The District Weekly - Latest Comments in RACE RELATIONS

Re: RACE RELATIONS

income_importer — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:37:17 -0000

Dave in AB...I'm a bit late to this comment party, but snap snap to you! GP weekend is proof that the city can deal with its homeless problem the same way most of our neighboring cities do.

Let's chase them out of the city the rest of the year.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Shea_Shizzle — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:13:17 -0000

Wow... I walk by that park all the time, and I have actually had better conversations with homeless people there then I have had with City Council members! Do they fuck with the homeless in that park? Everyday... I have made note on numerous occasions of the police rolling up to that park and just hassling the nearest bum. It sucks that other people that live around that area don't say anything about it. Just cause they are homeless does not mean they deserve to be treated worse then a "tax payer". Mold was a problem until we realized penicillin helped cure disease... time to start looking at the same problems in a different way suckas!!!

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Fisch — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:26:28 -0000

lbresident:

This is nothing unique to Long Beach- pretty much all cities spend the majority of their general fund dollars on employee salaries. The 2% that the employees contribute to their retirement may sound like a pittance, but that is actually 25% of the total contribution (8%). Most cities pay the entire 7 or 8 %!

The problem with Long Beach isn't the employees, it's the unions that represent them and allow some people that wouldn't last a week in the private sector to enjoy exorbitant salaries for the work that they do (or don't do). It seems like almost everytime the City gets good, talented employees, they leave after a few years because they become frustrated with the way City Hall is run.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Pat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:01:12 -0000

who knew San Diego would be so progressive (on one issue, at least)!

Thanks for the info John. Letter writing to Judge Jean followed by... contacting local homeless and social outreach programs to do likewise.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Pat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:52:16 -0000

Hi lbresident. like the other week's discussion under Garcia's victory article, federal funds are coming into the city providing jobs and services. Those monies are absolutely coming from yours and my (that doesn't sound grammatically correct) pockets, but they are not part of the city budget bugaboo.

So I guess I was trying to point at that, despite any city hall issues, these services are a separate issue that won't be affected by budget cuts (or shouldn't be, unless the city were to reallocate federal funds, which I don't think they could do... now that would be a story to cover if there ever was one!)

Re: RACE RELATIONS

lbresident — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:12:09 -0000

Right. Because federal funds don't come from tax payers and are never used for infrastructure.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Pat — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:10:35 -0000

Thanks earlier for the links John. I do have a question that couldn't be answered from the City Service Division site. http://www.longbeach.gov/he...

Is there a homeless court in Long Beach like there is in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Orange, and elsewhere? Where those "penny warrants" can be taken care of through service hours or reduced fines as opposed to jail time (which costs a lot more than the price of the ticket/court fees/etc that lead to the warrant?

And notice (for those worried about $$$ not going to infrastructure) that the funding for the existing services is from federal funds. Just wanted to point that out.

thanks

Re: RACE RELATIONS

PatBryant — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:33:32 -0000

John's response makes sense to me. He has a position (rightly or wrongly), until proven otherwise. He's looking for more "facts" before he is willing to change his position.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Mike Ruehle — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:08:37 -0000

John, I don't have a position on this matter one way or the other. I am questioning the honesty of your analysis and the verbose way you twist an argument around. If Webster's definition of the word PRACTICE is not a reliable source, please provide another definition that you can hang your hat on.

The point I was trying to make is the police did not deny gathering up and moving homeless people had not occurred as you REPEATEDLY said. You have a tendency to take people to task for miniscule interpretation of wordings. I thought I'd throw it back at you to see how you liked it.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Dwight K Snider — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:05:41 -0000

Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day – Anonymous Complaint

“Every citizen has the right to make a complaint against any employee of the Police Department. The complaint may be made to any supervisor or the Internal Affairs Division.

“A complaint may be made in person, by telephone, by mail, by email, or by a person not directly involved in the incident. Complaints may also be made anonymously.

“The Department will release to the complaining party a copy of his or her own signed statement when the complaint is filed in person. All others will be mailed.”

(Source: City of Long Beach Police Department Citizen Complaint Procedure)

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Fact Finder — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:05:00 -0000

Dave, te last quote in your story says to come by Lincoln Park during the Grand Prix to see for yourself that the homeless are gone. Well, did you? That would have made your case. But it appears you didn't want to prove your case. You must have some other motive for this story. Fact is, I did go by Lincoln Park during the Grand Prix and there were still plenty of homeless out there just like the days before the Grand Prix. There goes that "theory"...

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Mike Ruehle — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:57:08 -0000

Hello John,

Why is it the information YOU “believe to be pertinent, reasoned, reasonable and, by the way factual”, are only the facts you choose NOT to ignore. I guess you missed the part of Dave’s story that said the “story came to me from representatives of homeless aid agencies, and they told it adamantly, in detail.” How about the part where Dave writes, “Hell, Officer McGee already told us—the Grand Prix is coming in, and everyone with a dollar warrant is going to jail,” says a man named Jay. He told me to tell all my friends. In actuality, somebody got taken to jail yesterday.” These are people who have actually witnessed and felt the police action. Apparently, their experiences do not qualify as facts to you because they haven’t been corroborated by you, a Long Beach Police Officer, apparently intent upon protecting your own.

You appear quick to discredit a person’s opinion about eyewitness reports as being “false and unless you have definitive and attributable proof that this is the case.” A fact does not require a person to fill out a police report and risk retaliation as mentioned in Dave’s article. As you well know, tons of crimes go unreported in Long Beach. Calls for police service are many more times the number of crimes reported. Are you asserting that a crime not reported “on the record” never occurred? Must it be on a police report to be a fact? Does not reporting in the news media constitute going “on the record?”

Furthermore, you claim “the LBPD PIO Office issued a statement to Dave DENYING this rumor” of police actions to move the homeless. That is untrue. If you read the PIO’s response, it DOES NOT say the police do not move the homeless during Grand Prix week. It says, “It is not our PRACTICE to move the homeless.” According to Webster’s Dictionary definition, PRACTICE means it is not customary. That wording by the PIO does not rule out the possibility of its occurrence. Moreover, the PIO statement did not specify when their PRACTICE applied or if it applied to the week of Grand Prix. The PIO statement would still be true if the police rounded up the homeless the week of Grand Prix but not the other 51 weeks of the year. If the police HAVE NOT and DO NOT move the homeless at certain times, WHY DIDN’T THE PIO SAY EXACTLY THAT? Moreover, why do you twist the PIO statement into a flat denial? It’s a FACT that they did not “deny” (declare untrue) the rumor as YOU say.

I wonder why that is? Oh, I forgot. There is a code among fellow police officers.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Guest — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:44:34 -0000

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Dave in Alamitos Beach — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:34:01 -0000

Amen brother, I say bring on the gentrification - it's moving slower than evolution.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Andy — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:06:46 -0000

OK, that stereotype ain't me and you're really showing your narrow black/white view of the world.

The great venues and cool shops are gone, but they were the reason I moved to LB in the first place. Look to the RDA and the ridiculous property value escalation that killed them.

But a-hole taggers and feckless bums that have grown faster than rust on the Queen Mary are not a side effect of gentrification, which I have yet to see any evidence of in downtown LB.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Guest — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:07:58 -0000

that comment was the personification of gentrification. thats how downtowns get ruined, yuppies buy condos and then complain, pretty soon there arent any homeless around, or nightclubs or any bars etc etc because condo owners dont like the noise, which was there when they decided to buy in that area.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Dave in Alamitos Beach — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:41:11 -0000

So if I've got this right, if a problem existed when you moved in to a place then you have no right to complain if it gets worse over the years?

Hmmm, the kids in the apartment next door to me were sweet when I moved in, but now they're grown up and wannabe gangsters. Should I not complain when they cover our apartment building with graffiti and shoot their guns?

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Guest — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:14:45 -0000

by all means feel free to complain about the homeless problem which was there when you chose to buy your property in that neighborhood, im not a censor.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:03:03 -0000

OK, I did say it had gotten worse. Anyhow, if it's cool with you, I'll keep bitching about it. And as I was discussing the situation with police officers, they indicated that it was primarily due to crackdowns elsewhere.

So, I see no reason why I (or the city) should be enabling the activities outlined above. Whether they were here before or after I moved in.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Guest — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:40:54 -0000

exactly, it was preexisting but you chose to move there anyways. in my mind that negates your right to complain about it.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:57:54 -0000

Definitely has gotten A LOT worse. I used to be able to go to Lincoln Park and not be asked for change every 3 minutes.

Didn't have guys sleeping on the lawn on the corner of 5th and Pacific mid-day.

And didn't have toothless meth addicts sh@tting in my side yard until this past year.

Not sure I get your analogy. As if I should accept this behavior because it was pre-existing.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Guest — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:47:25 -0000

when you moved in 11 years ago, were there homeless people around? this seems a bit like moving next to the airport and then complaining about the noise.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:22:43 -0000

You know, I used to be sympathetic to the LB homeless, but frankly, after living amongst them for 11 years and seeing the same folks day after day...not the families, not disturbed or disabled, not the "working poor"... it's enough.

Stop the feedings in Lincoln Park, stop the bus pick-ups and drop-offs, and sleeping in doorways day and night.

There's social services to assist folks once off the street, for which I'll happily pay more taxes. But letting folks camp, drink, defecate, and harass (yes, aggressive panhadling is harassment) in our public spaces should be subject to actively being evicted from the area. And if you've got an outstanding warrant, off you go.

Sorry. I've just had enough. Time for them to uphold their end. They're not all homeless veterans.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

lbresident — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:01:33 -0000

actually it's probably the transit fees.

Re: RACE RELATIONS

lbresident — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:50:29 -0000

Doesn't the city pay for the LB Transit services?