More on Thursday's Town Hall Meeting

When I spoke to Chief Braton at the Town Hall meeting on the planned reduction in police services to the Westside, I told him I was a huge fan of his, but that after he heard what I had to say, he might not be a fan of mine!

The Chief took it well, but would not budge from his position; he will not delay opening the new police stations, and that means 26 less police officers on the Westside.

I was not alone in condemning the politicians who have allowed this potentially disastrous state of affairs to exist. Richard G. Cohen, chair of the Pacific Palisades Community Council spoke passionately and directly to the Chief, demanding a change in this plan, pointing out that valuable Westside property was being put at risk, and challenging the "7 minute response time" claimed by Chief Bratton.

Another critic of Bratton's plan was Jay Handal of the West LA Chamber of Commerce, and owner of the San Gennaro Cafe. Jay's had first hand experience of the risks faced by Westside residents; he was robbed at gunpoint at his Brentwood restaurant. Jay also disputed LAPD's "7 minute response time," and was one of many in the crowded meeting to condemn Jack Weiss and other elected officials for spending $50M on two new police stations while lacking the foresight to provide funding to staff them.

The hero of the evening? My vote goes to Bill Rosendahl, Councilmember for City District 11, who had the guts to face the public and let them have their say.

Needless to say, Jack Weiss, Councilmember for City District 5, who has spoken in favor of the planned reduction in police services, and whose residents are equally at risk, was not at the meeting. He was too busy fundraising with Ron Galperin, who hopes to take over from Weiss in the March election.

Anyone who thinks Jack Weiss is suitable for the Office of City Attorney needs to listen to the outright public condemnation of his imperious, unaccountable and out of touch style of candidacy.

Poor City Leadership Causes Westside To Lose 26 Cops

Last night (Thursday, December 11, 2008) I attended a Town Hall meeting hosted by Councilmember Bill Rosendahl (CD11) where guest speaker LAPD Chief William Bratton tried his best to justify his reasons for pulling 26 officers away from the Westside to staff 2 new police stations, set to open in January 2009.

I won't bore you with the details, but the following facts were established:

1) The City Council approved the construction of two new police stations, but did not even think about how they would staff those police stations.

2) The only way that Chief Bratton can staff those new police stations is to take officers away ("harvesting" as he described it) from existing duties. In chosing where to "harvest" cops, Bratton selected areas of Los Angeles where violent crime is lower than other areas, i.e. the Westside.

3) LAPD is in the process of hiring the 1,000 extra cops that are supposed to be funded by the City as as a result of the trash tax. As of December 2009, 550 have been hired, but all are still in training. Bratton expects the new cops to be available for deployment in "3 to 6 months."

Given the above, wouldn't it be sensible to postpone opening these two police stations until the newly trained cops can fill the void?

I asked Chief Bratton that very question, and his response boils down to this:

a) He's not goinging to mothball these two stations, and

b) If he did mothball them, he believes that the City Council will keep them closed so as to avoid having to hire more cops.

c) He's going ahead and cutting police services to the Westside, and if you want to blame anyone, blame the City's elected officials.

Now that's a fine state of affairs, isn't it?