City Council president favored defunding, had her own police unit

FPI / June 10, 2020

From April until June of this year, an LAPD unit, often staffed by two officers, was ordered to stand watch outside the home of Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, LAPD sources confirmed to Spectrum News 1.

The cost to taxpayers was reportedly $100,000.

Meanwhile, in response to organized violence and rioting, Martinez has introduced a motion instructing the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst to find upwards of $150 million in cuts to the LAPD budget.

"Today we intrdcd a motion to cut funding to the LAPD, as we reset our priorities in the wake of the murder of #GeorgeFloyd & the #BlackLivesMatter call that we all support to end racism. This is just one small step. We cannot talk about change, we have to be about change," Martinez tweeted on June 3.

“It’s kind of ironic. Here she is demanding $150 million be reallocated from the police budget, but yet she has security at her house by the Los Angeles Police Department,” said Det. Jamie McBride, who serves as director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the LAPD’s union.

McBride spent more than five years at the LAPD’s Foothill Division, which serves Martinez’s district in the San Fernando Valley.

According to reports, Martinez’s neighbors were pleased with the additional police presence in their neighborhood.

"Police protection is serving Martinez (and her neighbors) well – so why doesn’t she want the same for everyone else?" Matt Palumbo noted in a June 9 bongino.com report.

A survey for the National Sheriffs Association, taken before the George Floyd protests and provided to the Washington Examiner, found that 53 percent of those polled called for increased funding for law enforcement. Another 26 percent want to maintain current spending, and just 11 percent want a decrease.

Those surveyed also backed the top job of police officers: arresting and jailing criminals.

"The survey from TechnoMetrica was focused on the public’s reaction to first responders during the coronavirus crisis and done before the George Floyd riots. But it tracks very close to post-riot polls that find support for the police despite some radical calls to defund or even eliminate police departments," Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard said.

Rasmussen Reports said on June 9 that 59 percent of Americans are opposed to defunding the police.

The National Sheriffs Association survey found Democrats are also supportive of increased funding for law enforcement.

“With regards to political affiliation, Democrats are more likely than Republicans and independents to support increased funding across levels of government. Around 6 in 10 (61 percent) of Democrats believe that state, county, and local governments should increase spending on local law enforcement and first responders, compared with 52 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of independents. Meanwhile, 60 percent of Democrats back additional federal funds, a sentiment shared by 47 percent of Republicans and independents,” the survey said.

And 8 in 10 said the top job for law enforcement should be incarcerating criminals. “No other task was assigned highest priority by more than 10 percent of survey respondents,” read the executive summary.

Free Press International