Murders nearly doubled last year as crime hit a six year high in Santa Ana

Remember when the previous Santa Ana City Council majority, SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas and our since-fired City Manager, David Cavazos, tried to convince us last year that crime was going down in Santa Ana?

It turns out they were all lying through their teeth! Homicides in Santa Ana nearly doubled last year as gang-related shootings pushed the number of killings in Santa Ana to 23 homicides – its highest point in six years, according to the O.C. Register.

Homicides actually dropped elsewhere in Orange County last year, by 24 percent. In fact homicides declined in Anaheim by 61 percent.

Shootings in Santa Ana reached a five-year high in January of 2016, averaging one per day.

Lame SAPD Police Chief Rojas reacted to the violence by deciding to stop tracking shooting numbers.

Aggravated assaults, burglaries and car thefts in Santa Ana were all at or near decade-long highs last year as well.

Let’s face it folks. Santa Ana is a terribly managed city. I recently emailed City Hall because the lights at Cabrillo Park are mostly not working. My 13-year old son plays Little League baseball at that park. Not only are the field lights mostly dark, the bathrooms are also dark as are the lights leading to the parking lot. And those bathrooms are completely filthy. The other day one of the men’s bathroom urinals was overflowing.

On Friday night my son’s baseball team played at Godinez High School. The only available public restroom was at the nearby Skate Park. As usual the bathroom was totally dark and one of the toilets was overflowing. The stench was unbearable!

During the summer my son played flag football at Jerome Park. Same deal. Disgusting bathrooms!

If our City administrators cannot even keep the restrooms at our parks clean and functional how in the world are they going to stop the violence in our city?  I swear Santa Ana has become a third world cesspool. It is beyond disappointing.

We simply must demand more from our city leaders. Remember that our City Council gave themselves a huge raise last year as voters blindly approved that measure at the ballot box. How about they start delivering on that raise? To date this year they have voted to make our city a Sanctuary City, bungled the ICE contract with our city jail (leaving a huge gap in our city’s budget) and declared war not on the gangs but on the food trucks.

Elections are coming up again in two years. Our City Council better wake up!

BTW high school dropout Roman Reyna, who was defeated in last year’s Ward 5 election, is apparently going to run again in 2018 for the ward currently held by Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez. Remember that Reyna actually voted last year against hiring more police officers!

And I hear that Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra, an ally of Reyna, is going to run for the Ward currently held by Councilman David Benavides. We need to make sure Bacerra loses! The last thing we need to do is let these buffoons take back our City Council majority again!

I expect that Benavides will probably run for Mayor of Santa Ana. I look forward to helping to defeat him again. The last time he ran for Mayor, Benavides actually dumped his wife, an award-winning teacher, during his campaign. He has since married a woman he appointed to a City Commission.

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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