Is The L.A. City Council In Denial Over Budget Mess?

• Last year, I had a first hand experience with the budget "crisis." The LASD is a Exhibit A of the disconnect between how taxpayer money is spent and common sense. The Sheriff's budget goes towards locking up many, many people for unpaid parking tickets & misdemeanors who are then left to sit and wait because the courts don't have the personal to process them in a timely fashion. It seems the LA Sheriff's is intent on vacuuming up people with minor offenses and incarcerating them for as long as possible to artificially keep up their populations (and justify their jobs.) Had judges / prosecutors been in any way held responsible for much money/time/effort it takes to sentence people, it would be a very different system. As is, the courts operate without any - ANY - grasp of bottom line costs. This willful ignorance to how the taxpayers money is being spent is why more courthouses will be closed. The vast majority I met were locked up because of issues related to drugs / alcohol or immigration. This fixation on punishment vs. rehabilitation, all in the name of catering to a corrupt Sheriff's union who is, essentially, selling fear to a dumb public. People who cry "get tough on crime" don't realize their taxes are going to supporting a system that actually perpetuates crime. The abuse by so called officers of the "law" would make your stomach turn with sheriff employees regularly assaulting inmates at every possible turn. And these inmates are not someone else - they are your friends and relatives. The deputies are beyond racist, a culture of abuse and dysfunction. If you cannot speak English, you will be assaulted (physically or verbally) within minutes of the booking process: "Why did you come to America?" and "Why don't you speak English you dirty ______?" So none of these budget "issues" are a surprise. None of this is going to be solved with "budgets" that don't have built in accountability ie., forcing responsibility upon those people who charge with the prudent oversight of taxpayer money. The Sheriff's department is Exhibit A of a city that is falling apart, not because it's citizens are in need of policing equal to the Third Reich, but because so-called "leaders" don't know how to run a city. Again, until there is a serious, top to bottom accounting of HOW MONEY IS SPENT, this budget crisis will continue. When there is zero financial accountability between money spent - and how it's spent - revenues (real ones ie., cash on hand) and consequences for flagrancy, Riordan is right: the only way out of this is bankruptcy. There is no budget crisis: there are issues of basic math. Spending more money than you have, on things that you cannot afford only leads to these artificial crisis.

• It is a sad day when people who are supposed to be our leaders cater to people (regardless how much they �want to improve their life style) who have broken our laws. The bottom line is our federal Government with the consent of our local politicians, have failed to enforce the security of our country. As for me, I shall seek out products made in Arizona. I shall vote against anyone who wants to allow the borders to remain open and who refuses to recognize all people who want to come to our country must do so legally first or face the consequences. This is not a matter of race as the illegal people are of many races and from many countries. This is a matter of obeying our laws first and foremost.

• Is The L.A. City Council In Denial Over Budget Mess? Ya think?

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