You Say Gangs Cost L.A. $2 Billion Per Year? Prove It!
By Walter Moore, Chief Economist and Legal Analyst,L.A. Policy InstituteCouncil Member Janice Hahn keeps claiming that gangs cost the city $2 billion per year, and, therefore, that our taxes should be raised for yet another anti-gang program.
But have you ever heard her explain exactly how she came up with the $2 billion? Has she ever identified a published study, so you, the idiot taxpayer, can review the methodology and see if you agree with it?
Of course not. So just trust her, would you?
Or, if you would like to know where the $2 billion figure comes from, you can read about it at MooreIsBetter.com.
In the meantime, the next time someone utters that $2 billion figure in your presence, remember these two little words: PROVE IT!
*****
UPDATE - 2/8/07 - 5:35 P.M.
Someone was kind enough to give me a link to the memo from the Vera Institute of Justice. I'll read it and let you know how solid it looks. The good news is: it looks as though someone actually DID make a serious effort to quantify the cost of gangs, and did NOT simply "make up" the $2 billion number.
Posted by Walter Moore @ 2/08/2007 12:20:00 AM
18 Comments:
What's your point, Walter? We don't see you coming up with ANY estimate of your own, let alone one supported by some kind of methodology (how 'bout the back of a napkin from your favorite Denny's?).
Or are you really just telling us that you don't think the gangs are really much of a problem at all?
Looks like another case of a self-involved blogger missing the forest for the trees.
Mayor watch out for Hector Marroquin.
Walter just a month ago Connie Rice came out with her study we the tax payers paid $650,000 for gang research. AT that time Daily News, LA Slimes did stories where she is quoted as saying gang violence costs $2 billion a year.I believe that figure is for incarceration, homicides, etc.
I can't believe no one is asking for the gang programs to be audited after Connie stated $82 million is being wasted. Who will have the guts to come out and say it
The 2Billion is probably what AV is PAYING the gangs to drive everyone out of CA! The drug cartels are more important to the pockets of the crooks in city hall.
And after all, isn't the plan of the Mexican mafia to take over CA and extend their operations northward????
How much $$$ does it cost to DEPORT 40,000 gangbangers???? Or better yet, how much $$$ does it cost to euphanize them????
Don't attack Janice Hahn on Mayor Sam. City spent some bucks on the Connie Rice study. Why can't our future mayor Janice use the $2 billion figure? Geez chill out!
To 4:58: What is my point?!
I thought the point was self-evident, but apparently it is not. Public policy should be based on objective facts, and journalists should insist that politicians who throw billion-dollar figures around back them up with facts.
If you are trying to weigh the costs and benefits of alternative policies, you should not simply "make up" figures on the costs and benefits.
Do I have an alternative estimate on the cost of gangs? No. So what? Should citizens refrain from pointing out politicians who fabricate numbers merely because those citizens have not conducted their own studies? Of course not.
Have I come forward with a plan to fight gang violence? Yes, repeatedly, but I'll trot it out again for you now. It's pretty complicated: hire more police NOW. Make hiring more police the local government's top priority. Have so many police on patrol that crimes never get committed in the first place. That's what we need.
We do NOT need politicians throwing around numbers from unpublished "analysis" by groups that make their living from grants.
Furthermore, if you visit my website for the details, and then visit the Vera Institute of Justice, and dig around more, you'll see the $2 billion figure was never intended as a measure of the cost of gangs to the city. Rather, that figure is supposedly $247 million. So Hahn doesn't even quote the made-up numbers correctly. How shocking, huh?
7:35: You need to go read what I wrote at MooreIsBetter about Rice's "study" with respect to the $2 billion figure. I know that's where Hahn got her number.
But then you go and read Rice's study, and guess what? It repeats the number over and over, and only on page 100 do you learn the supposed source -- but even then, there's no explanation of the methodology.
Then, when you go to the publications page of the group identified as the source, well, guess what? There's no publication setting forth the number OR the methodology.
So Hahn and the media keep repeating as gospel "gangs cost L.A. $2 billion per year," but there's no way for YOU to evaluate the basis of this figure.
Get it?
You got it Walter. HIRE MORE POLICE NOW. All the community meetings people are saying they need more cops on the street. But guess what? According to Villaraigosa's budget under the topic of public safety he has MORE GANG PROGRAMS before more cops. We aren't stupid enough to believe citywide people want more gang programs. Audit the ones now and find out how they're wasting $82 million. That's Villaraigosa's ACLU mentality just like Father "gang banger" Boyle who makes excuses for the gangbangers and hires attorneys to help them in court. When will LA tabloid reporters go after that story?
I'm with you. Shut down ALL the "gang programs" -- they aren't working anyway -- and use the money to hire more police.
Don't hold your breath waiting for an intelligent, thoughtful answer from Janice Hahn. She and her fellow political ostriches past and present have refused to acknowledge let alone do anything meaningful about the devastating impacts of illegal immigration and illegal alien gangs who infest this city. Now when thousands of gang thug trash -- who shouldn't even be here -- are killing innocent people moreso than usual clowncil rushes into damage control mode to pretend that they "doing something" damn it. And even if the gangs "only" cost $247 million, this is just more evidence of how elected officials on all levels have failed us, and all the more reason to end sanctuary city policies and SO 40.
Antonio’s gang plan: Phase one
1. Create another layer of unaccountable bureaucrats to take the heat off the mayor and Chief of Police.
2. Reestablish the “crash unit” but call it a more politically correct name.
3. Create a “ Most Wanted” list of criminals? Just turn on cable television and see the parade of murders and rapist who live in the community.
Very impressive, this should keep the cameras clicking for a week or two.
But what about the rest of the year?
Here is my plan to address the gang violence “surge”.
Fire Chief Bratton! He has been in charge for five years. He states he has given gangs his top priority. Well nothing personal, you have not and can not do the job! You have failed and now we are to pay someone else to fail so you can continue to campaign for the Mayor.
Next we must conduct an unbiased and realistic evaluation of the Mayors term in office to date. He looks good on camera, but how does he look on paper? I mean a real evaluation. I will bring this up at the neighborhood council this evening and propose a city wide forum on the issues and the Mayors performance.
Once the evaluation is complete, we will then submit the results via a city wide web site and put the Mayor up for a Vote of confidence. If he can not or will not do the job he was elect to do, the he has to go.
Next we must get our controller to audit the current gang programs. I am being open minded and not calling for the immediate closing down of the programs. If Laura Chick is unwilling to accept this effort, then she must pay the price.
That is David Hernandez’s phase one.
www.davidhernandez.wordpress.com
I almost forgot, Special Order 40 goes with Bratton.....
The thousands of illegal alien criminals who stalk our streets will no longer get a pass.
Negoations must now take place with our Mayors to the south and set up detention centers where we in Los Angeles can create a student exchange type program and set up a protocal for a swift and direct exchange system.
Connie Rice is Fernando Guerra for NPR.
David, David, David what are you saying!!!! Bitter Bernie made 1,000 cops leave the dept. Bratton by all accounts is the best chief in the nation. Every single community meeting residents praise him and know LAPD is stretched too thin. People in low income areas will tell you the crime they use to have is no longer but only the gangs. If clowncil audited those programs and put that money to better use it would help. When I was growing up you would see black and whites all the time. Gang bangers know LAPD doesn't have enough on the streets so they get away with the violence. Trust me, if there were more patrols which is a crime deterrent those cowards would go hide like the coakroaches they are.
can someone tell me how much we pay Bratton? Since he can not address the gang crisis on his own, can we divert some of his pay to hire the New Gang Czar. After all, these city heads demand top salary to achieve their goals.
Case in point is the head of LA's Homelessness program. The 149,000 salary is well worth it, just look at how he corrected the homelesssness crisis in LA. Sorry, not a good example, is it?
Hey, someone found and posted a link to the Vera study! I'm going to read it and get back to you all. Here it is: http://www.lacity.org/councilcmte/youthdev/AP.Final.Appendix11.pdf
It's on the City's website; the version of the Advancement Project I had previously downloaded lacked the appendices.
So this is good: it means someone actually did make an attempt to quantify the cost of gangs.
RECALL JUDGE GIBSON LEE!!
L.A. COUNTY RESIDENTS...JOIN THE MOVE TO RECALL THIS JUDGE WHO GAVE NON-SENTENCES TO VICIOUS SAVAGES INVOLVED IN THE LONG BEACH HALLOWEEN BEATINGS!
http://www.recalljudgelee.com/
Maybe Bratton should add the "Sister City Moore-Dogg" gang of verbal violators as the 12th gang on their hit list. You don't cost the City anything (hot air being worthless when nobody's paying attention), but you take up way too much space anyway.
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