the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 13, 2021
Last summer, amid big protests over the murder of George Floyd, The Los Angeles City Council announced that it was cutting the budget of the LAPD by 150 million dollars.
First of all, 150 million dollars is actually a small fraction of the 3-billion-dollar LAPD budget. But it turns out L.A. politicians are not even cutting that amount from the LAPD. When the city council said most of the 150 million dollars would come from cutting overtime pay for cops, it was simply lying. Instead, the City has “banked” 47 million dollars, about one-third of that amount, in overtime pay, which means the cops will still be paid, but at a future date. And at that point, the bill the City has to foot will be actually much higher than 47 million dollars, because it will be calculated based on the cops’ pay at that future date.
In fact, under a deal the city made with the police union in February, the city has guaranteed cops at least 245 million dollars in overtime pay over the next three budget years.
The LAPD, 10,000 strong and armed to the teeth, is the army that L.A. politicians maintain to keep the city’s working class and poor in check. Ever in the service of the rich and powerful, those politicians are obviously not about to make cuts to the LAPD, no matter what they tell the public.