A few years ago, my gym became a pot shop. And not just any pot shop, the Neiman-Marcus of pot shops, with fancy lighting, decor and valet parking, I thought this was about as California as you could imagine .
I was wrong.
I learned this morning that Esteban Nunes, son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunes, is now working as a lobbyist in Sacramento. Not only is this the most imaginable in California, it is representative of everything that has gone wrong in government everywhere. And that is saying a lot.
A quick review of Esteban.
On October 4, 2008, Nunez and two friends from his upper crust Sacramento neighborhood traveled to San Diego State University where they were promptly kicked out of a fraternity party. Forming as a gang, the self-anointed “Hazard Crew” fell out with Luis Santos, a 22-year-old junior from Mesa College. Nunez and Ryan Jett stabbed Santos in the heart, killing him. After a plea deal, Esteban Núñez was sentenced to serve 16 years. It would serve less than six.
“Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after Fabian’s sentence was commuted at the request of his good friend, the former speaker of the assembly and father of aggressor Signed by the governor late at night on his last night as governor, the commutation was called “legal but despicable” by a judge who reviewed it.
For millions, Arnold will always be remembered for “I’ll be back,” his signature line from “The Terminator.” I’ll always remember, “”Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend.”
It should be on his tombstone.
The years have passed. So, what has become of Esteban Núñez? Today, he walks the same halls of the state capitol that his father once governed, now as a six-figure lobbyist for parole reform. Every gym in California should become a pot shop to get over this. Stab a young man in the heart and the system stabs the victim’s family in the heart again and again.
“It’s unbelievable that this could happen,” says Kathy Santos, Luis’ mother.
The lack of accountability for the son of a powerful politician is emblematic of a systemic problem embedded in all hierarchical systems, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation. That there is one system of justice for them and another for the rest may be eternal, but that does not make it easier to swallow.
Exhibit B.
Former LA City Attorney’s Office official Thomas Peters recently received a slap on the wrist, eight months of house arrest plus a $50,000 fine for his part in the Department of Justice corruption scandal. ‘Water and Electricity/City Attorney’s Office that billed ratepayers as much as $100 million.
The sentencing judge said he did not believe there was any purpose in sending Peters to prison. I can think of many.
Sometimes it is not the individuals who are powerful, but the union or interest group that represents them. Internal documents from the Los Angeles Fire Department show that there are almost no consequences for egregious behavior, including things that would send the rest of us away.
A Los Angeles Fire Department deputy chief, Fred Mathis, has retired with his $1.4 million pay after allegedly showing up drunk to the department’s operations center during the 2021 Palisades fire .An assistant manager, Ellsworth Fortman, was criminally charged in a crash that sent a parked car flying 160 feet and knocked down a street lamp. Two years later he was allowed to retire without any disciplinary action. Fortman earned $354,000 in overtime on top of his $221,500 salary.
Then, last Wednesday, the former president of the United States promised to pardon “most” of the January 6 rioters, because what are a few dead policemen and human excrement smeared on the walls and corridors of the House of the People? They support Trump, so they are the real victims.
From street occupations, theft, illegal border crossings, to drug use and graft at the highest levels of church and state, the acceptance of the unacceptable is has become the rule rather than the exception. The lack of consequences for anti-social and illegal behavior fuels much of the rage that consumes us at honest people being made to feel like saps for following the rules while the well-connected are held to no accountability.
Contact Doug McIntyre at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com. His novel, “Frank’s Shadow” is now available for pre-order at https: barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.
