(One can dream!)
I’m going to keep mum about what I really think, mostly because I never cared for Bratton. Politicos and most media sources are falling over themselves to heap more praise, which is to be expected. But La Crisis is intensifying, not diminishing. Crimes of necessity are going to come back in style. And I bet that pesky little narco war is going to spill over into LA sometime soon. Rich folks need their supply of fun.
But this is what I really think: he is leaving now because things are about to get really bad. Better to leave before the stats turn negative.
Discuss.
Gentrification drove a lot of gang violence to cities surrounding LA, too. Police pat themselves on the back way too much. Your theory is a likely scenario, El Chavo. The shit probably is about to hit the fan in LA, and he’s bailing now. Look at those bicyclists getting attacked by a gang in Highland Park. The sounding of the bell?
I would totally leave dodge if I was Bratton. LA is about to get crazy. People from the East Coast are going to figure out why people lived two hours away. I’m excited, yet nervous. Is my old LA coming back, the LA I hated and loved?
Oh yeah don’t forget I read something about a mandate to let everyone out of jail, since the jails in LA are inhumane, YAY, sort of….
Me and BusTard were talking about this, the money flowing was able to pay people off and to stop certain things from happening in certain sections town, like downtown, but now that there isn’t any money to pay off the bad guys the bad guys are going to have to go back to terrorizing their neighborhoods again.
@ramon – yes, neighbors are using drugs, but, so are the people who drive into working class communities to buy drugs.
You don’t see the reverse, where some poor folks go into an affluent neighborhood to buy a small bag of weed.
Statistically, it’s the wealthier people who use more illegal drugs.
Bratton left town ’cause he can afford to. He’s got a pension from Boston PD, NYPD, and now LAPD. The company he’s joining is going pay him a seven figure salary – why shouldn’t he cash in now when he can?
As far as LA spinning down the crapper – there is some validity in that thinking. The riots of ’92 were a byproduct of the recession that hit in ’90-’91, among other reasons of course. The California budget crisis that has resulted in the cutting of social services, the dumping of prisoners, and the loss of jobs has got to have some effects. I think things will get wild again for a minute.
Chavo, I agree with you all the way. I think Bratton is a savvy guy, and that he sees what is on the horizon in L.A.
Better to leave right at the cusp of collapse with your reputation intact than to ride the long bumpy roller coaster towards a smaller, materially poorer, L.A.
We still don’t have productive industries that hire from our hardest hit areas – so we’re really on a collision course with history. It’s back to the bad old days I guess. So sad. I was starting to like walking around the ‘hood in the evening free of fear.