How the ‘Leader’ helps to facilitate institutional bigotry in Burbank

Want more evidence that Burbank is a bigoted town? And ever wondered why the Burbank Leader never covers these kind of stories when they involve Anglos (especially the more affluent ones), but every time there’s a Mexican in tooner-trouble they can’t wait to tell us all about it?

As soon as we saw the headline on this Burbank Leader story last week we just knew that the “suspect” was going to be a minority. It’s not good, but this kind of thing happens all the time. But because it’s Burbank only the Mexicans get hassled about it, and the paper chomps at the bit to help spread around the stereotypes:

DOWNTOWN — A 32-year-old Burbank man was arrested late Thursday on suspicion of child endangerment after authorities found his 2-year-old girl wandering the sidewalk at Orange Grove Avenue and Sixth Street.

Ricardo Garcia was arrested after telling officers that he was unaware his 2-year-old daughter was roaming the streets unsupervised.

Officers were called to the area about 12:30 p.m. Thursday after a letter carrier found the girl, Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.

Patrol officers walked the child around the area hoping to find her parents before taking her to police headquarters and contacting the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

You know how often this happens? How many times have you seen little kids running around outside all over the neighborhood after getting away from the house? And usually they’re half-dressed, too.

If this had been our parents they’d still be in jail– we kids used to get out and explore the wild all the time. But then don’t forget, our parents were affluent, attractive and White.

Even when you’re a teacher in town like Amy Beck, and you seduce one of your cute junior high school students and then keep on going strong with the tawdry affair all summer for months on end, you really don’t have to worry too much about the local paper pursuing the situation for very long. Not if you’re affluent, attractive and White.

Like Beck, there won’t be much background investigation going on by the reporters, or pesky interviews with your neighbors or fellow faculty members, or inconvenient gossip coming from those mean friends of the family, or printed phone numbers of police investigators to find out even more about you as the perp. No, in towns like Burbank you get a pass on your obviously uncomfortable backstory.

The sleeping Mexican article continues on, and note especially here the lack of specifics in the charge. It’s like the reporter didn’t even bother asking about the gritty details in order to confirm the BPD’s own observations. Or if he did, then his editor for some reason chose to omit them. But these little details are what the public wants to hear. They don’t want to hear everything filtered through the cops’ PR man.

An officer eventually found the girl’s home about 4:30 p.m. after showing her photo to Garcia, whose home was “filthy and in deplorable condition,” Ryburn said.

Sounds like our apartment, and it’s also a value judgement, too. But where was the health department on this? Apparently they showed up at the site but we don’t see any interviews with them about specifics. It always seems to be cop time at the Burbank Leader because the top cops are always our first and last word on these incidents. Without details how do we readers know anything was amiss?

And did the police give this Mexican guy a Miranda warning before they started peppering him with leading questions? We don’t hear anything about this so there’s no way to know. In fact, we don’t get any reportage at all on how the scene played out. Who in fact questioned him? Who was there? Why was he home? Why was he sleeping? What did he say? Where was his wife? Why wasn’t she arrested? Was he home from work? Does he work at night?

The cops won’t say. But the neighbors will, as they always do because they all love to talk. But the Leader won’t find out for us.

Who, and the friggin’ When, Where, What, and Why?

This same lack of narrative also occurred last year in the paper’s Ed Guerrero gun possession story, where all we heard was what the the BPD spokesmen wanted us to know about the way his apartment had been entered and how they’d “suddenly” found culpable materials. But what did his friends and neighbors happen to think about this police procedure, or its suddenness, or whether the cops had a good reason to be there in the first place? Or what a coink-a-dink it was to nail a guy that everybody knew they didn’t like already.

It’s not like Guerrero was an unknown quantity. His story is an interesting one, but the full expression of it might just have contradicted the company line we’ve been getting on him the last couple of years– so what we ended up getting in the Leader was that same company line.

Garcia allegedly told police that he fell asleep. County officials interviewed the girl, her 7-year-old sibling and her mother at the police station. They ordered the mother and children not to return to the residence until it was cleaned.

Doubt it. But it would have been nice if the paper had also interviewed these people, or at least told us that they tried and couldn’t. That’s called narrative. And where again was the County on this? The cops have no authority to tell you not to go into your own home. It’s even questionable for the health department to do this. But such dog-whistle stereotypical imagery and derogatory innuendo does help to complete the reputational file on the family and ensure an eventual conviction– on something conveniently Mexican-y, usually.

Every time you open the Leader and read about one of these flaky crimes it’s always Mexicans. Don’t Anglos ever get in the same trouble in this town?

Anybody not know what a fishing expedition is? Look right here–the article ends on this note:

Anyone with information should call Burbank Police Det. Chris Robarts, at (818) 238-3255.

This means they don’t have enough evidence to make the charge stick, or are afraid that the father might have a good legal case against them, or the mother, so they want the community to help them out and paper his file with more crap. And the newspaper is a very willing participant in this questionable piling-on tactic. Which is funny, because that additional information could have been gathered by them instead of the city.

It’s also interesting. The last time we saw this kind of outside call for material was when an old Burroughs High School science teacher was arrested on a very fishy oral copulation charge against a minor (his ex-girlfriend turned him in). A teacher who was – by the way- one of the very best in the history of the BUSD.

So when the cops and the school district (who had long hated him politically) were afraid that they didn’t have enough evidence against him for the perp charge, they tried to use the Leader to fish around for some more. The paper lapped it up bigtime in their new role as Nancy Drew, and again they failed to ask any of the related third parties what they had thought of the person charged, or the victim, or the crime. Or the victim’s mother, who had been the most fascinating character involved; a woman that was instrumental in organizing and setting up the original investigation and PD wiretap.

But not even her friends were quoted by the local newspaper. There was no dissent. Nothing. Now even Nancy Grace can do better than that and she’s not legit.

Now compare this story to Amy Beck’s. The science teacher was on the outs from the beginning, and he wasn’t affluent and attractive either. He was crippled and outspoken, and not a hot blonde. So which one did both the local leadership and the Leader help to protect?

It turned out that the authorities never succeeded in getting anything else on that particular case, as much as the Leader had tried to generate a universal parental panic, and the teacher eventually copped to a lesser plea, which is a standard practice in this gullible day and age because most of these crusading juries are crazy. They all think they’re on the Nancy Grace show 24/7 so that they can scream for blood vengeance and all, but like we’ve said at least she can tell a decent story.

Never forget this one thing: it’s always the Mexicans that hit the headlines in towns like Burbank unless it’s a sex crime. We know that because we’re White. So when it comes to newsworthiness and minority crime, the Burbank Leader will always end up printing little more than rehashes of what the city’s PR people want them to know. And they’ll cover up the sex part quick if you’re White and connected.

In both of their worlds it’s always the little guy that’s at fault and the big guy gets the pass. This protection racket is like a religion around here and it’s helped to create most of our current problems.

**UPDATE**

Naturally, we’re getting accused now of supporting child neglect because of this criticism. But here’s proof that White People in Burbank don’t get nailed for the same thing when it happens, and that it never hits the paper:

Every cop who’s ever worked late nights will tell you that it’s not unusual to find little kids wandering around the streets after they’ve gotten out while the parents were sleeping. It’s also fairly common to see sleepwalking kids, too, as well as adults. In fact, in the old days we used to hear great stories from newly-minted Burbank cops about how the extent of this had been a surprise to them when they first started working graveyard.

So when kids escape late at night in the R-1 neighborhoods where the rich White People live, just how often do their parents get arrested for it? When’s the last time it happened?

And when’s the last time the local newspaper covered the story? That’s worse.

The answer is zilch. White People get a pass when this kind of thing happens. But the Mexicans get nailed bigtime, and these stories, when published, always play into the general stereotypes about Latino ethnicity. That’s not a coincidence either, and this latest example about the apartment’s cleanliness takes the cake. The Leader might as well have quoted some Jose Jimenez dialog to rub in the message.

So some people might say that this situation is different, being daytime versus late at night? Well just why is that?

There is no difference as to when it happens. Neglect and a lack of oversight– if that’s what this situation was– works for everyone. That some people sleep at night and some during the day makes no difference.

Except in places like Burbank– if you’re a minority. And who knows whether the affluent White parents are always asleep at night anyway when it happens? They may be preoccupied with other matters.

Bottom line: it’s absurd for city defenders to claim that Burbank doesn’t play ethnic favorites or engage in double standards. And that includes the Los Angeles Times’ own Leader. Anglos rarely make the big news in this town– unless they’re throwing a parade or something…