LA Votes for More Crime

With the election of liberal congressperson Karen Bass as Mayor, and the replacement of LA County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva with former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, Los Angeles voters have made a clear choice to reject any aggressive effort to reduce the crime and violence which plagues the city.   Sheriff Vilaneuva’s tough-on-crime approach will be replaced by Sheriff Luna’s promise to investigate his own department and develop a “more collegial” relationship with pro-criminal District Attorney George Gascon.  During the campaign, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso promised to add 1,500 officers to the police force, restore the Crash Unit that targets high crime areas, crack down on gun traffickers, and push for reform or repeal of Proposition 47.  He set a goal of taking 30,000 homeless off the streets in the first year, clearing out parks, beaches and sidewalks. He pledged to build and repurpose properties to create shelter space at half of LA’s current $700,000 per bed housing cost. He has also pledged to expand mental health and drug addiction services to get the 67% of LA homeless who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs into care.

Mayoral candidate Bass’s approach to crime includes a more racially diverse LAPD and the insistence that “We’ve tried arresting our way out of the problem before – it doesn’t work.” Her solution….invest more in social services, housing and job skills training.  Bass believes that cash bail criminalizes poverty, so her answer is continue zero bail and encourage public officials to do a better job. Her answer to theft related crimes, such as smash and grab robberies, is to get state funding for recovery programs to reimburse stores that are regularly cleaned out by thieves.  She holds to the view that the criminal justice system is systemically racist and, during the George Floyd riots, said that money should be diverted from police departments to “refund communities.”

The voters have made these choices as crimes, unthinkable ten years ago, continue to occur in LA almost daily.  My News LA  reports that at 6:20 pm last Tuesday a 9-year-old boy and his mother were viciously stabbed by a homeless man at a downtown LA Target store.  Both victims are in critical condition.

Responding to the crime, LA Police Chief Michael Moore told reporters “This is by no means a frequent occurrence here.”

CBS News reports that also on Tuesday, a man wanted for robbery stabbed a person in the face at a Canoga Park Taco Bell.   Fox News reports that two Los Angeles high school students were hospitalized after being stabbed after school on October 19.  On October 10, according to Fox News, a woman was stabbed in the head with scissors by a homeless man in North Hollywood. The New York Post reports that on October 18, a woman walking her dog in a mid-Wilshire neighborhood was stabbed with a samurai sword by a 23-year-old man.   US News reports that on October 3, two 17-year-old suspects were arrested for the afternoon stabbing murder of man they were attempting to rob in the LA Fashion District.

Someone needs to ask Chief Moore, who serves at the pleasure of the ultra-liberal LA City Council, what constitutes a “frequent occurrence.”

Regrettably, a majority of Los Angeles voters have made a choice for more of the same.