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This Sunday ICYMI edition is always free for all subscribers and visitors to this Substack page! Thanks for being a part of this look at CA politics!
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Before we get to ICYMI, let’s play a round of “You Be The DA!”
What Happened
LAPD Officer Daniel Flores secretly recorded colleagues in the department’s recruitment unit making racist, sexist and anti-gay remarks, then gave roughly 90 recordings to supervisors. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman charged him [ [link removed] ] with 16 felony counts under California’s eavesdropping law, carrying up to 13 years in prison. Hochman says confidential conversations are protected regardless of motive. Flores’ lawyers argue these were workplace discussions and that he was acting within his police duties.
A) Hochman Was Right
Prosecutors should not ignore a law because a defendant’s motives seem sympathetic. California generally requires all parties to consent before a confidential conversation is recorded. Secretly taping coworkers can therefore be a felony. Declining charges would suggest illegal conduct becomes acceptable whenever officials approve of the cause. Flores can argue that no reasonable expectation of privacy existed or that a police-duty exception applies. Courts should decide those questions.
B) Hochman Was Wrong
The prosecution appears to punish the officer who exposed misconduct while the underlying bigotry remains hidden behind personnel secrecy. These were workplace conversations among officers helping decide who may join the LAPD—not intimate private discussions. Flores gave the recordings to supervisors rather than releasing them for profit or revenge. Charging him with 16 felonies sends a chilling message to employees who document corruption, discrimination or abuse.
What Would You Have Done?
Would you enforce California’s privacy law—or decline to prosecute an officer who documented serious misconduct inside the LAPD?
BELOW ARE SIX STORIES THAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED!
One Great Video…
Jon Slavet with State of Gold interviews Congressman Kevin Kiley who, upon filing for reelection, reregistered to be an NPP (no party preference) voter. They talk about that and more…
On This Date in 1945…
The USS INDIANAPOLIS SURVIVORS ARE FOUND
On August 2, 1945, one of the most harrowing survival ordeals in American military history was finally discovered.
The USS Indianapolis had just completed a top-secret, high-speed mission delivering critical components and nuclear material for the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy” to Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands. That bomb would be dropped on Hiroshima less than two weeks later. Almost no one aboard the ship knew what its mysterious cargo contained.
After leaving Tinian and stopping at Guam, the cruiser was sailing toward Leyte in the Philippines when the Japanese submarine I-58 struck it with two torpedoes shortly after midnight on July 30. The ship sank in only about 12 minutes.
Hundreds of sailors were thrown into the Philippine Sea with few lifeboats and little food or drinking water. For three and a half days, they endured dehydration, exposure, exhaustion, hallucinations, and shark attacks. Compounding the catastrophe, the Navy failed to recognize that the ship was overdue, so no organized search began.
The men were discovered largely by chance when Lieutenant Wilbur “Chuck” Gwinn, flying a PV-1 Ventura on a routine patrol, spotted an oil slick and then survivors in the water.
Of nearly 1,200 men aboard, only 316 survived. Their ordeal remains an extraordinary story of courage—and a devastating example of institutional failure. the nearly 1,200 men aboard Indianapolis, only 316 survived.
The tragedy remains a searing lesson in courage, endurance, and institutional failure. The sailors’ suffering was almost unimaginable, but so was their determination to stay alive. Their story deserves to be remembered not merely as a wartime disaster, but as an extraordinary testament to human resilience.
There’s a great film on this harrowing tale called U.S.S. Indianapolis which I strongly recommend. As always Nicholas Cage delivers an epic performance. Here’s the trailer…
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Jon
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