[Breitbart] LOS ANGELES, California — Newly-installed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will call for the city to hire 1,000 additional Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers, after years of attrition thanks to her predecessor.The LAPD used to have over 10,000 officers, but has fallen to just above 9,000. In 2020, as Breitbart News reported, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti bowed to the Black Lives Matter movement and promised to cut $150 million from the police budget — over 10% of the total — and to redistribute the money to “communities of color.” Garcetti, now the U.S. Ambassador to India, denied that LAPD cuts would lead to an increase in crime.
But crime has risen over the last four years from pre-pandemic levels — thanks also to L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón, a George Soros-backed radical whom Garcetti backed (after dumping incumbent Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the post, whom Garcetti had previously endorsed for reelection).
Bass, who is set to deliver her first State of the City speech Monday, after 127 days in office, will unveil her proposal for more police in her budget speech on Tuesday. Notably, she will recommend that the LAPD recruit new officers from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) — a move to increase diversity on the force and overcome resistance from the political far-left.
