| (June 14, 2016, 6:35 a.m.) -- A recent increase in shootings in North Long Beach has brought the city's 9th Council district to the point where its number of person-hit shootings within the past 30 days (from May 14 through June 13) has reached nearly as many hit shootings per capita as the city of Chicago citywide.
The NLB shootings include a horrifying exchange of gunfire between two persons at early evening Saturday May 21 along busy Artesia Blvd. not far from Jordan High School. Just outside the most recent thirty day period on May 3, a 16 year old boy was shot and killed on his way home from Ramona Park. On June 9, two people were shot, one of whom died, near the southern end of Ramona Park in the area of 64th St./Coronado Ave. [Scroll down for further.] |
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| It's not the first time this level of shootings has occurred in recent months in Long Beach. In October 2015, LBREPORT.com reported that LB's 1st district (generally north of downtown) when combined with the adjacent 6th district (Central LB) had more hit shootings (including a 6th district homicide) within a thirty day period than Chicago citywide.
Our per capita calculations used unofficial figures and rounded numbers. The Chicago Tribune provides a running total of shootings at this link. Its most recent update as of the evening of June 13 indicates Chicago had 381 shootings between May 14 and June 13. Chicago's population is roughly/rounded 2.7 million. For a per capita figure, one divides Chicago's 381 shootings by 2700 (number of 1,000-residents): 318/2700 = 0.1411 hit shootings per thousand Chicago residents. Long Beach's 9th Council district has roughly 50,000 residents; dividing its 6 shootings within the past 30 days by 50 (number of thousands): 6/50 = 0.12 hit shootings per thousand 9th district residents. In other words, if NLB had one additional shooting during the most recent 30 day period, its per capita level would be nearly the same (7/50 = 0.14) as Chicago citywide.
By way of context, LBREPORT.com notes that NLB's shootings have increased in recent months. A year ago, conditions were better...and two years ago NLB was significantly quieter; whatever is taking place now is either an atypical spike...or (until remedied) a new normal. Invited to comment on this last night (June 13) by LBREPORT.com, 9th district Councilman Rex Richardson said he considers it unfair to compare one Long Beach area to the entire city of Chicago. "It would be more fair to compare a neighborhood in Chicago that has similar economic conditions to those in North Long Beach, not to the entire City of Chicago. That would provide a better comparison. Otherwise, frankly this is utilizing statistics to create an unfair and unbalanced comparison." LBREPORT.com invites our readers to view the Chicago Tribune online map of shootings citywide at this link. We acknowledge the obvious: that Chicago shootings are heaviest in some westside Chicago neighborhoods. However the map also shows that shootings are spread across much of Chicago...which is unlike Long Beach, where (as LBREPORT.com has frequently noted) our city of nearly 500,000 (L.A. County's second largest city) is a "tale of two cities." Residents and businesses in parts of Central Long Beach and North Long Beach too often experience conditions nearly unheard of just a few miles away. ELB and SE LB Council districts 3 and 5 rarely if ever have shootings; most of Council district 4 (including Los Altos) is free of shootings while the western end of the 4th district (near Cherry Ave.) has had multiple shootings, some fatal. Yet this hasn't stopped LB's Mayor, some Councilmembers and city management from regularly using citywide crime data to boast that Long Beach crimes are at what they call "historically low levels" despite the fact that conditions experienced by residents and businesses in some parts of Long Beach may be quite different. LBREPORT.com has repeatedly noted that this practice by City Hall officials camouflages high crime areas by combining them with lower crime areas We stand by our numerical point that if LB's 9th district were its own city, within the past thirty days it had nearly as many hit shootings per capita as Chicago had citywide.
In comments to us, Councilman Richardson stressed that he believes the focus now should be on prevention...and heading into summer, "it's important for the community to come together and important that our youth have recreation available to them." Councilman Richardson said "we're expanding our summer youth programming hours not only at Houghton Park but also providing extended summer programming hours at Ramona Park. We're partnering with the North Long Beach Education Fund established with LBUSD Board member Megan Kerr to bring a new summer youth technology institute to North Long Beach and working in partnership with the YMCA. We're also conducting a major summer youth hire program. Hiring youth is a tremendous way to create a positive environment to put them on a good trajectory. We'll be doubling the number of youth hires this summer from 70 to 150." Councilman Richardson added, "Crime is up across the country but we in our community are better suited to do all we can to protect our youth. We have to maintain a focus on crime prevention and not just focus on crime suppression...Now is the time to double-down on violence prevention and not abandon it."
Councilman Richardson has represented LB's 9th Council district since mid-July 2014 and has launched efforts on several fronts to create what he describes as an Uptown Renaissance in NLB. These include a long-planned but now soon-to-open new library (named on Richardson's motion for First Lady Michelle Obama), an envisioned upgrade to the Artesia Blvd. corridor, a recently approved new NLB Business Improvement District, publicly displayed banners honoring college-bound Jordan High graduates and the use of innovative participatory budget voting that lets NLB residents cast ballots for their preferences among proposed district projects (just completed for its second year in a row.) However participatory budgeting (thus far) hasn't included major budget decisions...such as restoring roughly 200 police officers erased under Council-approved budgets since September 2009. Since then, Long Beach City Councils have "balanced their budgets" by eliminating roughly 20% of Long Beach's sworn officers (the largest reduction in citywide deployable officers within a five year period in the more than 100 year history of the City of Long Beach.) LBREPORT.com wonders what participatory budgeting would show if residents were given the chance to vote on whether their Councilman should make a motion to restore LBPD's field anti-gang unit (details below), first erased in budgets approved over the objection of his predecessor Councilman Steven Neal (for whom Richardson served as Chief of Staff.) Perhaps not coincidental to the recent increase in shootings -- most of which are gang related -- LBPD had a field anti-gang unit: 20 officers + 2 sergeants, previously deployed in the field where they could observe conditions firsthand, interact with residents and businesses, gather intelligence, and work with LBPD patrol officers and LBPD's internal gang unit (roughly 20 officers handling investigations, court proceedings and the like.) The internal gang unit remains...but in August 2012, Mayor Bob Foster proposed a budget that would eliminate it (FY13). The Council initially balked, and funded the anti-gang unit (and other items at the Chief's discretion) with one-time money. When the money ran out in FY14, the field anti-gang unit disappeared. Any LB Councilmembers could have moved to restore it; to date, none has. Erasing LBPD's field anti-gang unit was part of budgets recommended under now-exited Mayor Bob Foster (who as a candidate in 2006 vowed to put 100 more police on the street during his first four years in office) starting in Sept. 2009 and perpetuated by his endorsee, current Mayor Robert Garcia. The result has left Long Beach taxpayers with roughly 200 fewer officers than the city had in 2008-09, roughly 20% fewer officers than the City had in 2008-09. Long Beach, L.A. County's second largest city, now has a per capita citywide deployable sworn police level roughly equivalent to what Los Angeles would have if Mayor Garcetti and his Council thought it were smart to balance their budget by erasing about 30% of L.A.P.D.'s officers. Mayor Foster has attributed his actions to what he calls "the Great Recession," but other area cities weathered the economic downturn without erasing roughly a fifth of their police officers for their taxpayers. L.A. County's biggest city (Los Angeles) and one of its smallest (Signal Hill) have continued to provide significantly higher levels of police per capita to their residents than does Long Beach. On June 7, 2016, with Mayor Garcia taking the lead backed by former Mayors Foster and O'Neill, Long Beach voters approved a general sales tax increase to 10% (currently 9% in Signal Hill/Lakewood, 8% in most OC cities) written in a way that will let current and future Councils to spend its revenue on any general fund items they wish (a "blank check" measure.) The Council voted to put Measure A on the ballot with a title and text that told voters [all caps in original] "CITY OF LONG BEACH PUBLIC SAFETY, INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR AND NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES MEASURE" with text stating that the measure would (among other things) "increase police." Garcia also waged a campaign that amassed over $600,000 in contributions from various corporate, developmental and organized labor entities many of which have an interest in the outcome of Mayor/Council actions. These included the Long Beach Police Officers Association PAC which gave $250,000 in cash plus an in-kind sum to fund the campaign, and LB's Firefighter union gave $70,000 plus an in-kind sum as they, and other city employee unions, prepare to negotiate new contracts with the City in the coming months. There is no record of the LBPOA's leadership testifying publicly in opposition to erasing roughly 200 police officers, including LBPD's field anti-gang unit, the largest reduction in police officers for LB taxpayers within a five year period in the more than 100 year history of the City of Long Beach. The in-kind sums contributed by LB's police and firefighter unions paid for a voter survey that showed LB voters would approve a sales tax increase if told it would fund increased police, firefighter resources including 9-1-1 and neighborhood infrastructure. The measure that the Mayor sought and the Council put on the ballot guarantees none of these items...and leaves that to Council budget actions. On Sept. 22, the City Council's Public Safety Committee (chair Price, vice chair Supernaw, member Austin) heard an LBPD report on shootings but made no recommendations and didn't refer the matter to the full City Council. On Sept 15 and 22, the Council voted (without dissent) for a FY16 budget, recommended by Mayor Robert Garcia, that failed to restore LBPD's former field anti-gang unit and leaves LB taxpayers with a budgeted police level for citywide deployment roughly equivalent per capita to what L.A. would have if L.A.'s Mayor and Council cut roughly 30% of LAPD's officers.
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