LA City Council Reverses Course After “Defund the Police” Experiment Backfires

Los Angeles City Council members voted to approve an increase in funding for Hollywood. A neighborhood of Los Angeles, Hollywood has seen a spike in crime recently and an increase in police patrols is necessary. The city is reversing its actions that surfaced during the Black Lives Matter protests when the Summer of Love produced the Defund the Police movement.

Hollywood has seen an increase of 75% in homicides and a more than 35% increase in shots fired this year compared with last year. Robbery and theft jumped by nearly 20% and 25%, respectively. Just this week, an off-duty cop was shot and killed and last night, a cop was shot in the face. The Los Angeles City Council approved a motion brought up by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell to give an additional $216,000 to the LAPD’s Hollywood Division to hire additional officers. O’Farrell released a statement after the vote. LAPD also released a statement.

“Today’s unanimous approval of enhanced safety measures in Hollywood will make a world of difference for residents, workers and visitors impacted by crime,” O’Farrell said in a statement, City News Service reported. “We’re investing in a holistic approach to public safety — one that brings unarmed service providers, residents, businesses and LAPD to the table so that we can create safer neighborhoods and communities.”

According to O’Farrell’s motion, the demand for public safety has exceeded the available resources in Hollywood.

“We’re thankful to Council Member O’Farrell for these additional resources and look forward to quickly putting them to use to prevent, deter and address crime,” Blake Chow, LAPD deputy chief, said in a statement to City News Service.

O’Farrell’s motion and a statement from LAPD acknowledged that residents and visitors no longer feel safe in the neighborhood. Chow said last week that people “need to feel safe when they’re in Hollywood.”

In June, Jazz wrote about a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, Gina Viola, who is a member of a group called White People 4 Black Lives. She is endorsed by the L.A. chapter of Black Lives Matter and marched in the protests during the Summer of Love. Her promise to voters is that she will do away with the entire LAPD and divert its funding to social services. The Defund the Police movement has backfired in many cities that are now scrambling to correct their short-sighted virtue-signaling. It’s possible that L.A. may even elect a pro-police mayoral candidate but don’t hold your breath. Karen Bass, a former congresswoman and once on the list of potential vice-presidential candidates for Biden, has been endorsed by Biden, Kamala, and Hillary Clinton, none of whom vote in L.A. We’ll have to wait and see if the voters in Los Angeles vote in their own best interests this time around, now that the social experiment of defunding the police has failed spectacularly and crime rates are spiking across the country.

Not all communities in the Los Angeles area are wising up, though. At the end of June, West Hollywood voted to slash law enforcement funding. This leaves the famous city with up to five fewer deputies on patrol. Crime is skyrocketing in West Hollywood, too. The council passed the budget by a 3-2 vote. The mayor voted against it.

Crime in West Hollywood jumped an eye-opening 137 percent in February 2022 compared to February 2021.

Los Angeles residents are advised to not wear jewelry in public in order to avoid being robbed. In March, it was reported that armed robberies were up by 44% from the same point last year. The Beverly Hills Police Department also warns residents against wearing jewelry in public. There has been an increase in smash-and-grab robberies in jewelry stores. LAPD advises residents to travel in groups and alternate their travel routes home to avoid being followed home by thieves.

The Defund the Police movement, along with progressive district attorneys whose campaigns were funded by George Soros, have had a devastating effect on public safety in many American cities, especially large blue cities. Perhaps Los Angeles is being to see the light, at least a little bit.

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