As a young LAPD recruit, the first thing I learned when I pinned on a badge was simple but profound: power must always be visible and accountable. A nameplate, a badge number, an agency insignia – those aren’t just pieces of metal and cloth.
As a former LAPD Deputy Chief, and before that a captain in South Central Los Angeles, I have lived through the history of police officers being assigned to schools.
Many years ago, as a newly minted New York City restaurant manager, I was reviewing the restaurant’s service contracts. I noted what appeared to be the exorbitant monthly trash collection charge.
What happened last week at Andres Car Wash and Coast Hand Car Wash was not immigration enforcement. It was a dragnet of terror. ICE agents stormed the Long Beach properties without judicial warrants, snatching up workers in defiance of a court order that explicitly prohibited raids of this kind.
I owe Ian Patton, executive director and co-founder of the Long Beach Reform Coalition (LBRC), credit for sparking this piece. His recent Facebook post broke down a staggering truth in plain numbers: Long Beach just spent $6 million for 12 beds in a decrepit, dangerous industrial zone.
Four years ago this month, my wife and I pulled into the bustling parking lot at 1901 E Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. It was our first visit to Mariscos El Garage, a family-run seafood truck we had just read about in a moving LA TACO feature. The lot was packed. Lines were long.
We arrived early – my wife, several neighbors, and I – stepping off the municipal bus at 8:30 a.m. near Bixby Park, a half-hour before the No Kings Day demonstration was scheduled to begin. But it was already clear: this wasn’t going to be an ordinary protest.
Mayor Rex Richardson told the LB Post that there’s nothing the city – or the Long Beach Police Department – can do to stop federal immigration agents from violently disrupting peaceful demonstrations in our community.
