Central City East : Downtown Los Angeles

Captain Andy Smith at the January Neighborhood Council Meeting

Captain Andy Smith, the Los Angeles Police Department Captain of the Central Division in Downtown Los Angeles , was inviteds to speak on the safe cities intitative last night at the January meeting of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.





Tutor of Tutor-Saliba doesn't trust Steve Lopez!!!! Anyone who doesn't trust Steve Lopez is alright in my book!!!


What is so telling in this article is Steve Lopez's effort at trying to make Tutor into a monster because he doesn't want to talk to him. I rememember at an event in skid row when I asked Steve Lopez how much money Nathaniel Ayer's would be receiving from the book deal with Putnam. Steve's jowls grew tight , his face grew flushed as I walked away , he began to push my back as he followed me out of the meeting. He then yelled at me how it wasn't any of my business. Sounds just like Tutor in this recent article.

The other thing is Steve Lopez's seemingly wanting to anger people and taunt them into making them say things they normally would not . If that isn't manipulation of people and getting a kick out of upsetting folks I don't know what is. And you wonder why people don't buy subscrriptions to the LA Times. This sort of abuse is uncalled for, it takes it's toll over time.

Nice guy that I am, I called the supervisor's boss, Ron Tutor, to see if maybe I could tour the site with him or buy him lunch, since we'd be working together, in a manner of speaking.

Not only did he decline, but he took the Lord's name in vain. He wondered why I thought the project was any of my business, and I tried to explain the watchdog role of the press. But he was the one doing the barking.

"I don't want to talk to you," he snarled, telling me he wasn't going to waste his time trying to educate a [expletive] newspaper columnist.

The reason nobody else bid on the job is that construction companies have gone out of business in droves, Tutor argued, saying that doing work for public agencies in California was "a traumatic process at best."

He seemed to be doing OK, I suggested.

"I'm not hurting. Hey, I'm a successful contractor, if that bothers you."

Not at all. Congratulations.

"The truth of it is, I don't trust anybody who works for the L.A. Times," Tutor said as I tried to keep him on the phone, because there was no telling what might come out of his mouth in such an agitated state.