Faced with public backlash, McDonald’s, Walmart, Toyota and other major corporations have scaled back their DEI programs in recent months.
In 2024, states Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Utah either banned or limited DEI emphasis in its universities' teaching or in processing of applications for enrollment.
That trend had not caught on with fire protection in Los Angeles, where the city celebrated the hire of Kristen Crowley as its first female fire chief in 2022.
Crowley, an open lesbian, eagerly shared her plan to increase diversity, leading to the creation of a “DEI Bureau” - that really is its official name - within the department.
There was focus on hiring more women but also more hirings from within the LGBTQ community, of which Crowley is a member.
Before the promotion of Crowley, LAFD promoted black lesbian Kristine Larson to battalion chief in 2017. After completing a DEI program through Cornell University, Larson was promoted to deputy chief last year to oversee the Equity and Human Resources Bureau.
While the fire department spent funds on DEI, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass cut the department’s budget by almost $18 million for fiscal year 2025.
Returning from a trip to Ghana to deal with the fires, Bass was met by a Sky News reporter at the airport.
"Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning?" the Mayor was asked. "And do you regret cutting the fire department budget by millions of dollars?"
Peppered with the accusatory questions, the L.A. mayor remained silent and never replied.
Reacting to the L.A. fires, Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist told American Family Radio that Americans were concerned with DEI and its damaging policies long before the fires ever broke out.
"They're particularly concerned when it enters into realms and domains like this," he said, referring to the devastating fires, "where people's lives are at stake, or people's property is at stake, and where the safety of entire communities is at stake. That's exactly what we're seeing in this scenario here."
The fires that have swept through the California hills, destroying more than 2,000 structures so far, is a personal story for Lindquist. He attended school in the area and has family and friends living there.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire protection shows seven active fires in the greater Los Angeles area.
By mid-day Thursday, three of those remained at 0% containment, a fourth at only 10%.
For now, Santa Anna winds of more than 100 miles an hour are complicating efforts to control the fires.
The issue of DEI is relevant, he told show host Jenna Ellis, because the city spent funds in the last two years to recruit more women and more minorities.
"Of course, we know that that effectively means that there's race-based hiring, sex-based hiring that discriminates against people, namely those who are white and male,” Lindquist said.
Deaths, evacuations rise
Thursday morning, NBC News reported five deaths and more than 100,000 people forced to evacuate.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday approved an emergency declaration for California, allowing impacted areas to immediately access funds and resources.
The White House said it is sending five U.S. Forest Service air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and other fire engines to the area.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, praised Biden’s response when the two appeared in a joint news conference in Santa Monica.
Biden ended the news conference by sharing that his granddaughter gave birth at a nearby hospital.
In his own interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, Newsom dismissively threw his hands in the air after Cooper said he watched firefighters leave because there is no water in the hydrants.
"Look, the locals folks are gonna figure that out," Newsom, hands in the air, replied.
At a Thursday morning press conference, Mayor Bass listened to a TV news reporter give a first-hand account of the fast-moving fire consuming hundreds of Palisades homes. There were "good Samaritans" helping people, he said, but there wasn't a fire engine ever spotted in the area.
"My question to you is what explains this lack of preparation and rapid response?"
The reply from Mayor Bass was a feel-good political speech about saving lives and saving homes.
"But that did not happen," the reporter interrupted.
"Let me finish," she continued.
Bass then assured the reporter there will be time for an "evaluation" of "what worked" and "what didn't work."
"This time of crisis," Lindquist observed to AFR, "is when you’d think that leaders would need to step to the forefront more than ever."
Moving ahead, Newsom would be wise to consider, some ideas that have been put forth by Republican state assemblyman Bill Essayli.
“He actually laid out various polices that could have been in place, some that were rejected, some that failed to meet the desk of Gov. Newsom,” Lindquist said.
Controlled burns ignored
Essayli says California’s forests are “choked with nearly 163 million dead trees,” leading to the state’s susceptibility to wildfires.
“The California Environmental Quality Act and other regulatory policies limit the ability of local government and fire management services to clear dead trees and vegetation,” he wrote.
A plan for controlled burns would help.
Multiple bills and other legislation, which would have provided CEQA exemptions for vulnerable areas, failed to get to Newsom, Essayli said.
“For everyone saying this is not a time for blame, this is exactly the moment that the people who have been responsible for the mismanagement of California's fire policies should be held accountable,” he said.
