Breaking Code of Silence That Spares Mayor, Council And LB Police Officers Union From Accountability For Their Actions That Left LB Vulnerable To Looting And Problematic Police Responses

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(June 21, 2020) -- Three weeks after a large, loud but lawful protest morphed into looting and for severalk hours near anarchic conditions from downtown to midtown into uptown and across Central LB into ELB, Mayor Robert Garcia, LB's City Council incumbents and the leadership of the LB Police Officers Ass'n have avoided serious scrutiny for their records in what happened.

As of June 20, neither Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia nor any one of LB's nine incumbent City Councilmembers have agendized a single City Council item to confront what took place on May 31-June 1.

On Tuesday June 23, three of LB's nine Councilmembers (Price, Supernaw, Austin) will meet as the Council's "Public Safety Committee" with only the ability to offer voted recommendations not take legislative actions.

The Council's "Public Safety Committee" has agendized three substantive items, two of which involve police bias/use of force and police misconduct issues leaving one to "receive a report from Police and Fire Departments on lessons learned from recent protests throughout the City, and specifically incidents of vandalism and violence on Sunday, May 31."

Below is the written material provided to LB taxpayers accompanying the June 23 Public Safety Committee agendized item: .

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To date, the City hasn't provided the locations of Long Beach businesses looted, robbed and the extent of the damages they suffered. The "where" of the story is a journalistic basic.

To date, the City hasn't said who among LBPD leadership approved telling LBPD officers not to intervene as looters looted and vandalized LB businesses. The "who" of the story is a journalistic basic.

To date, the City hasn't provided details of when the don't intervene order was communicated. The "when" of the story is a journalistic basic.

To date, the City hasn't provided details on the factors (we presume there are several) that led LBPD to direct officers not to intervene during the looting. The "why" is a journalistic basic.

To date, the City hasn't disclosed what factors prompted LBPD to seek "mutual aid" in the 4 p.m. hour for what was still a non-violent event. The "when" is a journalisic basic.

To date, the City hasn't said when it declared a large crowd on Pine Ave. an "unlawful assembly." That's a significant journalistic "when" because LBPD eventually fired non-lethal rounds that injured people (including at least one radio reporter.) By that point, had those at the location ("peaceful," unruly or otherwise) been told their assembly was no longer lawful and ordered to disperse?

To date, the City hasn't said what it told Sacramento officials in the 8 p.m. hour about why conditions in Long Beach had gotten out of hand and required the National Guard. The "what" and the "why" are journalistic basics. (In June 9 verbal statements during an extemporaneous Council colloquy, City Manager Modica and Mayor Garcia both indicated they communicated with Sacramento on this.)

To date, the City hasn't disclosed all emails, texts, communications and the like between LBPD management, LB civilian city management and LB electeds, if any, in the days preceding the May 31 protest, or during the peaceful protest, or during the subsequent looting and lawlessness.

And to date, not one LB elected official has defied a de facto Code of Silence over LB's thin police level for LB taxpayers that has resulted from budgets recommended by Mayor Garcia and approved by LB Council incumbents themselves.

The chart below shows per capita police levels budgeted by the City Councils of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Signal Hill for their taxpayers.

Do you suppose this might have something to do with leaving LB especially vulnerable to what took place in Los Angeles 24 hours earlier and in Santa Monica just hours earlier?

Do you suppose it might have something to do with Santa Monica police making over 400 arrests (now criticized for targeting protestors not looters a few blocks away) while LBPD arrested five persons for looting among only 29 total arrested on serious charges while handing out 71 citations (tickets) for curfew violations?

Or that it might have something to do with the chronic inequity of leaving mainly working class families in LB's historically disadvantaged neighborhoods to endure disproportionately high levels of shootings and homicides?

For the record, the leadership of Long Beach police officers union didn't object to Council actions that erased a staggering 20% of LB's police level, the largest reduction in police for LB taxpayers over a five year period in the more than 100 year history of the City of Long Beach. Other area cities didn't do this to their taxpayers to weather the 2009-2014 economic slowdown.

Even after LB voters gave City Hall the 2016 Measure A sales tax increase providing $60+ million more in "blank check" General Fund revenue each year, Mayor Garcia and the current Council have restored roughly 22 of 208 erased officers while giving the police officers union (whose contributions helped install the incumbents in office) contracts with generous pay raises.

This isn't about police alone. It reflects the way the City is currently run on multiple levels. To move forward requires breaking the Code of Silence that accepts endless defensive excuses for the status quo. .

At some point it may dawn on those now running things that what has happened has "woke" a lot people. And they vote.

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Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

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