• March 15, approx noon: Gunfire area San Francisco/Esther (south of PCH, east bank of L.A. river); no persons hit. (1st. district)

• March 15, approx. 5:45 p.m.: Gunfire along west side of Wrigley's Veterans Park (commonly used long alley-road between Spring St. and 28th St.) Officers find evidence of shooting (car, house and tree hit, no individual victims located) (7th district)

• March 15, approx. 11:00 p.m.: 21st St./Locust Ave.: victim hit/wounded (6t district)

These three "possibly gang related" shootings follow three "possibly gang related" shootings on Monday March 12, one of which resulted in a homicide. (LBREPORT.com coverage here.)

[Scroll down for further.]

Jan 1, 2018 to date: Red Xs=homicides; Blue Xs= shootings, person wounded; Brown Xs=shots fired at victim(s), not hit; Purple Xs=shots at occupied residence/vehicle; Green Xs= shots at unoccupied vehicle/residence; Grey Xs=shots fired (no hit, no target identified); Orange X's=non-fatal stabbings. Map is unofficial. A separate map (not shown here) shows shootings in NLB

For context, the map below shows cumulated area shootings Jan. 1, 2014-Dec. 31, 2017: Among the red X's (displaying homicides) was the December 2014 fatal shooting of the nephew of the former chair of City Hall's now-former Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force (PCH/Lemon).

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On March 13, 2018 (after deploying additional officers to the PCH corridor following three March 12 shootings), LBPD recovered a gun in a vehicle following a traffic-stop at PCH/Chestnut Ave. in an incident that resulted in an officer-involved shooting (suspect wounded, alleged no-bail felony arrest warrant for allegedly violating terms of "Post-Release Community Supervision" (P.R.C.S.) [part of Sac'to's 2011 AB 109 state prison "realignment."] LBREPORT.com coverage here.

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Despite receiving $40+ million annually from a June 2016 City Hall-sought LB voter-approved sales tax increase (Measure A), the City Council hasn't allocated funds sufficient to restore LBPD's former field anti-gang unit. LBPD does maintain a gang unit but it currently operates without the former ongoing field component.

To date, LB's current Mayor/Council have restored 17 citywide deployable officers out of 208 erased...with no commitment to restore the remainder for LB taxpayers. Taxpayers in L.A. County's second largest city have roughly 20% fewer citywide deployable budgeted officers than their city provided in 2009.

The result stems in large part from "proportional budget reductions" implemented under former Mayor Foster and former Councils that included then-Councilman/Vice Mayor Garcia. In 2006, candidate Foster pledged to put 100 more officers on the street in his first four years in office...and was on his way to accomplishing this when (what Foster calls) "the Great Recession" arrived in fall 2008. The economic slowdown amplified the effects of a now notorious 2002 Council-approved "pension spike" (that candidate Foster criticized in 2006) made worse by 2007/2008 pay raises that Foster approved -- in contracts that didn't include pension reforms -- for the three major city employee unions that had endorsed Foster.

The fiscal result was unsustainable, and in addition to the budget reductions, Foster demanded and received from the unions contractual changes implementing pension reforms (that LB Taxpayers Ass'n founders Tom Stout and Kathy Ryan had advocated for years.) The net result is expected to reduce future City pension costs significantly but with less immediate relief for taxpayers. Meanwhile, pay raises approved by LB's current Mayor/Council -- including city management and nearly all City Hall employee groups -- will increase LB taxpayers' future pension exposures even with "pension reforms."

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The leadership of LB's police officer union (LBPOA) didn't object to eliminating 200 police officers for taxpayers. Through its PAC, LBPOA endorsed the re-election and political advancement of Councilmembers who implemented it.

And in the current April-June 2018 election cycle, LBPOA's PAC endorsed the re-election of all current Councilmembers seeking re-election.