Villanueva’s beef with firefighters, the L.A. Times, Gascón, ‘Latinx’ and more

The ostensible function of my sit-down with Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was to speak about his division’s Latino make-up and outlook. It took a weird detour when he started to supply random, tone-deaf pronouncements in regards to the Black neighborhood for causes identified solely to him.

However all through our one-hour chat, for which he arrived late however nonetheless gave me a tad greater than his promised 60 minutes, el sheriff provided all kinds of insights, every extra on the market — and telling of his Nixonian nature — than the opposite.

Right here’s a seize bag of them:

• He thinks the Los Angeles Fireplace Division has it straightforward. “They work out, they prepare dinner, they go grocery buying,” Villanueva stated, whereas he claimed his deputies are out on responsibility “24-7” however get little respect from the general public for his or her arduous work. Firefighters? “They host a parade for them once they take a cat out of a tree.”
• He accuses The Instances of taking unflattering images of him whereas portraying different politicians like gods. “When there’s an image of [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom or [former Los Angeles Unified School District Supervisor Austin] Beutner there’s all the time this upward factor,” Villanueva stated. “There’s this majestic look. And I’m wanting down and looking out sideways.”

After I identified that we have now many “good footage” of him smiling or wanting like, effectively, a sheriff, he stated I didn’t make him look dangerous; my colleague Alene Tchekmedyian made “a specialty of that,” together with our former colleague Maya Lau: “It says a thousand phrases. If you wish to attempt to make the particular person look sinister, ultimately or untrustworthy, you guys discover a approach to take a photograph to do this. However you’ll by no means try this of Newsom.”

• Villanueva described himself as “the primary particular person within the nation” at his degree of legislation enforcement prominence to push again “towards that Black Lives Matter narrative,” which he didn’t actually clarify what that was. And “that complete [antifa] crowd didn’t trouble going into sheriff’s territory” through the Black Lives Matter rallies held in the summertime of 2020 “as a result of they knew what was ready for them.”

• Villanueva stated he was by no means invited to affix the Cavemen deputy gang when he was stationed in East Los Angeles as a result of he was “type of just like the nerd” of his group. His nickname again then: “Fletcha” — “arrow” in Spanish. “So once you say ‘Mexican nerd’ factor,” he stated, referring to my public description of myself, “I can relate to you.”

OK, I laughed at that.

• The June 2020 killing of 18-year-old Andres Guardado by sheriff’s deputies in Gardena has introduced continued scrutiny on Villanueva and his division. He labeled a coroner’s inquest into Guardado’s loss of life a “circus stunt” when it occurred. However to me, he described what occurred to Guardado as a “tragedy” and disclosed that the federal authorities is “doing their very own investigation.”

In Might, L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva indicators a big model of the petition to recall Dist. Atty. George Gascón.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Instances)

“Besides [George] Gascón,” I blurted, referring to L.A. County’s progressive, embattled district legal professional, who was born in Cuba and whose recall Villanueva publicly helps.

Upon listening to Gascón’s title, Villanueva obtained a bemused look on his face. “Yeah, he’s simply an oddball from that [Cuban] crowd,” the sheriff stated.

Nicely, he performed a sport, I’d say.

Villanueva waged a public battle towards the Board of Supervisors and Division of Public Well being to defy the mandate. Prior to now, he reasoned it was a authorities “intrusion” that infringed on the private selection of his deputies, and the push was inflicting a “mass exodus” that endangered the general public.

In our interview, he clarified his stance.

“If you need to impose a mandate in your workforce, you higher rattling effectively know who your workforce is,” Villanueva stated.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva warns the county’s vaccine mandate is inflicting a “mass exodus” in his division throughout a November information convention.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Instances)

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And who’s his workforce?

He stated that his deputies as a division have been so anti-vaccine that he positioned an “extraordinarily good” 2021 L.A. Instances visitor op-ed that detailed the seven phases of extreme COVID-19 on the interior net web page that every one L.A. County sheriff’s workers should go browsing to, to entry their work. Villanueva additionally publicly urged them to get vaccinated, and even provided inside Zoom classes alongside his command employees with the identical message.

However Villanueva by no means pressured his pandejo deputies to get the vaccine, he says, or tried to disgrace them into getting a jab. “As a result of as quickly as you mandate one thing, particularly individuals which can be suspicious of presidency,” he defined, “they imagine in all these conspiracy theories. You understand they’re on the market, particularly on the proper — the conservative crowd within the far proper.

“And what’s 80% of my workforce?” Villanueva continued. “Conservative and much proper.”

• Random quote: “The media pays consideration to the individuals screaming the loudest on the road nook. And people are convicted criminals, their households, the individuals out and in of jail, on parole, on probation, all of the advocacy teams that target them. And [the media] one way or the other assume that they symbolize the Latino neighborhood.”

• Villanueva desires to get reelected, however…

“If I don’t get elected, no arduous emotions,” he stated. “This job is nearly like being president. You get extra grey hairs than once you began.”

• Breaking Information!: Villanueva doesn’t just like the time period “Latinx” to confer with Latinos.

Stunning, isn’t it?

“No, no, no, no, no,” he stated after I threw out the time period to see how he’d react. “The Spanish language doesn’t settle for ‘Latinx.’” He went on to ridicule individuals who use it and “their most popular pronouns and all that s—” in an try at inclusivity.

“Latinx” to Villanueva is “type of a contemporary creation … the place the typical Latino says, ‘Screw you.’ Your entire language relies on gender. The whole lot has a gender. Inanimate objects have a gender. El árbol — it’s not la árbol, it’s el árbol.”

If Villanueva doesn’t get reelected, perhaps there’s a profession in etymology for him?