LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A proposed $500 million tax increase to put more police on the streets of Los Angeles has drawn fire from opponents who say top law-enforcement officials are trying to scare voters into approving it with commercials that raise the specter of a suburban crime nightmare.”
But Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who along with police chief William Bratton is championing the November “cop tax” ballot initiative, defends the campaign and said voters need a grim dose of reality about crime in America’s second-largest city.”
“Crime is a scary problem for all of us,” Baca told Reuters. “Crime is not something that anyone should take lightly.""
The measure would raise the sales tax in Los Angeles to 8.75 percent, among the highest rates in the nation. It is intended to pay for the addition of 5,000 new police officers to the 22,000 who now work for the city police and county sheriff’s departments.”
Opponents of the initiative argue that local leaders are pushing it as a quick fix and lack the political will to deal with larger and more divisive issues facing the region, including an overwhelming wave of illegal immigrants and nearly broken-health care system.”
But most galling to the opponents is a commercial that shows a woman and her daughter cowering next to a bed in a suburban home, screaming helplessly for police who are too late to save them from a shadowy intruder slowly climbing the stairs.”
The ad ends before the little girl and her mother meet their presumably violent fate. It fades to black as the woman screams “No!” -- followed by the sound of a heartbeat and empty dial tone.”
“It’s extortion. That’s what an extortionist does, try to scare people into giving up their money,” Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said of the ad. “When somebody puts a gun in your ribs and asks for money you give it to them because you are frightened.""
Foes of the initiative, known as Measure A, also point out that the city’s real crime problems are not in the leafy suburbs shown in the ad, but in gritty south Los Angeles neighborhoods ruled by street gangs.”
Baca defended the commercial as “sober” but appropriate.”
CRIME RATES DOWN”
A Web site for the proposal had also drawn criticism for implying that crime was at an all-time high in Los Angeles, using headlines borrowed from an Arkansas newspaper. In fact, major crime rates in Los Angeles are down by about 40 percent over the past decade. The claims were pulled from the Web site this week after local newspapers drew attention to them.”
Opponents argue that the county’s current budget could already finance more police hiring, through a ing point as well as fueling gang crime. Politicians need to address those long-ignored issues before raising taxes, he said.”
Baca acknowledged that nearly a quarter of the inmates in his jail are illegal immigrants accused or convihelping states deal with illegal immigrants and was ignorant of the stresses they place on law enforcement. "