thependulumswings

Over 25 years ago a very famous man very nearly severed his ex-wife’s head from her body while savagely killing her, killed a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time while he was there, and left an unmistakable trail of his own incriminating blood at the crime scene all the way back to his residence.

Can you imagine getting a jury of 12 of your peers that would unanimously agree that, upon further review, you were innocent?  “Only in America,” Don King would have said.  “Only in Los Angeles,” former NFL great Orenthal James Simpson said.

It’s also been said by many on many occasions that his innocence was payback to a police force and a city (supposedly of angels) that used excessive force in subduing Rodney King after a prolonged car chase captured on camera.  “Enough of this police brutality,” they screamed.

Now, a quarter of a century later, L.A. is still determined to fix that problem.  The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal by a 4-1 vote on Tuesday to amend the city’s charter to remove $880 million from law enforcement and “reinvest” the money in “direct community investment” and “alternatives to incarceration.”   Minneapolis has more in common with LA than sharing the Lakers it seems.

Like the jury vote to acquit, the general population will have their say on the proposal on November 3rd.

Titled, “Reimagining L.A. County: Shifting Budget Priorities to Revitalize Under-resourced and Low-income Communities,” the proposal includes language frequently used by Democrat politicians and the broader left. It alleges the existence of “systemic discrimination, exclusion, and inequity” targeting blacks and yielding “racial injustice” and “racial inequity.”

The $880 million is 10% of the current law enforcement budget.  It would “strictly prohibit any of these funds to be used in law enforcement.  Rather it would provide  “access to capital for small minority-owned businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses.” It also prescribes the use of “community-based restorative justice” among its “alternatives to incarceration.”

Usually, when big government has identified a problem, they want to throw more money at it as a solution.  In this instance they are taking it away.  But, in this instance, they are also throwing it, just in a different direction.  Don’t cut taxes, just spend it differently.

Are fewer cops, or less well-paid cops a better idea?  Or would the same amount of them, but better trained, supervised, and evaluated be a better idea?

Or, is community-based restorative justice be a better idea than incarceration?  What does community-based restorative justice mean anyway?  Is there a social worker who can work with us on this explanation?

And what is this “access to capital for small minority-owned businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses?”   Does this sound like a hand up or a handout?  And, is there a direct correlation between more money government money for minority businesses and less crime?  Is there a social worker who, hell, nevermind.

The city that has run away from supporting NFL franchises faster than OJ, finger cut and all, exited 875 South Bundy Rd.  It will now try to support minority businesses while defunding the police.  Or, will it?

Will 51% of the city’s registered voters will go for this?

Would you have thought that 12 jurors would agree after a mere four hours of deliberation that OJ would benefit from “alternatives to incarceration?”  Alternatives might have helped Rodney King as well.  He was arrested and jailed at least 12 additional times after the 1991 incident.

In 2020 nothing is impossible.  Or, given the state of the times, should we say “impossible is nothing?”