She deleted the social media post in question, but one might imagine she absolutely meant what she originally wrote in a fit of pique. Here's the vice president of a major Los Angeles police union urging officers to leave LA and find work elsewhere, amid rampant crime and faltering labor negotiations with city officials. She specifically cited members of the city council who "hate" the police, adding a parenthetical "no exaggeration" for added emphasis on this point:
Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) Vice President Jerretta Sandoz made the statement in a comment from her personal Facebook page as the negotiations were being handled in late June. Sandoz wrote in the now-deleted statement that the L.A. City Council was stacked against police. "Go somewhere that respects the work you do and you don’t have to beg for a great contract," she wrote, according to a screenshot of the comment posted last month and now obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "Go somewhere that has a city council or city manager that openly acknowledges the great work you do, go somewhere that doesn’t have two or more City Council members who hate you (no exaggeration)." The LAPPL represents the city's roughly 9,000 police officers. The city has already lost 1,000 officers since 2019.
Morale among many law enforcement officers and prosecutors has ebbed to multi-decade lows in numerous 'progressive' jurisdictions across the country, including up and down the west coast -- leading to an exodus of rank-and-file police, as well as some high-profile resignations. In Northern California, where crime is also a festering crisis, a once-great city continues to be hollowed out:
“San Francisco has become the prime example of what downtowns shouldn’t look like: vacant, crime-ridden and in various stages of decay.” https://t.co/uOAdPVHlHi
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 16, 2023
From the Associated Press report:
Jack Mogannam, manager of Sam’s Cable Car Lounge in downtown San Francisco, relishes the days when his bar stayed open past midnight every night, welcoming crowds that jostled on the streets, bar hopped, window browsed or just took in the night air. He’s had to drastically curtail those hours because of diminished foot traffic, and business is down 30%. A sign outside the lounge pleads: “We need your support!” “I’d stand outside my bar at 10 p.m. and look, it would be like a party on the street,” Mogannam said. “Now you see, like, six people on the street up and down the block. It’s a ghost town.” After a three-year exile, the pandemic now fading from view, the expected crowds and electric ambience of downtown have not returned. Empty storefronts dot the streets. Large “going out of business” signs hang in windows. Uniqlo, Nordstrom Rack and Anthropologie are gone. Last month, the owner of Westfield San Francisco Centre, a fixture for more than 20 years, said it was handing the mall back to its lender, citing declining sales and foot traffic. The owner of two towering hotels, including a Hilton, did the same. Shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries are locked up at downtown pharmacies. And armed robbers recently hit a Gucci store in broad daylight.
"Progress," in action. Similarly, here's one of the latest anecdotes out of Washington, DC, illustrating an ongoing spike in (already high) violent crime (up double digits, year over year):
Video captured how a man with a gun attacked the owner of a D.C. pub—just inches from the owner's 4-year-old boy...Video from the surveillance cameras inside the pub show Jablonski stand up to confront the man who was making the commotion. Jablonski's 4-year-old son, meanwhile, sat at the table nearby. The man is then seen shoving Jablonski, pulling a gun from his waistband and briefly pointing it at the pub owner. “He just kept saying, 'Sit down, white boy. I’m going to end you,'" Jablonski said. Then, the man with the gun punched Jablonski and they began wrestling. Jablonski went for the gun with his elbow. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to attempted assault and carrying a pistol without a license. His recommended sentence is 24 months in prison. “I told them I did not want them to offer any plea, and I wanted to go to trial and I would do whatever they needed to make sure that they were prepared. I gave them the video. I was the witness in it,” Jablosnki said. “They told me that they have to consider their resources.” After Gibson's plea, he was released from custody until sentencing over the objections of the prosecutor.
I interviewed this business owner on Fox Business yesterday. He told me one of the only silver linings is that his son is too young to fully understand the gravity of what he witnessed, at one point jumping onto his father's back and roaring like a dinosaur during the altercation. He thought the men were wrestling. But since the incident, Jablonski says, his son now begs him to be careful and watch out for the man with the gun when he goes into work. I'll leave you with two fresh, horrible reminders of why the men and women of law enforcement truly do put their lives on the line every time they suit up:
RIP. New Mexico Police Officer Anthony Ferguson was murdered when he was shot and killed during a foot chase following a vehicle pursuit after a traffic stop. STOP SHOOTING MY POLICE OFFICERS!!! #rip #hero #PoliceOfficerAnthonyFerguson #AlamogordoPoliceDepartment #murdered pic.twitter.com/vgJ157G3n7
— Protecting the Blue (@protectingblue) July 17, 2023
We mourn the loss and honor the memory of fallen #Fargo Police Officer Jake Wallin (End of Watch - 07.14.2023). pic.twitter.com/cNnWr9raMR
— Fargo Police (@FargoPolice) July 15, 2023
Officer Wallin was just 23 when he was gunned down in the line of duty, having just joined the force in April. He was still in training. He and fellow officers were targeted by a suspect after they responded to an apparently unrelated traffic accident. The other cop murder also took place during a "routine" response call. RIP.
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