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The Epting family finds a truffle! (pic Register)
First off, KUDOS to former journalist Chris Epting for being the first to notice, at my friends’ Friday night HB Pier candlelight vigil against police killings, that someone had chalked the name Micah Xavier Johnson, the Dallas cop killer, on the boardwalk.
Micah Xavier Johnson. I wouldn’t have known that name myself, but I’ll remember it now. I did know some guy had lost it and killed a bunch of cops in Dallas the day before, but it sounded depressing so I didn’t watch any TV or read the news Thursday or Friday. Plus I like FBI chief Comey’s policy of not mentioning the names of killers and terrorists since so many of them are after fame.
But I’ll be sure to remember that name now, Micah Xavier Johnson. Because, God forbid, it could have been me who chalked that name, assuming it was just one more black kid shot in the back by a cop somewhere in the US, as I’m sure that poor girl at the Pier thought, as she copied it off a chronological internet list of people killed by cops this year. (Obviously, Micah Xavier Johnson, most recent, came up first.)
Whatever it took, I’m glad that name got removed – the mass murderer Micah Xavier Johnson does not need to be there next to Kelly Thomas and Joel Acevedo, dishonoring the hundreds of police victims, many of them completely innocent, many others up to some sort of mischief but not needing to be killed like Micah Xavier Johnson needed to. In fact if I’d been there, and knew who Micah Xavier Johnson was, I would have figured out some way to remove it – if necessary, with a stream of urine. (Purely as an emergency measure, you understand – and accepted the legal consequences.)
*****
So again, kudos. But unfortunately this is Chris Epting we’re talking about, and Chris Epting is the biggest asshole in Orange County, if not a wider area. Having gradually lost all relevance and credibility, having lost his column in the HB Independent due to his aggressive and erratic behavior, having wasted the whole past year on a fruitless crusade against popular school district president Gina Clayton-Tarvin simply because she refused to put up with his rudeness, he and his (even more unpleasant) son Charles showed up at this peaceful vigil just to make trouble, and unfortunately found something to make themselves relevant again – the name “Micah Xavier Johnson.” Here he is to the left, hectoring the poor woman who chalked that name, as she abjectly apologizes that she didn’t know who Micah Xavier Johnson was. Notice how he only gets in the face, like that, of women?
But now, triumphantly claiming to have “deflated” the vigil (which actually went on very nicely once he split) he’s re-invented himself as a hero to the many folks in Huntington Beach who don’t want too many black or brown folks here. These folks are so sure that my peaceful friends showed up ON PURPOSE the day after a mass police shooting just to rub it in their faces and celebrate the name of Micah Xavier Johnson, that any reasonable explanation of how it actually happened just seems laughably dishonest or naive to them. And Chris Epting (for the moment at least, until his craziness gets to be too much for even them) is now their knight in shining armor.
And yes, that’s the other thing: Epting has become batshit insane. A Grand Unified Theory of All Things Bad has been developing in his head, as he connects all the dots of everything that rubs him the wrong way. He has been accusing the OC Weekly, Gustavo Arellano, and myself, of organizing the vigil – a ridiculous idea which has had the side-effect of making me and Gustavo more friendly again. But how to tie in Gina?
Chris’ inseparable online sidekick, the shoplifting, bunny-torturing astrologess Annmarie “Ourania Seven” Boyer [yes all true] roared that Denise De La Cruz’ fine OC Weekly account of the event, with its mention of “haters” in HB, was an attack on the whole town! (As though mentioning that there are a lot of gangbangers in Santa Ana should be taken as an insult to all the good people of THAT town.) Well, Chris and Annmarie have already convinced themselves that Gina and Gustavo have an improperly close relationship, with her telling him what to write, just because he gives her generally positive coverage. That’s it – Gina must IMMEDIATELY DENOUNCE THE OC WEEKLY, or else she stands exposed as an ENEMY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH! And by late Sunday Chris has been shouting that Gina (who was never even at the vigil) “supports cop killers.” This madness at least makes for amusing memes, like the one to the left.
“Why are you even here?” Chris snapped at Irvine’s polite and dignified black Reverend Everett Bell, who was trying patiently to talk Chris down off the ledge. “Why did you come to Huntington Beach?” (Echoing all of the “Stay out of my town” talk that clogged the event’s Facebook page that day.) One could just as well ask, Why the hell is Epting in Huntington Beach? Can he please go back to New York? He has been nothing – these past three years at least – but a force of hatred and division and now racism. I believe I will see if I can get the Council to fashion a resolution along these lines.
Sorry, these people just drive me crazy. Let’s back up a couple days and see how this all actually started, because I know, and Chris doesn’t.
*****
Theresa with her son Caesar shortly before he was killed.
When my wife and I saw, on Wednesday, that our good friend Theresa Smith was planning a “vigil” at the Huntington Beach Pier in protest of the recent spate of police killings nationwide AND local, I said, “Why Huntington Beach? I don’t think that’s a good idea. For one thing HB hasn’t had much trouble with their police in several years, they have a pretty good chief. Also, it’s a pretty conservative place, they’re going to encounter a lot of hostility.” Did I nail it or what?
And the answer occurred to us both after a moment – Theresa had been impressed with how nicely the recent vigil for the Orlando victims had turned out, and thought she could duplicate that. Also, as Theresa told me later, she HAD done another, smaller event on the Pier once, and that went well – I did not know that.
Theresa’s son Caesar Cruz had been killed, shot by five Anaheim cops in a Walmart parking lot back in 2009 as he got out of his car – supposedly they thought he was armed. She was later awarded $175,000. Over these six years she’s become sort of the mother of OC police-reform activists. Some find her forgiving to a fault; she loves to hug people, especially cops. And when she puts on an event, she calls it a LEAN event – her own personal “Law Enforcement Accountability Network.” (A lot of HB spent their Friday frantically googling this “shadowy group.”)
Theresa comforts a bereaved sister.
With all the back-to-back shootings across the country last week, and all the protests and vigils planned across the nation, she wanted to do a peaceful LEAN vigil at the HB Pier, which she began planning Wednesday with a handful of friends. She invited a couple of ministers to speak; folks would “chalk” the names of police victims on the sidewalk, sing songs, hold hands, pray … and eventually dump a quantity of “red sand” (actually sand soaked in red koolaid) into the ocean, symbolizing the blood of police victims, as she named off dozens of them which she ended up doing by memory – they didn’t find time to create a list!
Of course, that was Wednesday. Nobody knew what was about to happen Thursday, except for Micah Xavier Johnson. (In lower left corner below, now with dreadlocks.)
Many thought Theresa should have called off her vigil, as it would be taken as some kind of affront. But no, the urgency of the original message hadn’t disappeared at all. She decided to just be sure and include the five slain police officers in their prayers. And meanwhile some people changed the signs they were planning to bring. My good friend, the brilliant Fullerton activist-artist Bax Baxter, created this at the last minute *(photo by the Weekly’s Josue) :
And as for me – I was planning to instead attend a much-rowdier rally in front of the Anaheim Police Station, but I changed my original sign:
to this:
So anyway, the HB rally itself, once the Eptings stormed off, went beautifully, just as described in Denise’s Weekly article. But here’s something nobody knows, that I almost forgot to put in the story (UPDATE MONDAY EVENING): Friday night, after her big event, Theresa Smith went directly to the hospital bedside of Fermin Vincent Valenzuela, the homeless man who was tasered into a coma recently by Anaheim police. She stayed there till the wee hours, with his family. Tragically he finally passed away Sunday.
My next HB piece will attempt to make the case that, despite all of the above, despite the incident of the brick thrown into a black HB family’s window that happened right after, and despite all of Epting’s demagoguery, the “haters” in Huntington Beach are a noisy but small minority. But you GOOD people aren’t worth much if you don’t speak up more! Later…
By the way, I hold Chris and Charles Epting indirectly responsible for behavior like this simple because they are all too willing to be the public face of bigotry in this city. Remember, the Chinelos blow-up on HBCV, which the Eptings where smack dab in the middle of, was only two weeks ago.
http://abc7.com/news/window-smashed-in-possible-hate-crime-police-in-oc-say/1424460/
https://surfcitychronicles.com/2016/07/13/radical-left-wing-blogger-threatens-on-behalf-of-anti-cop-organizers-in-huntington-beach/
Look, Chris, I’m not going to wade too far into this morass, but Vern didn’t threaten you. You’d have to be completely out of your mind to interpret his statement as a personal threat.
Seriously, calm down. Like way down. In your state, you’re not helping anyone.
Did I threaten his FAMILYYYYYY????
There are animals – cats most familiarly – who have a defensive way of making themselves look bigger, more than themselves, when they feel under attack, by extending all their hair. Some exotic animals are more spectacular – I’m picturing certain sorts of lizards on other continents that can suddenly create a huge mane around their necks – truly spectacular, and it will drive off an attacker who doesn’t know any better.
Just so, ANY time Chris feels under attack, his kneejerk response is “You’re attacking my FAMILYYYYY!!! You’re threatening my FAMILYYYY!!!” So his simple self-defense can try to pass as a noble defense of his tender brood. It’s really sort of disgusting, **I** think.
Chrissie: You STILL can’t answer my question: At what point did you get your laughable opinions about OC Weekly and myself? Why is it that you only started whining about us after I revealed that you now write for Garofalo’s newspaper? Why didn’t you call me a “sleazy race hustler” and my paper an “unctuous weekly throwaway” to my face when I was treating your son and you to tacos at Taquería Zamora? One of side of the table changed—and it sure as hell wasn’t me.
Better yet: why, in all your years writing fluff about HB, did you never bother with the trail of injured, harassed, and dead left behind by HBPD? Nothing on Antonio Saldivar? Nothing on Ashley MacDonald? You call our reporting “clueless,” yet you’re the pendejo who doesn’t know his city.
And for everyone that needs to know about whom many consider to be a psycho cyberstalker, Pat Mahoney – it’s all in here– https://surfcitychronicles.com/2016/06/06/audio-edition-republic-spokesman-addresses-district-decision-to-cancel-contract-blogger-besties-of-the-trustee-president/
Do you see how nice I am? You may get a few hits out of posting your crazy links here, a lot more than you would otherwise. And I know you’d never do that with a story of mine.
Of course it’s selfish on my part – I LIKE people to see what you write, it makes our (HB’s) case better than the rest of us can. Think of it as “giving you enough rope.”
I think my next HB piece, in the wake of the brick thrown through the rare black HB family’s window, will be along the lines of: My firm (I hope correct) belief that the racist crowd Chris has decided to become the Messiah for is actually a distinct (if vocal) minority in HB.
PS Chris, Ryan liked you when he met you a few years ago (so did I now I think of it.) He is TRYING to give you good advice.
^^^ true statement.
Best Clash album IMHO. We should occasionally discuss other things.
Agree. Ten great solid, and very MELODIC songs. No fucking around.
I agree. Best Clash album.
Neil, I would love to hear you cover “Safe European Home,” “Drug Stabbing Time,” or “All the Young Punks.”
I really do believe that the overt racist crowd is small. And I do think it won’t get much bigger. The question you should ask though is that in light of the brick throwing incident, why isn’t Chris (who of course would like to people believe that you and I and some others are the problem), not immediately ratchet his rhetoric down and take some responsibility for being the local celebrity that he claims he is. NOTHING about this guy lines up anymore.
Hey Chris – Its “Patrick”. Only my mom calls me Pat. Don’t make that mistake again or there will hell to pay.
Shit… I think *I* might have made that mistake before. It’s my middle name too. My mom always called me Vern Pat to distinguish me from my dad.
Duly noted.
Chris your 15 minutes are down to mere seconds. Looks like you are trying take over your son’s 15 minutes. Yes I mentioned your adult son who is big enough to go scream at people at the pier. Hi HBPD when you get this message. I fully support HBPD even when I get the occasional street sweeping ticket. Because it is my fault if I don’t move my car not the someone else’s. It is called personal responsibility for one’s actions.
Chris seriously you aren’t Hunter S. Thompson stop it with your failed attempts at gonzo journalism. I know you will have to look that up because it wasn’t covered in any classes at Emerson where you got your advertising degree. Those with journalism degrees learn about ethics. Advertising degrees teaches you to lie to the public. Watch Mad Men.
Hey T Distant,
Stop threatening Chris, saying he’s only “down to seconds”. I’m sure you’ll get reported to the police so watch your 6.
Today’s madness. Or at least the first serving of madness today.
Chris posted on his closed OVSDCF blog about how there was a tribute to the five slain Dallas cops in downtown HB, and he trashed Gina, the OVSD, the Comunidad people, Theresa Smith’s LEAN group, and myself, for not being there.
What? I never knew such a thing was happening, or I WOULD have gone – most of us would have. I asked around on the bigger forums, and 99% of people hadn’t heard of it either. Turns out, it was part of the regular Wednesday night hot rod shows, where they decided at the last minute to dedicate a few minutes to those cops. Nobody knew that was going to happen.
Later in the day I realized … CHRIS DIDN’T EVEN GO HIMSELF! Jesus, we’ll NEVER catch up with him in the dishonesty and hypocrisy sweepstakes.
Dude, it’s unbelievable. I just looked at OVSDCF for the first time in weeks. It’s depressing. 60-75% of the comments seem to be Chris or AnnMarie. It’s the definition of no lives and falling on one’s sword. Question, how does AnnMarie make money? If I’m paying into welfare to give her free time to act like a total retard I am going to be pissed.
Ann Marie sounds like a real ****. Who is the “we” you speak of? I have lived in HB for 53yrs this October and you do NOT speak for me or ANY of my neighbors. Epting please tell everyone about the time you saw me at the pier and you ran like a little girl.
From my understanding the city of HB pays Visit HB? Is that correct? And then Visit HB pays the same guy who interrogated the soft spoken African American religious leader, “Why are you here? Why are you here? Why are you in Huntington Beach?” To lead a bunch of older ladies around on a walking tour of a part of HB?
If so the city needs to stop this practice immediately. By giving ANY paid job, platform, honorary position, MC opportunity, ambassador role to these ill behaved, dangerous people the HB city council is in effect endorsing this aggressive, hostile treatment toward certain visitors to our city. Then when the aggressors say that they speak on behalf of the WHOLE city it certainly gives the appearance of bearing some truth. Not acceptable. Nor is the online rhetoric prior to this attack.
How is Visit HB funded? Tax payer money?
Chris is paid by Visit HB? To do what? I’m calling my agent. I’ll do the gig for free and give everyone in HB free tickets to my concert.
My tax dollars are supporting this guy? What? Neil, I’d gladly have you here singing your sweet tunes than have to see stacks of this local author’s books on a pathetically small table set up near the children’s section of B&N.
I’ve spent many years studying people. This whole issue has nothing to do with any sort of HB public or political issue. All that stuff is just a backdrop to justify a noxious mix of two people’s total psychosis, which has created a toxic mix of jealousy and hate against the people who dare defy them. This is about pure hate. The victims (though willing and happy to be so in this case, having no problem standing up for what is right) are Vern, Gina and Patrick.
Today’s specialness. Apparently it’s the felonious ex-mayor’s birthday, and Chris said Happy Birthday to him on Facebook. Not a REAL big deal, LOTS of people said Happy Birthday to Dave. What grabs the imagination is Dave’s response to Chris:
A “warrior.” Why would Garofalo think of Chris as a “warrior?” I think of my writers on this blog as fellow warriors against the county kleptocracy, and my Garbaginati gang of HB friends as warriors against the bad stuff Chris is doing in my hometown. And other, HBCF-based HB people as warriors against High Density, Poseidon, and other horrors foisted on Surf City.
But what does Dave Garofalo firmly believe in, that would make him admire Chris Epting as a “warrior” for that cause or causes?
Discuss.
Vern, I am curious to know why DAve would call this writer a warrior too. Seems like a term one would use when someone is in a battle that you may have a personal stake in, a battle they are leading or fighting on your behalf. Not a term for someone you admire–those terms might be “buddy”, “bro”, “champ” or “dude”.
I believe there is two reasons people get into local politics. First is because they have a genuine interest in helping their community. And hey, if a byproduct of that effort helps them (connections, name recognition, experience, etc) then great. The second reason is to leverage a situation for direct personal enrichment through influence. Not always illegal, but in my view always very cowardly. Huntington Beach’s rich history of the latter usually overshadows the former.
But I’m told this is changing. Erik Peterson is part of the advance team. People tell me Lyn Semeta is cut from good cloth. Citizen activists like Cari Swan says she knows what the score really is and are committed to fixing it. We’ll see what happens.
The good news is that Garafalo and Epting’s other taskmasters have completely overplayed their hand, whether they realize it or not. Because Chris and his crew have gone so far of the reservation that it’s bordering on human tragedy (for them). So I watch but worry less about this. Rainbow has lost on overwhelming evidence of mismangament. My bet is that they settle once Gina is re-elected. And I think re-election is all but done. Because any 11th hour “dirt” Rainbow or the CoC throws at Gina through their super pacs can be easily countered with 3x the strength. So that’s good.
The bad news is that this city is still racist, just like I knew it to be i the 1980’s when from back home in Boston we followed the national punk scene. HB was always a skinhead hotbed.
“I believe there is two reasons people get into local politics. First is because they have a genuine interest in helping their community. And hey, if a byproduct of that effort helps them (connections, name recognition, experience, etc) then great.”
That pretty much sums up my feelings about participation in politics, non-profits, etc.. There’s nothing wrong with somebody getting advancement out of it as long as they are contributing something.
Unfortunately getting elected, and then getting fawned over by a servile bureaucracy and by chamber of commerce chuckleheads has a toxic effect on people whose ego is bigger than their ability.
And then there are the outright stooges from the get-go whose only aim is to be important, or rise in politics or to sell more real estate.
Political party affiliation is unimportant although in OC the Republicans look worse because there have been so many repuglicans.
David, your point about party affiliation is spot on, 100%. I couldn’t agree more. Who can get the streets fixed the best? Jimmy? Cool. I’m voting for him. Jackie? Rad – her too.
Currently, there is someone claiming that their goal is to unseat “radical” left-wingers and union apologists from the OVSD School Board. Give me a break. All we need is admins and teachers who on a personal level care about kids, teaching in decent, safe and secure school infrastructure. That’s it, simple common sense and I know plenty of intelligent Democrats and Republicans more than qualified to do this, including the current board members and all the OVSD teachers I’ve met. But then again, I have enough going on in my life where I don’t need to invent role playing games for myself to play.
*As mom always said: ” Never trust anyone under 50 because they just haven’t lived enough to know anything. Never trust anyone over 50 because they always have an agenda to step on someone else to get where they want to go. Never trust anyone elected to office, because if they weren’t paid off when they got elected, by the time they run for the 2nd time they will be.” So, our answer is a lot more simple: When elected don’t answer your e-mails or answer your phone calls…..time to kick them out of office. Cause guess what boobie?…..You are not the only one that these pillars of society are telling to go “skip a rope”.
*that is exactly what this thread has been lacking, a daisy-cutter of Winship Wisdumb.
Where the hell is the “like” button?
Chrissie is a warrior the way Garofalo is skinny.
I wonder if Dave realizes that once he fires up that old Commodore 64 computer of his and then types a message out on to the Interwebz, those very words actually appear on other people’s screens, like magic.
If anyone thinks that the word “warrior” was a happy accident, then I regret to inform you that you are wrong. Dave apparently thinks everyone sucks. No shocker though – It’s a pretty common trait in people who think they are above the law but not smart enough to not get caught. I mean, look at Annmarie – same pattern, same personality. What a crew.
So there you go folks, from Dave’s lips to your ears – confirmation. Chris is fighting a proxy war on behalf of Dave and whatever low ball slime he is in cahoots with. Either that, or they are involved in some weird medieval cosplay thing together. Super creepy either way.
Can’t wait to see what ridiculous retort Chris comes up with here.
He’ll say you’re threatening his family.
Dave’s interests correspond with the Chamber, and are generally unpopular when the general public are made aware of them. High Density Development. Poseidon. Building as much as possible onto our few remaining open and wild spaces. Letting Rainbow make as much unencumbered profit as it can.
Chris is seen as a warrior, against the vast majority of us and for the local kleptocracy, by Dave and his circle.
Or rather, a warrior on behalf of Dave and his circle that exists within the chamber. More proof that Epting is a shill for chamber business interests.
#crookedchris
#annmaireboyertheshrew
#davegarofalohasfailed