Will someone let the Mayor and Council members know that there still is budget left that's largely a fiction- with the Union NOT agreeing to the terms. So why is Mayor Tony agreeing to a million dollars to pay for a parade for the Lakerss? The amount is HALF of the real cost of $2 million, but the LAKERS should pay ALL of it- they are a profit-making professional sports franchise and can handle it on their own or it shouldn't be done. Why should Mayor Tony give away more money, or ANY money (part of the answer is that it's not coming from his own pocket, like any politician's reasoning)?
The city parade from the Staples Center to the Coliseum is also going to disrupt traffic and tie up a lot of police. Aren't we short on police these days? And using up police hours is going to get a lot of overtime racked up, creating more bills for a cash-starved city budget.
Sunday night would be or should be reason enough to skip the parade. They can hold the rally at the Coliseum and crowd control could be better accomplished. Looking at the police handling of the rioting Sunday results in the conclusion that it was absolutely stupid. Too few officers assigned to be "the police presence" was not getting the job done. Maybe Bratton wanted to make it look "Lakers Fan Friendly" but there's such a thing as being taken advantage of by your friends.
Taxpayers will eat the bill for the damage and destruction to property, including police and other vehicles. Some guy lost dozens of pairs of expensive vintage sneakers when looters broke into his store. See the L.A. Times, "8 LAPD officers injured in Lakers celebrations [Updated]," 8:22 AM, June 15, 2009. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/lakers-riot.html
The police response to criticism was that it took time to get enough officers together to respond. Duh. Didn't anyone in LAPD management watch the game? You didn't need a crystal ball to see the risk and for Laker fans' behavior of the past and that commotion preview after the third victory, it was almost certain to happen Sunday. You don't need ALL fans to be acting badly, but there were enough and it should have been handled with better planning and then done with all possible SPEED.
Instead of taking a lot of time to respond, the LAPD could have gotten a big boost from the Sheriff's Department with the "mutual aid" provision actually requiring them to assist, in case there was any doubt about that. Of course, Bratton, as Chief, is way to proud to say the LAPD needed any help. Politics is again affecting public safety.
And Bratton is plainly disingenuous in saying that this was the work of "knuckleheads" as if this was a group of pranksters TeePee-ing a house on Halloweeen. There were lots of people committing crimes. If this were other than the Lakers celebration, there'd be lots of people locked up on Sunday night. Bratton tries to blow this off as no big deal, and that attitude is a huge contrast to his own famous approach to law enforcement, applying the "Broken Windows" theory. That involved citing people for any violation that could be found, tightening up on any previously lax enforcement of such laws that ultimately worked to weed out many offenders in the process and make the quality of life better for all. Well, on Sunday night, by letting enforcement slide for so long as they did, had the opposite effect. It encouraged further "celebration," and many cops got hurt, as well, costing money and the well-being of people unnecessarily.
People might have forgotten that riots, like fires, start off with a small event that gets quickly involved and out of control if not handled decisively and immediately. Maybe you might remember the Rodney King riots- also like a fire getting out of control after starting out small and quickly spreading, fueled by the television coverage showing there is NO police response and the mob mentality is present, overriding personal responsibility. Any reasonable expectation of a problem was ignored and no plan was put in place because no one made up one ahead of time, so we have a city riot for days.
Was the outcome Sunday what the Chief wanted it to be? Maybe a few in the LAPD are still gun-shy from that Melee in MacArthur Park two years ago when some of the police actually ran amok. I doubt if the same loss of control is likely to happen again, but then keeping cops away until way after the time that they are needed is not the answer.
I think that the cost to the city should be ZERO for whatever they want to do on Wednesday- whether it's a Parade or just a rally, but NO city money needs to be spent now when layoffs and furloughs of City workers are on the planning table. THIS fiscal behavior is exactly what got the City into the jam it's in. Spending without money available to cover it. People don't learn. That's goes for so many of the things mentioned in this posting, "People don't learn."
Mayor Tony has plainly fallen victim to his own vanity and arrogance. Unless Tony dips into his campaign fund of millions of dollars to personally cover the bill, he should just say "Good job, Lakers." Spending like a drunken sailor? Even a drunken sailor would have more sense than what's being shown in most Los Angeles city spending.
LATE UPDATE: It looks like someone's having more sober thoughts on spending. Private VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTIONS are being sought to pay for the what the City was going to cover. Well, still, that's not saying the city will not spend a penny for this event, and when they say that, I will be satisfied.
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