Truth to Power

Why did broke ass L.A. spend taxpayer money on Jackson memorial?

Michael Jackson memorial will cost LA approximately $4 million

Altogether the cost of escorts, police, sanitation and security for the Jackson memorial is expected to cost the Los Angeles City Council almost $4 million. On Tuesday the City Council launched a website asking fans to donate to the $4 million ceremony. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking fans to contribute to the $4 million tab.

Why not Sony Records? They sold nearly a million Jackson CDs and whatnot the week he died– hell, he has over 2.5 million downloads- a revenue stream that costs Sony exactly nothing to maintain and profit from- so why in the hell is Los Angeles begging for money to maintain security and such at a memorial it had no business holding in the first place? If Sony Records and the various cottage industries that have reaped large from Jackson’s skinny frame want to publicly weep and moan over the potential loss of earnings from yet another rock star drug overdose, let ‘em pick up the tab.

But the notion that some fixed income retiree- who is unlucky enough to find themselves languishing in a state bordering on insolvency during their golden years- the notion that this person has to have some portion of their property taken at the point of a gun to pay for a funeral for a freak, well, that’s why people overthrow governments.

At least, they do in other countries. Here we sit superglued to our couch or computer watching an endless stream of the cult of personality in lieu of actually interacting with the world. People around the nation can tell what they were doing when they learned the news of his death, yet can’t tell you how many troops have been murdered by government lies in Iraq (5683) or who represents them in Congress.


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