Up in Smoke

How DEI Set Los Angeles Ablaze

I’m not usually a fan of writing about disasters, but something I saw on X today about the L.A. fires really got under my skin.

And, yeah, what's happening in Los Angeles right now is beyond terrible. Words can't do it justice—you have to see it to believe it. Take a look at this video Elon Musk shared earlier today.

Pure chaos—like a Hollywood disaster film come to life. But this isn't about global warming. This is about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), or as I like to call it: "Destroying Everything Intentionally."

Now, I've written plenty about DEI before (catch up here, here, here, and here), showing how everything it touches turns into a steaming pile of mess. But the L.A. fires really take the cake, as they showcase just how badly things can go for so many people when DEI-driven incompetence takes over.

There's so much blame to go around here, it's hard to even know where to begin. So, let me start at the top and work our way down through this mess.

Leadership by Checkbox

Back in April 2021, while Governor Gavin Newsom wasn't busy locking people in their houses, he was bragging about how wildfire response would improve under the Biden administration. Someone brilliantly overlaid his speech with footage of the current fires sweeping L.A. Take a look.

If watching Newsom speak isn't your idea of a good time, here's the transcript.

As a partnership with the legislature and other state agencies, including now the federal government, no longer a sparring partner but a working partner, federal government, where we're not addressing headwinds but tailwinds in terms of the support, a memorandum of understanding doubling our respective commitments to vegetation management and forest management and prescribed burns to support the Biden administration with resources, not just rhetoric, to help this collective cause. It's a different paradigm. It's a different framework.

The first order of business in the "different paradigm"? Addressing what the powers that be saw as the Los Angeles Fire Department's most pressing issue: too many white male firefighters.

Changes were indeed coming. In July 2022, Kristin Crowley became not just the first woman chief of LAFD, but also its first openly LGBTQ+ person to hold the position. She immediately made diversity her top priority, declaring in a TV interview:

People ask me, 'What number are you looking for?' I'm not looking for a number. It's never enough.

Crowley rolled out a three-year strategic plan to increase diversity within the LAFD—which, unsurprisingly, boiled down to hiring fewer white men and more women and rainbow people.

She was soon joined by Jamie Brown, LAFD's first lesbian Training Commander, and Kristine Larson, the department's first lesbian Equity Bureau Chief. You can see them in the photo below, standing next to Crowley.

A charming bunch, wouldn’t you say?

Now, you might think mentioning their sexual orientation is unnecessary. Unsavory, even. I get that. But the thing is, it’s exactly why they were hired.

It certainly wasn’t for their firefighting ability.

How do I know? Because these three women started out as paramedics before diversity mandates pushed them all the way up to fire captains and eventually to top LAFD ranks. They were never firefighters to begin with.

The point is, they wouldn't have reached these positions without the DEI push.

Now, you might have also noticed the radiant smiles in the photo above. And honestly, there's a good reason for that—they’re making a pretty penny.

Kristin Crowley takes home around $440k a year, while her almost-namesake, Kristine Larson, gets about $400k, and Jamie Brown earns around $340k.

Not bad for a job NOT well done.

And now, Crowley, the DEI commander-in-chief, is saying there aren't enough firefighters. Imagine that.

They might want to start by offering an apology to the hundreds of firefighters (many no longer with LAFD) and their families, who were suspended without pay during the COVID hysteria for not taking the jab.

I’m not exactly holding my breath on that one.

Hydrant Drought by Design

But forget staffing—what good are firefighters without water?

Turns out, most fire hydrants in L.A. don’t even have a full water supply. I saw a news report today where a journalist asked the captain, “Out of every 10 hydrants you attach to today, how many give you full water pressure?” The answer: "Little to none."

I've also received videos showing firefighters battling blazes with traffic cones dunked in puddles and—I wish I was joking—women's handbags. This isn't the America I know; it honestly looks like a third-world country.

Why no water? Partly because California, with its DEI-everywhere mindset (apparently extending to the animal kingdom), imposed environmental mandates diverting water to protect a three-inch fish. You can't make this stuff up.

Governor Newsom refused to sign a water restoration declaration that would have allowed millions of gallons from excess rain and snowmelt to flow into California's reservoirs—water that could've supplied those now-useless hydrants in burning neighborhoods. Instead, that water continues flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

But, if you've lost your home, a lifetime of memories, pets, or, god forbid, loved ones, at least you can take comfort knowing that tiny fish is swimming happily somewhere.

And I haven't even touched on Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass cutting $17.5 million from firefighting to spend on illegal immigrants, or California's refusal to maintain and clear fire-causing brush in forests, or the U.S. government taking money from American fire departments to fully equip 16 Ukrainian ones.

But notice the common thread—none of these things have anything to do with climate change. They’re a product of misplaced priorities and ideological decision-making, which is exactly what DEI is built on.

Regards,

Lau Vegys