You would think the celebrated mayor of Long Beach, the Honorable Robert (Ol' Blood And Guts) Garcia, would launch a widespread investigation into this serious breakdown of law and order exacerbated by, for too long a time, a group of Long Beach cops becoming nothing more than armed spectators viewing the ugly proceedings without intervening as they're sworn to do under such circumstances.

And you would think the overseer of this group, Long Beach's top cop, Mr. Robert (Asleep At The Switch) Luna, would now be issuing mea culpas all over town for his police failing to protect so many Long Beach businesses and for his police seeming to be so disastrously unprepared -- they weren't even on a full tactical alert! -- in the wake of the evil that enveloped Santa Monica the previous days.

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I'm sure Mr. Luna must have a plausible explanation for such a staggering breakdown, yet I still haven't heard the reason for it other than the widespread speculation that the mayor wanted his gendarmes to stand down and not to interrupt these angry looters who, after all, weren't killing anyone and weren't having confrontations with any of Long Beach's finest and weren't doing anything other than wreaking widespread destruction and heartache and financial ruin.

I mean, they did cause more than a one million dollars in damage to one of the iconic restaurants in Southern California, the architecturally breath-taking L'Opera, but what's a little collateral damage when Long Beach didn't make the national news cycle over some unseemly incident that might well have occurred if Mr. Luna had turned his troops loose to enforce the law.

In fact, in his farcical post-mortem press conference. Robert Garcia actually said with a straight face -- the guy would have done well in the acting dodge -- the Long Beach police did a "fantastic" job and went on and on and on emphasizing how this city wouldn't be stained by any tragic events, which is true.

But what he didn't say is that it forever will be stained by the horrifying optics of a group of Long Beach cops standing as though in a catatonic state as bedlam raged in their midst.

I'm surprised that not one member of that sterling body, the Long Beach City Council, has come out publicly and been critical of the way Messrs. Garcia and Luna handled the tumultuous situation and demanded answers for their blatant failures.

Not a peep of disapproval from such noble human beings as Mary Zendejas, Jeannine Pearce, Suzie Price, Daryl Supernaw, Stacy Mungo, Dee Andrews, Roberto Uranga, Al Austin and Rex Richardson, all brave, caring, principled souls who I'm sure are grieving deeply for those cursed individuals who had their businesses thrashed by the thugs that were allowed to roam unimpeded around Long Beach.

I had my battles with the likes of Gary DeLong and Les Robbins and others across the years, but at least those individuals when they were on the city council weren't fearful to betray their opinions and unafraid of critics.

Well, anyway, the City Council people are going to meet Tuesday night and put their heads together not to start a rock pile, which, alas, would be quite befitting, but to, among other things, lope off a few million from the budget of a police department that already is understaffed by 200 men and I'm sure in a depressed state in the aftermath of perhaps the worst one-day performance in its history.

Maybe the union president of this organization, Rich Chambers, will finally break his silence and loudly stick up for his department, much like the director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Jamie McBride, did for his when he last week savaged the spineless LA mayor, Eric Garcetti, after Garcetti announced he was going to take away at least $150 million from the LAPD.

Shhh, let's all keep our mouths muzzled -- can't that new City Manager, Tom Whateverhislastnameis ever come out of wherever he hides and say something of note -- and let Messrs. Garcia and Luna continue to do a masterful job of avoiding even a threadbare of condemnation from local purveyors of news and from their toadies in the City Council.