Spoof spins the Hermosa Beach chief as victim of e-bike theft following St. Patrick’s Parade
by Dan Blackburn
According to a story on the Hermosa Bee website, “Police Chief Paul LeBaron locked up his bike after the Hermosa Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade to mingle with the people and local dignitaries. When he returned an hour later, his bike was stolen.”
Lending credibility to the story was a photo, reprinted from Easy Reader, of the chief riding an electric bike in the parade.
The Hermosa Bee also reported following the parade that the city council, in keeping with its carbon neutral goal, banned gas powered vehicles from the St. Patrick’s parade.
The Hermosa Bee is a self-described, satirical website. But when its stories are reposted on other social media sites they can appear credible to sizeable numbers of people.
Adding credibility to the bike theft story was the fact that the police department recently announced it is focusing on preventing bike thefts.
Chief LeBaron told the council at its Tuesday meeting, “I have a sense of humor and laughed when I saw the story. But the longer the story was out there the more I started receiving questions about it…. It is true that I was able to ride an electric bike in the parade. The story is completely false that the bike was stolen. Unfortunately the headline caused a lot of people to believe the information was true.”
City Council member Justin Massey said at Tuesday’s city council meeting that he “heard about the bike theft, but didn’t believe it.”
The Hermosa Bee also reported this week that Keep Hermosa Hermosa, the residents coalition formed in 2016 to oppose oil drilling in Hermosa’s tidelands, has reformed to oppose an upcoming ballot initiative that would legalize the retail sale of cannabis.
“Councilman Justin Massey posted it on Facebook this week. We stopped oil, and we can stop cannabis,” the site reported.
The story is not true. ER