A Long Beach pastor reportedly told an aghast Seal Beach City Council this week that the October 2011 massacre in that city–the largest mass shooting in Orange County history–may have been allowed by God.
Shirley Broussard is quoted as saying the Almighty could have turned a blind eye to the Salon Meritage horrors due to the city's lax attitude toward the homeless.
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Scott Evans Dekraai was indicted by the Orange County grand jury in January 2012 for the Oct. 12, 2011, slayings of eight people, including his ex-wife and son's mother, and for nearly killing a ninth victim. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has said he will seek the death penalty for Dekraai, who is alleged to have confessed but pleaded not guilty at his initial arraignment and at a second hearing following the indictment.
Los Alamitos Patch, which covered Monday's City Council meeting, reports Broussard remarked during public comments that police and fire personnel “were not able to get to that cry in time,
but I had to wonder if you had listened to the cry of the poor, and the
message of servicing the poor, would God have not allowed that to take
place in this city?
“I believe that you
stand guilty of not opening your heart and not opening your general
fund,” Broussard is said to have continued, adding, “Every person has a responsibility to look out for those who do
not have.”
The Weekly was unable to review minutes and video from the council meeting because the Seal Beach city clerk has not posted them yet.
Broussard is not affiliated with a church but the Swarm and Associates nonprofit that for years has advocated for a homeless shelter in Seal Beach, only to be opposed by residents. She was reported by Patch to be strongly rebuked for her comments by City Councilman and former mayor Michael Levitt, who is quoted after the meeting saying, “You are an abomination to God” and “That woman has no
place speaking in public.”
Levitt goes on to say in the report that he would not have allowed Broussard to continue speaking had he been leading the meeting, and that her words were “absolutely” an insult to the Salon Meritage victims, their families and to anyone who believes in God, who, he added, wouldn't kill a
group of people “because we didn't pay for housing.”
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.