Under the Pretense of Fighting Crime Strawboss LA Mayor Allocates $3 Billion to the LAPD for Cops to Surveil, Murder and Put Blacks and Latinos Into Greater Confinement

Professor Alex Vitale EXPLAINS, “It is largely a liberal fantasy that the police exist to protect us from the bad guys. the veteran police scholar David Bayley argues,

“The police do not prevent crime. This is one of the best kept secrets of modern life. Experts know it, the police know it, but the public does not know it. Yet the police pretend that they are society’s best defense against crime and continually argue that if they are given more resources, especially personnel, they will be able to protect communities against crime. This is a myth.”

Bayley goes on to point out that there is no correlation between the number of police and crime rates.” Vitale states, ‘the police have never really been about public safety or crime control.’ FUNKTIONARY EXPLAINS, “People who are awake see cops are mercenary security guards that remind us daily, through acts of force, that we are simultaneously both enemies and slaves of the Corporate state - colonized, surveilled and patrolled by the desensitized and lobotomized drones of the colonizers.”

From [HERE] Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed a $13 billion city budget Friday, with an emphasis on homelessness initiatives and police funding.

Before signing the 2023-2024 budget, Bass highlighted the $1.3 billion that is planned for homelessness, calling the allocations an “investment,” as opposed to “spending.”

“This budget makes investments to bring people inside, in public safety and in other areas that will net a return in terms of lives saved, in terms of the quality of life… and it will save the city money in the long run,” Bass said in a press conference before officially signing the budget. “This budget charts a new course for a new Los Angeles.”

The “Inside Safe” program will be the beneficiary of $250 million, which would purchase hotels and motels for temporary housing, transitions to permanent housing, provide rental assistance and other support services.

More than $3 billion of the budget will be allocated to police, according to City Controller Kenneth Mejia, an amount fueled the single “no” vote from Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.

“I voted no on the budget today,” Councilmember Hernandez said after the Council’s May 18 vote. “Budgets are a statement of values—and a budget that allocates one quarter of our entire budget to LAPD while underfunding every other department and service does not reflect my values or the values of my constituents.”

With an online petition, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles made a last-minute effort to sway the city council from increasing the LAPD budget, as it did in 2021, but the voting was still nearly unanimous.

“Every dollar spent on police is one that we don’t spend on housing, mental health, parks, youth services, and other life saving resources that Angelenos continue to make their spending priorities,” BLMLA said.

Bass said her public safety plan needed an increased police presence in the city.

With the increased funds, LAPD will seek to recruit 780 new officers and return 200 recently retired officers, which would put the current force of 9,504 above the 10,000-officer mark.