Politics in the small cities spread across Los Angeles County are often more colorful and vicious than those downtown. (Witness today's LA Weekly piece on threats against a citizen in Huntington Park who dared complain about the mayor's many aliases — or DA Steve Cooley's many indictments and convictions for corruption around the county.) Something strange is definitely going on in Carson. There is a recall effort pending against Mayor Jim Dear. At Tuesday night's council meeting, recall leader Vera Robles Dewitt spoke. As she walked from the podium, she lightly tapped a sheaf of papers on the back of the head of a commissioner seated in the first row. The video shows the commissioner, Jan Schaefer, taking a dive that would have made Beckham proud (and earned her two minutes in the penalty box for unsportsmanlike conduct in the NHL.) Schaefer waited a few beats, shrieked and fell over on the floor, as if shot. Dear, the mayor, instantly began shouting that Schaefer was struck in the eye, that the perp should be arrested, and this it was all "unbelievable." He was right, in more ways than one.

There's some history, of course. Two weeks ago, Dewitt videotaped herself being struck by a signature-gatherer working for Mayor Dear.

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