A classic case of conflicting interests
Quote of note:
Interviews with black voters revealed a desire for protection tempered by negative experiences with law enforcement.
Outside the Miracle Market at Wilmington Avenue and Alondra Boulevard in Compton, Edward Lindsey said the police didn't deserve the extra tax money because they hadn't learned to respect residents.
Lindsey said he would have voted for the measure if police "were doing what they should do instead of messing with everybody."
A few weeks ago, the former GM plant worker said, he was pulled over by police who told him he looked like a suspected gang member. "How the hell can I look like a gangbanger?" Lindsey said. "I'm 74 years old. I'm retired!"
...Political scientist Raphael Sonenshein, who has written extensively about race and politics in Los Angeles, said the lack of enthusiasm for the measure among African Americans was notable.
"For black residents, it doesn't matter if you make it in life; you can [still] get stopped by police," he said. The impact of such stops "has been tremendous on blacks, and that has generated a lot of that ambivalence."
"An agenda that argues exclusively for more cops is not likely to get the response of something that calls for more prevention and more reform," he added. "I think the electorate would respond more favorably to a more holistic look at crime."
Wary Blacks Voted No to More Police
By Jeffrey L. Rabin, Richard Fausset and Zeke Minaya
Times Staff Writers
November 10, 2004
A pronounced ambivalence about the role of police in largely African American areas of Los Angeles helped sink last week's ballot measure that would have raised the county sales tax to hire more officers, and remains a formidable obstacle to rekindling the proposal solely as a citywide levy.
A precinct-by-precinct analysis by The Times shows that a weakness in South Los Angeles, combined with the perennially anti-tax votes of the west San Fernando Valley, held support for Measure A well below the two-thirds majority needed to pass a tax measure.
This voting pattern, unusual among African Americans, is shaping up as the biggest challenge to Mayor James K. Hahn, who is pushing a divided City Council to put the measure on the citywide ballot next year.
The result also highlights the LAPD's continuing dilemma of trying to increase patrols in high-crime areas of South L.A. without increasing tensions there.
