Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing

My opponents, Jack Weiss and Carmine Trutanich spent Wednesday squabbling over the merits of a new Los Angeles City Council laws that, amongst other things, will ban the sale of large caliber ammunition in the City.

After a typical press conference photo opportunity for Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief Bratton, and of course Jack Weiss, who has to be seen to be doing something, but actually does nothing, spokespersons for Weiss and Trutanich traded barbs. Trutanich made the point that the laws will not prevent the sale of such ammunition in other cities or over the internet, while Weiss slurred Trutanich over his law firm's alleged ties to the National Rifle Association.

Much ado about nothing.

The law itself is showboating;
I've never seen a gang-gun case where the gangmember possessed lawfully obtained firearms or ammunition.
I've never heard of a gang-gun case that was prevented by anti-gun laws, gangs by their very definition defy laws.

So what's this all about? Well in an election cycle the old school career politicians dig out the old tripe and serve it up again.

What we need is more cops to arrest gang members. In CIty that currently pays lip service to fighting gangs, where the Mayor spends the scarce budget on increasing his personal staff from 70 to 93 (yes he gets 23 more aides) instead of spending it on 23 more cops, it's a telling that people like Weiss and Trutanich are squabbling over the law, instead of tackling the Mayor over increasing his personal staff, rather than increasing LAPD's ranks.

Last week, Weiss said he supported Chief Bratton's plan to cut police on the Westside because their were not enough officers to staff two new stations. Perhaps if Weiss even knew that the Mayor was spending OUR money on his personal staff instead of on putting more cops on the street, he might have challenged the Mayor. But, wait, this is an election cycle, and Weiss needs the Mayor's support, and Trutanich needs publicity. So it's much ado about nothing, business as usual, photo ops and slurs.

Wake up Los Angeles. Weiss and Trutanich are the "old school" and it's time for some leadership and personal responsibility in City Hall. If either candidate reallly cared about public safety, their press conferences should have been held outside the Mayor's office, and they should be condemning the Mayor for wasting our money on his vanity. They should be screaming about the need for more cops, not relishing in more photo ops.

David Berger
Candidate for Los Angeles City Attorney 2009
www.berger4ca.com