Millikan High School Shooting Reflection of Larger City Culture of Unaccountability

Here’s my question. The city has a Long Beach promise that creates a pipeline between city hall, LBUSD and even our colleges. If the city and the school have a promise to work together on education where is the promise to fix policing both on campus and off? The shooting near Millikan high school thats left an 18 year old mom brain dead Is shaking the foundation of public safety in Long Beach. Because it reveals that there is a common thread of unaccountability between the city of Long Beach and the Long Beach Unified School District when it comes to officer involved shootings. The fact is that the city and LBUSD are two separate entities. Each of them has their own policing staff. But politically there’s a lot of cross over between Our school district and City Hall. Often the school district is a steppingstone into City Hall And politicians are eager for photo ops with administrators, students and school board members. Without a doubt Our local government managed by City Hall and our public schools managed by Long Beach unified school district are two of our most sacred institutions. Unfortunately both the local government and our Police Department have a history of cover-up and not holding officers accountable. So when this tragedy happened the public expected much of the same because the city has been reluctant and slow to meaningfully redeem its reputation on policing. It’s so bad that a consultant has been hired to investigate the city of Long Beach’s inequitable system of accountability that for 3 decades has let bad Apple officers escape accountable, taxpayers pay their million dollar law suits and politicians like mayor Garcia reap millions from the police union. The Long Beach police departments poor reputation for accountability makes officers that work for the Long Beach unified school district appear just as untouchable and guilty by association. The average resident just sees a badge a gun and a tricked out Ford explorer that looks very similar to the ones LBPD drives. So in the minds of the public it’s easy to mistake LBUSD public safety officers with an LBPD police officer because aside from what’s observable by the naked eye, the public sees little difference in the way that law-enforcement across institutions is held accountable. So while the police department blames the media for not making a clear enough distinction between city employed officers verses School District Officers its ultimately the cities own poor reputation that has under mined The credibility of local police as well as school district officers. To some members of the public it looks like Long Beach unified school district is mirroring the same behavior that we experience from Long Beach city. Both The city’s police department and LBUSD waited too long on a press release or official statement for the publics benefit. The result? Speculation, Rushes to judgment, Miss information and go fund me abuses ran Rampant. But when an armed officer fires a gun into a moving car in a parking lot surrounded by retail stores where children are actively walking home from school , practicing football only feet away, and patronizing nearby stores and restaurants we don’t expect worried parents to have to reach out to the superintendent for information and explanations that they’re entitled to. But that’s exactly What parents had to do. And it’s exactly what ordinary residents have had to do with the city to get basic answers. So when our public school system acts and responds like the city and the police department when it comes to shootings it makes sense that people recognize little difference Between whether the shot was fired from a gun of the LBUSD or the LBPD. Because both institutions Aren’t doing the right thing for the people they serve. Now our local hospital has a patient on life-support during our COVID-19 pandemic when hospital beds are short. LBUSD will be dragged into court resulting in our kids having to lose millions for this incident. Millions that won’t be used for their education.All in large part because Our city leaderships reputation for unaccountability is one of the things we’re known for. I’ll say it again, The city has a Long Beach promise that creates a pipeline between city hall, LBUSD and even our colleges. If the city and the school have a promise to work together on education where is the promise to fix policing both on campus and off? It’s time we fix Long Beach’s reputation because costing us lives, money and putting our kids at risk. But we can’t fix this without a change in leadership.

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