Call it paranoia, call it a persecution complex, call it my infatuation…

Call it paranoia, call it a persecution complex, call it my infatuation with Sheriff Joey Lombardo (oh no! Joey Lombardo is the alleged mob guy from New York; the one I’m referring to is Sheriff Joe Lombardo of Las Vegas and as far as I know they are not related). Call it whatever you want to call it, but read my column from December 25, 2019 and form your own opinion.
I am driving on “MY PRIVATE PROPERTY” and this police officer, B. Foster, badge number 16314, with a Gestapo mentality, invaded my private property by entering without cause with a caravan of followers with the same mentality just to give me a ticket, reasonable or not, with no authority or legal power.
My two offices parking lots connect with each other and I was technically moving my car within and on my property, almost like moving my car from one side of my OWN driveway to the other side. He was opposite to me, but he was “able to see” that my license plate was expired so he followed me through the parking lot from my newspaper office to the Radio-Tribune office and turned his lights on.
By the time he turned the lights on his patrol car there were three more patrol cars with lights on and guns drawn, but I do not blame them for that; they might have confused me with Chapo Guzman, the alleged drug lord that has walked out of his inhumane cell in a New York penitentiary where they have him locked up like a wild animal with the blessing of the International Human Rights Organization.
I admire the qualifications of police officer B. Foster, badge number 16314, of being able to read my license plate while driving in the opposite direction; that is another qualification that some members of our police department infatuated with their bosses have.
But regarding vandalism against our properties, and investigations needed to be made on break-ins into our office, there seems to be no interest in finding legal ways to punish the criminals that are insisting on continuously hurting our already financially hurt situation, perhaps because they want to please their former and present bosses.
I, for one, respect the work that our police officers do on the streets; I appreciate their dedication and the risk they all take every time they approach a car or an unknown situation; just because they have the misfortune of working for an inept administration does not mean they do not deserve credit for what they do very well and very professionally, but there are always exceptions.
It is not fair to throw all the oranges out of the basket just because one or two oranges are spoiled; the same can be applied to our police department. Just because the administration has a vendetta against me and this newspaper for being truthful and writing the truth all the time, it does not mean that we (meaning the newspaper) have to be blind to the good job the rest of the officers do and not recognize it
publicly. Every time I have the opportunity to thank one of them for their service I do that and I don’t ask if they went to the same school that officer R. Lopez or B. Foster, badge number 16314, and the rest of the gang that invaded my privacy went to.
One local judiciary commented about my December 25 article and asked why I did not take pictures of the whole incident; my response was very simple and clear. I am a poor Cuban Refugee, but I am not
mentally retarded or stupid; if I would have tried to take pictures that day of the officers’ behavior I would not have been able to write that December 25 article because I would have been dead.
These are the type of police officers I do not like; they hide under the costume of a police uniform while acting (or trying to act) super-macho, like officer Lopez who got upset because I asked him if he was Mexican. He almost bit my head off and told me to shut up. I wonder if he would be as tough and brave if he did not have on the khaki uniform, the badge and gun. I also wonder why he got so upset for being asked if he is Mexican. Did he think that he was better than a Mexican police officer? He definitely did not look Cuban like me. To me, most Cubans would not hide behind the uniform, badge and gun in order be men, which is almost like their hiding under the skirts of their mommy when they did something wrong in school.
In my humble opinion it is behavior like that of those officers that give the whole department a bad name, a bad reputation and a bad taste in the community’s mouth because many people do not know how to clearly see the difference between a police officer and a bully in uniform or a boss-kisser of their boss’s butt just to gain points without forgetting who paid for their service: most definitely, it is not Joseph Lombardo.
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column.

Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at 702-272-4634.