The mayor of one of CaliforniaThe country’s most criminal cities said on Thursday that efforts to de-finance its city’s police department had gone “too far” after violent crime jumped to levels not seen in 15 years since the movement was launched in the summer in 2020
Auckland Mayor Libby Schaaf told Politico in an interview that her city urgently needs to address the “root causes” of the rise. crimeonly months later democrat he suddenly turned to the campaign against the cops late last year after seeing murders and violent crimes rise to alarming levels.
“I think it was a correction of the ‘financing’ conversation, which I personally think has gone too far and gone wrong,” Schaaf, a Democrat who previously supported the movement, told Politico.
“I think everyone agrees that we need to invest much more in prevention, in the root causes of crime, and in particular in our mental health system, which is completely failing us, both in terms of crime and homelessness,” he said. Shaaf.
Auckland Mayor Libby Schaaf said her city had to deal with the “root causes” of rising crime and homelessness, just months after the Democrat launched a campaign against cops late last year after seeing killings and violence crime is on the rise in 2021
The city, a stone’s throw from San Francisco – which is struggling with its own surge in violent crime – recorded 134 homicides in 2021, almost double the 78 that occurred two years earlier in 2019. Auckland also registered nearly 7,000 violent crimes last year, many of them coming in a bloody crime wave around Thanksgiving.
Among those killed were retired police officer and father of two Kevin Nishita, as well as a one-year-old boy who was hit by a bullet while sitting in the back of his mother’s car. Both killings took place in broad daylight.
The worried increase worried Shaaf, she said, urging the city to implement a proposal in December to add two new police academies, unfreeze positions in the department and hire 60 new staff.
The move was a sudden change in the city council’s decision last June, which would cut $ 18.5 million from the Auckland Police Department budget, a move criticized by Auckland Police Chief Leron Armstrong, who said at the time that ” crime is out of control ‘in the city.
The city, a stone’s throw from San Francisco, surrounded by such crime, recorded 134 murders in 2021 – almost double the 78 that were committed two years earlier in 2019, before the movement began
“There is a clear problem in this city,” Auckland Police Chief Leron Armstrong said late last year, addressing a wave of violent crime and a rising murder rate.
“It was particularly heartbreaking in Auckland because we had just been in the national headlines for halving gun violence and maintaining those lower levels for five years,” said Schaaf, who was elected in 2015. She had in mind the high homicide rate in the city, which has reached levels not seen since 2006, when the city registered an unusual 148 murders.
Levels then fluctuated in double digits over the next decade and a half, before jumping sharply from 78 observed in 2019 to 109 in 2020 – the same years calling for police release stimulated by the Black Lives Matter movement were introduced seriously.
“When we saw this leap occur during the pandemic – and, let’s be honest, after George Floyd, after this country just saw that its faith in government justice was compromised – we were just heartbroken,” he added. Shaaf.
The city has seen nearly 7,000 violent crimes, the second highest in the state
Oakland’s police force of sworn officers now stands at 676, below the 2014 voter-approved measure that requires the police department to have at least 678 sworn officers. The city, which boasts a population of more than 400,000, started this year with 723.
“When we listen to the communities that have been most affected,” Schaaf said on Thursday, “and when you look at gun violence, the communities that pay the highest price are the communities that pay the highest price in all areas, whether we are talking about income inequality, food insecurity, [or] housing insecurity ”.
After initially supporting the Defund Police movement, Schaaf stepped down in December and proposed a plan to hire 60 more police officers, which was immediately adopted.
She added: “So we hear loud and clear that justice is something they want.”
Auckland, known for its violent bandit and gun violence in the 1980s and 1990s, which dates back to the early 2000s, has been cleansed in the last decade after Auckland County Attorney Nancy O’Malley, who has a reputation of high crime and has hired prosecutors from all over the country to deal with the violence, was appointed in 2009.
The Alameda County Representative opposed criminal justice reforms and won the support of police unions in 2018.
So far in 2022, the average number of violent crimes in the city has exceeded the number seen in the same period last year, when crime reached unprecedented heights since mid-2000.
Auckland City Council is considered a longtime ally of the Black Lives Matter movement, but has returned to police support as violent crime is on the rise. in Auckland)
Barry Donelan, president of the Auckland Police Association, said late last year that police were “leaving en masse” for other cities where they would not be reprimanded by supporters of the Release Police. He also called on council members to thank the police, not slander them.
Auckland Police Chief Leron Armstrong also told a news conference at the time: “I am asking council members to step up and start talking about the loss of life in this city.”
“The shootings are a real indication of increasing violence in our community,” Armstrong added. “It’s really alarming to see 50 percent shooting up.”
The city of Auckland previously voted to cut the budget of the police department, but withdrew in December with plans to increase the number of cops (Pictured: Auckland police are investigating a deadly shooting that killed a man and a former police captain in Auckland was shot several times in an attempted robbery on October 21)
The Fresno County Attorney’s Office criticized Governor Newsom and called him “either ignorant … or a liar” for his comments, praising the work state law has done to reduce crime despite the rise in crime.
Gov. Gavin Newsham has previously said a number of measures, including Proposal 47, Proposal 57 and Assembly Bill 109, have helped reduce crime in California, Fox News reported.
He also seems to suggest that more work needs to be done by law enforcement and state prosecutors if the state sees a reduced crime rate.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (pictured November 10, 2021) is largely blamed for the state’s crime spike following his support for Proposal 47
California Proposal 47 – Minor Convictions for Thieves
Proposal 47 was adopted by voters in California on November 5, 2014.
He turned some “non-violent” property crimes, in which the value of the stolen goods did not exceed $ 950, into crimes.
He also turned some “simple” drug possession crimes into crimes and allowed past sentences for those charges to be reduced to a crime by the court.
However, under California law, if two or more individuals conspire to “defraud and defraud a person or property by any means that are inherently criminal,” they could face up to one year in prison in the county, a fine of $ 10,000 or a combination of both.
Governor Newsom, who survived last September’s recall election, has been repeatedly called “awakened” by conservatives for his position in criminal justice.
Newsom’s support for proposal 47, for example, is well documented.
The three state laws were introduced under former Gov. Jerry Brown, with whom Newsom worked for eight years.
Proposal 47 reduces some crimes to offenses, Proposal 57 reduces imprisonment, and Bill 109 moves detainees from state prisons to local prisons.
However, contrary to Newsum’s comments, the number of high-level killings in California is rising.
Homicide killings in Los Angeles have risen nearly 40 percent since 2019, after the county reported nearly 400 homicides in late 2021.
In 2019, Los Angeles reported a total of 252 homicides, the lowest level since 2014.
Then, in 2020, homicides rose to 343 and continued to rise in 2021, as Los Angeles reported 397 deaths by the end of the year.
Drawing attention to the three laws he praised, Newsom also seems to suggest that more work needs to be done by law enforcement and district attorneys.
He said: “We need arrests and we need prosecution. We need people to be held accountable. No one approves of this behavior – quite the opposite.
He added that he believed that Proposal 47 had been used as an excuse not to make arrests or hold people accountable for their crimes.