West Hollywood recently held a vote to cut back its law enforcement funding over the next two fiscal years.  As a result, this means up to five times fewer Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies being on duty.  And what got the funding instead?  A cultural arts festival.

Keep in mind that this comes on the heels of a report that the city, despite being "trendier" than others in California, saw crime go up 137 percent earlier in the year.  That's a massive increase — and yet, somehow, in a shocking 3-2 vote, the city opted to cut back their police forces.  This doesn't make any sense.

Following this vote, West Hollywood mayor Lauren Meister sounded off on the disappointing decision.  "Most of the residents and businesses I have heard from are opposed to cutting the sheriff's budget," she explained to Fox News at the time.  "They are outraged that people and organizations from outside our city are dictating to the council how to run our city.

"The narrative that we can have 'either sheriffs or social services,' or 'either sheriffs or unarmed security teams' is false."

So what kind of logic went into this decision?  Apparently, council member Lindsey P. Horvath noted that it's not up to police officers.  "Prioritizing people's safety doesn't just mean people with badges and guns on the street.  We have to find another way to keep our residents safe in a way that is affordable."

In other words...the city is too cheap to pay for police forces to counter their rising crime rate.  What is their answer?  Apparently, West Hollywood mayor pro tempore Sepi Shyne believes that the budget should go into a Block by Block program, which uses "security ambassadors" (unarmed ones, mind you) to provide the city with further law support.

Let me repeat that.  Unarmed security ambassadors.  According to the mayor of that particular community, it's all about "re-imagining policing" by "reallocating funding."  She notes, "You can't just say it without actually doing it.  Period."

However, there's a big problem here.  While the mayor and the community are sitting in dreamland trying to figure out the effects of these unarmed ambassadors, the crime rate is continuously getting out of hand.  It has risen in triple digits over the past few months alone; and once word about this new, "re-imagined" program gets out, do you really think the criminals are just going to stop and see how it goes?  Nope, they're just going to stack up on that activity.

Councilman John Erickson had questions about this approach as well, particularly with how long it will take to put into place.  "Community safety is our number-one concern," he explained to Fox News at the time.  "When I've heard from countless residents about how they want to feel safer, that involves comprehensive planning and something that is not just drawn out of a decision."

And that's the biggest problem of all.  The community voters have now compromised the safety of not only these assigned (and, once more, unarmed) ambassadors, but also the residents who chose to move to this city because they felt as though it would be a safe place to be.  Shyne has pretty much just assured that it's far from safe, with no details about the plan outside restoring what's called an "entertainment policing team."  I have no idea what that is, but if it's a fancy way of labeling these ambassadors, it doesn't change the fact that this city is in deep trouble.

Hopefully, we'll see some reconsideration here.  Shyne thinks they may be doing good to the city in the hopes of getting that Russian Arts Festival they want so badly (they added $14,000 to its funding as a result of this shift in police forces), but with the criminal element on the rise, people may be too fearful to leave the house to enjoy it.  No amount of "re-imagining" is going to fix that problem. 

Michael Letts is the founder, president, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.  Those interested in learning more about Letts can visit his official website.

CONTACT: Gerald McGlothlin at: jerry.specialguests@gmail.com

Image: Pixnio.