Action Alert: Phx City Council considers BLM mural

When the news got out that a “Black Lives Matter” mural was being considered in downtown Phoenix, the Phoenix City Council mysteriously tabled discussion of the proposal brought forth by the Transportation, Infrastructure and Innovation Subcommittee.

This letter, from Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua, tweeted by District 6 Councilman Sal DiCiccio, confirms the withdrawal of the item from consideration. Don’t be lulled into thinking this is the end of the matter. The council members need to hear from you. Call their offices. Then call again. They prefer emails that stack up unread. Council members meet in executive sessions, where this mural could be discussed out of public view.

Phoenix city government is a far left bastion in the middle of a red state. Though the mayor and council members deceptively run as non-partisan, their political alliances are widely known. Currently of the eight districts only three have Republican members: Thelda Williams (Dist. 1); Jim Waring (Dist. 2); and Sal DiCiccio, (Dist. 6). Mayor Kate Gallego, who issued this statement calling “Peaceful protests (against the police) valid and important,” is also a Democrat.

All of the subcommittees are dominated by Democrats. The Transportation, Infrastructure and Innovation Subcommittee which proposed the BLM mural meets the First Wednesday of each month at 9:00 am.

Shamefully, “Operation Blue Ribbon” has not received news coverage.

Homeowners in north central Phoenix recently put blue ribbons on trees lining Central and 7th Avenue indicating support of our police. We’ve been told city workers removed them. Neighbors replaced them last Saturday and the city swooped in to remove them again. The persistent homeowners are now putting the police supporting blue ribbons on trees in their private yards. This fine idea should be emulated throughout the city.

Haven’t we been down this Phoenix street before?

Destruction and renaming: Hallmarks of the left

America’s historic monuments are being toppled by the suddenly aggrieved. The calculatingly offended not only find Civil War memorials offensive, but also 1492 New World explorer Christopher Columbus and America’s first president, George Washington.

Washington was recently vandalized and brought down in Portland, Oregon along with a burning American flag and spray painted words “genocidal colonist.” The latest manipulative neutering is that certain street names, now considered offensive, have to go.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, profits from those she refers to as “the community,” being in a froth. If they don’t know they’re offended, she’ll gladly inform them. Ginning up perpetual aggrievement is the latest trend in garnering votes, as incongruously wearing victimization in the land of the free has replaced pride in citizenship.

The latest gambit is to replace the names of Squaw Peak Drive and Robert E. Lee Street. Thanks to a policy change rammed through in 2017 by then-Mayor, now Congressman Greg Stanton (CD-9). The Democrat  did so despite objections of property owners, who preferred the historic name and opposed being forced to update the address listed on their driver’s licenses, legal documents, passports, bank accounts, connected to all credit cards and bills, including mortgages and utilities.

Stanton was following in the footsteps of then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, another Democrat, who in 2008 forced through the renaming of landmark Squaw Peak, a popular mid-Phoenix mountain known for its hiking trails. Bypassing the normal process she ramrodded the name Piestewa Peak, commemorating Lori Piestewa the as the first American Indian woman to die in combat in 2003 while serving in the armed forces in Iraq. Her actual heritage was half Hopi and half Mexican, which is stifled as less compelling.

Democrats are on a mission to effect change regardless of the merit or consequences. Disgracefully lacking in knowledge of American history it wouldn’t be surprising if the next monument they demolish is President Andrew Jackson, a Southerner who instituted policies that resulted in the forced migration of Native Americans. He also founded the Democrat Party.

Some Facts Worth Knowing…and then some

Longtime readers of Seeing Red AZ are aware we have favorite columnists to whom we sometimes direct your attention. Topping our list for years was the brilliant economist, professor, and author Dr. Thomas Sowell, who retired far too young at age 86 in 2016.  Dr. Walter Williams, another economist, and conservative genius, just a few years younger, and still writing influential columns, now holds sway with his approach to current events.

Both men are black political conservatives, who base their reasoning on growing up as poor minorities, but possessing great minds that provided them with opportunities and intellectual perspective they have shared through their columns. 

Today’s column by Dr. Walter Williams, is titled, “Some Facts Worth Knowing.” His concluding sentence is, “As I pointed out in a recent column, intelligent decision-making requires one to not only pay attention to the benefits of an action but to its costs as well.”

Although the column is not specific to the violent national riots that have occurred in the wake of the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, it covers the benefits America provides that are ignored by the radical left anarchists, looters, arsonists and their apologists. Prophetically, in January, Dr. Williams wrote, “The New Racism.”

Lost in the swirl of violence are some pertinent facts. George Floyd’s unfortunate death has become incidental to the current criminality. What is now referred to as “systemic racism” the rallying cry of the mobs, is a fallacy. Phoenix disproves that fraudulent allegation. We have Jeri Williams, a black female police chief, whose husband Cody Williams, was previously a city councilman and is now a Phoenix Justice of the Peace.

The first black councilman was elected in 1965. Ethnic minorities, including Hispanics, have long been elected to city, county and federal public offices. Currently, four of the eight Phoenix City Council members are Hispanic as are one third of our congressional representatives. The state legislature represents an ethnic mix. The exclusive enclave of Paradise Valley elected a black city council member who then served two terms as mayor. Republican Margaret Hance was elected the first female mayor of Phoenix in 1975, serving four consecutive two-year terms, from 1976 to 1983. In 1946, lawyer Wing F. Ong, was the first Chinese-American, who was not born in the United States, to be elected to a state House of Representatives. He was then elected to the state senate in 1966. Former state senator Kimberly Yee, was elected State Treasurer and is a nationally recognized Republican leader — the first female Asian-American to be elected to statewide office in Arizona.

White America is more colorblind than the current manufactured outrage would have us believe.

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that racism can emanate from minorities, as former city councilman Calvin Goode made all too clear in this stunning example.

Phx Mayor Gallego joins other Dems defending rioting thugs

Dem mayors lead America’s most dangerous cities

As late night rioters filled the streets of downtown Phoenix Thursday, Mayor Kate Gallego remained mysteriously silent. She finally issued this bizarre statement after an unruly mob of criminals and vandals claiming to honor the memory of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, killed by a hometown police officer nearly 1700 miles away, engaged in a destructive rampage. Led by long-time race baiting rabble-rouser and con man, Jarrett Maupin, the mob made demands while damaging at least five police vehicles, bus stop shelters and causing havoc at public buildings including the Phoenix Police Department where rocks shattered the glass doors and broke windows at the AZ Industrial Commission building. They were turned away as they demanded access to the closed state legislature. Maupin is quoted as saying, “Rioting is the language of the oppressed.”

Previously, Gallego, a leftist Democrat, apologized to a couple accused of shoplifting, because an officer drew a gun on them when they ignored his warnings to stop in the parking lot of the store where the pilferage took place. In response to Gallego’s foolishness, the couple filed a $10 million lawsuit against the city’s taxpayers.

Maupin, a former Al Sharpton protégée, calls himself “Reverend,” though like his mentor, he attended no theological seminary and has no congregation.

Following violent riots in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a radical Democrat, presiding over a crime ridden city with murder rates rivaling war zones, announced at Friday’s press conference that she has two words for President Trump: “F— you.”“I will encode what I really want to say to Donald Trump,” Lightfoot said. “It’s two words: It begins with F and it ends with U.”

These words come from a major city mayor as riotous marauders made their way across America leaving rubble in their path. Taking down suburbia is their latest threat.

Robert B. Charles, writing for Amac (the conservative alternative to AARP, which supported Obamacare), notes of the top-ten “most dangerous cities” in America, all have Democrat mayors.  Those cities are Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Baltimore, Stockton, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Charles’ article is titled, “America’s 25 Worst Cities are Democrat-Led – The Answer, New Leaders.”

In view of what we’re currently witnessing across the nation these are facts worthy of your attention.

Phoenix police chief prioritizes firing officers

Newspaper negatively chronicles police shootings

Police work is not your run-of-the-mill occupation. Few jobs have as an integral aspect the fact that when you leave for your shift, you might not return to your family. Rotating schedules include nights and weekends; routinely make officers absent from family events and holidays. High stress levels of crime scenes, where police often have to make split-second, life or death decisions take their toll. Police are accused of using excessive force when trying to subdue those high on drugs and/or armed. Now mandated body cams show isolated aspects of an arrest, calling into question the officer’s decisions. Officer suicides are no longer a rarity.

Corrections officers are attacked and killed while on the job in Arizona prisons. Two such murders took place recently.

The public expects rapid responses from dedicated officers. Yet the local newspaper and the Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, appointed in 2016, show them no mercy. Scrutiny and criticism have become routine. How many times did you see the video of the arrest of a family of shoplifters, mischaracterized as a little girl taking a doll from a Dollar Store? The officer was fired.

The Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic ran an oversize Page One article and two full jump pages with photos, including sympathetic depictions of shooting “victims.” The lengthy all caps headline?

AZ POLICE SHOOTINGS: SOME OFFICERS FIRE AGAIN AND AGAIN. The sub header: 79 officers shot two or more times — 52% worked for Phoenix — 21.5% worked for Mesa.

Mesa’s controversial Police chief Ramon Batista resigned yesterday following a no confidence vote by Mesa’s police union and Fraternal Order of Police. The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, (PLEA) abruptly called off a pending vote of no confidence in Chief Williams, with no explanation.

Monday night an impaired wrong way freeway driver was responsible for colliding with Tempe police officers traveling to a crime scene in separate marked vehicles. This past Saturday night, two PPD officers were hospitalized following a DUI-related crash where the impaired driver, traveling at a high rate of speed, slammed into their patrol car as they were making a traffic stop. She was cited and released.

Imagine if the impaired driver was an off-duty officer. There is no doubt the case would not have been handled so gingerly. Career officers are now fearful of reprisals.

Phoenix Police Chief Williams has fired five officers so far this year.

Flawed ballot Props pass, relying on low voter turnout, trickery

Trickery was also a major factor in the passage of Prop. 105, the measure to end the expansion of the $multi-billion light rail boondoggle. Voters who wanted to end the costly nightmare and designate money to repairing our roads and expanding bus service, had to vote “yes” — when their intent was to halt the expansion

Make no mistake. There is a method to the madness of the City of Phoenix holding elections in late August. (View unofficial election results). While those who can, head out of town to avoid the triple digit temperatures before school starts, city workers from police and firefighters to garbage men show up. 

In all, they are represented by five unions:

Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 777 representing nearly 1,000 landscapers, solid-waste equipment operators and street-maintenance workers.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2384 representing approximately 1,600 mechanics, electricians, skilled workers, aviation staff and water-services employees.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2960 representing over 2,000 office employees, including secretaries, clerks, 9-1-1 operators, administrative aides and building inspectors.

Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) representing approximately 2,500 sworn police officers.

United Phoenix Fire Fighters Association represents nearly 1,600 firefighters.

All of the unions support spending expansions. Even PLEA dutifully sent out leftist city council woman Laura Pastor’s request to inform its members how to vote on ballot Propositions 105 and 106. Blue Phoenix is controlled by a Democrat Mayor and eight city council members — only two of whom, Sal DiCiccio and Vice Mayor Jim Waring — are reliably Republican. Thelda Williams routinely votes with the majority. The biggest affront is they all run under the city imposed guise of “non-partisan,” plunging voters even deeper in the dark.

In 1982 the election system was changed, forcing city council members who previously ran at-large and worked together for the betterment of the city, to representing specific, increasingly ethnically controlled districts, that further divide us.

How do Phx’ lower property taxes = higher tax rate?

Taxpayers get creative trickery, mathematical magic

There’s more than a bit of sleight of hand passing as news in the local disseminator of left-wing skew pretending it’s still a newspaper. On the auction block again, the failing Hillary-endorsing Arizona Republic’s days are numbered. Reporters have been replaced by ASU Cronkite J school students. Actual journalists are a mere memory. Editors took a forced hike when layoffs turned what was once a newsroom into skeletal remains. The newspaper, now a homeless vagrant, was recently forced to sell its downtown building and parking garage.

An example of the bizarre reporting emanating from this mess is a mind-boggling gem, topped with the hope-inducing headline, “Phoenix council to lower property tax rate.”  Puzzled readers have to remind themselves that the minority majority city council districts, that were put in place for the sole purpose they now serve, (read the bold type portion under the link) have succeeded in making the capitol of red state Arizona, a deep blue. The Democrat majority including the newly elected Dem mayor Kate Gallego, are obviously disinclined to return to taxpayers any of their own money. There must be more behind the headline.

Yep! 

The 25-year-old reporter, lacking any historic memory and obviously hustling to turn out agendized “news” to curry favor with those still able to pay her salary, lets the cat outta the bag with this reality:

“The city is projecting a $55 million surplus in its $1.4 billion general fund budget — extra money beyond what is needed to maintain current city services.

The average Phoenix resident will see a 3% increase in property taxes. The city’s property tax rate is decreasing, but rising property values will result in a higher tax bill.

About 70% of the surplus will go toward city employee salary increases and other compensation, which was negotiated with the city’s unions earlier this year, leaving less than $20 million for other investments.”

Fiscal trickery is nothing new for the City of Phoenix. As an example, in December 2009 we wrote $14.3 million was paid in “retention bonuses” to nearly 14,000 employees. This, as the City Council cut $270 million, or 22 percent, from Phoenix’s general-fund budget, including $156 million from programs and services in order to balance the city budget.  In 2010, under Democrat Mayor Phil Gordon, Phoenix imposed a 2% tax on food.

In 2012, problem-plagued, then-City Manager David Cavazos was gifted with a 33% raise, which amounted to an extra $78,000 a year boosting his base salary to $315,000 a year plus a $600 monthly car allowance, $35,000 a year in deferred compensation, and a $4,000 “longevity” bonus.

Think you can effect change next election cycle and vote the Dems out? Unless droves of middle class Phoenix residents are willing to move into neighborhoods where English is not the primary language, the chances for turning this lopsided city council around are beyond remote — which was the whole point behind Democrat former Mayor Terry Goddard dividing the city into districts where ethnicity reigns supreme.

Phoenix City Council elections expose ethnic divide

Unity kicked to the curb in Phoenix, AZ as radical activists win council seats

The local newspaper recently heralded the newly elected city council members with a headline blasting, “Elections shake up City Hall.” It was followed with an Elvia Diaz wishful thinking opinion piece titled, “Expect fireworks with Garcia win,” describing the May 20 runoff election.

The City of Phoenix is comprised of 8 regional districts, (map), each electing its own council member. Districts 5 and 9 were at play. The newly elected District 8 councilman Carlos Garcia, is enthusiastically described  by Diaz as a “Mexican native, and an “uncompromisingly revolutionary, unwavering in his defense of undocumented immigrants.” Diaz neglects to mention Garcia is also known to lead chants, “chinga la migra” (f**k the Border Patrol).

She is so stoked by the prospect of seditious insurgents in city hall that she begins two adjacent paragraphs with the words, “It’ll be fascinating to watch….”

It’ll be fascinating to watch García navigate Phoenix city government, which oversees the police department that his organization Puente Arizona and others are suing for clearing out an anti-Trump protest last year.

It’ll be fascinating to watch what kind of councilman García will turn out to be. She asks, “Will he remain the same firebrand who led protesters to chain themselves to the doors of the state’s Capitol…?”

District 5, on Phoenix’ west side, was won by Betty Guardado, a union activist. Editorialist  Diaz, incapable of using the words ‘radical leftists,’ writes, “Like García and recently elected Mayor Kate Gallego, Guardado is a progressive,” making her sound like a reincarnated President Teddy Roosevelt, which she is definitely not. She’s the director of organizing and vice president of Unite Here Local 11 and UNITE HERE labor unions, promising during a campaign rally, “This state is going to turn blue!” Read the linked exposés of the $multimillion unions she leads provided by Influence Watch.  

We are told,”Phoenicians should expect fireworks from Carlos García, who made no qualms about why he sought the council seat in the first place, “to give a voice to the most marginalized.” Which brings us to a bit of history:

Phoenix was previously governed by what was known as “Charter Government,” a mayoral candidate and at-large council candidates, who represented various backgrounds and interests. They ran as a slate, and though they had occasional challengers, they usually won as a team. Most importantly, they did not represent specific districts. This encouraged interaction and working together to benefit city as a whole.

Leftist perennial candidate Samuel Pearson Goddard, III, opting for the chummier nickname, “Terry” (based on Trey for “the third”) — won as mayor, though repeatedly losing trying to replicate his father’s single gubernatorial term. Goddard should be held responsible for dividing the city by districts and eliminating party affiliation, labeling the mayor and council candidates “non-partisan,” as if that concealed their bent.

We can thank liberal elitist Terry Goddard for making ethnicity the sole determiner of representation and irreparably fractionalizing Phoenix.

Phx elects leftist mayor, 2 radical council members

Phoenix Mayoral and open City Council seats: America’s fifth largest city has only extreme leftist Democrats on ballot

Kate Widland Gallego has been elected Phoenix Mayor, decisively defeating her fellow council member Daniel Valenzuela. Gallego will be running again in 2020, since this “special election” was to fill the unexpired term of former Mayor Greg Stanton, now a U.S. Rep. in CD 9. Stanton succeeded another radical, Kyrsten Sinema, who is now in the U.S. Senate. Phoenix residents had a choice of electing a far left Democrat or a far left Democrat.

Unofficial UPDATED totals:

Mayor of Phoenix

Kate Gallego:

Votes               Percentage

92,816               58.58%

 Daniel Valenzuela:

Votes               Percentage

65,624                41.42%

Council Member District 5:       

Betty Guardado: Supported by AZ Resist Check out their “Chants.”

Votes                 Percentage

4,182                    37.19% 

Council Member District 8:

Carlos Garcia:  Check out his raised clenched fist, and his comments about former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Votes                 Percentage

3,497                    28.66%

If the newly elected Phoenix Mayor and City Council members make your blood run cold, no one who’s paying attention will try to disabuse you of that creepy feeling. Every one of the candidates and winners are open border proponents. The only losers are Phoenix’ law abiding citizens

See all council candidates and totals here.

Phx’ farcical mayoral election today: Leftists rule

Today is Election Day in the City of Phoenix. It’s not just any election, mind you. It’s a Special Election — for mayor. The seat was left open when the former deeply committed mayor, Greg Stanton boogied to run for congress in Congressional District 9, following Kyrsten Sinema’s departure. On his way out the door, Stanton doled out $2.4 Mil of our tax dollars to a La Raza ally. When initially elected mayor, he received a congratulatory call from then-President Barack Obama and his Secretary of Homeland INsecurity, Janet Napolitano — clearly exposing the farce of “non-partisan” city elections.

For her part, Sinema magically ran for, and was elected to, the U.S. Senate — without ever once mentioning her party affiliation.

If you’re wondering about the election today, there’s not much to bother yourself with. Both candidates are Democrats. The only choice is the “conservative” liberal or the straight-up, liberal liberal. It’s all a disgraceful charade. Council District 5 and 8 seats are also on the ballot since those are the seats Valenzuela and Gallego abandoned.

It does sound confusing, but just think of it as Democrat politics as usual. In this case Daniel Valenzuela has political operative friends who have been financing mailers that describe the firefighter unionist and committed liberal as a “conservative,” when nothing could be further from the truth. Moses Sanchez, who ran and lost claiming GOP credentials, has endorsed Valenzuela. He joins other AZ Republicrats Woods and Romley (appropriately at the bottom of the endorsement list) who have made careers of endorsing liberals. Woods recently made good on his longtime promise and re-registered as a Dem, losing his swag. Also among Valenzuela’s endorsers are McCain insiders Robert Delgado and Doug Yonko, both honchos in Cindy Hensley McCain’s Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship empire.

Kate Gallego, who was the object of incendiary race-baiting when she ran for the city council seat she has abandoned for the mayor’s race, has the better credentials. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania — though her endorsements are as radically leftist as Valenzuela’s. Her ex-husband, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who she divorced while pregnant with their only child, has gallantly endorsed her candidacy for mayor.

Arizona voters need a scorecard to keep up with the ambitious, reconfigured Democrats and their stranglehold on the city of Phoenix and encroachment on D.C. in the Senate and House.

If you’re up for this, election results can be viewed here. We suggest you watch the on an empty stomach. Polls close at 7 PM.