CD 8/Austin Has Noon-Hour Shooting, Two Parked Cars Hit/Casings Found 100 block E. Arbor St. (LB Blvd. North of Western End of Scherer Park (Which Recently Shooting Inside Near Its Dog Park)
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(Aug. 10, 2021, 11:10 a.m.) -- LBPD confirms that in the noon hour Monday Aug. 9, gunfire struck two unoccupied parked cars in the 100 block of E. Arbor St. near LB Blvd. The shooting scene is a bit north of the western end of Scherer Park...where on July 30 a male juvenile was shot/wounded inside the park near its dog park. Both areas are within Councilman Al Austin's 8th Council district.
LBPD Public Information Officer Brandon Fahey says officers responded at roughly 12:50 p.m. and through their investigation learned a male suspect traveling on foot near the area fired shots at a vehicle occupied by an unknown number of subjects. Both parties fled the scene before officers arrived.
Officers located evidence, including casings, indicating a shooting had occurred. The motive for the shooting is currently unknown.
This shooting comes roughly twelve hours after a midnight hour shooting on the same day with shots fired into an inhabited building in the 1000 block of Pine Ave. (Willmore City historic district, CD 1/Zendejas. (separate coverage coming.)
As separately reported in a Perspective piece by LBREPORT.com, later today the Long Beach City Council will discuss the management/Mayor proposed FY 22 LBPD budget that, unless amended by a Council majority, won't restore any of roughly 230 budget-erased officers (including 48 defunded last year) for taxpayers.
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On July 19, 2021, the City Council -- which sets LB police levels by its budget actions -- voted (8-0, Austin absent) to approve a Mayor/Management labeled "Safety Recovery Plan" tied in part to a Mayor/management proposed FY22 budget. The plan, sought by the Council following multiple shootings, doesn't restore any of the roughly 230 erased officers, leaving Long Beach without its former LBPD field anti-gang unit and with a thinner per capita officer level than Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Signal Hill. (Chart shows LB police level before Sept. 2020 defunding of 48 additional officers.)
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Under the $8.6 million "Safety Recovery Plan" LB taxpayers will spend roughly $4 million for non-police items labeled "prevention" and supported by multiple public podium speakers (including some with ties to groups that stand to receive a share of the money.)
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Several public speakers opposed spending sums in the plan that will maintain current police base staffing (depleted by responses to recent shootings) and urged reducing LBPD funding further. Some said Long Beach is over-policed and urged support for what organizers called a "Peoples Budget" that would reduce LBPD levels further.
No public speakers came to the podium to speak in support of maintaining or backfilling current police funding items.
To date, no Long Beach neighborhood group has adopted a voted resolution calling on the Council to restore 48 officers defunded by the Council's Sept. 2020 FY 21 budget vote.
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