On Skid Row

From the LAPD Blog:

Our patrol force is understaffed and overburdened.  The primary car designated for Skid Row can barely be in the area.  When you have under two hundred forty officers responsible for policing 8 to 10,000 people it is impossible to help everyone or make a lasting impact.

There are groups who do not care if their causes are right or wrong, as long as they win or “Stick it” to the police department.  These groups, who claim to be advocates for the homeless, watch as gang members brutalize, exploit and sell poison to them, and then call us as monsters for trying to curb the problem. They would rather label me an “Uncle Tom” than take on drug dealers for poisoning the community.  An example of this is the recent 9th Circuit ruling against the Department, regarding sleeping on the sidewalks.

When I began enforcing the sidewalk ordinance in my area it had less to do with sitting or sleeping on the sidewalk.  In reality it had to do with the crime it produced.  In Skid Row most people are not sleeping or sitting for “life sustaining” reasons. During the day, many are sitting so they can use narcotics.  When they are sleeping, it is more likely due to crashing from a four-day cocaine binge or a bad heroin overdose.   While they sit, the drug dealers we can’t keep in jail, see the sidewalks as prime real estate for their trade.  The homeless become victims as well as suspects.  There are excellent programs on Skid Row to help the homeless beat their addictions. But when drug dealers are waiting right outside of the doors, it’s difficult for the homeless to succeed. Unfortunately political agendas won out over common sense, and now the homeless are becoming victimized in my area at an even higher rate.