By Allen Keisner
On Monday evening July 12th Congressman Lowenthal held an online forum for constituents regarding increasing gun violence in our society. Guest panelists included: Long Beach police chief Robert Luna; LA FBI special agent Brian Gilhooly; Long Beach FBI agent Adam Smith; Long Beach Brady Campaign president Peggy McCrum; Long Beach Peace Makers co-founders Shirin Senegal and Steve Neal; and Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center Director Dr. Bita Ghafoori. The ostensible purpose was to determine if gun violence is actually increasing and if so what are the root causes and what should be done about it. In this regard this forum was a virtual failure.
Congressman Lowenthal questioned the increase in gun violence. Lowenthal asked ‘where is gun violence occurring?’ He must not be spending much time watching actual real news reporting on rising crime within our cities in particular in black urban areas. Unreported by the likes of CNN and MSNBC which ignore the topic for political correctness and which is only beginning to be covered by the evening national network news channels.
Chief Luna noted twice “I do not believe in mass incarceration.” Since criminal actions are committed by individuals justice demands that individual sentencing be made upon conviction by jury or judge. It is irrelevant that these individual actions in sum total to ‘mass incarceration’. Individuals must be held accountable for their actions and justice must be done for victims – victim: a word only used in passing in this panel discussion. The state must have sufficient jail accommodations to house criminals – not early release or so-called ‘social justice’ reform to reduce arbitrarily any specified criminal population back onto our streets to re-offend as many many do.
Chief Luna noted murders by criminals using guns are up nationally 30% year over year with aggravated assault up 90%. In Long Beach 20 murders to date: 90% or 18 using guns; 12 were gang violence, 5 homeless; 95% people of color. He observed that ‘the fire must be put out first’ but did not elaborate on how. Perhaps he should reconsider his comments about incarceration.
Over just the 4th of July weekend there were nearly 700 people shot in our inner cities with 270 killed. Chicago is awash in blood with 100+ shot then and 18 murdered. And another violent weekend there now resulting in 55 shot 11 killed including a beautiful 6 year old black girl who had big dreams. Gang bangers in the Windy City outnumber cops 10:1 at nearly 120,000 vs 12,000 cops. A rapper walking out of a Chicago jail was shot 64 times in a gang driveby. New York City declared a disaster emergency over the increasing death toll due to inner city violence there. The NY Post had a front page depicting ‘Teen Gang War’ in the hood. Philadelphia had 80 gunshot victims in the first week of July. Small city Rochester NY has had 37 homicides already. Nearly 300 murders by criminals using guns across the country last weekend per NBC. And earlier this week 3 wounded in a driveby shooting between gang bangers in Washington DC outside the Nationals baseball park. DC saw a dozen murders last weekend including yet another beautiful black girl shot down in front of her house. Now over 100 this year setting a record for DC. The police union there headed by a black chief excoriated the politicians there including the mayor who are more concerned with ‘wokeness’ than protecting the public.
Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death among young black males in the US followed by drug overdoses – not COVID-19. Inner city violence is often driven by illegal drugs which last year killed 90,000+ Americans. Where is the outrage over this? That’s another topic ignored by liberal Congressional members. Street gang violence using guns is often ignored except on the local nightly news while the national media focuses its outrage on periodic mass shootings by deranged individuals. But the numbers there pale in comparison to the nightly carnage in inner cities.
So yes Mr. Lowenthal gun violence is increasing at an astonishing rate. And these shootings happen regularly in your district. Channel 5 news recently had a report on families pleading for justice for their loved ones murdered in Long Beach including a pictorial entitled ‘Do you know who murdered us? Our lives mattered!’. 75% were black. 25% other races. Where is the emphasis on victims and their families? And justice for them? That was not addressed in this forum. Shame.
The FBI agents addressed the need for developing trust in the inner city community and relationships across local state and federal govts with investment for safe neighborhoods. Then measuring the results. Chief Luna noted that a map overlay of violence corresponds to a map of poverty. These statements ignore that investments in poverty area have been made several times before since 1960. Enterprise zones were created after the 1965 and 1993 LA riots. Business investment was tried with low interest loans, grants, federal HHS funding by $Bs. Yet failed because crime continued unabated except for the early 1990s when criminals were actually prosecuted and received long jail sentences with the support of legislation by President Clinton and then Senator Joe Biden. Too bad Biden now retracts his former tough on crime position – we are seeing the results of this playing out on our streets every day. And not the case with Gov Newsom releasing 65,000 criminals early from their sentences under Proposition 47 and inexcusable bs about COVID-19 infection. Releasing criminals early to prevent them from contracting the disease is ludicrous as they will likely get infected if not vaccinated and in addition pose a threat again to the public. Yet another reason to bounce Gov Newsom out in the September recall. Liberal judges are complicit in this early release which threatens public safety by known repeat offenders who will continue to offend knowing there is no punishment imposed or maintained for their actions.
The FBI agents did note that designating violent gangs as RICO offenders would enable better arrests and prosecutions. That should have been done decades ago. The agents stated the obvious: violent criminals need to be held accountable. The agents noted the increasing availability to criminals of ‘ghost guns’ manufactured by printers and hence unregistered. More laws focusing on restricting gun purchases by law abiding citizens will not help. There are already so many laws especially in Democratic states and cities like CA, NY, PA, IL, MI and LA, NYC, Chicago yet criminals obtain guns illegally. It is not the gun. It is the hand that pulls the trigger. Famed newsman Geraldo Rivera states this is ‘the civil rights issue of our time – stopping inner city violence particularly in the black community’. Harsh consequences must be imposed on criminals using guns in violent assaults and murders. Otherwise as we are readily witnessing due to the clarion calls for defunding the police by so-called ‘social justice warriors’ society will experience increasing rates of serious crime ultimately leading to a return to the Old West of chaos and vigilantism.
The sentiment of investment in the community for health and education was echoed by Mr. Neal. Note that each year the federal govt spends >$1T yes >$1T on HHS and Dept of Education budgets directed at inner city populations already. California spends >$80B per year on social programs. Why have these annual investments not reduced the epidemic of violence in cities? This subject too was ignored in the discussion. Ms. Senegal noted deaths by black men due to gun violence starting in 1969 have been the leading cause of death in the community. Of criminals arrested 75% return to prison. She wants the $400M Long Beach police budget to be in part redirected. Chief Luna responded his budget has been cut to $264M this year. Then she commented this is due to systemic economic and health inequities. Blaming ‘society’ is easy as it removes the element of personal responsibility and ignores a citizen’s duty to obey the law. She notes it costs $70,000/yr to incarcerate a criminal so we must better use our tax dollars for societal reentry programs and we must reimagine public safety. The issue is then what will be the cost in new victim blood and community treasure when so many criminals go on to re-offend knowing punishment is minor. What incentive do criminals have not to remain criminals? She admitted though that she wants to see the murderer of her husband kept in jail. Condolences on her loss. That is indeed the correct policy. Some liberal politicians in Sacramento however want even murderers to be paroled. Mr. Neal noted that more youth programs and economic apprenticeship hiring programs need to be put in place. He said a comprehensive system must be created for housing, jobs, community organization funding. We can try that again. Chief Luna urged return to midnight basketball and police, fire, parks department explorer scout, DARE programs. But we must be realistic as to the effectiveness of these efforts in truly curbing inner city violence.
But those ignore the real social reform needed within inner city communities: keeping fathers in families (exact opposite of what BLM organization Marxists state in their manifesto), building generational wealth, staying in school to get an education, civics classes in schools not divisive CRT, developing work skills to obtain a good job, respecting law and order as citizen responsibility, staying out of gangs, not using illegal drugs, having good character as MLK said is the cornerstone of being judged by others not race, color, ethnicity, or faux equity. None of these goals and solutions were addressed in the panel discussion. They do not fit the ‘woke’ narrative being pushed in society today by ‘activists’. How about bringing back a tried a true solution which used to be imposed by judges offering repeat misdemeanor and minor felony criminals: service in the US military or Civilian Conservation Corps or other public service entity for two or more years? Vs. sentencing to jail time with no early parole. That would instill discipline and self-respect and provide work ethic and job skills for effective reentry into society. Dr. Ghafoori noted funding for mental health services has declined significantly over time. Resources wasted on ineffective programs must be redirected here. She said we must teach our kids to make better decisions.
A black police officer in Charleston SC said it best. He noted when he went to court for a criminal trial all the participants were black: himself, the judge, the prosecutor, the defendant counsel, the defendant. The officer noted each individual person in that courtroom made a choice. That is how all would come to be judged – figuratively and yes at times literally. That is how it should be. As MLK urged us in his great 1963 speech in Washington DC.
So what solutions did this forum conclude to reduce gun violence now? Same old same old. More social programs which have not proven effective in halting the carnage in our inner cities. Lowenthal believes if only we have more restrictions on guns then the problem will magically go away: ‘What can be solved with government legislation?’ According to a recent estimate there are more than 400 million privately owned guns in the US – more that the total population. There were approximately 38,500 deaths by firearm in the US according to the CDC in 2018. According to DOJ 24,000 of these were the result of suicide. So criminals with guns kill 15,000-20,000 people each year. That is wholly tragic. If it were the guns themselves our streets would be absolutely unlivable. That is not the case. 99.99% of the public are law abiding citizens relying on the criminal justice system – police, courts, prisons – to punish the hand that pulls the trigger. When Lowenthal asked the panel again what can be done to stop the violence now – no one added anything else. Very telling. Very disturbing.
Yes background checks are necessary. The FBI agents are right to curtail ‘ghost guns’. Community programs can be helpful. But consider the Parkland FL school mass shooting. The perpetrator had two dozen incidents on file of antisocial behavior – several very serious misdemeanors. Each time the school board overlooked his transgressions and did not imposed harsh penalties such as juvenile lockup instead detention, suspension, counseling. This approach proved fatal when he snapped. At the minimum he should have been sent away for a long time to a mental institution or even prison beforehand. Police cannot continue to re-arrest violent offenders only to see lenient or politically correct courts release them to again harm the public.
There are solutions that can be implemented to stop the cancer of violence on our streets:
Police: RICO gangs and remove them from the community forthwith to jail; increase foot patrols within community; activate substations within communities every 6 blocks; hold many more community outreach with police events including within schools and business forums
Courts: enforce law not legislate from the bench; reduce time for appeals; stop early release
Govt: reverse Proposition 47 and related soft on crime measures; pass legislation on using gun go to jail for 10 years no parole; fund 100,000 new individual jail cells in new prisons; reverse release of 65,000 criminals until sentence served; end bail reform efforts which are undermining public safety; bring back 3 strikes; reinstitute death penalty for heinous crimes to achieve justice for victims and families; provide significant funding to expand not defund police ranks
Public: as parents educate your kids to respect law and obey the police; ensure your school has a mandatory civics course on citizen duties and responsibilities in society; and most importantly figure out how to vote – for those who want to protect the public not serve ‘woke’ special interests and agendas.
This online forum on gun violence and solutions was a virtual failure. As citizens we expect more from our elected representatives and public officials. An ability to face reality. Not lip service to check a box. But there will be a box we all can check soon come Novembers.
Alan Keisner is a resident of Rossmoor
