Public Safety

On March 26 I was leaving Home Depot when I encountered a small group of police officers apprehending two men. As I stood next to my car rubbing sanitizer and getting ready to pull out my keys, I noticed one of the police officers scratching his face while wearing gloves. A second police officer was leaning against a pickup truck cradling his face with both his gloved hands.

None of the six to eight officers present were wearing masks, keeping a social distance or behaving in a way consistent with their safety or the safety of others.

Around this time social distancing was not new and many, if not most of us, were wearing masks. I was already making masks and had offered them gratis to the Long Beach Health Department and Mayor Garcia. The city’s actions show a blatant disregard for the safety of essential personnel and the public.

Carlos Ovalle

Many years ago, we had Los Angeles and Lakewood sheriffs working parts of East Long Beach 90808. They did a great job and did not have the turmoil as we see now. Response times were good and no politics, no Lobstergate, no Somali pirate games/corruption and no supervisor command level to patrol harassment.

Equally important if not more so, no unfunded pensions, no mayor measure A lies for more officers and better responsiveness (overtime lies resulting in wealth for a few special officers) and no major legal settlements for wrongful death, brutality, harassment and more. In full retrospect that seemed like a great program and massive savings to the city politically, liability and financially.

Wade Rowland