"Magic" Johnson Lashes Out at Ridley-Thomas’ Negative Campaigning

Legendary Laker and Accomplished Businessman Seems Baffled by Ridley-Thomas' Sudden About-Face Regarding Parks' Career at LAPD


In a video statement released today on parksforsupervisor.com, Laker Hall-of-Famer and illustrious entrepreneur Earvin "Magic" Johnson called out Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas for negative and untruthful campaigning against his opponent, Councilmember Bernard C. Parks.

The former Laker said, "You're going to get a lot of things said about Councilman Parks because the only way people feel that they can beat him is to talk bad about him. But, we as citizens of this great city of Los Angeles know better. We’re going to support Councilman Parks as Supervisor. And, we're not going to listen to Mark or anybody else talk bad about him. We know the type of man and the type of person and the job he has done as Chief Parks, as Councilmember Parks and the job he’s going to do as County Supervisor Parks."

The response comes after the Ridley-Thomas campaign and its supporters produced television ads and mailers containing derogatory comments about Parks' career at LAPD and on the L.A. City Council that were false and misleading.

Furthermore, Johnson's statements are supported by the fact that on February 14, 2002 Ridley-Thomas authored an L.A. Times opinion piece entitled: "Parks Proved His Leadership". In it, Ridley-Thomas goes out of his way to praise Parks' accomplishments as Chief-- even mentioning that Parks deserved another five-year term at the helm of the department. The Ridley-Thomas-authored opinion piece seems to be in direct conflict with the propaganda he and his campaign are spewing out.

Below are some other excerpts from the editorial written by Ridley-Thomas:

* "Parks has confronted the issues of objectionable police tactics and street crime head-on..."

* "... his (Parks') work ethic is unmatched and his competence unparalleled."

* "Without a doubt, Parks is a proven leader..."

* "Parks has continued to push forward to create a new and improved LAPD."

* "Parks has taken the difficult stance of remaining true to providing leadership for change."

Ridley-Thomas felt so strongly about Parks' leadership that he included the opinion piece in a campaign mailer he used to run for the State Assembly in 2002. In the mailer, he accuses the union that represents LAPD officers, the Police Protective League(PPL), of: "engaging in a vicious attack campaign to fire our Chief Bernard Parks". Ironically, in the Ridley-Thomas for Supervisor t.v. ads and mailers, he trumpets the PPL's endorsement of his campaign, while making the same attacks against Parks that the union did in 2002.

"It’s really something when Mark Ridley-Thomas in the beginning always had said that Councilman Parks was a wonderful Chief, as we all have said. Now he’s saying that he di dn’t do a good job. That doesn’t make sense to me. That tells you about the man who’s now trying to run against Councilman Parks. Can he(Ridley-Thomas) get the job done? No. He’s(Ridley-Thomas) shown that he can’t get the job done," Johnson said in the video statement, which is one of the rotating videos on the home page of parksforsupervisor.com, under the "Leadership" section.

This is just the latest flip-flop for the so-called Democrat Ridley-Thomas, who has tried to paint fellow Democrat Parks as a Republican but, meanwhile, has spent thousands of dollars purchasing space on Republican campaign slates, with the money going into the campaign of Republican Presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain. On the other hand, Parks has run an inclusive campaign, like Senator Barack Obama, welcoming Democrats, Republicans and members of other parties.

Johnson is just one of a long and growing list of Parks endorsers that includes retiring Second District Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, The L.A. Times, The L.A. Sentinel, The L.A. Daily News and the L.A. Daily Breeze.