Letters to the Editor

IA Commander Exposed

I love the excellent reporting of Stephen Downing on our ultra-corrupt Police Department. [LBPD IA Commander Exposed in Stonewall, Page 1] I know some of my friends think I am going too far when I call our Police Department corrupt. I have only this to say to those who think I should not say anything. The search for honor, for truth and for justice is not diminished when a good officer is included within the scope of inquiry. It is affirmed.

I cannot imagine why anyone would want to support bad apples whose main purpose is to rot the bunch in the basket. For the record, it is not just Stephen Downing who thinks this department is rotten to the core, the city’s Police Department is ranked dead last in the state. That did not occur by accident. And it will only be a matter of time before their corruption, their cover-ups, their “Thick Blue Line” and their power over our electeds [that] one of your own family is impacted.

Then you will stare blankly into space wondering at the injustice, imploring the world to come to your aid and defend your loved one. Sorry, it will be too late. Righteousness is not advanced by political posturing or pandering to power.

Robert Fox

Didn’t the recommendations by Polis Solutions, the city’s hired consultant for reforming or revamping the Citizens Police Complaint Commission, include eliminating the CPCC’s investigative ability and leaving that aspect entirely to Internal Affairs?

And after everything we’ve read and heard about the LBPD/IA we’re supposed to accept that as a viable solution supporting transparency and accountability?

Carlos Ovalle

LBPD’s Coverups

Regarding “LBPD Sergeant Arrested for DUI” [online Dec. 23 story appearing on page 7 of this print edition], while president of the Belmont Shore Resident’s Association, I was an outspoken critic of the Long Beach Police Department’s (LBPD) non-policing of crime and late-night bar disturbances in my shore community. In an attempt to shut me up, the LBPD released all of the details of my previous three-year-old DUI which the Press-Telegram published as a headline story in their Sunday edition.

I’m not making excuses. What I did was wrong, driving the eight blocks from a bar in Naples to my home on LaVerne Avenue. I should have walked. I am/was sorry, ashamed and pled no contest to the charges.

But what is even more wrong are the city employees, council people, police officers and firefighters who have since been charged with DUIs and worse crimes while the details of their crimes were never allowed to go public. The fact that my DUI made front page news in retaliation for my criticism of the LBPD while the city continues to protect its own criminal employees by refusing to release information about the crimes they are charged with is criminal in itself.

Michael Ruehle

Officers Arrested

Please tell me the story of the latest LBPD scandal in the Dec. 17 issue [Two LBPD Officers Arrested, Criminally Charged] has a serious misprint: “His bail was set at $2.” and “His bail was set at $1.” Please tell me this is just a simple misprint and there are some zeros missing. I’ve never seen anyone sentenced for such criminal activity with a token bail so low. If it were you or I it would be closer to $2 million, not one and two bucks.

Or is this another quid pro quo between the LBPD and the prosecutor’s office? I support law enforcement, but not when they get away with killing K-9 officers (remember Ozzy from three summers back?), innocent citizens and commit cover-ups via TigerText, etc.

This is just deplorable. Now that Mr. Luna is leaving, they’ll hire some chief from within, thus continuing the lifestyles and culture of the entitled and famous here in LB.

Name Withheld by Request

Garcia for Congress?

What? Did I see corectly on the local TV news that Robert Garcia is running for Congress? I guess this means that abandoning his job of leading Long Beach to follow now-Vice President Kamala Harris around like a puppy proved unsuccessful in garnering a higher position for our opportunistic, fame freak of a mayor.

One day after Alan Lowenthal announced he won’t be running for Congress again, there was our mayor, predictably itching once more to abandon his role for greener pastures. This despite the success of Measure BBB – affectionately referred to by some as “Bobby’s Big Bamboozle” – in which he hustled himself a third mayoral term by selling voters on a term extension disguised as a term limit.

But, schemes change, and now he’ll happily forego his self-created term extension in order to pursue a new opportunity for his narcissistic ambition of smirking self-promotion. He does, admittedly, have some talent in both promoting himself and conveniently filling seats with yes-men and yes-women.

One of his most absurd fiascos was the Broadway bike lane (aka “road diet”) disaster in which, without regard for or notification of the affected businesses, road and sidewalk construction was conducted through the all-important holiday shopping season, shutting down Broadway to customer traffic and killing business for the stores, restaurants and services along the Broadway business corridor. All of this on top of the fact that, adding insult to injury, the final plan for the sidewalk, bike lane and parking space design was surreptitiously switched from the one which had previously been promised to businesses.

This was the beginning of the end of Merry’s, my beloved small business of 14 years. My and other small business owners’ calls to the mayor were completely ignored; never once did he respond to our pleas for communication. Now Broadway is left with fewer businesses, much less parking (despite promises to the contrary), and, thanks to the dramatically reduced visibility, many more accidents.

More recently, look what happened to our local treasure, Community Hospital, when Garcia and his cronies took it over amid a flurry of promises of greatness. It is now closed, leaving East Long Beach residents without hospital services and overloading the remaining area hospitals in the middle of a pandemic. I wonder how much that inept caper cost taxpayers. What an embarrassment.

The only good news in Garcia’s announcement of his impending run for Congress is that he may finally be out of Long Beach and have less direct opportunity to smilingly run our city even further into the ground. The bad news is that voters may now advance to Congress this self-promoting charlatan who never misses an opportunity to further his political career by throwing us citizens under the bus – or into the bike lane, as the case may be.

Merry Colvin

Another Attaboy

Thank you for the one newspaper in our city that I read without exception. I look forward to receiving it and when it is not there, I wonder what I am missing regarding the real news of LB.

What prompted this message was Al Jacobs’ Straight Talk article, “The Foundation of Success.” It resounded deeply in my being because of the fine wordsmithing that Mr. Jacobs possesses and his knowledge of our true nature. That article needs to be published far and wide with accolades given to him for his observation and evaluation of our current state of affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobs, for putting into words what I and the “silent majority” have always known,

Paul Buberl