'Stop Talking, Start Doing': Conservative Volunteers Clean Over 50 Tons of Garbage in Los Angeles, Media Ignores

Lindsay Elizabeth
09-28-2019

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Conservative activist Scott Presler spent the weekend organizing 200 volunteers in Los Angeles to clean up the heavily littered city, picking up over 50 tons of trash from one homeless camp alone.

According to Presler, his volunteers moved at a fast pace, removing five tons of waste each hour, all without government assistance.

“Without the help of the city, 200 volunteers picked up 50 tons of trash in 9 hours at a homeless camp in Los Angeles,” Presler said, according to The Daily Wire.

On Saturday morning, Presler tweeted out a video of the waste removal process, showing the work that was already being completed at 9 am.

“It’s almost 9 a.m. & we’re removing waste from a homeless camp in Los Angeles. Why is an outsider from Northern Virginia here & not California elected leadership?” Presler wrote on twitter adding the hashtag, “#LosAngelesCleanup.”

Presler first mobilized a city cleanup back in August, organizing volunteers to help clean the city of Baltimore. Following that, he did the same in Newark, New Jersey.

Yet his efforts have gone widely unpublicized by the American mainstream media.

The Daily Wire pointed out that back in June, the LA Times begged for help cleaning up the city in an article titled: “A plan to clean up L.A. and help the homeless? Get it done already.”

“Don’t postpone the decision. Don’t call for another study. This is an emergency,” the LA Times editorial board urged.

“Finally, Los Angeles city officials are recognizing the urgent need to clean up the trash near homeless encampments. Both the trash that homeless people have nowhere to put and the garbage illegally dumped by businesses are a blight and health hazard for everyone in the city. Too bad our elected representatives had to be shamed into performing one of local government’s most basic duties,” the piece said.

While the LA Times called for the cleanup of the homeless encampments, they have failed to even acknowledge, let alone commend Presler for his efforts.

“If a team of 200+ volunteers can clean up 50 tons of trash in 9 hours with no support from the city, imagine what we could do with the millions California receives in taxpayer $,” Presler wrote on Twitter. “Why am I here & elected officials aren’t!?”

“National media has been completely silent,” Presler said, according to the Daily Wire. “Yet, the day before our cleanup, the LA Times reported on the climate strike. I’m not a climate striker — I’m a climate doer. Perhaps if the LA Times reported stories on real activism, we would see more cleanups and fewer protests. #StopTalkingStartDoing.

While no major media national or local outlet have thanked Prelser for his efforts, it’s better than what the Baltimore Sun said in regards to his efforts.

Back in August, after Presler and his volunteers picked up 19 tons of trash in Baltimore city, the Baltimore Sun editorial board actually scolded Presler for his efforts.

The Sun wrote that Presler was “reinforc[ing] the tired image that the poor people in this city can’t take care of their own neighborhoods.”

The Sun, did eventually thank Presler in the end of the editorial piece, even if it was ridden with sarcasm.

We also hope Mr. Presler keeps his promise to return to Baltimore once a month. It would definitely give his motives more credibility. It might also give him better perspective about the city’s problems than any single visit can provide. Maybe it could even lead him and his followers to advocate for federal housing, health care, transportation, education, criminal justice, civil rights and anti-poverty policies aimed at urban communities.

Presler is currently planning to organize more cleanups in various cities across America, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit.

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