Police commission a casualty of ‘progressive’ governance

The chaos at the LA police commission hearings is part of the “progressive” movement’s attempt to destroy police — which is why I left the Democratic Party.

On Jan. 22, Newsweek published an opinion piece by LA Mayor Karen Bass. The headline was catchy — and amusing: “Democrats must stand strong and lead on public safety.” 

Karen Bass has spent her career bashing law enforcement, defunding it, and then claiming ignorance about why young men and women have no desire to join the ranks of the LAPD.

We need police. The crack epidemic of the late 1980s and early 1990s was accompanied by a massive surge in gang violence. It was not a mistake to lock up hard-core gang members using California’s then-newly-enacted three strikes law. 

Removing them from the streets brought down the level of violence and saved countless lives — lives the left will never acknowledge were saved.

The progressive worldview is that enforcing the law is inherently harmful to communities of color, if not outright a racist act of oppression by the descendants of slave catchers.  

In their minds, every effort to reduce the presence of law enforcement in the public square makes the imaginary victims of oppression safer.  

The sad reality is that criminal street gangs are both the actual oppressors in marginalized communities, and the prime beneficiaries of a reduced police presence on the streets.

Democrats have zero evidence that anything they’ve proposed works to improve public safety.  They are claiming credit for a drop in crime that coincided with President Donald Trump coming to office and taking a tougher approach.

Criminals are bolder, better armed, and more willing to engage in violent behavior when they know that police are not there to catch them in the act.

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Who would have thought, prior to the George Floyd riots of 2020, that sophisticated gangs would raid jewelry stores in broad daylight, break in with vehicles, and then smash and grab everything in the display cases, right in front of frightened employees and customers?  

Burglary tourism? Check. Home invasion robberies? Pick any zip code and they are happening there. Open-air drug markets, replete with addicts bent over like zombies worshipping the ground, are found in any large homeless encampment in Los Angeles.  

Street takeovers, followed by the ubiquitous looting of convenience stores, no longer even make the evening news. But Bass and LA Country Sheriff Robert Luna claim we’re safer.

Bass is trying to create a false image of public safety by renaming it “community safety,” as if a name change will make anyone safer. City-funded programs with fancy names, long on virtue signaling but preciously short on results, abound in Bass’ gaslighting op-ed.  

Between the city and the county, we have the Office of Community Safety; the Gang Reduction and Youth Development initiative; the Retail Theft Task Force; Care First, Jail Last; the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department; the Department of Youth Development; and my favorite, the Community Safety Implementation Team, formerly known as the Jail Closure Implementation Team.  

Yes, these people have deluded themselves into believing that closing the 4,500-inmate Men’s Central Jail, without a replacement, will make us all safer.

The progressive crowd has set its sights on continuing to defund law enforcement, then taking LAPD and LA County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) funds for themselves.

They have rebranded their campaign as “reimagining public safety,” or “reinvesting in the community,” but it’s still the same defunding fad. 

The radical elements of the progressive movement, emboldened by confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have now taken control of the city’s police commission hearings and even attacked a California Post reporter, Jamie Paige.  

Members of this activist mob, curiously prone to concealing their identities while demanding the unmasking of law enforcement, believe that shouting down those who disagree with them or support the police is an exercise in preserving democracy. 

The same tactics can be found at LA County’s civilian oversight commission.  In both forums, ostensibly created to address police misconduct, the commissioners seldom receive input from the public. Instead, hearings are dominated by those who scream the loudest.  

The commissioners themselves are a who’s-who of the far left, with hefty political connections.

No, Karen Bass — your party will never be associated with public safety. Quite the opposite: You’ve cornered the market on fanning the flames of outrage for whatever cause du jour serves your narrative.

Alex Villanueva is the former Sheriff of Los Angeles County. He is running for the office again in 2026 — as a Republican.