Unable to think of anything better to do at a time when California is facing its greatest crisis in everything since its short-lived period as an independent republic ended in 1848, Compton-area Assemblyman Isadore Hall has authored a resolution to name the Marina del Rey portion of the San Diego (405) Freeway the Kevin Murray Highway in honor of a former state legislator whose distinction as an elected official was dubious, at best. Hall was aided and abetted in this highway-naming folly when the Assembly Transportation Committee passed his Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 149 by unanimous vote Monday.

Obviously none of these people know Murray or the 405 Freeway. But people like me, who have been around forever, who know everything about everybody and can forget nothing about anything have only three memories of Murray during his 12 years in the Legislature. Memory No. 1: While leaving a victory celebration after having won the primary for his state Senate seat in June 1998, Murray, with his fiancee in his Corvette, was pulled over by the Beverly Hills police and cited for some kind of traffic infraction. Murray raised a ruckus and claimed the cops had stopped him because he was driving while Black. Frankly, I believe that was true. Murray sued the Beverly Hills cops over their race-based treatment of him, but in October, a federal judge threw his lawsuit out of court (because he was probably racist).

Memory No. 2: In December 1998, shortly after Murray was sworn into the Senate, Los Angeles police found him with a prostitute in that same state-leased black Corvette of his parked outside the John Anson Ford Theater. At the time, rumor had it that that prostitute was a transvestite, but I’ve never been able to substantiate it — only that whatever it was, it was selling itself. Either City Attorney James Hahn or District Attorney Gil Garcetti (I don’t recall which) declined to prosecute Murray about the prostitute thing, and Murray did a public mea culpa and told us he was “sorry and remorseful” about the incident. This was followed by grumbling in the community to the effect that, “if he can have a prostitute in his car, then why can’t everybody else?”

Memory No. 3: As the result of Memory No. 1, Murray entered the Senate as a staunch foe of race-based traffic stops, and in 2000 he authored a strong measure to outlaw such police practices in the state. His bill was monumental and had teeth in it and we all supported it — Black and brown people, the ACLU and other rights groups. But then-Gov. Gray Davis thought it was too tough and, for some reason, he convinced Murray to water it down, to pull the teeth out of it, to delete the provisions which made the bill effective — namely, the requirement that law enforcement officers record the race of the people they stop. This set off an angry, protracted battle in the minority and progressive communities and we all fell out with Murray, who accused us Blacks of being led by our noses on this issue by White people! Oh, it was a nasty time in the community! It united us all against Murray and we developed an intense loathing of him and Davis. Many of us believed somebody got paid.

Given these three Murray memories, what is there about the man that would make him merit a highway? I told you people when he was running for office that Isadore Hall was an empty suit. See what I mean? Besides, that portion of the 405 Freeway Hall wants to dub the Kevin Murray Highway is already named for someone else! What Murray should have done when Hall brought this nonsense up was tell him to shut up and mind his own business — or better still, mind the people’s business.

THE INGLEWOOD REPORT — Members of the Inglewood City Council soared to a new level of lunacy May 4 that was so high the ordinarily kowtowing city attorney was moved for once to step in and stop them. On a motion by Councilman Ralph Franklin, the council was set to give $50 million to developer John McDonald so he, with his Imperial Partners company, could create what the council had considered, studied, debated and rejected years ago as an untenable commercial development for Inglewood. McDonald is the same man who went bankrupt several years ago trying to develop a project in Las Vegas. After he scraped together a measly $20,000, he approached Lynwood with plans to create Angeles Fields, a commercial and housing project that was also to include a major league football field! McDonald’s proposed project was so universally despised that Lynwood residents threw him and his blueprints out of town and recalled four-fifths of the city council.

While McDonald was busy wreaking havoc in Lynwood, he was toying with Inglewood, where the sitting council at time gave him no quarter. And for once, Mayor Roosevelt Dorn and Councilwoman Judy Dunlap were on the same page, as they both hated McDonald’s proposed project. With Dorn now gone and a bunch of new council members seated — most of whom are running for mayor and in need of campaign contributions from anyone who purports to have money — McDonald has reared his head again and the council is falling all over itself to give him $50 million for a development project that is just as lousy today as it was five years ago. They would have done it last week if City Attorney Cal Saunders hadn’t spoken up and told them not to. To reiterate his point, Saunders went around the dais and spoke to each council member privately about the matter. It should be noted that Dunlap made no comment during the meeting about McDonald’s project, and at one point she simply got up and left the meeting entirely and never returned. This project will probably come up again because it’s like a zombie — it just won’t stay dead.

THIS AND THAT — The rights to most of the creative work of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. have been awarded to his son Manny after a contentious hearing in an L.A. County courthouse, where a probate judge last week awarded the multimillion dollar estate of Altovise Davis, the entertainer’s widow, to their son, Manny. The fight was over whether an online will document, LegalZoom, that Mrs. Davis used was legal. The judge ruled that it was.

Rep. Maxine Waters announced her endorsement Monday of Reggie Jones-Sawyer for the 47th Assembly District seat from which Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass is being termed-out. … Bass, who is running for the 33rd Congressional District, was just endorsed by the National Organization on Women, the Women’s Political Committee, the Women’s Campaign Forum and Planned Parenthood.
Black babies are in trouble in Los Angeles County because state funds for the Black Infant Health Program have been deeply cut. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has tried to salvage the program by having First 5 L.A. fill the funding gap, and his efforts have been supported by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich. Supervisor Gloria Molina, who chairs the Board of Supervisors and also chairs the First 5 L.A. Commission, did not support the inclusion of Black infant health for First 5 funding. Molina and her First 5 Commission are scheduled to vote on funding Black babies’ health Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at 750 N. Alameda St., inside the Union Station campus. Support is needed for continuation of the Black Infant Health Program. Go to that meeting and fight for Black babies.