By The Numbers: Councilmembers Gonzalez & Andrews (And Former-Councilman/Now-Mayor Garcia) On Police Officers For LB Taxpayers
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November 18, 2018, 11:05 a.m.) -- Last night (Nov. 17), Long Beach had its 28th and 29th homicides of 2018 -- a man and a woman in their 50's driving in the 1300 block of E. 17th St. about a block south of LBCC's Central LB campus (6th Council district.) LBPD has issued a release indicating it's investigating the crime as gang related.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and Vice Mayor Dee Andrews are sole remaining LB incumbents who voted to erase the largest number of police officers for taxpayers in the more than 100 year history of the City of Long Beach. The officers erased included LBPD's field anti-gang unit.
To date, Mayor Garcia has recommended, and the City Council has voted to restore, budgeting for 22 of the 208 citywide deployable officers that Councilmembers Garcia and Andrews voted to erase. These don't include restoration of LBPD's field anti-gang unit.
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Despite receiving over $50+ million annually under the June 2016 Measure A sales tax increase (the highest sales tax rate in CA, tied with only a few other cities), LB taxpayers currently receive a significantly thinner per capitaratio of budgeted citywide deployable police officers than provided by the Mayors/City Councils in Los Angeles and Signal Hill.
Vice Mayor Andrews' 6th district has had the second highest number of homicides in 2018. The adjacent 1st district represented by Councilwoman Gonzalez (following Councilman/Vice Mayor Robert Garcia) has had the highest number of homicides in 2018. The first map below shows LBPD shootings/stabbings to date in 2018; for context, the second map below shows confirmed shootings/stabbings from Jan. 1, 2014-Dec. 31, 2017, thus covering the incumbencies of Gonzalez and Andrews plus the final six months of Garcia's Council-voting tenure.) .
Jan 1, 2018 to date: Red Xs=homicides; Blue Xs= shootings, person wounded; Brown Xs=shots fired at victim(s), not hit; Purple Xs=shots at occupied residence/vehicle; Green Xs= shots at unoccupied vehicle/residence; Grey Xs=shots fired (no hit, no target identified); Orange X's=non-fatal stabbings; Blue * asterisk=victim hit, police unable to locate crime scene. Map is unofficial. A separate map (not shown here) shows shootings in NLB
LBREPORT.com has repeatedly called the level of violent crime disproportionately experienced by residents and businesses in LB's working class neighborhoods the most serious inequity in the City of Long Beach, an unjust "tale of two cities."
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In August 2016, Councilwoman Gonzalesz attempted to cover our camera lens when we asked following her Council district's FY17 budget meeting for her position on restoring more than 8 police officers recommended by Mayor Garcia for FY 17.
Councilwoman Gonzalez, Aug. 25, 2016, LBREPORT.com photo
Gonzalez is now among speculated candidates for the state Senate seat left vacant by Ricardo Lara's election as state Insurance Commissioner. She was re-elected in the 2018 election cycle without a ballot candidate in opposition and with the endorsement of the LB Police Officers Association PAC.
Andrews won re-election in 2016 via a write-in; his supporters included the LB Police Officers Association PAC. Under recently enacted Measure BBB, Andrews can now seek re-election in 2020 without a write-in requirement.
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