What is it about Los Angeles? Is there something peculiar in the water? This once-celebrated City of Angels seems to leap from one scandal to another, and from crisis to crisis. Take the recent Pacific Palisades fire, for instance, which erupted while Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana. One might wonder, why Ghana? What purpose could the Mayor of Los Angeles possibly have for visiting Ghana at such a critical time?

Meanwhile, the city’s issues extend beyond unexpected travels. Los Angeles continues to grapple with an expanding crisis of homelessness, with encampments sprawling across the city, tarnishing its once-glamorous image.

Amidst these challenges, it appears some city officials may be seeking to benefit while they can. On Friday, revelations surfaced about 11 Los Angeles city employees implicated in a COVID-era pandemic unemployment fraud scheme, collectively amounting to over $700,000.

The sheer audacity of such actions is staggering.

One would hope the District Attorney’s office will vigorously prosecute these cases. It would be encouraging to see a similar level of zeal applied to addressing other crimes, such as smash-and-grab robberies and the perpetrators of street takeovers, to mention a few.

The new charges, announced by the office, follow an earlier round of filings in October against 13 county employees accused of similar conduct. In total, prosecutors say 24 employees fraudulently collected a combined $741,518 in unemployment benefits between 2020 and 2023.

District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said his office intends to pursue the cases aggressively. “My office will continue relentlessly rooting out fraud and prosecuting government employees who steal from the public they serve,” Hochman said in a statement provided by the District Attorney’s Office. While most county employees “ethically fulfill their duties,” he said, those who “exploit the system and betray the public’s trust” will face prosecution.

I should hope that the DA would pursue these cases aggressively. It would be nice if they would show a similar enthusiasm for jailing smash-and-grab robbers and the instigators of street takeovers, just to name a couple of examples.

Check out the names and positions of some of the accused:

Those charged include:

• Alejandro Mendez Albarado, Sheriff’s Department senior equipment maintenance worker, accused of stealing $21,866 between June and December 2021.
• Brandon Joseph Batiste, Public Works warehouse employee, accused of stealing $9,349 between May and November 2021.
• Dina Liza Wolf, licensed vocational nurse with the Department of Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from January 2022 to April 2023.
• Elizabeth Jacinto, Public Social Services eligibility worker, accused of stealing $11,700 between May and November 2021.
• Jessica Alcorta, legal office support assistant at the District Attorney’s Office, accused of stealing $36,150 between December 2020 and September 2022.
• Khristine Louise Canero, relief nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from June to December 2021.
• Manuel Martinez, Health Services electrician, accused of stealing $11,700 between December 2020 and January 2022.
• Racheal Nalutaaya, Health Services nursing attendant, accused of stealing $23,400 between September 2021 and March 2022.
• Soo Manai, licensed vocational nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,829 between December 2021 and March 2022.
• Terry Beasley II, Probation Department detention services officer, accused of stealing $11,700 from September 2022 to April 2023.

Note the positions they occupied.