Was this the work of the Usual Suspects?

Over the past several days astounding revelations about the alleged bullying of the 16 year old youth representative to the Parks and Recreation Commission by Commissioner’s Julie Stroud, Tish Leon and their ally city council candidate Thomas Gordon have been made public. The young man who resigned from the commission rather than face continued harrassment at the hands of these folks is ready to share emails and phone records to help confirm his story.

My sources inside city hall tell me that the Mayor and City Council are taking this matter quite seriously and that there is a good chance that if Stroud and Leon don’t resign they will be removed. Because of the Orange Juice’s continuing coverage of this fiasco and the resulting pressure being applied on city leaders the attacks on Art Pedroza and myself have been intensified by the “usual suspects” and their allies in the blogosphere.

It has been brought to my attention that Gordon has been engaging in an ongoing smear campaign against myself and is responsible for the numerous anonymous comments alleging that I am racist against our friends in the Vietnamese community. This is so ridiculous that I should ignore it however it is necessary to expose the reason for the smokescreen being created by Gordon.

What Gordon fails to mention in his smear campaign is that I was there to support the very first Vietnamese candidate to run for elective office in Santa Ana, Henry Le, back in 1992. I have subsequently been a staunch supporter of Vietnamese pols Hoa Van Tran and Hugh Nguyen. While Gordon and his friends like Ryan Gene Williams were involved in smear campaigns and dirty tricks aimed at undermining the campaigns of Viet candidates. It was Williams who, with Gordon’s knowledge, redirected URL’s associated with the campaigns of Hoa Van Tran and Dina Nguyen to gay pornography sites.

Why would someone like Gordon who befriends members of the Vietnamese community under the guise of being on their side engage in or approve of such despicable actions? The bigger question is, if Gordon was so concerned about bigotry against the Vietnamese community why does he remain silent about his mentor Julie Stroud’s bigotry aimed at the Vietnamese?

That’s right Stroud doesn’t only bully 16 year old kids she also appears to harbor anti-Vietnamese sentiments or at least that is how she came across in statements on the Yahoo Santa Ana Citizens group during the debate over a street monument being dedicated to the Little Saigon area near First and Euclid on the west side of Santa Ana.

The forever angry Julie Stroud

Here is what Stroud had to say in a June 18, 2003 comment on that site:

You are simplifying the problems that are rearing their ugly head. We didn’t
just lose a fight. Our elected representatives chose to turn their backs on
the neighborhoods and side with the Vietnam Business Council (a council of 22
men) that are for the most part not even residents of Santa Ana.

This is only the beginning of the Vietnamese influence on our local
government. They will do whatever is necessary to expand their influence
throughout city hall and the chamber…i.e. the Vietnamese flag that was placed on the
public right of way on Euclid, south of 1st Street, even after their permit was
denied by city hall.

The LA Times reported that on the monument site a Vietnamese flag would
permanently be flying above bamboo trees. Only an amendment by Alvarez
prevented this from being included in the motion by Franklin, second by Garcia.

The bus that brought many of the monument supporters to the council meeting
were people mostly over 60 and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) say the pledge of
allegiance to the US flag. They didn’t even look at the flag, yet one supporter entered the
meeting room with a Vietnamese flag on a stick twice the size of the little
United States flag under it.

Please don’t pass judgment on what happened Monday night if you were not
there. The council members that voted against neighborhood concerns (not
wanting to be labeled as living in little Saigon) in favor of a group of business men
who want to expand their perimeter of influence into the West part of town,
must face the music.

Julie Stroud

I just love how Stroud says, “They will do whatever is necessary to expand their influence throughout city hall and the chamber”. If that’s not fear mongering and playing the bigot card I don’t know what is. I wonder how Stroud feels about having to serve with one of “them”, Kenneth Nguyen, on the Parks and Recreation Commission?

I wonder if Mr. Nguyen is aware of Stroud’s open resentment of Vietnamese folks such as himself having influence at city hall? I wonder why Gordon doesn’t share this little tidbit with everyone he comes across?

Julie Stroud’s protege’ Thomas Gordon

Perhaps the next time you see Gordon or Stroud you can ask them to explain Julie’s position in regards to the Vietnamese community. When “Tommy Boy” pulls out his phone to show you cherry picked out of context statements to try and smear me ask him, “Why does your mentor Julie Stroud not like Vietnamese people?”

A bully and a bigot. That doesn’t sound like the resume of someone who should be serving on our city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. Make sure you let David Benavides, the councilmember responsible for her being there, know that she must go.