Los Angeles is such a poorly run city that Mayor Karen Bass has to weaken the city’s police department even further for budgetary purposes.
Bass announced that her proposed budget would include around 1,650 layoffs and the elimination of another roughly 1,000 unfilled jobs as the city tries to make up a deficit of around $1 billion. In this process, Los Angeles will still be increasing its budget by 8.2%. The deficit has been driven in part by a $259 million increase in labor contracts and weaker tax revenues as people have continued to leave the city.
The Los Angeles Police Department will be the hardest hit by these cuts. Bass intends to cut more than 400 civilian positions at LAPD. These positions include 911 operators, detention officers who book and fingerprint criminals, and associate community officers through ACOP, the feeder program that helps transition LAPD youth program participants into becoming sworn officers…