The video above uses the 2013 shooting at LAX to lobby for more funding from the public purse for the City of Angels po-po. According to the union, “department cuts have created unsafe conditions for Angelenos. Because of budget cuts, the SWAT team that normally respond to dangerous shootings like this one were unavailable to respond to a situation where a gunman opened fire in a busy terminal at LAX.” No mention, then, of the police cluster-you-know-what that allowed the shooter to commit his heinous crime unimpeded (until he was). Just to remind you how lax LAX was in terms of “homeland security,” here’s Wikipedia’s report on the police response . . .
On March 18, a released 83-page report highlighted flaws in various divisions and current systems of the airport, adding that emergency response had been hindered by “communication problems and poor coordination”. The report also laid out an estimated 50 recommendations, including one for training airport police to be trained in tactical medicine and for training paramedics to enter more dangerous zones earlier with the protection of law enforcement.
In addition, it was critical of the current airport emergency management program, saying that it was “not well-defined or widely understood across the agency, or perhaps even respected”. It was also reported that at the time of the shooting, a union representing the airport’s lower-level employees was not trained for an evacuation and did not know what to do or how to help passengers.
Jeffrey David Cox, Sr., the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the lack of coordination “absolutely unacceptable” and criticized the report as being incomplete and failing to note the two airport officers who were not on their shifts at the time of the shooting.
More money ought to sort all that out. Or not. Anyway, a quick reminder . . .
The LAPD Chief of Police/General Manager administers an annual budget of $1.189 billion and has over 10,354 sworn officers under his jurisdiction (not to mention 4k+ more employees). His employees enjoy generous pensions and health care benefits. Meanwhile, as a result of the usual prolific, profligate government spending, LA’s facing severe financial difficulties . . .
“The next fiscal year, the city’s deficit could be as much as $242 million,” scpr.org reports. “That’s about $90 million more than what the city’s top budget official had anticipated. The growing shortfall is the result of unexpected salary and health care costs for city workers. It also includes $45 million in un-budgeted overtime for firefighters and police officers.”
Funny how that police overtime stat didn’t make it into the video. Anyway, perhaps the answer is to encourage LA residents to tool-up in their own defense, as the Detroit PD have been doing as of late. But then that idea is a slippery slope, from dependence on and subservience to the state, to individual responsibility and personal liberty. And we can’t have that, can we?
[h/t DrVino]
I live here. The city and union are fighting over the service contract.
Expect fire and brimstone, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.
Support for your right to keep and carry arms? Naw… fugitabout it. We just exist to pay the bill.
While I empathize with Californians being subjects to the whims of their politicians and their PDs………I am thankful I reside in a state which respects the 2a.
Rest assured, any government will take away any right they can, if the populous allows. Stay vigilant, and vote accordingly.
So how about a layered defense like most of the rest of the country? The police carry, civilians cary. Bad guy get stopped.
Too sensible. MOAR COPZ! WE GOTS TO HAZ MOAR COPZ!
1 guy shoots at an airport in CA and the response is a media feeding frenzy and a statewide move for more money to combat such behavior..
yet, Automatic gunfire aimed at border patrol agents, cant muster up enough of a response from the media to even be mentioned, except on fox.
nice piece here:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3359807
If The Border Is Secure, Obama and Reid, YOU Stand On It
I think you should back up your bull**** with a demonstration of your beliefs.
Or you could retract your lie.
EXCLUSIVE: RINCON PENINSULA, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when high-caliber weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com.
The weapons were fired at the U.S. side of the riverbank in the area of the Rincon Peninsula across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, at about 8:30 p.m., sources said. Bullets ricocheted into an area where Border Patrol agents were positioned, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told FoxNews.com.
The Border Patrol agents believe the rounds are .50 cal too, and given the range involved there, that well might be the case.
Good thing the shooters are pretty bad shots or we’d have some dead agents.
Further, as soon as the shooting stopped a few dozen “people” (note the word invaders is not used) came out on the US side and turned themselves in — so it appears the intention of the barrage was suppressive fire (that is, to make the agents put their head down so they can’t see) while the invaders came across.
Yes, folks, invaders.
What do you call it when an armed force lays down suppressive fire across a border so that their people can come in? That is an act of war (shooting) and an invasion.
Quit mincing words folks and call this crap what it is.
-end-
Come on, that was not an “act of war” unless it was planned or carried out by their gov, but it did come from across the border aimed at the US, so I would call this a terrorist act! Whoever did that, just gave us a good reason to use our drones!
I say we find out the names and locations of each and every one of those terrorists… then use Predator drones to BOMB THEM ALL TO HELL!!!
I would think that Detroit is an interesting model for other cities. I was in Detroit briefly last year. The city itself seemed to be post apocalyptic. Driving around the old defunct airport things were pretty much abandoned with only hair salons, nail parlors, mini marts and liquor stores. No thugs were visible and there wasn’t much potential business for thugs. Go into the immediate suburbs and things are thriving with new international businesses moving in and nice communities. These communities will resurrect the area although the City of Detroit will probably never be what it was. Although lots of reasons are given as to why cities are failing, most commonly white flight and companies moving operations out of the country, the real reason is the cities are miss managed and fleeced by the bureaucrats and politicians. Cities like LA will always need more money right up to the point they can’t get anymore. Then they will crumble and the citizens will build something better.
…And we shall call it Delta City!
The site URL of PUBLICSAFETYFIRST.COM is hilariously ironic for LA / California in general.
Aren’t we responsible for out own public safety first? Then Local? Then higher orders if necessary? Oh wait, most CA residents are limited in their own rights to public safety… FML.
It’s a pretty poor excuse. LAX doesn’t seem to have any more or less cops than any other major airport I travel to. Most just sit outside in their cars along the dropoff/pickup strip.
Newark and JFK have the most out of any I’ve seen – a lot of Port Authority cops walking around with nothing to do.
LAPD is currently in budget negotiations for a raise. Not sure how much they’ll get. I’m thinking 2-4%, but I’ve been wrong before.
I know this site reports on cop related news but how is this guns or 2nd amendment related?
It’s related to a shooting.
So the second responders want more money to tag and bag…
How about getting rid of the ridiculous gun laws of LA.
When I get solicitation calls for donations to police organizations it gives me the opportunity to ask how much money I would have to donate to keep them from kicking in my door without a warrant. That question isn’t on their canned response sheet.
Not one more dime for F’ing pigs. Firefighters YES…SWATZies NO.
CA firefighters need all the funding they can get
1) Crime rates have been dropping all over the country (except in Chicago). Having the LAPD take credit for the crime rate drop in LA is tenuous at best.
2) Maybe there would be SWAT teams available to respond to shootings at LAX if they weren’t already deployed serving no-knock warrants on non-violent offenders, throwing flash-bangs into cribs and shooting golden retrievers.
3) The LAPD is world renown for having three officers shoot a homeless man in the back on camera and get away with it.
I wonder just what a SWAT Team could have added to the LAX shooting scene by getting there 15+ minutes later. Just more chaos and an MRAP, I suspect. GREAT theater for the evening news too.
Here’s a clue: Leave the Government Operator toys home, and take staggered breaks. And don’t hide in the bathroom when you’re supposed to be working.
The LAPD is a liability to the city and those that live there. Don’t think for a moment that they won’t get their raise.
It’s one guy in the airport. Don’t only need SWAT to make entry. I understand the possible second shooter/covert watcher theory, but still need the street POs to go in and get this job done; the SWAT guys would still be targets for this person and could slow then down just as fast as the street guys making entry. They get paid well enough for not what they do but what they may have to do. Isn’t their SWAT team a full-time special assignment? What were they doing in meantime? Hope they were back on the streets. An alternative to not having the team ready at all times would be to let those with the training and weapons continue to tote their special weapons in the trunks of their vehicles while on basic patrol, not just access when in the team formation. Give them a special $2.99 patch on their shoulder denoting the privilege.
“training paramedics to enter more dangerous zones earlier with the protection of law enforcement.”
Good luck with that one. It’s still not safe just having the police to with them and, like almost every other FD, will be against the GOs. In active shooter situations, they shouldn’t be sparing a PO to protect a paramedic when they should be in hunter mode. When the ALS guys get seriously hurt/die, then you have serious problems. Get the bad guy first, let the FD get organized ad ready to flood the place once the treat is terminated.
Yeah, why not give them a raise and blow more dough the area probably does not have. Maybe, if the blow enough, they will crater in and have the place look like a the Escape From LA Movie. Maybe it already does.
I’m looking forward to LA’s municipal bankruptcy, which would be the biggest in history. Full employment for Cali lawyers!
Let them eat bread, and fight to the death over it.
The Laugh is LAX has it’s own Police Dept. outside of the L.A.P.D. and a Swat team I do believe as well. The battle is L.A.P.D. has been wanting to take the Airport jurisdiction over and the funding that goes with it for years. But the airport commision and the locals around the airport have battled against it for years. From sources I have been told L.A.P.D. was given funding by the Airport commission to pay for a bomb squad techs for the airport needs. They took the funding but somehow don’t find the time to patrol the airport.
And there you have it!: Cops stated it themselves that they cannot always be there to protect you, and need more funding so they can be at the scene of your homicide.
….. I think I’d rather carry a gun myself than support the “Post-Homicide Patrol.”
But if they want support, here is what I have to say: “You will get support, when law-abiding gun owners are given more support – like lifting the ban on magazines over 10 rounds. Until then: Nothing!”
Would you ever tell someone they are limited to throwing 10 punches in a fight??? 10 punches are all they really need? It’s completely stupid!
I kept waiting for Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck to show up in the cartoon. I was disappointed.
I read that the LAPD has 10,000+ POs. Yet the cartoon puts 3 in 10 on the streets. With that many POs they could put a cop on foot patrol on every block in LA. I think I may have figured out what the problem might be.
Doesn’t LAX World Airport (LAWA) have its own law enforcement personnel that is completely seperate from the LAPD?
Not buying it. For starters, there were so many SWAT teams to respond to the Washington Navy Yard shooting, that many teams had to be turned away from helping. There’s no reason to believe that L.A., long regarded as the most militarized municipal police force, is any less overly staffed and equipped.
But hey, let’s look at L.A’s own record, shall we? They managed to pull out the stops and muster thousands of officers to hunt down Dorner last year. Ohhh….but that’s when one of their own had been murdered. Where’s that full court press when regular people are gunned down?
That’s what it comes down to: serving themselves and protecting their own.
“I’ll kick things off with an admission: TTAG publishes a lot of stories highlighting police incompetence, arrogance, lack of accountability and general thugitude. These articles invariably unleash a stream of anti-cop comments. Does that make America’s most popular firearms blog anti-cop? At the risk of alienating a significant number of law enforcement officers who participate here . . .
Yes. Yes we are.”
Sept. 15, 2012
And it continues…
The taxpayers are paying for it.
Allow me to remind you of one salient fact of the universe, called “The Golden Rule.”
“He who has the gold, makes the rules.”
In other words, taxpaying citizens of this country don’t even need to say “please” to cops. Cops are paid (and in California, rather handsomely) to do a job. If they were volunteers, then we should say “please.” As it is, and especially in Kahl-ee-fornia, the LEO unions are bleeding the cities, counties and state dry. The unfunded liabilities of the public employee (and especially LEO and prison guard unions’ plans, which allow for retirement at 50) pensions are staggering.
If cops don’t want to get grief from the taxpayers, then they can deep-six their union management, put in some people with some fiscal rectitude, and start acting like part of the solution instead of the majority of the problem.
There’s a reason why investors like yours truly increasingly won’t buy muni paper from states like CA: We no longer believe we’re going to get repaid. The numbers no longer come close to adding up.
http://www.publicceo.com/2014/04/calpers-hikes-rate-459-million-funding-still-low/
In a thought somewhat unrelated. When I lived in San Diego years ago, I had a case of mistaken identity in the early morning hours. The point I’m making is it took like 5 or 6 patrol cars worth of cops to mistakenly pull me over while walking. For a burglary up the street. I’m figuring LA to be similar in nature. Wasted manpower. Wasted money, time etc. Dysfunctional army of cops. It’s like that here in Kansas, in the city I live in as well. The cops here are terrible at best. Just saying. I do give credit to the decent ones, but…
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