Letters to the Editor: What it's like to live in an area patrolled by Alex Villanueva's department

Los Angeles Times Opinion
·2 min read
LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 07: Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, as they and other officials discuss the results of the largest Marijuana Eradication Operation of illegal Marijuana cultivations in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that resulted in the seizure of approximately 373,000 marijuana plants and 33,480 lbs of harvested marijuana worth about $1.193 billion dollars. Hall of Justice on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times).
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To the editor: So, the ego of our intrepid Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is wounded by The Times' coverage? Let me tell you some of the reality about living in unincorporated county territory. ("Sheriff Villanueva discusses his public power struggles, homelessness and more," Opinion, July 27)

Villanueva says he won't enforce indoor mask mandates, but his deputies don't seem to enforce much of anything as it is.

Cars parked for months on the streets? Fireworks that play out the bombing of Dresden on a regular basis? Street racing and guys doing doughnuts at every intersection?

As all this happens, Villanueva grandstands in Venice, rehires deputies who don't deserve a badge, calls gangs cliques and whines about his coverage. If someone needs to be recalled, it's him.

Stephen McCarthy, Monrovia

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To the editor: Thanks to Abcarian for highlighting Villanueva's position on homelessness. I didn't vote for him previously, but I certainly will now.

It's too bad he's not running for mayor of Los Angeles.

Jean Anker, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: I appreciate Abcarian's effort to provide our sheriff an open forum. If there were any lingering doubts, Villanueva's own words — rife with uninformed and contemptuous ramblings about groups he is sworn to serve — should definitively render him unfit to hold public office.

It is tempting to write him off as aberrant. History holds otherwise.

Los Angeles has long attracted similar demagogues. Villanueva is merely the latest in a litany of badged bullies like former Los Angeles Police Department Chiefs William Parker and Daryl Gates. Their cynical appeals to propertied residents' worst anxieties about crime and poverty were, and are, political ploys to preserve power — and the sacrosanct police budget.

Our unhoused neighbors do not need help from a "leader" who harbors lawless gangs in his own ranks, oversees the county's brutal jails and serves as the region's chief apologist for police violence.

Charles Kohorst, Glendora

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.