There is now a list of 29 calls for service in the city of Los Angeles where armed police officers will no longer be dispatched.
What’s startling about his list is it did not originate in a collaboration between the Defund the Police crowd and leftists on the city council or in the faculty lounge at Fantasy Sociology University.
What makes this list unique is that it was generated and approved by the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) which is the rank-and-file police officer’s union!
It’s not surprising when a police union decides to abandon parking enforcement or barking dog complaints that are not particularly good uses of an officer’s time.
In fact, KTLA quotes Police Protective League President Craig Lally when he says, "police officers are often sent to respond to too many calls that may be better suited for unarmed service providers."
What’s surprising is when a police union also wants to stop being dispatched to calls that have the potential to go bad very quickly.
Many of the 28 situations are overkill (no pun intended) for armed officers.
These calls include:
- Public Health Order violations
- Parking violations
- Abandoned vehicles
- Person(s) dumping trash
Those are routine calls that non-sworn city employees can handle one their own without a police presence.
The seven calls that have the potential to go bad and have gone bad in the past are where Los Angeles must be introducing crystal ball policing that can predict the future.
Let’s start with "non-criminal mental health calls."
Almost 25% of the individuals who are shot and killed by police officers are suffering from some type of mental health crisis.
Is the LAPPL agreeing with police critics who say the armed officer is at fault in all these situations? And the situation would be calmed if the responding personnel were unarmed?
Or could it be that an individual determined to commit suicide by cop will keep attacking people until the police finally arrive?
And in this instance he will start his attack on the unarmed people sent by the city?
Are crystal ball predictive powers that accurate?
The next listing is for a "welfare check."
Now that sounds harmless.
Did an elderly person drop their Life Alert and just couldn’t reach it?
Yet when you do a search on "welfare check shooting" you get 15,400,000 results.
Even with the overlap inherent in any online search, these results make this call much more than your garden variety routine event.
Today’s last example is "illegal gambling."
These participants are already breaking the law. And the city intends to send Sally Social Worker or Monty Mental Health Expert to break up the game?
In most of these games that person is going to be the only one in the area who isn’t armed!
Are Sally or Monty going to supervise the distribution of money?
What about soothing the ruffled feelings of the losers who won’t be able to continue in a futile effort to recoup their losses?
The union claims that "it will work with the city and the Police Department to develop protocols if an armed response becomes necessary after the first unarmed response has already been deployed."
That’s reassuring.
The clock starts ticking when the social workers are dispatched and it continues to tick while the call breaks bad and another urgent call for help goes out for armed police.
In many instances when the police finally roll up to the scene it will be too late.
The genesis for this change appears to be because the police union has embraced the anti–police thinking of its critics.
Case in point: "The union also says these changes could ease concerns from the general public regarding armed officers responding to any and all calls for service."
The only "public" that objects to armed officers responding are criminals, their family members and anti–police leftists.
If Los Angeles goes through with this change, the social workers on the front lines had better hope that dispatchers keep the police department crystal ball well-polished.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.