It’s going to be a new era of public safety for Los Angeles, you know
L.A. council advances plan to replace LAPD officers with social workers on non-violent police calls
The Los Angeles City Council took its first step toward replacing police officers with social workers on nonviolent calls for service, voting unanimously Tuesday to develop a model for unarmed crisis response.
The motion instructs city officials to work with Los Angeles police and agencies like the L.A. Homeless Services Authority and county Department of Mental Health to offer “non-law enforcement solutions in circumstances that are non-criminal.†It comes amid calls nationwide for police divestment and reform in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.
Herb Wesson, one of the six councilmembers who presented the measure, said it signals “the dawn of a new era of public safety in Los Angeles.â€
“The bottom line is that the way things have been going is not working for our communities,†he wrote in a tweet. “This last month has made that crystal clear. We have a responsibility to listen to our people, and our people have spoken.â€
The mob has spoken, and they’re getting what they wished for.
Under the plan, trained professionals like homeless outreach and medical workers would handle certain emergency situations, such as mental health crises, substance abuse calls and even neighborly disputes.
How many “neighborly disputes” turn violent?
When L.A.’s motion was introduced, Robert Harris, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League told the L.A. Daily News his union has been discussing the idea “for a long time†and he supports the move. The union represents more than 9,000 of the LAPD’s 13,000 employees.
“For these calls that don’t necessarily need a law enforcement response, can we shift that response to somebody else?†he said.
A big reason for the shift to armed police officers had to do with non-armed people showing up and not being able to do anything because of the violence.
In New Haven, Connecticut, it is being reported that 95.6% of calls do not involve violence
The CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) reports show that less than 4.4 percent of those dispatches—or a total of 6,809—were for calls about assault, gunfire, robbery, rape, stabbing, murder, or person shot.
There were calls that closely aligned with what Compstat reports identify as property crime: residential burglary alarm activation (12,464 / 7.97 percent of all calls), theft (6,040 / 3.86 percent), burglary occurred (1,315 / 0.84 percent), stolen auto (748 / 0.48 percent), and burglary in progress (202 / 0.13 percent).
There were dispatches that fall within what Compstat reports single out as “other crimeâ€: criminal mischief / vandalism (3,076 / 1.97 percent), threatening / stalking (1,645 / 1.05 percent), drug / narcotics complaint (1,342 / 0.86 percent), prostitution complaint (104 / 0.07 percent), and weapons complaint (712 / 0.46 percent).
There are multiple charts at the website, worth a click, because they are big and the writing is tiny. Think how quickly things could possibly go pear shaped during these calls. Certainly, if someone has come home and the house is burgled, or their car broken into, their car was stolen, sure, don’t really need an armed officer to take the report. If the burglary is in progress? Might not want to send a social worker.
A domestic dispute? These could very well get violent. Someone having a drug incident? These can go bad, which is why police often escort ambulances. Weapons complain? No, really, they include this in “non-violent” response.
Trespassing? There’s a chance for violence. Same with noise complaint. And door check/welfare complaint. We’ve seen motor vehicle stops get violent (will social workers be allowed to cruise and give violations tickets?). Suspicious person(s). And they include warrant/wanted person. No, really.
But, hey, we should all back Los Angeles in doing this. During any experiment we need an experimental group. We can watch what happens. Hey, perhaps it works. If so, great. It can free up armed officers for important calls. Sadly, because of society (and not just in the U.S.), interactions that shouldn’t have any violence have a chance to become violent, which is why police officers started showing up where non-armed non-LEOs used to respond.
Heck, sometimes even one officer isn’t enough. Here’s in Alexandria, La
According to a post on the Alexandria, La Police Department’s Facebook page, It all started just before 9:30 p.m. Friday, when the officer saw a group of people in a vehicle near the hospital entrance playing loud music and disturbing people who were there for medical treatment.
The officer first asked them to turn down the music, which they did. Until the officer left the area, and then, they allegedly cranked up the music again.
The officer heard it, returned and instructed them to leave the property or face possible arrest. However, a short time later the officer observed the suspects back on hospital property at the entrance to the emergency room.
And the officer came back to arrest him, and the people jumped him and knocked him out, and even attempted to take his weapon. Fortunately, bystanders and other police came to the rescue. Now, can you see a social worker or some sort of non-armed police officer showing up for a noise or trespassing complaint?
Read: #CallASocialWorker: Los Angeles Moving Ahead With Plan To Replace Armed Officers On Non-Violent Calls »
House Democrats on Tuesday 
UNC Chapel Hill announced a social distancing policy of 3 feet for the upcoming Fall 2020 semester.
But times have changed. After the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, Ms. Albers, who is white, and many of her progressive neighbors have vowed to avoid calling law enforcement into their community. Doing so, they believed, would add to the pain that black residents of Minneapolis were feeling and could put them in danger.
House Democrats will unveil an aggressive climate crisis “action plan†on Tuesday to nearly eliminate US emissions by 2050, according to summary documents reviewed by the Guardian.
The Democrats, the official Twitter account of the Democratic National Committee, raised eyebrows on Monday night for accusing President Trump of “glorifying white supremacy” after he scheduled a Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore.
