More Skid Row Police Officers Assaulted Than Past Three Years

According to reports of Los Angeles personal injury lawyers, the assaults on the Central Division Police officers has risen to 39 this year. This is higher than past years with 12 incidents in 2006 and 28 for 2007.

Violent crime has fallen in the Skid Row area and fell by 24% during 2007, but according to Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton an additional 50 police officers have been added to the area of Skid Row. This not only lowered the crime rate, it also put more officers in the area and Chief Bratton stated they expected an increase in assaults on police officers. He stated that while the crime rate has gone down those criminals that do come into the area are more prone to resist arrest, be more aggressive toward the officers and this can result in the officers being assaulted.

The crime rate at Skid Row dropped approximately another 4% this year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department statistics.

And in that fact lies a resounding refutation of the untruths that the American Civil Liberties Union and the rest of the homeless industry have used to keep Skid Row in chaos—until now.

The increase is perhaps an unexpected result of the Safer Cities Initiative, a high-profile policing effort that began in September 2006 and that has otherwise unfolded largely as the department planned. The move, championed by LAPD Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, deployed 50 additional officers to Skid Row and has resulted in a crackdown not only on violent crime, but on misdemeanor offenses such as jaywalking and littering.