The Selective Outrage of LA's Mayor

Look, I get it—kids are off-limits. Nobody with a shred of decency wants to see a five-year-old scared out of his mind, pulled from his driveway, and shipped off with his dad. Mayor Karen Bass dropped a tearjerker thread about this little boy from Minnesota, calling it "child endangerment" and "abuse," screaming that ICE traumatized him for life. In all her word salad, she even threw in the big words: moral responsibility, humane approaches, keeping families together. Fine. Protect the innocent. I'm right there with her on that point.

Her Own Words on the "Abduction"

Here's Karen Bass in her own fiery words:

"A five-year-old preschooler, a child who should be worried about playtime and bedtime stories, was abducted from his own driveway in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, placed into federal custody, and flown thousands of miles away to a detention facility in Texas with his father."

"This wasn’t enforcement; it was child endangerment and child abuse because this will inflict lifetime trauma. You cannot tell me there was no other option but to abduct a five-year-old, terrorize him, and remove him from his home."

Strong language. She calls it abduction, terror, abuse, lifetime trauma. Got it.

But here's where the mask slips off. The same Karen Bass who suddenly discovers her moral compass when it comes to an illegal alien father and his kid has also been deaf, dumb, and blind (or an enabler) for years to the absolute filth festering in her own backyard—Hollywood. We're talking the epicenter of child exploitation, grooming, cover-ups, and elite predators who prey on the vulnerable while the cameras roll and the award trinkets get handed out. Where's that same fiery outrage when it comes to the casting couch horrors, the trafficking rings disguised as "parties," or the open secrets everyone in LA's power circles knows about, but pretends doesn't exist?

I mean, Karen is someone who'll rally city resources, direct departments, and coordinate with activists to shield sanctuary policies and block immigration enforcement before she would ever tell an ICE agent 'good job'. When it comes to cleaning up the moral sewer that is Hollywood—where kids get chewed up and spit out by the very industry she courts for photo ops and campaign cash—complete crickets. No directives. No protocols. No moral lectures about trauma that lasts a lifetime. Hmm. Why's that? Maybe it's because going after the real power players in corrupt entertainment might cost her donors, invites, and *gasp* clout.

Her Lecture on Moral Responsibility

And then she drops the moral hammer:

"A government entrusted with authority cannot abandon its moral responsibility. We must reject policies that treat children as collateral damage and insist on humane, lawful approaches that keep families together and communities safe."

Moral responsibility. Humane approaches. Keeping families together. These are the principles she invokes when it suits the narrative against ICE. Yet when it comes to the real, ongoing exploitation of children in Hollywood's underbelly—the grooming, the abuse, the cover-ups by the powerful—she's nowhere to be found with that same righteous fury or directive to "strengthen protocols" and "expand access to resources."

This isn't compassion. This is selective morality. She weaponizes a child's suffering to score political points against federal enforcement while ignoring the systematic abuse happening blocks from City Hall. A five-year-old in a detention center is a crisis worth a viral thread. But the thousands of kids exploited in the shadows of the studios she glad-hands? Apparently not worth a peep.

Hollywood's Rot Isn't Isolated—It's Systemic

Let's be crystal clear: the depravity in Hollywood isn't a few bad apples. It's systemic. Power imbalances, lack of real oversight, economic pressures, and a long-standing culture of silence create an environment where child exploitation thrives.

In 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children released a damning report: widespread sexual abuse and exploitation in the entertainment industry is real and ongoing. Child performers face sexualized, aggressive environments, unequal power dynamics, fear of retaliation, and under-reporting because the system protects the powerful and punishes victims who speak up.

Documentaries hammer this home. "Quiet on Set" exposed decades of grooming, harassment, and abuse at Nickelodeon—executives enabled it, ignored warnings, and let predators operate while raking in profits from kids' shows. "An Open Secret" connected the dots on managers, agents, and producers exploiting children in California's film world, with "open secrets" everyone knew but nobody stopped.

Even now, in 2025, reports show child labor protections on sets are flawed, kid influencers face financial and emotional exploitation, and insiders are calling for a full #MeToo reckoning for child actors. The cycle persists because accountability is rare—whistleblowers get blacklisted, NDAs silence survivors, and the promise of stardom keeps families feeding the machine.

This is the good ole American Pie thoroughly baked-into a hot pile of rot: a feature of the Hollywood system, not a bug. And Mayor Bass? She's got moral lectures for ICE over one child's trauma, but zero fire for dismantling the machine in her own city that's been chewing up kids for decades.

Selective Morality, Systemic Silence

Angelenos deserve better than a mayor who picks and chooses when her conscience kicks in. If you're going to lecture the country about moral responsibility, start with the depravity in your own city. Until then, this looks like nothing more than another politician playing favorites with outrage—protecting one group while letting the predators in power skate free. Wake up, LA. Your mayor's compass is broken.