The homeless situation in Anaheim has gotten totally out of control since Mayor Tom Tait’s new majority took over December; a near tearful Denise Barnes called for additional security in Anaheim City Parks in the form of private security officers (a.k.a “mall cops” or “private security”) at the last Anaheim City Council meeting.
Wouldn’t adding trained Anaheim police or new unionized city employees do a better job?
What’s worse here is that Anaheim’s only Democrat on the council seems to endorse Barnes’ idea for private security. Dr. Jose Moreno offered this comment on the Mother Colony Yahoo newsgroup in response to the idea:
“In addition,District 1 Councilwoman Denise Barnes called for exploration of our City contracting private security as a temporary measure of safety at parks with nearby schools and/or where there is increased criminal activity in parks. I fully supported this idea as a means of bringing sense of security and actual safety to our parks. I also clearly stated to the public that I do not support camping in our parks and have never sought to promote such activity. I articulated that my frustration has been, and continues to be, that the proliferation of individuals in the condition of homelessness do not simply disappear because they are pushed out of the parks, they instead disperse into neighborhoods / small business / and public right of ways. To this end, I am grateful to the Council for having approved my proposal for the establishment of an Anaheim Working Group on Homelessness to bring back a recommended policy framework and ensuing recommendations to guide our City’s efforts to address homelessness. Based on formal feedback at Council meetings from our service providers including CityNet, Our current framework is service oriented which is necessary but not sufficient.They agreed having a policy framework is necessary to addressing this critical issue.
Lastly, there was a robust discussion regarding issues of jurisdiction for law enforcement at the Riverbed and County flood channels. Chief Quezada provided insightful presentation on the challenges of enforcement in the Riverbed and in County flood channels. He and his staff are continuing to seek ways to collaborate with the County and other municipalities to develop more robust and integrated enforcement efforts as it related to criminal activity in and around the Riverbed and County Flood Channels. District 5 Councilmember Faessel led the Council in collective frustration in these efforts given his belief that the criminal element is but a small percentage of actors yet has a tremendously negative impact on how we perceive/experience homelessness in Anaheim and our approaches to providing relief to impacted residents / neighborhoods.”
Let’s back up to the comment about camping in the parks. Is this the same Jose Moreno who shamed then-councilman Jordan Brandman on his vote for an anti-camping ordinance in Anaheim — the same one that Moreno’s mention Tom Tait voted for?
There’s video here.
Sure sounds like he was against a camping ordinance then. Did Mayor Tait give him new messaging? Sounds like that’s what’s happened.
So Campaign/Candidate-Moreno was all about not kicking the homeless out and shame on those who voted for the anti-camping ordinance and now, Councilman-Moreno is all out “let’s hire private security” because he doesn’t support camping in the parks and never sought to promote such activity? Video doesn’t lie here.
So private security? Where is the OCEA on this? How about the OC Labor Fed? The Anaheim Police Union. Anaheim Police, while far for perfect, have to be better than Mall Cops for providing security to the parks?
The homeless situation in Anaheim is possibly due in part to liberal Republican Tom Tait’s “City of Kindness” statements he has made in the past. The interpretation of the statement may have been taken out of context to mean “free stuff from the city of Anaheim.”