Sure, It's Easy to Not Hire Police When You Have Your Own Force
Those nearsighted are often bookish.
Shortsighted individuals often become politicians.
A recent story in the Los Angeles Times proves our point.
The city of Los Angeles faces a possible $1 billion shortfall in revenue. Since the left-adherents there don’t own a money printing press like the Washington, D.C. left, cuts must be made to the budget.
Rather than assigning priorities to government functions and sparing vital public services from cutbacks while targeting the cuts at less important functions, spineless politicians in The City of Angels are going to cut from the good and the bad.
That way they can’t be accused of either favoritism or intelligence.
FYI — this foolish phenomenon is not limited to blue states and their equally blue municipal counterparts.
It's also found in red areas, since spinelessness is common among politicians of all ideologies.
Mayor Karen Bass — the genius who stayed on a trip to Africa while part of her city burned down — decided it would be a good idea to fire the civilian employees in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
"Specialized civilian employees whose work includes processing DNA rape kits, analyzing fingerprints and taking photos of crime scenes."
This shortsighted, stopgap effort to eliminate 133 employees would only serve to create bottlenecks within the department when it comes to processing evidence, cause some crimes to be uninvestigated due to manpower shortages and delay justice to victims.
The city council didn’t like this idea.
Not because they are fervent law enforcement supporters, but because leftists never like to see members of their base, government employees, get laid off.
Enhancing law enforcement was a side effect and not the goal.
The council’s solution to the cut hiring from another group, that is not their base, police officers. “The committee proposed slashing the number of LAPD recruits planned for the coming fiscal year to 240 from 480.
Because the department is expected to lose 530 officers through resignations and retirements, that would result in an overall decrease in sworn staffing."
The impact of this slowdown will be felt for years. Police officers aren’t like employees in the Department of Regulation. Newly hired bureaucrats can begin interfering with citizens, blocking businesses, and making life miserable for citizens almost from the get-go.
Police officers first spend months in the police academy getting trained, then another few months on the street under the supervision of an on-the-job training officer.
Many know and understand that it takes approximately three years for a police officer to reach full effectiveness, so the officers who aren’t hired now will be missed long into the future.
The Times puts this lack of hiring into perspective.
"The council's five-member budget committee voiced initial support for a slowdown in hiring that would leave the Los Angeles Police Department with about 8,400 officers by June 30, 2026, down from more than 8,700 this year and about 10,000 in 2020.
". . . The slowdown in police hiring would leave the LAPD with its lowest level of sworn staffing since 1995."
But cutting cops is easy if you can call on the department for a personal protective detail when you feel threatened, like members of the Los Angeles City Council.
What the shortsighted mayor and council should be doing is cutting jobs from any department that has climate, DEI, social justice or homelessness as part of its mission and leave sworn and civilian law enforcement alone.
That would balance the budget and serve the public they promised to protect.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.