There’s an old saying about friends “show me who your friends are and I show you who you are” and in reading the Los Angeles Times reporting this morning of close friends and associates who have donated graciously and generously to disgraced lawmaker Mark Ridley-Thomas and his love offering requests towards his legal defense fund it left me feeling like “birds of a feather flock together“.
The long-awaited criminal prosecution by the Justice Department, against the still widely popular South LA icon is slated to begin tomorrow which ironically may mark the end of the career of the longtime civil rights advocate.
In the immortal words Jim Duggan “there’s no crying in baseball” and we’d be wise to accept this ideology when extending empathy and sympathy to MRT because those who know better, understand politics, like baseball, is a sport and I will argue that no one should know this better than MRT himself.
He knew his actions could have consequences, as we have all watched other promising politicians fall from grace, and he went full steam ahead, consequences be damned.
Based on my review of what is reported on those campaign finance forms, those that aren’t listed as donors had to ask themselves “if this were me in this precarious situation, what would MRT do”?
I guess I’m jealous that unlike Mark Ridley-Thomas I don’t have friends that would simply cut me a check in the amount of $30,000 as retired Pastor Charles E. Blake did of West Angeles Church but I can’t help but wonder how could that money have been better spent? Aside from billionaires Magic and Cookie Johnson who attend his church regularly, his church is located in an area being rapidly gentrified, has homeless sleeping up and down Crenshaw Blvd. and many are still suffering from the effects of COVID. Does he not care how hard the Africa Town Coalition is fighting to feed and clothe people a few blocks south of his megachurch?
I’m sorry but MRT’s plight isn’t that righteous of a fight to yield prayer circles and thousands of dollars in donations to his legal defense fund unless they don’t want to be mentioned if he takes the stand.
Angelenos have had to begrudgingly accept Mark Ridley-Thomas because there were few like him and he knew it. He’s become a seasoned con man dedicated to achieving a higher goal of becoming the King of Los Angeles and he is known for retaliating against you if you go against him. We can all recall how he pulled that development deal from Magic Johnson when he supported Wendy Gruehl for mayor and that patch of land behind Baldwin Hills Mall, which was full of Black-owned businesses is still dormant decades later. Thanks Mark!
In the words of his donor Curren Price, MRT has been “gaming the system” for how long now? Over 30 years. He’s used the Black man’s battles with law enforcement as his “go to” for adulation and clout and look where we are now, in the same place we were in 1992 with not much having changed in the relationship between the community and police since he was sworn in. Thanks Mark!
For as much as he touted the cause of the homeless, the numbers have dramatically risen during his tenure as he ping ponged across the state of California, from seat to seat, with nothing but a trail of tears following him. Thanks Mark!
There’s a biblical saying that “bad associations spoils good habits” and if these friends and/or associates, despite ignoring the obvious overwhelming evidence provided by the Department of Justice indictment, still chose to cut him a check then god bless him. Notably, no one gave him a dime after his co-conspirator, former USC Dean Marilyn Flynn plead guilty.
Does anyone have photos from the prayer service? I would love to see who actually showed up.
Being a Black man am I obligated to follow this unhealthy notion that I’m supposed to pledge my undying and unwavering support for another Black elected official who has let the community down by thinking they can get away with what White politicians do?
Isn’t that what we say in the comfort of our homes around the dinner table?
Let’s be real, these so-called donors to Ridley-Thomas aren’t his real friends because at MRT’s age his real friends would have advised him immediately after his indictment that real leadership is accepting responsibility for your actions like activists demanded of Gil Cedillo, Nury Martinez and Kevin de León? Instead, his “friends” demanded taxpayers keep paying him.
To be honest, Mark Ridley-Thomas made his bed and he should comfortably lie in it as he should have heeded sound advice from his then opponent former Los Angeles City Councilman and former LAPD Police Chief Bernard Parks back in 2008 when he said the FBI questioned him about the longtime lawmaker and advised him that he should be careful in his dealings.
I mean, you have to appreciate the irony of Mark Ridley’s-Thomas’s sworn enemy and arch-nemesis, Bernard Parks, who prophetically predicted this day would come and advised the councilman as much to his peril and this is amongst one of the many reasons neither I nor anyone else should be guilted by conscription to fight the unrighteous cause of rightfully indicted and soon to be convicted Mark Ridley-Thomas and I bet you dimes to nickels there’s a man in Compton right now proclaiming “the chickens have come home to roost”.
Marvin McCoy is a lifelong Inglewood resident and can be reached at therealmccoymarketinggroup@gmail.com or on Twitter: @MarvinM83905936 | Instagram: @therealmccoymarketinggroup
