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Former high-profile Los Angeles city officials say the disorganized response to wildfires engulfing the city prove how “stupid this whole woke religion” is.
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and ex County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told The Post they are dismayed by the looting which is taking place and mismanagement of city services which allowed the fire department to be defunded, reservoirs unfilled and fire hydrants to run dry.
“The degree of mismanagement is epic. It’s incompetence married with poisonous ideology, said Villanueva, who was sheriff between 2018 and 2022.
“Both the LA Sheriff’s department and the LAPD are missing more than 3,000 cops because of what happened during what I call the ‘Summer of Love’ after George Floyd’s death,” he said. Floyd died in 2020 at the hands of police, prompting nationwide protests and movements to defund departments.
“All of this is deliberate. Even the county Board of Supervisors are all about ‘care first, jail last’ when it comes to criminals.”
Three wildfires which have been burning since Jan. 7 have destroyed thousands of structures and left 88,000 who had to evacuate displaced.
While residents come to terms with their losses, at least 40 have been busted for looting from the smoldering remains, including at least one person who dressed as a firefighter to blend in.
“You wonder why there’s looting? Why wouldn’t there be? The criminals know at least up until now that probably [no penalty or jail time] was going to happen to them.”
Amid the fire response, a video of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s $300,000-a-year Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) boss, Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, emerged where she talked about whether female fire fighters were strong enough to rescue men from burning buildings.
In it she stated the man would have “got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire,” which some interpreted as victim blaming, while others felt it was stating the obvious.
Cooley pointed out the fire department shouldn’t spend its time and money on such debates.
“I didn’t know how focused the [Los Angeles] Fire Department was on this nonsense of diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said.
“It’s like the main thing the fire department leaders were focused on was DEI – not fighting fires. It’s beyond incredible that things were allowed to get this far.
“People seem to be finally waking up and seeing how stupid this whole woke religion is and how it hurts. There is a recall movement for Governor [Gavin] Newsom, but it’s a non-starter. Recalling anyone in the state is near impossible.”
Others have pointed to leadership – Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass was in Africa when the fires started and has been heavily criticized for cutting the fire department budget and personnel.
Over 7,500 firefighters, national guard and emergency responders from across California have been sent to Los Angeles to fight the fire, along with forces from neighboring states and federal resources to battle the blazes.
However, the state’s top fire fighter, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Joe Tyler has been somewhat less conspicuous.
He has only held one press conference, on Jan. 11, in Sacramento, 380 miles away from the fires.
A representative of his office contacted by The Post Tuesday said they were unsure of his current whereabouts and said they were “pretty sure” he had been at the wildfires at some point.
Meanwhile, firefighters and sheriff’s officers on the ground trying to combat the fires and keep social order are being pushed to their limit.
John Satterfield, a commander with the Los Angles Sheriff’s department who retired in 2024, said he’s been talking to deputies who have been pulling 24 hours shifts “with no relief in sight.”
“They are down 30 to 40 percent at sheriff department’s stations. The Board of Supervisors cut 1,281 positions in 2020,” he told The Post.
“Every single LA City and LA County appointment is made with the most extreme left-wing agenda you can imagine.”
He also railed against the city’s “hysteria” in obsessing over diversity rather then getting the best people for jobs.
“Diversity is great but not when every single position checks the boxes for diversity.
“There comes a point when technical competence and meritocracy are badly needed.
“We told the Board of Supervisors numerous times that they’re defunding and de-staffing would have long term effects on public safety but it fell on deaf ears.”
