Four Belmont Heights Pedestrians (Broadway/Roycroft) Robbed At Gunpoint
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(May 5, 2017, 5:30 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that four LB residents became crime statistics on Monday night (May 1) as they walked along the Broadway corridor in Belmont Heights when a man approached them armed with a handgun, robbed them at gunpoint of their personal property and took off in dark colored vehicle.
LBPD Public Information Officer Marlene Arrona says that on March 1 at about 8:53 p.m., officers were dispatched to the area of East Broadway at Roycroft Ave. regarding an armed robbery that had just occurred.
The preliminary investigation indicates that a suspect, described as a male African American armed with a handgun, confronted four victims and fled with their property in a dark colored vehicle. No one was physically injured and LBPD says its investigation is ongoing.
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The armed robbery ignited comments on NextDoor.com:
My lease can't end soon enough! Eff this place. ??? I feel bad for the homeowners... seeya property value.
Yikes that's only a block from my house ?? I never see police cars around here, seems like our City Council and police don't have a clue
Where are the police?! What can we do to get more patrolling down here?
The area has been represented since mid-July 2014 by Councilwoman Suzie Price, who recently announced she's seeking another four years in office. During her first term of office, Councilwoman Price, chosen by Mayor Garcia to chair the Council's "Public Safety Committee," declined to hold discussions in her Committee of the public safety implications of budgets recommended by Garcia, much as then-Councilman Garcia (chosen to chair the Public Safety Committee by Mayor Bob Foster) held no hearings of his Committee on budgets recommended by Mayor Foster. Under Foster-recommended budgets, Long Beach Councils "balanced the budget" by erasing 208 budgeted officers (roughly 20% of LB's citywide deployable force) that LB taxpayers had entering FY10. (Foster, elected in 2006, campaigned on a pledge to put 100 more officers on the street in his first four years in office.)
Currently, the Long Beach City Council budgets a citywide deployable police level for residents and businesses in L.A. County's second largest city roughly equivalent per capita to what Los Angeles would have if L.A.'s Mayor/Council erased over 25% of LAPD's officers. Despite LB voter passage of the June 2016 "blank check" sales tax increase (sought by Garcia and supported by Price) the City Council has to date restored budgeting for only 17 of 208 officers erased by LB Councilmembes since FY10 with no commitment to restore others by times certain. (The Council has used Measure A revenue to restore funding for Engine 8 in Belmont Shore Fire Station 8, Rescue 12 in NLB and address a number of long-deferred street and other infrastructure needs.)
A recent Council-approved a contract to have LBPD officers handle policing on the LB secton of Metro's Blue Line will initially rely on overtime hours worked by currently budgeted officers until additional officers are hired.
The Council recently completed approving pay raises for nearly all City Hall employees, including city management.
