Baldwin Park Has High Violence and Pollution; Corruption is the problem.

Bread and Butter

Fighting corruption matters to you and to me. When I was in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic back in the summer of 2009, I visited the Holocaust Museum. What moved me the most was the the homes that the Jewish children drew. Our guide told us that the children drew homes because they just wanted to go back home and not be in concentration camps. Many of them perished there.

After facing the illegal misconduct of the public officials and administrators of Baldwin Park, it's made me realize that any democracy is only one step away from being under regimented control. If we look back at last year, the head boxing coach and I suffered under the same tactics that many victims of totalitarian regimes faced before us.

Take for instance, the trumped and false allegations to fire a coach that worked there for 17 years, only for speaking out and saying, it's not right that you gave me a 40 cent raise after being there 17 years. Or what about me? I was imprisoned and strip searched and on top of all that, the Mayor tried to get a restraining order against me for telling the truth: the City leaders steal money from us and have no remorse about it. It's shameful everything they've done.

This short editorial reminds us the true effects of corruption. Since, I've come back from my holidays, the newspaper has been reporting nothing but murder and theft and violence in the City of Baldwin Park. Just take a look at these headlines in reverse chronological order:

1. July 31, 2015 - Woman kidnaps son from Father of Baldwin Park Here
2. July 30, 2015 Dead Man Found Outside Baldwin Park Supermarket - Cause of Death unknown Here
3. July 28 2015 - Man shot in the head shows up to Baldwin Park Hospital. Here
4. July 22, 2015 - Baldwin Park man sentenced to death for killing a 22 month baby Here
5. July 22, 2015 - Baldwin Park home found with 1,000 marijuana plants Here
6. July 9, 2015 - Baldwin Park man hires hit on co-worker Here

And the list keeps going on.

Let's add some other facts:

-Baldwin Park is in the top ten most polluted cities in the State.
-Baldwin Park has some of foulest and most toxic tap water in the U.S.A., which has been contaminated by jet fuel effluents.
-48% of teenage girls get pregnant before 18.
-Baldwin Park's children are considered the most illiterate and least math proficient in the United States, falling in the bottom of quartile of every survey.

Then when you look at what's on the minds of the public officials and administrators, you see why this place is the way it is.

The council members only care about redevelopment projects - more likely than not because they're getting a personal gain out of it. It's been rumored a number of them don't even live in the City.

The Chief of Police, Michael Taylor, only cares about getting his raises and makes it an issue every month.

Manuel Carrillo Jr., Director of Parks and Recreation, has a laundry list of problems, but mainly concerning enriching himself through the financial misappropriation of the city's children's programs and his sham non-profit and hires criminals to work with children.

The former Finance Director, at least on two occasions, cooked the books, so that the truth of what was happening to the city money wouldn't be discovered.

The current City Manager Shannon Yauchzee often ignores the problems of financial misappropriation, has been caught in questionably ethical projects in West Covina, and allowed for the misappropriation of city funds by changing the city park into a sewage facility.

And as mentioned earlier, at one point, the administration only cared about killing the messenger, which was the boxing program and me - whom was consistently just trying to tell the public the truth.

I'm bringing all this up because you see, when the city doesn't do its business by addressing the real problems that we're facing, and instead keep thinking about how to benefit themselves - you get a city like Baldwin Park.

And you can see how this cycle perpetuates, instead of addressing the issues, the city officials and administrators attack anyone who brings them up.

I'm showing you this case study because this is what happens to a city when the citizens let corruption thrive.