In case you’ve forgotten about the incompetence in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office that led to so much of the devastation from unprecedented wildfires early this year, an announcement from federal prosecutors Thursday should remind you of just how much of that debacle stemmed from political malfeasance.
According to the Los Angeles Times, former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Brian Williams will plead guilty to calling in a fake bomb threat to City Hall last autumn.
“Under the terms of the plea agreement, Brian Williams, a longtime law enforcement oversight official who served as Bass’ deputy mayor of public safety, agreed to plead to a single count of threats regarding fire and explosives, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the next few weeks,” the Times reported.
“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a news release.
“My office will continue its efforts to keep the public safe, including from those who violate their duty to uphold the law.”
While no motive has been given thus far, sources in law enforcement say that Williams first made the October bomb threat call to Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Scott Harrelson. Ten minutes after that, Williams sent a text message to senior mayoral officials.
“Bomb threat: I received phone call on my city cell at 10:48 am this morning,” the text read.
“The male caller stated that ‘he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.’ I immediately contacted the chief of staff of LAPD, they are going to send a number of officers over to do a search of the building and to determine if anyone else received a threat.”
Was Williams a DEI hire?
Williams continued to text, including telling people there was no reason to evacuate City Hall.
“I’m meeting with the threat management officers within the next 10 minutes. In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this thread, a little more seriously. I will keep you posted.”
Then, in December, FBI agents raided Williams’ Pasadena, California home.
“Before the case was turned over to the FBI, detectives from the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division conducted surveillance that led them to conclude that Williams was responsible for the bomb threat, sources previously told The Times,” the paper reported.
Now, herein lies the problem: Remember how Mayor Karen Bass had skipped the country for the inauguration of Ghana’s president despite warnings that high winds and dry conditions led to an unusually high risk of fire?
As the U.K.’s Daily Mail pointed out in a Jan. 15 article, as the wildfires raged, Williams — as deputy — would have been overseeing the Los Angeles Fire Department while Bass was in Ghana. Obviously, with him suspected of a fake bomb threat, he was on administrative leave.
“Williams was hand-picked for the role as deputy by woke Mayor Karen Bass in February 2023 and given significant public safety responsibility, including oversight of the city’s fire and police departments,” the Daily Mail reported.
“Williams’ duties included oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the various police department that patrol Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles.”
And, just in case you’ve forgotten, this was Bass as she returned from Ghana to retake the helm of dealing with the wildfires that ended up scorching roughly 50,000 acres of land and destroyed or damaged over 15,000 structures:
Karen Bass remained silent as Sky News asked the mayor if she regrets cutting the fire service’s budget.
Wildfires latest: https://t.co/JoLiczAPDo pic.twitter.com/OHgJUyTY8U
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 9, 2025
Bass said after the raid that she took the “matter very seriously … My number one job is to keep Angelenos safe. The only way to do that is to hold people who commit crimes accountable and to take real steps to prevent crime from happening in the first place.”
The problem? She said almost the same thing during a press briefing during the wildfires. And she was quiet as a mouse when asked for an extemporaneous statement as she got off the plane.
So her deputy for public safety was sidelined, and she was silent. A perfect metaphor for the perfect political storm that was fueled as much by incompetence as it was by wind and vegetation.
It’s bad enough that Los Angeles effectively had no real deputy mayor as these wildfires raged. It’s worse that, had it had one, it would be this man — who now, quite rightly, faces up to a decade in prison for his bizarre antics.
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