Weak Leadership

Thank you so much for a fantastic summary [Beachcombing 6/5/20] of who didn’t do what and what should have been done during the riots of this past week. Love your writing and the letters that were posted as well. We are underrepresented and misrepresented as residents of this community by the weak leadership and all surrounding the mayor in this city.

John Luyben

I am writing in response to your [Beachcombing] article in the June 6 issue. Sorry, but everybody’s a critic.

I am a 61-year-old, white, male, heterosexual American and a longtime Long Beach resident. I am a liberal humanist, but also a responsible gun owner. I am also a lawyer, in practice for over 30 years, who has represented law enforcement officers and criminals alike.

Suggesting shooting young black men (admit it, that’s who you picture doing the looting) was a bad idea. Frankly, that would be exactly the kind of excessive force against minorities that is at the root of the issues currently up for debate in the street. Yes, the demonstrations tie up the cops so that the criminals get away with looting. But that does not mean you start shooting people.

I suspect that, if you had a night to sleep on it, you might have taken out the reference to shooting looters. You did give a pretty clear and concise description of how the police might handle such arrests in the field. But you fell off the cliff when you started opining about the use of firearms.

Additionally, the reference to Dirty Harry and a .44 magnum was a bad idea. It made you seem an old, bitter white man. And suggesting that you would wield a Smith and Wesson Model 29 appeared to be the armchair musings of a guy who doesn’t know much about firearms. Suffice it to say that there are sound reasons no police or military agency carries a .44 magnum – a cartridge designed as a sidearm for big game hunting, not home/business defense.

Russell Cole

[I wrote what I meant and meant what I wrote. Changing my non-racist description of thugs to “young, black men” is repugnant. Dictating the type of weapon I should use to protect my home or business is offensive, twisted logic as well. – Jay Beeler]

Flatfooted, keystone cops. Less than truthful Chief Luna. Go slow appeasing Garcia. All come to forefront when hearing how Long Beach was trashed while lazy city leaders left the activities to crowd corruption running the streets. Where is law enforcement? Did Major Garcia believe he could talk the crowd into this council hypnotic nonsense?

Long Beach leadership was robbed by major mundane mayor and the police chief while the crowds robbed and pilfered throughout the city!

All this happened because the major miscreant mayor and lazy Luna did not see the obvious threat that most others saw when they boarded up their businesses! Who would want to open a business in this lawless town? LB coddles crowds while ignoring those paying business license fees, property taxes and spending years investing in this city.

Long Beach leadership has some real explaining to do to the business community and property owners. Once again Long Beach loses by its liberal lazy leadership. We all know that early arrival of the national guard could have prevented this. Instead the ineffective major mayor really thought “talking nice” to a hooligan crowd was the answer.

Wade Rowland