Garcetti and LA city leaders call for cutting police funding
With calls to reduce police spending circulating among protesters who have taken to the streets to protest police brutality, several powerful Los Angeles city leaders on Wednesday called for the scaling back of the Los Angeles Police Department budget.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said in his briefing that he has called on top city budget advisers to find $250 million in cuts to the city budget, “so we can invest in jobs, and health and education and healing.”
Police Commission President Eileen Decker said that their civilian oversight committee will be seeking $100 million to $150 million in cuts from the LAPD budget itself.
Garcetti said funding would be directed to benefit the black community, adding that “racial justice is something worth fighting for, and something worth sacrificing.”
Garcetti also said there will be a moratorium on putting names of people into the CalGang database. The state attorney general is reviewing the LAPD’s use of the database California’s attorney general said his office will review how the Los Angeles Police Department has been using the state’s CalGang database, after some officers last year were found to have been falsifying information about innocent people and labeling them as gang members.
Decker, who joined the mayor Wednesday evening, said the civilian oversight board “is listening” and said they are “establishing an aggressive reform agenda.”
“But we must do more,” she said. Decker said there will be a “review and revision of the police department budget.” They will be hunting for $100 million to $150 million in cuts. She also will “advocate for change to the city charter regarding the discipline of officers.”
The police commission on Tuesday heard from hundreds of people, many of whom called for the firing of police Chief Michel Moore and for more accountability demanded of officers who use deadly force on members of the public.
“The demonstration of the last few days has been transformative for the people of Los Angeles, for California and for our nation,” Decker said Wednesday.
This came hours after Council President Nury Martinez and four other members of the 15-person City Council called for the police department budget to be slashed by between $100 million and $150 million.
This proposal came as the council has been under pressure from activists to shift city funding away from the police department and to other programs, such as those that help keep people housed, communities safe and provide aid and assistance to those who are financially challenged.
