A liberal candidate running to become the next mayor of Los Angeles wants to eliminate the police department. Gina Viola, is an activist and self-described “abolitionist” who is also a member of “White People 4 Black Lives.”
In contrast to other front-runners on the ballot, Rick Caruso and Rep. Karen Bass have pledged to increase the police force and address rising crime and homelessness in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Viola has pledged to eliminate the Los Angeles Police Department to reallocate funding toward social services.
Fox News reports:
“I’m sorry, a vote for Rick Caruso is a vote for White supremacy,” Viola told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview published Monday. “White supremacy is codified into our legal system created to build White wealth, and law enforcement is its watchdog.”
A spokesperson for Caruso, a billionaire former Republican who registered as a Democrat in the mayoral race and has been endorsed by Kim Kardashian in recent days, described Viola’s comments as “disturbing.”
Los Angeles voters have become increasingly concerned by the rise in violent crime and the spike in homelessness. Despite the city leaning heavily Democrat the onslaught of problems is forcing some Californians to wake up and realize progressive policies are not having an impact on cleaning up the city.
At another time, the high-end mall and resort developer Caruso would seem an unlikely choice to potentially lead the nation’s second-most populous city, where Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders was the runaway winner in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and a progressive City Hall has embraced so-called sanctuary city protections for illegal immigrants and “Green New Deal” climate policies.
There are 12 names on the ballot for the primary election, though several candidates have dropped out, and the race is shaping up as a fight between Caruso, who sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, and Bass, who was on Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president in 2020.
If no candidate can manage to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, which is likely in a crowded pool of candidates, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election.
