Commentary: Before reading the LBReport article below please understand that in 2011 a team of community members concerned about the possible loss of the Gang Detail as well as the elimination of 1/2 prosecutor who worked both Gang litigation etc and a regular load in the prosecutors office. Leo Gomez, Jennifer Gomez and me spent hours going from meeting to meeting discussing police cuts and especially the elimination of the Gang detail. We met with every council office a few nodded but very few were affirmative. In August of that year after meeting with the City Prosecutor and Commander of the North Station. The Long Beach Gang Unit received a National Award and National recognition for their work 6 weeks following that the Gang Unit was cut in half. Shortly following that Ms. Gomez created the shooting maps we see on LBReport and we have yet to see the Gang Unit restored. Enjoy the story below. LBReport News / In Detail In Seeking State Taxpayer $1.5 Mil Anti-Gang Grant, City Hall Acknowledged LB Gang Membership Over Twice Statewide Average, Gang Related 2012 Murders Up 51%, Gang Shootings Up 18.9% Since 2011; Unmentioned: Mayor Advised/Council Approved Budgets Eliminating LBPD Field Anti-Gang Unit My Sisters Keeper grant will focus on female human trafficking it says funds gangs; grant requires 100% city match (cash/in kind package from multiple sources recently approved by Council. LBREPORT is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. Were not non-profit so its not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online. (Jan. 23, 2015) -- In August 2014, just weeks after Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia recommended and the City Council without dissent approved a FY15 City budget that no longer funds LBPDs former field anti-gang unit, the City of Long Beach submitted an application seeking $1.5 million from state taxpayers for an anti-gang grant that will focus on human-trafficking among teenage girls that the City says is a major revenue source for gangs. In applying for the state taxpayer funds (a grant called My Sisters Keeper) under the CA Gang Reduction, Intervention, and Prevention Program (CalGRIP), administered by the CA Board of State and Community Corrections, the City cited crime stats not routinely mentioned by LBs Mayor or Councilmembers. In the grant application (obtained by LBREPORT from the state agency under the CA Public Records Act), the City acknowledged that in in 2014, gang membership in Long Beach was 12.82/1,000 people, more than twice the state average of 6.18/1,000 people. Although violent crime in Long Beach dropped to the lowest level over the past forty years, youth and gang violence has spiked in certain neighborhoods, the city said, acknowledging that gang related murders in 2012 were up 51% and gang shootings were up 18.9% since 2011 as reported by LBPD. It added (as previously acknowledged in statements by LBPD) that gang violence contributes to at least half of the homicides in Long Beach. The City also told the state agency, Funding sources historically supporting crime reduction in the City were cut by approximately two million dollars since 2010. It didnt mention that starting in FY10, LBs then-Council majority (which included now-Mayor Garcia) on the recommendation of LBs then-Mayor, Bob Foster voted to cut LBPDs budget to the point where LB taxpayers now have roughly 20% fewer budgeted officers for citywide deployment than LB had five years earlier. Long Beach (L.A. Countys second largest city) now budgets a sworn police level for citywide deployment roughly equivalent per capita to what Los Angeles would have if its Council erased over 25% of LAPDs officers. (Other cities weathered the great recession without doing this to their public safety levels for taxpayers.)
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 02:00:32 +0000