LA mayor, police at odds over budget cuts

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is facing strong criticism from unions representing the city's police department for proposing to cut as much as $150 million from its budget and put the money into black and other communities.

The proposed cut is one of several reforms to law enforcement practices vowed by city officials in response to nationwide protests against police brutality following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

"I think you're looking at a philosophical idea that the police are the root of all the ills in society and that's the wrong approach to take," said Rob Harris, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, in an interview with Fox News on June 5. 

"If we want to have a real conversation about decisive actions that we can take to move us forward and to build trust, we can do that. Look, I think there should be absolutely a national use-of-force police standard implemented in this country so everybody and everyone knows what that standard is," he added.

The Los Angeles Police Department Command Officers Association also attacked the proposed budget cut, saying in a statement that it "is extremely irresponsible and risks the safety of all Angelenos''. 

In a statement, the association condemned actions by the officer that took the life of Floyd. However, it pointed out that the LAPD has only 10,000 officers, who handled more than 973,000 calls for help from local residents last year. 

"We currently average a response time to high-priority calls of less than six minutes. Cutting funding to meet the new financial ceiling will undoubtedly affect not only police operations, but more importantly the community members we serve each day," the statement said.

Garcetti announced on June 3 that he will identify $250 million in cuts from the police department and other city departments and will use the money to improve black and other minority communities, as well as "people who have been left behind for too long".

His decision came after days of protest in the city in the wake of Floyd's death and increased criticism against police brutality after Los Angeles police fired rubber bullets at local demonstrators.  

City Council President Nury Martinez and colleagues have introduced a motion that would cut $100 million to $150 million from the police department's budget in the upcoming fiscal year to support programs in communities of color. 

She said in the motion that "policing is not responsible for, nor can it solve unemployment, poor housing and concentrated poverty".

"A preliminary cut to the LAPD budget will not solve everything, but it's a step in the right direction to become the city we aspire to be.''

The police department's budget in the coming year, with pensions and healthcare included, is expected to consume $3.15 billion of the city's $10.5 billion budget, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police Chief Michel Moore told the Times last week that a budget reduction of as much as $150 million might mean cutting personnel because up to 97 percent of the department's budget is made up of salaries and other payroll costs.

Brady Collins, a policy analyst with the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), one of several community groups advocating for People's Budget, an alternative spending plan to the mayor's proposed 2020-21 budget, told China Daily that the city officials' proposed budget cuts are an "important, symbolic step in the right direction". 

However, he said he would like to see the mayor take more money from the police department and put it in housing, education, crisis and emergency management, as well as redistributive justice. 

The People's Budget LA is a coalition led by Black Lives Matter, KIWA and several other organizations in the area advocating on behalf of communities of color that have been the victims of police brutality and divestment from the city, Collins said.

The proposed budget is slated for a discussion by the Budget and Finance Committee on Monday. 

Some reforms already have been occurring in the police department. On Monday, it announced an immediate moratorium on the training and use of a neck hold that blocks a subject's blood flow to the brain.