The Antelope Valley Times

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Mayor: “The NAACP was duped… I’m waiting for an apology”

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LANCASTER – As The AV Times reported Monday, the NAACP has formally withdrawn a housing discrimination complaint against Lancaster, which alleged a pattern of harassment by city leaders against black and Latino residents on the Section 8 program.

In accordance with the withdrawal, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  has terminated its investigation and closed the complaint.

Sounding off to reporters at an unrelated press conference Tuesday, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said the NAACP was duped into filing the complaint by community activists seeking publicity.

“Darren Parker, Emmett Murrell and Jesse Smith just wanted to see their name in the paper, and it cost the tax payers millions of dollars,” Parris said. “I think they duped the NAACP, and I think the NAACP is now in a situation of trying to save face.”

“I’m waiting for an apology,” Parris continued. “They spent millions of dollars investigating something that they didn’t even have a victim for.”

The housing discrimination complaint is separate from the fair housing lawsuit, brought forward by the NAACP, The Community Action League (TCAL) and three Section 8 tenants.

That fair housing lawsuit, which was filed in June 2011 against the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, claims Black and Latino families, using Section 8 housing vouchers in Lancaster and Palmdale, are victims of constant, unbearable harassment at the hands of housing authority investigators, sheriff’s deputies and local politicians. Read the entire complaint.

In February, Palmdale settled the lawsuit without admitting to any wrongdoing. The County Board of Supervisors also reached a settlement agreement, though the county was not named in the lawsuit.

Parris said the lawsuit is without merit and he intends to fight it to the very end.

“We are not caving in to extortion,” he said. “For poor people, the City of Lancaster is doing more innovative projects than anybody in the country… Why aren’t they helping us? Where are these high and mighty NAACP executives?”

Parris said he would like to see community activists supporting the city’s Wellness and Neighborhood Impact homes.

“I don’t think that’s what they are about,” he said. “I think they’re about their own self-aggrandizement, because they have not lifted a finger to help us.”

Local representatives said the NAACP would be releasing a statement concerning its decision to withdraw the housing discrimination complaint.

That statement was not immediately available Tuesday evening.

Public Counsel, the law firm representing the NAACP in the ongoing fair housing lawsuit, released a video recently profiling one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The video also explains the law firm’s decision to file the lawsuit. View the video below.

WARNING: The video contains language that may be considered offensive.

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Filed Under: Lancaster

26 comments for "Mayor: “The NAACP was duped… I’m waiting for an apology”"

  1. Get Rid Of HUD Make them get off there lazy a” and get a job and if they cant do that let them live in the street,furthermore lets take care of the men and women who worked there whole life working and paying taxes and now have to decide whether to take there chump change we call social security and use it to buy food or medication ,lets stop wasting time and work on this for the seniors ,and by the way i am not crying for me i am just 47 years old ,So how many likes do i get on this one

  2. Why not? He seems to have everybody else who disagrees with him put in jail… Unless, he’s afraid of facing some REAL lawyers who actually know what the law is.

  3. I know of 1 white family in my neighborhood on Sect 8. You would think they are home owners. The yard is mowed and green and well kept. They drive an old truck.
    In the neighborhood next to mine, there are a number of Sect 8 homes rented to Black families. The fences are broken down, garage doors are off the track, window blinds are all twisted up, and shopping carts in the front yard or on the street in front of their houses. Almost always, a shopping cart in the bushes, outside the wall of their back yard so they can hop the wall to Walmart.
    Houses around the Sect 8 houses slowly are vacated and vandelized.
    I know that is not always the case with Black or Latino Section 8 people, but a large percentage of Sect 8 houses can be spotted easily due to how the residents take care of there homes. Those people, are abusing the system and destroying homes and neighborhoods. They need to have their vouchers pulled.

  4. What a crock ! Sec 8 has ruined this community, as well as developers, real estate agents and opportunists who bought up these homes never intending to live in them.Lets get rid of the L.A. projects and move them all to the AV is the theme of the LA city council and board of supervisors.Good for Parris., at least he stands up to them.

  5. Rex waiting for an apology… Rex’s remarks himself, and the goon squad of sheriffs that were following inspectors into homes started this whole mess.

    • You know what Scott, that “goon sguad ” as you so disrespectfully refer to law enforcement is the only line of defense between the “goon “sguad of criminals and riff raff and decent, law abiding people.Sure they screw up once in a while but I ‘d rather have them at my door than some gangbanging criminals.

        • Here, here. The community should be happy that we actually have law enforcement that works! Don’t hate us (our city) because we take violators of programs such as Section 8 serious. Maybe they don’t in LA, who knows, but we do! Kudos to the LASD here in the Antelope Valley for keeping us safe and for caring about taking criminals off the street. When home invasions and shootings are taking place in broad daylight, it’s time to get serious about law enforcement. If you don’t like how we police our streets and our community–move!

    • Pelka, you’re one of those types who wants to bad mouth the cops, but the second the boogieman is at your door, guess what? You’ll run to the phone and beg them to hurry! You can always choose not to call them. Or, you can call your hero and fellow nutjob, david (don’t taze me bro!) G. His dealings with the cops can certainly give you some guidance. Check your facts Pelka, a lot of the complaints by these freeloaders occurred before Parris was even mayor. Look it up.

      • Unless the Mayor comes up with some kind of agreement the T-Cal case will go to trial and a lot of Lancaster taxes will go down the drain, or maybe up in the eye in the sky.
        Section 8 started after the Great Depression under the Wagner-Stargall Act or The National Housing Act of 1934. Sorry my friends, it’s not going away.
        I would suggest some constructive changes to 42 U.S.C. Section 1437F.

      • If you could have only been there to watch me rip out the darts from my chest. nothing wrong with calling the sheriffs there job is to protect and serve some are good i have met plenty who are willing to have a decent conversation and actually understand what is going on in the community.

        either way the biggest crook in lancaster is rex captain clueless over here probably hasent even read one agenda let alone a contract passed by the council.

        lancaster being in debt is no more conservative then bailing out the housing market i wonder if that opened up a whole new opportunity for investors to create more section 8 homes.

        anyways grow a brain.

  7. i know that the Section 8 lawsuit and the NAACP complaint were separate. Although the lawsuit was in connection with the discrimination complaint but my question to you is this…..how can you have a lawsuit without a complaint?

    • Nimby,
      I believe there is an implied understanding that the lawsuit does have a complaint. The lawsuit’s complaint is filed with the federal court, whereas the other complaint was filed with HUD. Lawyers, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
      I believe things get a bit confusing because both the housing complaint and the lawsuit (federal court complaint) are essentially saying the same thing. If that is the case, then they should have concentrated on the lawsuit all along, instead of filing a separate complaint. Maybe they figured this out and that’s why they dropped the complaint.
      Disappointing in all this is the NAACP’s secrecy in dropping the complaint. They were talking to anyone listening when filing the complaint, so why not show the same transparency in dropping it? I watched the video and I did feel bad for the Section 8 lady who faced harassment, but like the mayor said, where are the Lancaster victims? I wonder if that’s the same lady who was mentioned a couple days ago in the Valley Press. The Valley Press article profiled an upstanding Section 8 investigator who had been accused of harassing a woman on Section 8. The woman was actually a con artist who had no business being on Section 8. I no longer have that paper so I can’t compare the article to the video. Can somebody help me out?

      • Thank you S Parker for trying to answer my question. However, wasn’t the complaints the same (discrimination) and weren’t they both lodged by the same organization (NAACP)? So if that’s the case than the lawsuit has no merit. Right?

  8. This was a failed attempt by the NAACP to extort money pure and simple! We finally have a mayor with some cojones that went up against these Hug-a-Thug groups and guess what….they backed down! Now if only Darren Parker, Emmett Murrell and Jesse Smith would just GO AWAY! Unfortunately they have a vendetta against the mayor and I don’t see them backing down anytime soon!

  9. This lawsuit was nothing more than extortion. The NAACP and other Hug-a-Thug groups like to extort. We finally have a mayor that has the cojones to go up against these extortionsist and they showed us what they were really made of…they backed down! Hopefully Darren Parker, Emmett Murrell and Jesse Smith will GO AWAY! Unfortunately they have a vendetta against the mayor and I don’t believe they’re gonna back down anytime soon.

  10. They can only harass Black people because they are mainly the ones using section 8 here in the A.V. They are just saying Latino . I never heard of any Latinos on section 8. When you let the government give you stuff they own you. You can’t just do what you want.

  11. I keep seeing where they say “blacks and Latinos on the section 8 program…”

    WHAT LATINOS?????????????? how many Latinos actually use Section 8?

    Last time I checked 70% of Section 8 vouchers in LA County were given to black families which seems extremely lopsided when you consider that black people make up less than 10% of LA Countys entire population.

    • Most of us Latinos dont use Section 8 because we have some pride in working and not blatantly taking advantage of the system. The woman they put in this video that we are all supposed to feel sorry for (i guess) has ***SIX*** kids in the picture at the end.

      So that basically means that while I drive up and down the hill 68 miles each way ***EVERY DAY***. this woman has been popping out babies and gets to live in a nicer part of town than I do. I bet she drives a brand new car too.

  12. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that apology Mr. Mayor. The National Association Against Caucasian People aren’t known for admitting they rush to judgment.