Community Forum After Assault/Battery On Two Men in 4th/Cherry Area Draws Roughly 100 Concerned Citizens
by Joe Mello, LBReport.com Community Correspondent

(November 7, 2011) -- A Community Forum convened by Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal following the Halloween night assault/battery on two men in the 4th/Cherry area drew roughly 100 community members to the Bixby Park Community Center on Sunday November 6, 2011.

Photo by Joe Mello

Those attending included community leaders from local LGBT organizations, city commissions, businesses, and religious leaders along with the Vice Mayor, LBPD Commanders Michael Beckman (East Division) and John Benedetti (South Division) [division dividing line is Cherry Ave.]

Also attending were Fifth District Councilwomen Gerrie Schipske and Signal Hill Mayor Larry Forrester.

The meeting focused on ways to move forward as a community and make the area safer where the attack occurred.

In his presentation, Commander Beckman described the training that Long Beach police officers receive concerning hate crimes and the legal difference between a "hate incident" and a "hate crime" and indicated that in his view, the Halloween assault was a hate crime.

East Division Commander Michael Beckman. Photo by Joe Mello

The District Attorney's office tells LBReport.com that on November 2, it filed charges against Marquise Lucas, 19 (two counts of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury plus a county of felony battery with serious bodily injury) and Sierus Dunbar (one county of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and one county of felony battery with serious bodily injury) [no hate crime allegations filed]. The victims are two men, one in his early 50s, the other in his early 60s.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to return to court Nov. 17 for a preliminary hearing.

Commander Benedetti acknowledged that mistakes had been made regarding the protocols of informing the command staff about the assaults' status as a possible hate crime. Much of the meeting focused on how to do a better job of informing the community of similar incidents and how the community could be proactive in working to prevent future incidents. Community alert systems, citizens’ patrols and business improvement districts providing cameras or guides were all discussed as well as ways to partner with existing organizations for needed services.

South Division Commander Commander John Benedetti. Photo by Joe Mello

At the end of the three hour meeting, Vice Mayor Lowenthal summarized the next steps in what she described as an ongoing process. She said she plans on forming a Community Action Group to work on the suggestions from the Forum and then hold another Joint Forum to review the Community Action Group’s suggestions.

Photo by Joe Mello

Councilwoman Schipske suggested a City Council Study Session to address public safety issues in the city. Schipske also suggested that the Broadway Corridor be placed under one police division’s jurisdiction instead of being divided at Cherry Avenue.

After the meeting, LBReport.com asked Vice Mayor Lowenthal if anything could be taken from the meeting that could apply to the central core of the city where there have been multiple murders and shootings. Vice Mayor Lowenthal said:

The very core element that came out of this discussion, which I think is applicable throughout the city is really personal reasonability...

I think one thing that we can apply across the city is really step away from not knowing one another, not knowing the names of our neighbors and gonna be much more aware of our surroundings, and really going back to some of the things I think we were taught when we were teenagers which is, don’t walk alone, don’t walk to your car alone, don’t be alone at anytime. That’s one basic thing.

Vice Mayor Lowenthal also suggested using neighborhood groups to facilitate better communication between the city and the neighborhoods:

The other thing I really wanted to think about and to take back throughout the city in terms of how do we make this a safer city is really, how do we put the public back into public safety? What can we do as neighborhoods? Every neighborhood is part of some neighborhood association. How do those smaller groups contribute to the larger safety of the city at large? And so one real simple way is just better communication from us, from the city to residents about when something’s happened, people are on high alert. Very alert to what’s going on and that gets communicated through out. I think if you feel safer because you feel you are being proactive, about any kind of incident, not just hate incidents, but any incident, then I think that is sorta a step toward being a more confident residential group.

Asked by LBReport.com about the randomness of shootings and violence in some city neighborhoods, Vice Mayor Lowenthal replied:

I think the randomness of what’s going on unfortunately officers cannot prevent that, because as you just said it is random. I find myself not necessarily going out less at later times, I find myself being a little bit more careful, and I don’t know perhaps it is because I am a women, I am, it’s a life long...it’s a life long lesson that people teach young women, we need to teach that to our entire community. That there is nothing different about being a man than it is about being a women when it comes to being victimized. Random occurrences will happen. I don’t think there is anything we can do about that. We’ve talked about the economy a little bit today, how this year after year of a depressed economy has brought out, brought the worst out in people. Really the worst, in terms of who to blame, and why things are as bad as they are. That contributes to some of the randomness of what’s going on. People are like hairpin triggers; you know they are very quick to anger. And that is frightening,

Regarding Councilwoman Schipske's suggestion to consolidate the Broadway Corridor into one police command division, Vice Mayor Lowenthal told LBReport.com that she wanted to get more information from Police Chief McDonnell and the division commanders. She said she believes she benefited from having more than one Commander involved in the 2nd district, but she said she would have to hear if there was a benefit from one corridor being in one command district.

It is an intriguing concept. I don’t want us to get into false senses of security that if we put all of the Broadway Corridor, that we lovingly call the Gay Getto, if we put all of that into one district, somehow does that mean that our police response is greater, different, faster. If it would make a meaningful difference, I’d want us to do it, But I don’t want us to assign certain features to our policing that is more just labels.