Free Republic

The Defund the Police movement lives on in the LA City Council, only now it flies under the banner of democratic control. The council’s most left-wing members seek to transfer crime-fighting authority from law enforcement experts to the council and the city controller. These would-be police overlords might want to familiarize themselves with the agency that they aspire to run. They would learn that the LAPD sets a national standard of professionalism and restraint. According to The California Post, council members Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez, and Nithya Raman want the power to override the LAPD police chief and the civilian...

Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez said Thursday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that the city of Los Angeles passed a sanctuary city ordinance, preventing the use of city resources for enforcing President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming immigration plans. Díaz-Balart said, “Would you explain to us what the definition of sanctuary city is for Los Angeles.” Soto-Martínez said, “Yeah, I think we wanted to make it very clear that though the federal government has a lot of power over their resources, that the city of Los Angeles will not be collaborating or using any City resource to enforce his deportation machine...

A newly-elected Los Angeles city councillor who campaigned on a pledge to abolish the police has been left red-faced after a staff member rang the LAPD to request protection for his broken-down car. Hugo Soto-Martinez, a trade union activist and member of the Democratic Socialist party, was elected in December. Soto-Martinez campaigned against 'armed militias occupying our neighborhoods,' saying that the existing policing system was 'completely corrupt, immoral, and needs to be changed drastically.'