What’s sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander at the Los Angeles City Council.
Turnabout is not fair play over there.
Let’s start with a week ago Saturday when five LAPD squad cars, carrying 10 LAPD officers, descended on the Cactus Art Gallery in Highland Park.
Owner Sandra Mastroianni was cited for serving alcohol at her small closing party for the widely respected gallery by LAPD officers acting quite nasty.
It is against the law to serve alcohol at a party held publicly.
No exceptions, said The Fuzz – sent there for the purpose of harassment by Councilman Jose Huizar.
As a result, Ms. Mastroianni faces a court date next month and a stiff fine.
She can ill afford to pay for serving a handful of adult friends and well-wishers a glassful of wine.
The Worm Turns, Does Not Squirm
Now we turn to Saturday evening following a mayoral debate when ABC-TV held a free-for-all public reception on the Little Tokyo sidewalk outside the Aratani Theatre.
Uniformed bar men served all the wine anyone who stepped up to the portable bar could drink.
As an eyewitness, I did not see any of the younger wine drinkers asked to show ID proof of age.
Anyone easily can conclude that the LAPD Vice Squad is street-smart enough to look the other way when Council members and the City Controller are making themselves conspicuous by sipping illegally served wine off the city street.
Controller Wendy Greuel, Councilman Eric Garcetti and Councilwoman Jan Perry are the politically correct winos in this sad, real-life drama.
In L.A., the elected politicians obviously are way, way above the law.
The applicable state of California Alcohol Beverage Control law should not be used selectively against a Hispanic female art gallery owner.
This is exactly what the Los Angeles Police Dept. is guilty of in this unfortunate case.
For the full details of the Cactus Art Gallery raid, visit the Eagle Rock Patch for excellent coverage.
Hollywoodhighlands.org demands that Bossman Charlie Beck either drop the charges against gallery owner Mastroianni or level the same darned charges against Garcetti-Perry-Greuel, the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters and ABC-TV.
It must be noted that the management of the Aratani Theatre, site of the debate, knew full well that serving alcohol on their premises could result in criminal charges.
Wisely, they refused to allow the free alcohol reception to take place in their lobby.
Thank you.
That is why Garcetti, Greuel and Perry were forced to make the sneaky decision to hold this illegal reception on the Los Angeles city sidewalk where these three city pols have the power to flout the law until their hearts are content.
For shame.
Mr. Walsh may be contacted at hollywoodhighlands.org
