lisa napoli

I AM GOING TO CELEBRATE THIS VICTORY LAP. The last time we had a large operation in Skid Row was ten years ago. No Feds were involved. We worked hard, we arrested 22 people including a kingpin. With the exception of the kingpin and his partner, the rest of them received no time as we were forced to rely on weakened state laws to give the community relieve from people who preyed on the community I actually care about deeply. They were released and continued to poison people and keep addicts on an endless spiral of addiction. Government checks that were supposed to help them house and feed themselves, when into the pockets of these individuals. Over those ten years, I watched meth, spice and the most deadly of them all, fentanyl, flood the Skid Row community. A place that is supposed to be a “recovery zone”. I watched my fellow officers and myself, fight a futile battle to combat it. Our officers recovered kilos of narcotics and weapons, and made countless arrests, only for the revolving door the voters supported, to release them with little to no consequence. I watched as the influx of fentanyl poisoned and took the lives of people I knew and cared about for 20 years. I watched daily as someone’s loved one died in a gutter, or on a piss soaked sidewalk. I received calls from folks who lived in hotels of people being found dead in their low income supportive hotel room, where they were supposed to receive help. Slumped over bodies on the sidewalk An explosion of sexual assaults against women who fell unconscious to this evil drug. Family members calling me, begging me to find their daughter or son, only for me or my fellow officers to find them dead in a tent, then having the tragic task of telling them, their loved one is never coming home. Then hope came several months ago, when federal law enforcement under a new administration, decided to help us in our fight to try to create an environment conducive to real change, so the influence of the service providers could be stronger than that of the criminal element. Prior to that, under another administration, they weren’t allowed. They didn’t just show up and start harassing anyone. They had been planning this and focusing on individuals who have been hurting the Skid Row community for decades. And for the first time in years, they will actually be held accountable. For people in high places, to try to demonize this effort, but never having a thing to say about hundreds of people dying every year, to have nothing to say about the shootings, the rapes, all driven by the drug these suspects sell right in front of and within programs designed to help the homeless… To have nothing to say about the blatant crime… Is disappointing to say the least. I want to say something much harsher, but I must keep my dignity. What makes it worse, is they knew about it. But there response is to attack the people trying to stop it. To turn a blind eye to the things I’ve described, and even more disturbing, villify the efforts to stop it, is not leadership. That is not care for for our homeless neighbors. That is one’s ideology, being more more important than the people they profess to care about. An ideology, that is failing the people I ACTUALLY care about. The homeless are not a political football for me. Their condition is not something to exploit to push a world view or cause. I will celebrate the victory lap law enforcement is taking. And pray there will be more, until Skid Row, lives up to its true potential, which is to help people change their lives. Not enabling them to destroy themselves under a twisted sense of benevolence, which puts their lives under the control of those who have preyed on them for years. I will celebrate with the people of Skid Row and those who actually care for them, and have had a front row seat to this inhumane chaos for decades, who are calling me and telling my on the street, how grateful they are.