Plenty of blame to go around, but whose head is on the chopping block first?

 Al Ritter

The whole California fire has people on edge and rightly so, the community wants blood, and the first drops are soon to be spilled.

Let’s start out with Gov. Gavin Newsom and his part in this debacle. Newsom made the decision to remove a dam that was a reservoir to LA County in an effort to help an endangered species known as the smelt fish. Now environmentalists are claiming that nobody has seen that fish in over a decade, but regardless the reservoir is now gone.

Next in line is Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass whom we now know famously for defunding the LAFD initially to the tune of $14.6 million, not only did she defund them that amount but just weeks before the fire she sought to defund them another $49 million, which would require that 16 fire stations would have had to be closed! All this in the middle of what is known as the worst possible time for fires. The worst part is that she was redirecting funds to other social issues one of which is illegal immigration.

Next in Line is LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley who has been with the fire department in various positions for the last 22 years but in this position since 2022. Her outspoken position on LGBTQ+ rights as the first gay Fire Chief of LA County has put her in the cross hairs of the social media. Her position on DEI instrumentation to the Fire Department has been quite clear. Previously she was Deputy Fire Chief and after her promotion to Fire Chief, she picked the next person on my list.

Deputy Chief Kristine Larson was Crowley’s replacement and equally vocal on gays rights as the first Black lesbian Deputy Fire Chief she is now famous for her video where she declared if she had to carry a man out of a burning building “ He got himself in the wrong place.” This comment has angered many people as showing indifference and anger towards people not like her. It is also reported that Larson’s salary is $399,000 a year! Makes you wonder how much Chief Crowley makes.

Now let’s look at other failures. LACFD (which is different than LAFD) donated all types of fire gear ranging from hoses to helmets, to coats and boots to Ukraine. These donations started in 2022. Now if budgets were cut in the LAFD why wouldn’t those supplies have gone to them before Ukraine?

Here’s yet another issue, 15% of LAFD’s vehicles are sitting in disrepair because they don’t have qualified mechanics to do even basic repairs to get them back on the road. 89 Fire trucks and ambulances sit in an area referred to as “the bone yard.”

In my opinion I think the first head on the chopping block will be that of Deputy Chief Larson strictly for her offensive comments on video.

Larson’s offensive comments here:

https://www.aol.com/lafd-300k-per-diversity-chief-193257737.html

Chief Crowley:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amid-palisades-fire-los-angeles-151621166.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Donations to Ukraine:

https://www.12news.com/article/news/verify/wildfires-verify/firefighter-ukraine-donation-los-angeles-fact-check/536-218b7e69-9f18-49b7-8128-194af1bda9fd

LAFD vehicles out of service:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/investigating-claims-many-lafd-trucks-045400027.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Nick's take on Larson:

https://youtube.com/shorts/RAZG7T38y6g?si=UNy0tICljdS_sU7K