To Stop the “Poverty Pimps” We Should Have Listened to Former Mayor Richard Riordan and Journalist Jill Stewart Long Ago
The Southern Truth
A copy from archives of Mayor Richard Riordan on the front page of PACE NEWS in 2001 being honored by West Angeles CDC. Riordan warned that “poverty pimps” were sucking money from the poor. Photo by Gloria Zuurveen
Jill Stewart
By Gloria Zuurveen, Editor-in-Chief
If we would have only listened to former Mayor Richard Riordan a long time ago when he warned us, the Black community, about the “poverty pimps” who he said were “sucking up money that does not trickle down to the poor.” He did not name them himself. No, he did not but when the now-defunct Los Angeles-based New Times L.A. newspaper columnist Jill Stewart asked to identify who exactly he meant, he did not but Stewart penned her revelation naming a “leading poverty pimp in Los Angeles as being Danny Bakewell, of the Brotherhood Crusade, before he took over the Los Angeles Sentinel. Stewart called Bakewell “a key race-baiter” who is “one of about 10 self-appointed ‘spokesmen’ for the supposed group known as the ‘L.A. black community’.”
Riordan knew what he was talking about because he was mayor and he knew who were coming day in and day out to get resources which were meant for the poor whom they say they were serving. Today if we look in our communities we see the plight and we see the Black community and its in a shamble when it comes to Black people who are poor and homeless. They are many as we wrote about last week on our front page and showed you what is going on and it is going on because many of our so-called leaders have turned out to be nothing more than those whom Riordan spoke about and Stewart wrote about. Steward was sued by Bakewell but it was dismissed and Bakewell was ordered to pay Stewart.
If we would have only listened, I believe, we, the Black community would today have a reprieve from the dreadful problem that we all can see, poverty, homelessness and other outrageous public problems especially since the pandemic it has become a catastrophic and out of control systematically destroyed Black community and its all due to the large cadre of “poverty pimps” since long time ago when we were warned by Riordan and Stewart.
The now-defunct Los Angeles-based New Times L.A. newspaper where columnist Jill Stewart named names of “Poverty Pimps” former Mayor Richard Riordan spoke about in 2002.
According to Randy Cassingham’s article on the Stewart’s issue, he reported that “She called Bakewell “a key race-baiter” who is “one of about 10 self-appointed ‘spokesmen’ for the supposed group known as the ‘L.A. black community’.”
It appears to be more than one. He, Bakewell, is not alone according to Stewart in her naming of the cadre of “poverty pimps” in Los Angeles who are according to Riordan, “sucking up money from the poor.” Stewart called names and she was sued. She was sued by the multimillionaire developer for libel for calling him a ‘poverty pimp’.” She responded to the suit with the defense that Bakewell is a “poverty pimp” because he “recklessly manipulates racial divisions,” “preys upon the worst conspiratorial delusions of African-Americans for his own political gain,” and then “leverages that political power for personal enrichment,” which makes him “worse than Al Sharpton.”
Cassingham’s reported that Superior Court Judge John P. Shook apparently liked the argument. He not only threw the suit out, he ordered Bakewell to pay the New Times $25,000 in legal fees. Bakewell quickly settled for $20,000 — which he paid with money from one of the charities he runs.
Sources
“Pimped but Good,” New Times Los Angeles, 29 August 2002 (Note: The Los Angeles branch of the New Times chain shut down on 2 October 2002 for reasons unrelated to the lawsuit.)
Case Status
Dismissed in favor of, and damages awarded to, the defendants.
Riordan called it and because he was white the Black community did not put up a fight. They went along and now we sing the same old song while the “poverty pimps” play ding-dong and go along to get along.
They know who they are from near and from far they are the spooks who sit by the corporate and political doors and unlike the spooks on T.V., these spooks you certainly don’t want to be. They are savages and they are shrewd. They are greedy and many don’t play by the rules. We’ve seen cases galore where the judge and jury are making it known that the “poverty pimps” have been using the poor Black community like chess pawns.
They make their moves and they are smooth all only to sit at the white man’s table and to look like fools. Cause when you look at the Black community as a whole the other people see the tricky dick “poverty pimps” and how from their own neighborhood they have stole. They’ve stolen the dignity and caused so much shame and lest we forget the “poverty pimps” include those scoundrels who also call on JESUS name.
The sickness that came from the failure of us a long time ago for not listening to former mayor Richard Riordan when he sounded the alarm and he tried to warn us of the onslaught of the urgency of the matter when the crooks weren’t the white people but it was the Blacks who didn’t give a dame and to them, Black people, didn’t really matter
The Southern Truth
