DEA said in 1988 " if marjuana was discovered today. It would be considered a miracle find". And it takes a doctors recommendation to receive cannabis. I guess the doctors are criminals too. Maybe the next time you take your vicodine or valium you might want to look in the mirror.

I do not see all the stars over dosing on Cannabis(which medically is impossible) But you go ahead and live in your dream world.

By the way, how many gang members own houses? It might be safe there are no to many.

Jack Weiss was really bad, but I am not sure we have much better. You keep on praising Tratunich until he breaks a promise that you actually know something about.

In the meantime ignorance is bliss.

My 12 year old son attends a middle school in van nuys, there's a pot shop near by. On thursday he and two friends were arrested smoking weed behind the shop. the cops told me that my son had bought the dope from the shop and shared it with his friends. he had a card from the shop that meant he didn't need a prescription to buy it. Now my son will be suspended from school and trying to get him a place in a decent school is going to be hard. whoever bill is, he is does not have kids or a heart. Bill thinks that its not a bad thing for kids to smoke dope because like so many people in los angeles, he doesn't care about anyone but himself. You keep on attacking trutanvich untill you are a victim or someone you care about is, but as you only care abot yourself, i guess we'll wait untill you become a victim before you get real.

Trutanich is the only politician who actually dares to say what the people of Los Angeles think and want. He breaks the mold of traditional politics with his open and honest approach to gangs, drugs and billboards. All are problems that the hand wringing council have failed miserably to deal with because they were afraid that they would not get re-elected if they didn't try to please everybody; criminals included. Now everybody is fed-up with that approach and are welcoming Trutanich and his team of DA recruits, all of whom are experts in these areas.
On Wednesday Trutanich spoke openly to Larry about Medical MJ; guess what? It's not medical - it's saturated with pesticide. Pot head might not care about the pot being laced with poison, but the people who are desperately in need of medical mj do care.
The Cannabis advocate who is complaining about Trutanich going back on his promises thinks we don't remember the one promise that trumps all others; do the right thing. Getting poison out of medical mj is the right thing.
As for Jack Weiss, no amount of lies will rehabilitate the legacy of overdevelopment, traffic congestion and billboard blight that he left in his trail of self-serving destruction. Weiss was bad for LA, Trutanich is not.

The sheer ignorance of Trutanich supporters, and utter inability to understand the law, or respect the constitution and civil liberties, and above all, to dismiss the fact that the man LIED to every special interest and demographic group and elected official to get their endorsement, speaks volumes about the man himself. He clearly believes any amount of bold-faced lying to get what he wants is justified.

He's focused all his efforts on shoring up his knee-jerk rightwing base, and partisan vendettes, wants to waste money on huge private police forces to create a personal police state. Kelvin's lies about Jack Weiss are the typical Trutanich "smear your opponent with soundbites to discredit his long, honorable and transparent record of public service, to hide that you have done nothing in the public good but spent your life serving yourself and criminals for money." Jack Weiss has more integrity in one finger than this man ever will have.

I don't agree with Bill's liberal take on med marijuana, but the reality is somewhere between his view and Kelvin/Tanesha''s ignorant ramblings.
The real issue is Trutanich's bold-faced lying to the med marijuana community to use them to get him elected, then throwing them under the bus: like he did Laura Chick on the Controller issue; like he did with gang prevention advocates; like he did about environmental issues; like he lied about most everything; his real intent is just political vendetta and a Rush Limbaugh/Kevin James agenda.

Bill's point about lying is that Trutanich promised the medical marijuana community to support their position over Jack Weiss's, who they felt was TOO tough; Jack was working closely with Chief Bratton and LAPD to put the public safety aspects that Tanesha talks about paramount, while it was Trutanich who promised the med marijuana community he would be MORE lenient. In a shameless scam to get them to work against Weiss for him. Then he threw them under the bus - but didn't tell them until one hour before the public hearing in City Council last Tuesday, to forestall their having a chance to organize and expose his lies. He intentionally created confusion and surprise as a tactic, promises and integrity mean nothing to him. See the misc. medical journals on this: e.g. aboutmedicalmarijuana.com.

Jack ignores that the objections are NOT about getting rid of tagging or gangbangers: again, he claimed Weiss was TOO tough and that he'd be "more compassionate." The issue is the manner in which Trutanich has written the law - not only legally ignorant & has attracted an expensive class-action suit already but makes his campaign promises just another bold-faced LIE.

I really can't tell if the Trutanich supporters here are totally too ignorant and uneducated to understand, or if they, like Trutanich, are utterly amoral and hence make a farce of democracy. Probably both.