LA County Sheriffs Dept & LA County Police Chief's Association just held a press conference on Metro policing facebook.com/LosAngelesCoun…
Villanueva criticizes Metro Public Safety Advisory Committee members - who voted against extending Metro transit policing - says "this is the definition of a woke advisory group"
Villanueva displays list of PSAC members with questionable "woke" affiliations highlighted - including "racial justice," "equity," "civil rights," and even: "urban planner" 
Villanueva displays a Metro ridership graph - misleadingly shows ridership decline under COVID [and not the recent ridership recovery] - Villanueva describes ridership decline due to security issues [issues that took place during the current LAPD/LASD/LBPD policing contract]
Villanueva's Metro ridership graph appears to bear no relation to actual Metro ridership number. Example: LASD shows 2021 ridership below 300K - where Metro reports 2021 ridership growing from 500K to 800K
Villanueva shares an email from Metro CEO Wiggins telling LASD not to share videos of alleged violent acts on the Metro system - so Villanueva describes (in drawn out detail) the contents of the videos and tells the press to get them from Metro via public records requests.
Back to Villanueva's ridiculous Metro ridership graph - it shows rail ridership as higher than bus ridership... when actual bus ridership accounts for ~3/4 of overall Metro ridership. No idea where LASD got these clearly false ridership numbers.
Villanueva concludes: "This is the level of carnage that is occurring on the trains." "The MTA needs to come to grip that whatever plans they have for removing law enforcement, that's like a suicide pact we're not going to participate in."
City of San Gabriel Police Chief says there's a "looming disaster" with "carnage" and "chaos" ensuing "if the Metro board gets their way" with reimagining public safety onboard transit.
Chief Gene Harris repeated says that Metro is "taking the guardians off the platform." Harris blames "woke culture."
LASD Chief Jack Ewell says eliminating transit police would negatively impact underserved communities.
LASD Captain Shawn Kehoe says LASD deputies have a "special skill set" in "how to deal with buses that are moving, rails that are moving"
Kehoe says already transit policing is already at "minimal staffing levels" with "just over 100 deputies covering 102 cities" [note that L.A. County has 88 cities - not clear where those other 14 cities might be?]
Then Villanueva takes questions. AV calls transit ambassadors "a pipe dream." Says he can't see how an ambassador is going to "interact successfully" with unhoused folks and people with mental health issues.
And that's all for SBLA first pass... watch the whole sad spectacle here: facebook.com/watch/live/?re…
The Metro board Operations Committee will meet tomorrow morning 9am - with the transit policing contract on the agenda boardagendas.metro.net/event/operatio…
The Alliance for Community Transit @All4Transit is encouraging people to comment before and at the meeting - see ACT-LA action alert public comment toolkit: docs.google.com/document/d/1aq…
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