Our Leaders Champion ‘Diversity’ While Overlooking Public Priorities

An age-old adage states that a conservative is merely a liberal who has faced harsh realities.

In light of the recent wildfire devastation in Los Angeles, we might also observe that a liberal who has lost faith in the mantra of “diversity” is one whose home has just been consumed by flames.

Authorities are currently investigating multiple arson claims that may have contributed to the fires’ rapid spread. A significant amount of accountability will need to be distributed among many.

However, one fact is already abundantly clear: the response from Los Angeles officials was a catastrophic failure. And there are underlying reasons for this.

While the wildfires raged, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was vacationing in Africa, choosing to remain in Ghana despite urgent warnings issued for the area she oversees.

Upon her return yesterday, she could not have missed the heart-wrenching destruction: over 18,000 acres of Los Angeles had been reduced to ashes during her absence.

Initially avoiding media scrutiny, she eventually stumbled through a chaotic press conference, perhaps realizing that slashing millions from the LA fire department’s budget was perhaps not her most prudent decision.

In the most recent city budget, Bass cut an astonishing $17 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). Although individual firefighters displayed extraordinary bravery in combating the blaze, the department itself was severely under-resourced.

Yesterday, I spoke with a local woman and her teenage son whose entire home and neighborhood were completely devastated. When I inquired about the presence of fire trucks, she replied, “No. Not a single fire truck entered our area,” she said. “Not one.”

Other residents recounted instances where fire hydrants were approached, only to discover they had no water. How is it possible to fail so fundamentally in one’s duty—keeping the water flowing—when that is their sole purpose?

There are undoubtedly many explanations. Still, one glaring factor is that extinguishing fires has seemingly not been a priority for the LAFD leadership in recent years. This is evident from the remarks and appointments made by the current chief, Kristin Crowley.

Her biography on the LAFD’s website clearly outlines her and the department’s priorities.

“Kristin M. Crowley is the 19th Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). Alongside her wife and children, Chief Crowley took the oath of office on March 25, 2022 — becoming the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD.”

How exciting! Can’t you just hear the sound of glass ceilings shattering?

Her official biography elaborates: “Chief Crowley leads a diverse department. Fostering, supporting, and promoting a culture that prioritizes diversity, inclusion, and equity while striving to meet and exceed community expectations are Chief Crowley’s focal points.”

This is peculiar because most fire chiefs focus on extinguishing fires.

Yet Crowley seems more concerned with “doing the work” than ensuring public safety. In a recent television interview, Crowley discussed her new bureau in the LAFD.

What was this new initiative? A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bureau. As she stated to local media, “By establishing this new bureau — our diversity, equity, and inclusion bureau — we now have the staff to conduct a thorough examination of our operations and how we support each other.”

Does that sound like anything other than a jargon-laden platitude? It’s riddled with clichés typical of incompetent, woke bureaucrats. “Do the work,” “deep dive,” “take care of one another.”

Crowley’s primary responsibility should have been ensuring people do not die in fires. Instead, she was preoccupied with “doing the work” and “taking care of one another.”

Part of her commitment to increasing “diversity” within her department was undeniably transparent. “I am super inspired,” she remarked to an interviewer.

By what, you might wonder? A three-year strategic initiative aimed at enhancing female representation among firefighters. It seemed to trouble Crowley and California media that out of 3,300 city firefighters, only 115 were women.

“People ask me, ‘What number are you aiming for?’” she stated, providing her own answer. “I’m not aiming for a number. It’s never enough.”

True. This week, as residents frantically evacuated their homes in disarray, many likely thought: “If only we had more female firefighters. After all, there’s no such thing as too many.”

Amid the destruction, some still believe that Crowley’s achievement of meeting another diversity requirement (“proud member of the LGBTQ community”) is worthy of celebration. A publication named “Pride” even ran the headline, “Amid Palisades fire, Los Angeles’s first LGBTQ+ fire chief is proving lesbians get it done.”

I personally believe that Chief Crowley has likely regressed the representation of lesbians in fire departments by a century.

The reality is that society can no longer afford to indulge in these frivolous distractions. The stakes are too high—both in California and across the nation—to prioritize trivial matters over essential public safety responsibilities.

Historically, liberals, especially in California, championed diversity in every arena. Conservatives cautioned that such an approach would bring consequences, and we are witnessing those effects unfold. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks often place excellence on the back burner.

Advocates treat these ideologies as a game, yet it is clear that California can no longer afford such frivolity.