As reported here on June 11th, 6th District Councilmember Dee Andrews has solicited the assistance of two local celebrities: professional football player Willie McGinest and rapper Snoop Dogg to help raise the remaining $17 million it will take to build a state-of-the-art community Kroc Center on Walnut and Pacific Coast Highway.
I encourage my readers to review that original article for the specifics of the story before proceeding.
I’ve gone on record here and elsewhere in the past with my feelings about the City of Long Beach or any of its elected or appointed officials affiliating with or accepting or soliciting anything from Mr. Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. (aka Snoop Dogg).
I’ve commented on this topic several times in the past year, in different online venues, in the Press-Telegram and in letters I’ve sent directly to Mayor Foster and Council members Andrews and DeLong.
I keep offering comment on this topic because, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, some officials in City Government persist in being enamored of and impressed by Mr. Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. and remain determined to ask him for his assistance with local community projects.
Because I think this issue is extremely important to our community and directly relevant to the concepts of individual liberty and personal responsibility that are very dear to me, I believe it important to repeat, here, some of my sentiments in this area.
First and foremost; I in no way question the incredible value and importance of charitable facilities like the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers. The link will tell you a lot about how much good these centers are doing around the nation in the communities where they have been built.
Second; in disagreeing with our City’s disquieting habit of reaching out to people like Mr. Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., I do not presume to judge him as a person. No one is perfect, least of all me. We all have our faults, our flaws and our failings. Just as I would not be personally judged by others, I would likewise not presume to personally judge them.
But it is not Mr. Broadus, as a person, I am judging but, rather, his adverse influence on some in our community, the choices he has made during his life and the sometimes horrible impact those influences and choices -and those of his admitted associates- have had upon many others in our community over the past several decades.
My problem is with some of our elected and appointed City officials, who do not seem to fully understand or appreciate these adverse impacts and why, because of them, they should better remember that when they are in front of a camera or a microphone or attending a public event or attempting to raise funds for a worthy cause, they are not just representing themselves and their personal biases and affinities but the entire electorate of Long Beach, many of whom Mr. Broadus and those he once openly affiliated with have directly or indirectly victimized over the years.
When our elected and appointed officials are representing us, they should better consider with whom it is they choose to associate and from whom they choose to solicit assistance…of any sort.
Mr. Broadus has, to be blunt, a long history of criminal behavior in the City of Long Beach and elsewhere in the country and, indeed, the world. Without attempting to recount every single arrest or every single incident, all of which are readily searchable from various online sources, suffice to say that Mr. Broadus’ conscious decisions to engage in criminal behavior in Long Beach go back to the early 1990’s, as a youth, and he has continued to make those conscious decisions to engage in criminal behavior well into adulthood.
According to most online databases, Mr. Broadus is, and remains, on criminal probation through 2012 for weapons and narcotics possession-related charges.
The criminal street gang Mr. Broadus once openly affiliated himself with is credited for terrorizing and victimizing many neighborhoods in the city for decades, including many in the 6th Council District, and remains very active in our city to this day.
Many murders, assaults with deadly weapons, rapes, robberies, auto thefts, battery’s, burglaries, and millions of dollars worth of drugs peddled on the streets *and* in our schools can all be attributed to the criminal street gang Mr. Broadus once proudly and openly claimed and, to this day, makes a very lucrative career out of glamorizing through the lyrics of many of his songs.
Glamorizing drug abuse, glamorizing murder, glamorizing the objectification and degradation of women and the shooting of police officers; these and many other abhorrent behaviors have been the stuff of Mr. Broadus’ choices and influences and the topics of the lyrics of many of the songs he has written and through which he has earned a very, very great amount of money.
Mr. Broadus possesses a considerable amount of musical talent. No one that I know of denies that…talent that has helped to take him out of the Central Long Beach neighborhood of his youth and all around the world…talent that has earned him a very sizable fortune…talent that 6th District Councilmember Dee Andrews and others now hope Mr. Broadus will use to benefit the proposed Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center here in Long Beach.
As I’ve said, it’s a worthy cause for some very deserving kids. But I believe strongly that City government officials as well as representatives from the Salvation Army and the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers should look for celebrity support from sources other than people like Mr. Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr.
I very much welcome your questions and your comments.