In a video statement released today on parksforsupervisor.com, former Lakers star Laker Earvin (Magic) Johnson called out state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) for “negative and untruthful campaigning” against L.A. City Councilman Bernard C. Parks in their race for an open seat on the County Board of Supervisors in the Nov. 4 election..
"You're going to get a lot of things said about Councilman Parks,” said Mr. Johnson, “because the only way people feel they can beat him is to talk bad about him. But we, as citizens of this great city of Los Angeles, know better.
“We’re going to support Councilman Parks for Supervisor. And we’re not going to listen to Mark or anybody else talk bad about him. We know the type of man and the type of person he is and the job he has done as Chief Parks, as Councilmember Parks and the job he’s going to do as County Supervisor Parks."
Mr. Johnson’s criticism came in response to television commercials and mailers from the Ridley-Thomas campaign that a spokesperson for Mr. Parks said contained “derogatory comments about Mr. Parks' career at the LAPD and on the City Council that were both false and misleading.”
In Earlier Times
In conjunction with Magic Johnson’s remarks, the Parks campaign this morning cited a six-year-old op-ed piece that Sen. Ridley-Thomas wrote, for the Los Angeles Times, in praise of his present-day rival. In the Feb. 14, 2002, essay, headlined “Parks Proved His Leadership,” the Parks campaign said the senator “went out of his way to praise Parks' accomplishments as LAPD Chief in a piece that seems to be in direct conflict with the propaganda he and his campaign are spewing out today. Ridley-Thomas even mentioned that Parks deserved another five-year term as Chief.”
The Parks campaign quoted five excerpts:
• “Parks has confronted the issues of objectionable police tactics and street crime head-on…”
• “…(Parks’) work ethic is unmatched and his competence unparalleled.”
• “Without a doubt, Parks is a proven leader…”
• “Parks has continued to push forward to create a new and improved LAPD.”
• “Parks has taken the difficult stance of remaining true to providing leadership for change.”
“Ridley-Thomas felt so strongly about Parks’ leadership,” said a Parks spokesperson, “that he included the opinion piece in a campaign mailer he used to run for the State Assembly in 2002. In the mailer, he accused the union that represents LAPD officers, the Police Protective League(PPL), of “engaging in a vicious attack campaign to fire our Chief Bernard Parks. Ironically, in the Ridley-Thomas-for-Supervisor television ads and mailers, he trumpets the PPL’s endorsement of his campaign, while making the same attacks against Parks that the union did in 2002.”
In the campaign video, Mr. Johnson said of the op-ed piece”
"It’s really something when Mark Ridley-Thomas in the beginning always had said that Councilman Parks was a wonderful Chief, as we all have said. Now he’s saying that he didn’t do a good job. That doesn’t make sense to me. That tells you about the man who’s now trying to run against Councilman Parks. Can Ridley-Thomas get the job done? No. Ridley-Thomas has shown that he can’t get the job done.”
The video statement is one of the rotating videos on the home page of parksforsupervisor.com, under the Leadership section.
Besides Mr. Johnson, Councilman Parks has been endorsed by the retiring Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, whom he proposes to succeed, former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Los Angeles Daily News and the South Bay Daily Breeze.
