Re: “Racial Rap Against Compton Councilman” 

Dateline Compton — When community activist Najee Ali walked into Council Chambers late yesterday afternoon for the Compton City Council meeting, he intended to go face to face with Latino Councilman Isaac Galvan for disparaging remarks he allegedly made about certain black officials.

His intention had been to coax an apology from Mr. Galvan or to ask the young first-term Councilman to resign.

Instead, Mr. Ali found himself staring at Mr. Galvan’s unoccupied chair.

With that, Mr. Ali left Chambers.

No one appeared surprised that Mr. Galvan, lone Latino on an otherwise black Council, was anywhere but in Council Chambers. He has a spotty reputation for responding to inquiries.

He is no stranger to making news.

Just last February, two of his brothers were shot and one was killed in what the LAPD called “a targeted gang attack” in East Los Angeles.

At a news conference yesterday morning at Compton City Hall, Mr. Ali said he had learned that a year and a half ago at a supposedly gala reception in a Lakewood restaurant, Mr. Galvan allegedly used the n-word to describe Compton Mayor Aja Brown, labeled his black Council colleagues “monkeys,” and insulted state Sen. Isadore Hall’s lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ali did not have the stage to himself yesterday morning.

Five minutes before his press conference, up strode Bishop L.J. Guillory, protesting, first quietly then noisily, that he disapproved of “outsiders” coming on to Compton and criticizing a community that produces positive images that are routinely ignored.

Bishop Guillory’s business card describes him as an ombudsman general for the “United States of America Government Oversight Agency,” with two addresses, Beverly Hills and Washington D.C.

(To be continued)