More Maxine Waters Town Halls: Lots of Noise and No Real Answers

 

Congresswoman Maxine Waters is the only Congressional representative in the South Bay section of Los Angeles County currently holding in-person town halls.

Rep. Waters has no reason to hide, and she could ignore the constituents, since she wins by 75% every cycle. Despite the fact that she easily wins, she shows up for her district. This is the key to her lasting power. She brings home the bacon, she makes all the right connections, she stays in the good graces of local leaders, so she just keeps winning.

But are her constituents winning, too?

She’s been in Congress for thirty-five years, and the cities in her district have gotten poorer, dirtier, more expensive, filled with homeless people, and crime-ridden.

But she keeps getting elected, and she keeps holding her town halls, but will anyone hold her accountable?

On October 3^rd and October 10^th, she held four town halls throughout her district.

Three of them took place in local community colleges. One of them was held in a high school. I attended the three at the colleges. Only one-third to half the seats were filled. Where was everybody?

At every event, the President of the college introduced the event with a Land Acknowledgement. If they feel so guilty about “taking” land from the Tongva/Gabrielino tribes that were running around in the region so many centuries ago, then just go back to wherever you think you came from!

And this was only the first folly from the college presidents.

In their curated introduction, they said that Congresswoman Waters represented Lomita as well as Torrance. During the previous decade, her district did include Torrance and Lomita. Not anymore. How could they be so unprepared? Then they said her latest victory was in 2022. Didn’t she win the election in 2024?

When the 88-year-old Congresswoman finally showed up, she rolled out experts to talk about the issues everyone is concerned about:

·         Housing

·         Affordability

·         Healthcare

·         Election Integrity

·         Immigration

·         Iran

The most famous panelist was Dean Logan, the Registrar-Recorder for Los Angeles County, and he spoke at every town hall on election issues as a courtesy to the Congresswoman. She even bragged that she had been harassing him on the phone about protecting the vote and stopping Trump’s so-called voter intimidation tactics. Logan’ office is supposed to be non-partisan, but he was tipping his hand for the Democrats to win big—most likely because if he doesn’t pander to them, they can cut off his money.

All of the voter precautions he discussed hide the darker reality that Democratic politicians want illegals and non-citizens to vote. Corrupt governments depend on fixing the vote or stuffing the ballot box to ensure their hold on power. Registrar Logan.

On housing, we heard empty talking points about building more. Congresswoman Waters championed a bipartisan bill (The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act) that she worked on with Committee chair French Hill to create a database of available public land as well as rolling back regulations on building materials, a $ 200 million annual grant program to local communities that loosen their zoning laws, and provides a cap on the number of homes that large corporations can open. Repealing bad regulations is good, but bribing cities to throw away their zoning laws is bad, and telling private corporations what they can and cannot buy is just communism. Housing prices are still through the roof in Southern California, despite Waters’ touting this legislation as a success.

The talking heads on affordability and healthcare complained about President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They whined about the work requirements for recipients to stay on Medicare. These bureaucrats and lobbyists considered eighty hours a month too cruel for able-bodied adults to maintain the government subsidy. (They should get off the dole and get back to work!) They complained about the budget cuts; they complained about the reforms; they complained about the mass firings of federal employees.  To sum up, they complained that the government train of easy money is coming to an end.

The immigration “experts” condemned ICE, accused them of murder (not true), and they encouraged the audience to violate federal law by frustrating the Trump administration’s lawful enforcement of federal immigration laws. What is this?

The panel refused to acknowledge that mass immigration (legal or illegal) means higher costs for everything. Because of the immigration crackdowns, housing costs have actually started coming down in major cities, freeing up the housing market. As expected, Congresswoman Waters’ talking heads wouldn’t discuss bad regulation, high crime, or other issues that actually matter.

The more they complained, the happier I became. President Trump is doing his job, and I am glad that he came back stronger since his previous term.

Then came the question-and-answer periods.

This time around, Waters didn’t throw me out. She probably couldn’t remember me from her January 2026 town hall in Gardena.

At El Camino College, one resident started getting rowdy, and he started yelling at the panelists and the Congresswoman. She was not ready for those disruptions. The man kept bellowing about how he was smarter than everyone else on the stage. The president of the university escorted him out, and two law enforcement officers appeared to keep the peace.

I asked her about the Defund the Police movement in Los Angeles County, and whether she thought it was OK for schools and teachers to keep secrets from parents. In an unprecedented move, she openly differed with the Democratic Socialists of America and made it clear that no city’s police departments were getting defunded. Regarding parents' rights, she hid behind: “I just want everyone to be happy, and I support LGBTQ.”

At the Inglewood town hall, a young woman took to the floor and began yelling and screaming at Congresswoman Waters. Three men in the audience crowded around her to stop her shouting, but she kept yelling. My friend Keith Hardine took the video.

At the Compton town hall, I tried to get her take on biological men invading women’s sports, spaces, and prisons. She refused to defend the women, hid behind this weak argument that the government shouldn’t tell people how to live their lives (as if!), and then declared that she supports the LGBTQ.

At the Southwest College town hall, Louise Solomon of Marina Del Rey yelled at the Congresswoman for violating her oath of office. The whole room erupted, and the Congresswoman shut the meeting down early to avoid further tough questions.

Her constituents have celebrated her for years for delivering government funding for food, housing, and healthcare. How much longer will they tolerate the inaction on all these issues as prices rise and quality of life falls in their communities? This was the first time I had ever seen residents yelling at her from the audience as well.

Is the DSA planning on taking her out in the next election? Will she run in 2028, by which time she will be the oldest member of the House of Representatives? Will her constituents have any patience with her lack of accomplishments? The younger, more socialist generations are getting restless for change, and the older black female Baby Boomers who make up her core support are dwindling fast.

Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman Won't Comply with Sanctuary State Law

This is the kind of leadership we need to see across the state of California.

Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates must become the norm, the rule, the necessity from all our constitutional officers throughout the state of California.

Sheriffs are special, noble officers. They are duty-bound to the United States Constitution, and they answr directly to the people, not to the Governor. not to the Board of Supervisors, and not to any federal official, either.

God bless this Sheriff!

Meet the only sheriff vowing to defy California’s sanctuarylaw

By Connor Letourneau,Enterprise reporterMarch 30, 2025

Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman stands in the middle of Main Street in the town of Jackson, Calif., the most populated municipality in Amador County. Redman has courted controversy by saying he won’t enforce the state’s immigration sanctuary laws.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

JACKSON, Amador County — Sheriff Gary Redman guided his gray Ford Expedition down Highway 49, past the oak-studded foothills and 19th century barns of Northern California’s Gold Country. 

“I love this place,” he said. “I’d do anything to protect my county. If I have to break state law to do it, that’s what I’ll do.” 

Even if that means taking a surprising stand in a state known for protecting its immigrants. In a 274-word announcement posted last month to the Amador County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, Redman pledged to break California’s sanctuary law by informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement of any undocumented immigrants in his jail whom he deems “a serious threat.” 

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Never mind that Redman serves an oft-overlooked county about 130 miles northeast of San Francisco where less than 6% of the roughly 40,000 residents are foreign-born. Though President Donald Trump’s return to office in late January emboldened his supporters to challenge California’s pro-immigration laws that some view as anti-public safety, Redman remains the only sheriff in the state who has pledged to defy state sanctuary law, which largely forbids police from participating in immigration issues. 

Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman, March 12, 2025, cites statistics justifying his decision to defy California’s sanctuary state law and report undocumented violent offenders to ICE.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

In doing so, he vaulted Amador County to the center of a heated statewide debate on immigration enforcement. When Redman’s inbox began to flood post-announcement with interview requests, he cut short his off day, shaved his 5 o’clock shadow and told his wife she had been right: This was becoming a big deal. 

Whether people considered the 57-year-old Redman a traitor to his community or a patriot might have depended on their perspective. Passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, California’s sanctuary law was created to make undocumented immigrants feel comfortable seeking out local police when problems arise. 

The law’s advocates, who include many sheriff’s departments, now worry that Redman’s decision to break it would have the opposite effect as intended. Rather than making Amador County safer by notifying ICE of certain violent people who are in the country illegally, he might in fact hurt public safety. Many unauthorized immigrants wouldn’t cooperate with police on non-immigration matters, Redman’s critics argue, out of fear that they could get deported. 

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“When a sheriff comes out and proclaims, ‘We want to work with ICE and violate state law,’ it doesn’t inspire public safety — especially among the immigrant community,” said Maria Romani, immigrant rights program director at the ACLU of Northern California. “Now is the time to be working with the immigrant community, not against it.” 

Romani was among the many people who were confused when Redman took such a brazen stand against state sanctuary law. Unlike their counterparts in certain other Trump-supporting counties in California, Amador County officials didn’t have a history of vocally opposing immigration policy, which made some wonder: Does Redman have a political agenda? And if so, is he elevating it over the public safety of his community? 

Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman speaking with Amador County Sergeant Casey Ryan as he drives down the main street of Jackson, Calif.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

Redman plans to run for reelection in 2028. Though he’s adamant that his public rejection of state sanctuary law is not politically motivated, few doubt that the move only buoyed his already favorable odds of serving his red-majority county beyond this term.  

“It’s not his job to enforce immigration law, and the state Legislature has made that extremely clear,” Romani said. “It’s frightening to me that he’s taking this stand when it doesn’t serve the greater good of his community.” 

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Most people in Amador County, which has nearly twice as many registered Republicans as registered Democrats, see things differently. On top of touting a burgeoning wine-making scene, two large casinos and several old-timey main streets reminiscent of its gold-rush heyday of the mid-1800s, this rural region nestled into the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada features serpentine roads dotted with numerous Trump signs. 

Many residents know the name of Laken Riley, the nursing student who was murdered last year in Georgia by an unauthorized immigrant from Venezuela. The Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation that Trump signed into law at the start of his second term, directs authorities to detain and deport immigrants who are accused — not yet convicted — of specific crimes, if they are in the U.S. illegally.

“Gary’s for law and order and safety, and this is a safety issue,” said Jim Guidi, who owns and operates a popular radio station, KVGC, in Amador County. “These people we’re talking about came here illegally, so they need to go. Simple as that.”  

The United States flag waves in the center of the former mining town of Amador City, Calif., with the historic brick Imperial Hotel in the background.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

Federal courts upheld California’s sanctuary law during Trump’s first term, yet Redman still felt compelled to assert his belief in that Feb. 18 news release posted to Facebook that following it would violate federal law. Many locals not only agreed with him — they lauded him as a hero. 

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By becoming the state’s only sheriff to announce his intention to outright break state sanctuary law, Redman endeared himself to ardent Trump supporters who fear California could lose federal funding if the state doesn’t cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. This perhaps helps explain why a Change.org petition pleading for Redman’s removal as sheriff has netted only 24 signatures in five weeks. 

“I think Republicans throughout the state saw an opportunity when Trump was reelected to push back against the state’s more liberal approach to immigration policy,” said Cathy Abernathy, a Republican strategist based in Bakersfield. “People like (Sheriff Redman) probably feel more comfortable doing what they always wanted to do now that Trump is back in office.”

Along the way, Redman has put himself at risk of state retribution. Asked about potential punishments for Redman, California Attorney General Rob Bonta reiterated in an email to the Chronicle that federal courts have found that the state sanctuary law doesn’t conflict with federal law, and that he is “closely monitoring law enforcement compliance.”

In what could be a sign of things to come, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit three weeks ago saying the sheriff in a rural, predominantly red county in the southeastern part of that state had been breaking state sanctuary law for at least three years by helping federal immigration officers round up suspected undocumented immigrants. The lawsuit alleges that Adams County Sheriff Dale J. Wagner has gone out of his way “to enable federal immigration agents to interview or question people in custody.”

A pedestrian, seen from Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman’s unmarked patrol vehicle window, waits for an opportuntity to cross the road in the small town of Plymouth, Calif.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

On an overcast Wednesday morning in mid-March, Redman leaned forward at his desk as he stressed that he has no intention of following Wagner’s example and rounding up unauthorized immigrants for mass deportations. Three different American flags hung prominently on the adjacent walls.

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“I know people think I’m some far right winger, but I’m really not,” said Redman, who considers himself a moderate Republican. “I’m just a guy trying to do right by the county I love.” 

A self-described “surf bum” from the sandy beaches just south of Los Angeles, Redman was an unmotivated 19-year-old when his father gave him an ultimatum in 1988: “Either get a full-time job or attend college full-time.” After dropping out of the couple of classes he was taking at the local community college, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he was randomly assigned a job as a police officer. 

While stationed in Germany, Redman met and married a woman from near Amador County. After finishing his four-year commitment to the Air Force, he moved to his new wife’s hometown, where he found work in her family’s concrete-pumping business. It didn’t take Redman long to regret leaving law enforcement. 

Then, when he was finally hired by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1996 after three separate attempts, he began to miss Gold Country. Two years later, Redman took a 26% pay cut to join the Amador County Sheriff’s Office as a lateral deputy and raise kids in a more peaceful environment. 

Locals having afternoon food and drinks at Mel & Fayes Diner, a well-known eating spot in the town of Jackson, Calif.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

While cruising the remote county’s backroads earlier this month, he chuckled when a police dispatcher radioed for help moving a herd of goats blocking a nearby street. 

“That’s life in Amador right there,” Redman said. “I can’t tell you how many ostriches, emus and cows I’ve had to chase over the years.”

But in a county with the state’s third-highest suicide rate, Redman also has far-grimmer responsibilities. His jurisdiction is so tiny that he moonlights as its coroner. 

By investigating deaths up close, he has a near-constant reminder of all that must still be done to improve Amador County’s quality of life, which is why he plans to break state sanctuary law if he feels a specific circumstance warrants an undocumented immigrant being turned over to ICE against protocol. As he acknowledged, such situations are rare — especially in a 605-square-mile area where roughly 75% of residents are white and almost 98% are U.S. citizens. 

According to state sanctuary law, police can actually inform immigration agents about an undocumented immigrant once that person has served the court-mandated sentence for what the penal code considers a “serious” or “violent” felony — a wide-spanning list that includes everything from a felony DUI, to obstruction of justice and bribery. To justify breaking state law, Redman said, he would need an inmate in his 76-person jail who’s in the U.S. illegally, poses a danger to the community and is in custody for an offense that wouldn’t otherwise enable Redman to contact immigration agents lawfully. 

A Main Street scene in the small town of Jackson, Calif., located in Amador County.

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

Though Amador County has one of the smallest foreign-born populations in the state, Redman said local police officers most frequently come across unauthorized immigrants during raids at illegal marijuana grows. According to stats compiled by Redman’s office, this scenic region known as the “heart of the Mother Lode” has had 73 illegal marijuana operations over the past decade that resulted in the arrests of 232 immigrants, many of whom police believed were undocumented. 

“There’s absolutely no good reason why a locally-elected sheriff should not be able to report an illegal marijuana grower to immigration authorities if he’s worried about what that person could do next,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, who recently introduced a federal bill that would allow local police to ignore state sanctuary laws. “The idea that the state would try to impose itself in that situation is completely irrational.” 

Still, that’s not why Redman published last month’s now-infamous news release. All he wanted was to quell the relentless questions he had fielded from residents — and even some deputies — about how his office would handle immigration issues during Trump’s second term. 

Perhaps more startling than the backlash to that announcement: None of California’s 57 other sheriffs have joined him in vowing to defy state sanctuary law. 

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a top Trump ally who’s running for governor, would only go so far as to promise he’d work “around” the liberal-leaning statute to assist federal immigration enforcement. In recent weeks, at least two California towns, Oroville and Huntington Beach, reinforced the awkward political minefield some conservative leaders are navigating: They declared themselves “non-sanctuary” cities, yet promised to continue complying with state sanctuary law. 

Sheriff Gary Redman said, “I became a cop to help people. I guess in a way, I like taking bad people to jail, which is helping people.”

Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle

Redman figures he doesn’t have an aptitude for such posturing. 

After an hour-long drive through Amador County’s rolling green hills and steep canyons, he walked through the lobby of his sheriff’s office and stopped at a large American flag banner. Six words were emblazoned across it in big block letters: “PROUD TO SERVE, READY TO PROTECT.”

“Seeing that every day is just a good reminder of why we do what we do,” Redman said. “No state law can change that.” 

The Confused Bigotry of LGBT Youth: Jenna "Cumboy Bebop"

 There are LGBT militants, even in the city of Torrance. The Balanced City is working hard on balancing itself through hard times, especially because of the corruption that has become endemic in Washington DC and Sacramento.

This time, another LGBT bigot named Jenna, a (thankfully former) Torrance resident who ran away to hide in Santa Barbara.

She seems to think it's OK to push sexual perversion on children. This hatred is evident because she opposes MassResistance.

She also hates Jews, since she is so pro-Palestinian, even though there is no such thing as Palestine. She thinks that terrorism is OK since she wants to abolish ICE and the police. What kind of bigoted madness is this, especially when the vast majority of black and Hispanic people ("people of color") want the police in their neighborhoods and want them well-funded to serve and protect their communities?

Check out her Twitter avatar here:

She is a childish communist, for starters. Who would think that putting "Communist Manifesto" in the same frame with children's book characters Frog and Toad would even make sense?

It gets worse, or better ...

She calls herself (?) a "self-hating graduate student." Self-loathing is very common on the left, especially because they see it as a form of virtue. It certain sounds like a classic case of mental illness.

And she's a graduate student in Santa Barbara. Is she being UC Tuition to be a grad student? And in what subject, exactly? That alone would set a person up for major depression.

And lo and behold, look what she wrote next on her Twitter profile:

"Clinically depressed and anxious homo."

Really.

She has mental health issues, but she finds time to defame men and women who want to protect children and the general public from destructive LGBT perversion. Really.

For the record, individuals who fall into unnatural affection, i.e. "homo" are going to struggle with mental health issues of all kinds. No one should be surprised.

And it gets worse from there.

Check out her hate against me, for starters:

@ Torrance friends, Arthur Schaper, violent local racist and homophobe is trying to get on city council, PLEASE email our city council public comment and let them know that Torrance will not be safe for all citizens if Arthur Schaper is in a position of power!!! pic.twitter.com/JBHiDvrisC

— 🌙jenna♏️ (@CumboyBebop) July 13, 2021

She thinks that standing up for children and against sexual perversion is hate. No wonder she is self-loathing.

And then check out her "comeback":

Hey Arthur making fun of my mental illness??! That’s pretty ableist buddy!!!

— 🌙jenna♏️ (@CumboyBebop) August 4, 2021

And yes, her Twitter handle is "Cumboy Bebop." Seriously.

Without the profile, anyone could have figured out that she was mentally ill.

Since when is "ableist" a thing? This is nonsense. All of this intersectionality garbage covers up for someone who is needy, bitter, and angry--nothing more.

Why is that people are so desperate to identify themselves as victims? It's really quite sad.

Bigots like Jenna are nothing but unemployed, over-wrought hate-mongers who have a problem with people who do not look like them. By her own admission, she has mental health issues. She probably should not be out in public, let alone in civilized society as a whole.

It's good that she no longer lives in the city of Torrance. Such bigotry, she hate, such white supremacy has no place in the South Bay.

 

Hermosa Beach Forum, ICE Interactions with Hermosa Beach PD (Photos)