Villaraigosa: I Am Responsible
When a mayor makes hiring 1,000 more police officers an integral part of his platform, and the city's police force fucks up as bad as it did this past Tuesday, their shit can smear his face and make him look like a traitor to his people.

To prevent this, and of course, in order to repair the relationship between the police and the community, the mayor has visited churches, attended civic events, and even ate tacos in MacArthur park according to The Los Angeles Times. The people have received him with a lot of affection according to this article in La Opinion which mentions a mayor which kisses babies, hugs women, and pats men on their backs. He even makes speeches in Spanish.

Here are some of the statements he made according to La Opinion.

"I am responsible. Like every Angeleno, I am profoundly and personally worried about the events of May 1st. They hit me hard."

"What happened on May 1st was wrong, and as mayor I am here to work as hard as possible to correct it."

According to another article in La Opinion, " I came to this church because it is the closest one to MacArthur Park. I came to tell this community, to my people...that I know that in these times we pray for peace, but we also pray for justice, because without justice there is no peace."

"What we saw on May 1st is unacceptable, it's something which cannot happen, and I pledge to you that I will make sure that people assume responsibility for this, because our community has the right to march and to demonstrate."

The truth, I am impressed. I don't doubt that he is sincere. I know I supported him for mayor for a good reason.

I wish he would do as good a job discussing, repudiating, and suggesting alternatives to the MTA's atrocious fare hike proposals. Such proposals are against the declared goals of our society of reducing petroleum dependence, reducing traffic, improving air quality, and reducing green house gas emissions. They are even against everything he's ever said about mass transit and reducing traffic. His silence on this issue is astonishing and at this point it can only be interpreted as a tacit endorsement. I ask myself, where is the Antonio Villaraigosa that makes brilliant speeches when it comes to this issue? Where are his balls? Where are his principles? Anyone can condemn what happened on May 1st. His charisma will not benefit us when we face unnecessarily exorbitant fares.