I met with Joel Flores at the Costa Mesa Coalition meeting Wednesday evening and had a chance to talk with him about how things are going since his altercation with Councilman Stephen Mensinger. Joel said he had requested a copy of his police report the day after he had filed it on Saturday, and was told that they could not release the report as yet because it “is an on going investigation.” That’s interesting because after officer D. Chingarey took the report, his supervisor, name unknown, took a copy of the report and gave it to the City CEO, Tom Hatch. Tom Hatch, of course, shared this report with Mensinger. Must be helpful for Mensinger to have someone on the inside.
The report then found it’s way to conservative columnist for The Orange County Register, Frank Mickadeit. Frank reported the story in the Sunday edition of The Register. Mr. Mickadeit claimed his attempts to reach Joel by email had gone unanswered. Given that the incident happened on Saturday, and the story was published early Sunday morning, Joel certainly wasn’t given much time to comment, Joel did not get his copy of the police report until Tuesday, and received a voice mail apology at his home from from Costa Mesa Sergeant Evert who said that it was “inappropriate that a copy had been given to the city manager.”
Have I been taking crazy pills, or did this really happen? It gets worse.
Joel told me, “The school has been getting calls from all kinds of weirdos wanting to know my address, phone number, and what kind of car I drive. One person called and said, ‘I want to talk to that Communist English teacher.’ A group of students walked by my class room during a break, a bunch of football players walked by and suddenly a big wad of gum flew into the room and hit me in the chest.” Joel said when he tried to see who actually sent the gummy message, there were too many students to tell who was responsible. Mensigner’s only “witness” to the incident at the Fun Run was Robert Murtha, father of a star running back on the Estancia football team and a good friend of Mensinger. I sure there is no connection there at all.
On the blog C M Press, lone Blogger and well know racist, Martin Millard wrote, “Estancia is having an open house this Thursday, April 28, starting at 7 pm. Maybe some folks might want to go and talk to Joel Flores about his recent confrontation with City Councilman Mensinger and try to find out whether Flores is spreading his political/social views in the classroom. HERE’S Flores’ page on the Estancia Web site. Remember, the citizens of Costa Mesa are paying for these schools and these teachers. We have a right to know what’s going on in the classrooms.”
That post followed an earlier post where he questions if students at Estancia are “being force fed third world ideologies. Are they being taught that capitalism is bad and communism is good?”
I thought the “red scare ” boogy men went out with the Zoot suit. Apparently not in the world of TEA Baggers like the male members of the city council, the O.C. Register which made references to Joel’s alleged severe leftest leanings, and our local white pride blogger, Martin Millard.
A silver lining in this horror story is that the Newport-Mesa School district dismissed Mensinger’s complaint against Joel because “at the event he was not acting as as teacher.” We have that to be grateful for.
Here’s my question for the city council members, there will be plenty of people speaking out against your current policies, can we expect the same hateful, threatening harassment?
Flores should be fired! He’s a trouble maker and takes political grudges too far. My kids will not be attending Estancia High school due to this man.
Did you know….
Back in 2008 Secret Service paid a visit to Martin Millard’s home after posts on New Nation News where he seemed to be trying to prod a young impressionable reader to “harm” then candidate Barack Obama. The man is dangerous and police should be investigating him. He believes Unions are part of the grand conspiracy by Jews to take over the world.
Not that I am defending this guy, but if you have evidence of this please share where it is. wild allegations without evidence do not help your argument unless they can be shopwn to be true. Otherwise, they’re just your opinions.
Stop Bigotry,
Amazing, you can read minds?!? Do me next! Do me next! What type of food am I thinking of?
For a person who uses the name “Stop Bigotry” your comments sound hypocritical. Spreading hate only makes others hate you my friend.
this just gets stranger and stranger…
Flores should be arrested for filing a false police report. He lied about the incident (as stated by eyewitnesses) He is a horrible mouthpiece for the hate group “Repair Costa Mesa.” People cringe that we have actual Communists teaching in our schools. What’s Flores response to the $221 million unfunded pension obligation reported yesterday that is bankrupting my City? What will his silly group say to try and defend that figure now? This whole charade to get Mensinger to strike him backfired. Now he and his OCEA-funded hate group are quickly backpeddling. I hope Mensinger sues him. There’s no room from extremists like Flores in our schools or our City.
The pension liability you speak of only bankrupts your city if all city staff are laid off. Otherwise the payment of that long term liability is smoothed over thirty years to mitigate an unmanagable impact. I seriously doubt Mr. Flores would file a false police report. He had to sign under penalty of perjury to his claim. Mensinger, just gets to say what he wants , with out the risk of perjury.
Sorry your kids are unable to finish 8th grade.
(my 11:42AM comment was addressed to “Wilma” who said her kids would not be attending Estancia)
Re Menssy: Despicable. Charlie Sheen’s secret twin is out of control.
Does anyone know why the court file in Vakili v. Arnel for sexual harassment, where Mensinger was allegedly a defendant, is listed at the courthouse as “destroyed?”
You’ll be pleased to know that the racist author of the CM Press has taken umbrage with this article – big surprise! Here’s the link if you don’t mind having to disinfect your computer once you read it. http://cmpress.blogspot.com/2011/04/cm-press-482.html
You’re just as wacky as cmpress Geoff West. Spread that hate wide and thin.
Phil,and MILLARD ARE THE SAME. MARTIN MILLARD is a racist guy, though he loves to be called racialist. I don’t see a difference between the two. But, I know by a fact that Millard’s favorite politicians/leader is ADOLF HITLER. He’s got HITLER all over his brain, and he’s proud of it. This guy, Millard, is the most radical guy in Costa Mesa. He’s sick man, he should go back to school. A class with Flores will help him a lot.
Let’s leave Hitler out of it. You know for a fact? Prove it? Point to writings or photos to make your case. If you can’t, please take your comments to the OJ where crap like this belongs
Dan, check with your own blogger Claudio if you think calling Millard a Nazi is out of line. And yes, we would say that on the OJ too – thanks for the plug!
Dan, you seem to be new on this one. Yes, I can prove it. In fact, anybody who reads Millard´s trash in the racist New Nation News website can prove that he thinks like Hitler. I’ll give some help. Read his article “Is the swastika the spirit in the sky” (2000), and then tell me if I’m wrong. Have a good nightmare after that.
Bob, Please feel free to post links to the writings you feel prove your point. I think that devoting attention to Millard detracts from the real message from this post. That message being that Mensinger, and Monahan get special treatment of and police cases involving them as individuals. I thought Hatch and his PR Flack Lobdell had more important things to do than read police reports regarding the mayor and council members. Millard’s involvememt here is similar to Mensinger’s of trying to harm Flores through his job.
I gotta say…after doing more research on Mr. Millard…at the encouragement of Bob…I gotta agree with him. In fact, this is the closest I have ever seen to someone likening someone else to Hitler on the internet and actually being mostly accurate! I am frankly APPALLED at Millard’s writings and philosophy, which basically amount to believe we are engaged in a genetic “race war”.
Though this is only my opinion, I would actually have to side with the extremity of Bob on this one.
don’t say things if you don’t know what’s going on. You can’t just assume things about his teaching based on his political views. If he is communist, he’s not teaching us that, he’s teaching us English!
Sorry to defile your blog, Dan, but Bob and Uriah are correct. Here are a few links that will confirm that that guy at the CM Press has been at this racist stuff for more than a decade and is recognized internationally as a major source of racist essays. A couple of these go back to the late 1990s.
http://www.newnation.org/Millard/Millard-Bedroom-Genocide.html
http://newnation.org/Millard/Millard-Ding-Dong-the-Whites-are-Dead.html
http://newnation.org/Millard/Millard-ourselves-alone.html
http://newnation.org/Millard/Millard-Trouble-at-the-Human-Factory.html
You sound mad. On a scale from 1 to 10 how mad are you?
P.S. Don’t let your anger make you go throw bricks through windows ok?
Potstirer,
You are niot defiling the blog. We simply would like out commentors to stick to the principle of being able to back up allegations with facts, or clearly state that the comment is simply an opinion is a point of view. We have a Terms of Use/Commenting Policy that needs to be followed. That’s all we’re driving at.
Thanks for providing the links, they are helpful in supporting your point of view.
Chris Prevatt
Publisher
We forget that elected city council members work for, and are paid by, we the people. Mr. Mensinger works for us: We don’t work for him. Wait. Mr. Mensinger was never elected. He represents no one but himself. I respectfully ask him to resign.
Going back to the issue of Flores and Mensinger. After all, you (Chris) are right, this is what is at stake in Costa Mesa right now. (The Millard issue is always important to clarify since he’s been involved in city politics for so many years as an insider with Mansoor, and outsider recently). I think Flores did not choose the right political method to let people know his displeasure with some government actions. Confronting and defying a government official outside a public forum only brings trouble. He should have done it during a council meeting, when every citizen has the right to raise his/her voice up to three minutes. Or, he could have written an essay, and publish it in the Daily Pilot or in this website or he could have organized a political rally outside city hall. I guess, there is so many ways to do it. Whether we like it or not, and despite the fact that Mensinger was appointed and not elected, he’s a CM representative. That being said, Mesinger isn’t an angel as he might think to be. I have seen him act in public, and I have seen his bullish demeanor a few times. His confrontation with Flores only tells that he’s politically immature. He’s got to learn tons of lessons before the city accepts him as a legitimate representative. As it is right now, I see a silly internal battle between him and Reigheimer for getting in the front news. That’s not good for the city. On the issue of privatization, this is the worst strategy a government can do to try to quell an economic crisis. In fact, this is the time when the government must act together and show its strength to get us out of the current economic crisis. Obama has done it. It could also be done at the local level.
Bob, Flores has, indeed, stood and spoken to the City Council – that photo at the top of this page (“borrowed” from my blog) is an image of him speaking at that time. He spoke forcefully and with conviction – and was ignored by the council, just as they ignored the many others who took the time to present their views.
We don’t know for sure who “provoked” that situation last Saturday – we have only the two parties’ versions, one of which is supported by a close friend of Mensinger. Regardless, I agree with you that the kind of discourse necessary to shift an opinion isn’t going to take place on the fly at a community event. If I thought there was ANY chance that Mensinger would actually listen I would suggest that Flores meet with him privately in a more appropriate setting. However, unless the weather report for Hades is snow today, I think there is no chance that could happen.
Chris, congrats on 5 years.. my 6th is fast approaching and it seems just like it was yesterday. Whew!
Potstirrer, the best advise I can give someone who teaches English is to create a blog, and began posting good-sounding articles. That’s how you pressure politicians nowadays. I’m sure, given his academic background and his ethnicity, Flores must be good at it, and possibly speaks Spanish. A bilingual website would bring a lot of pressure to the Costa Mesa City Council, and would also open up some eyes regarding Millard’s dark world
I wasn’t going to say anything, but here goes. @Bob, you are making assumptions about Joel’s ethnicity and you are mistaken.
I didn’t mean to make this post about race at all. The only reason I mentioned Millard was because of the call on his site to have folks go to the Estancia open house and confront him. Geez!
@Potstirrer, I didn’t know the photo came from your blog. I just googled it and since there was no water mark, I thought it was up for grabs. I have a couple of pictures of him I took in my front yard, but I left my camera at work so I couldn’t upload one. Sorry if I stepped on your toes!
What I would love to see is a peaceful resolution to this mess we have in the city, cause Costa Mesa is just such a nice place to live!
Kathy, not a problem… happy you could use it. You’ve made a great start blogging here… keep up the good work.
Here’s the most recent bad news from Costa Mesa Friday: http://abubblingcauldron.blogspot.com/2011/04/yes-costa-mesa-sky-is-falling.html
Kathy,
you wrote a quite interesting column, but your opinion, posted later, reminds me of Rodney King: “Can we all get along”. Well, people across LA couldn’t. The same can we say about Costa Mesa. This city is on the verge of a catastrophic end due to, so much, the previous government leadership, and the current one. Ideally, yes we should get along, but given the current social and political conditions, and given the reality of this city, that just look like a good dream. Let’s don’t dream, let’s be real. There are political actors here, not angels, and evil demons.
Bob, read the entire blog, and my other blogs on the subject of the city council, not just my one comment. I get the information by actually going to community meetings, meeting the folks directly effected and city council meetings. I LIVE here. Hoping for a peaceful resolution is not a character defect. It’s called optimism. Couldn’t hurt. Might help.