Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino is entering the 2022 mayor’s race, and he plans to use his 15-year background as a police officer to address the city’s urgent issues regarding homelessness and rising crime, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Buscaino, 46, a Democrat who represents a district stretching from Watts to San Pedro, told the Times he is increasingly concerned by thousands of people living on the street and a surge in violence in South L.A.
“This isn’t the city I know and love,” Buscaino said.
Buscaino said that when friends and family members have questioned whether a police officer could be elected to the city’s highest office, he pointed to Tom Bradley, who served two decades with the LAPD before joining the City Council and, in 1973, becoming L.A.’s only Black mayor to date.
Buscaino was first elected councilman from the San Pedro area of Los Angeles in 2012. He has served as Council President Pro Tem and as chair of the Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee, which oversees the Port of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles World Airport and the City’s tourism bureau.
Councilman Buscaino is widely regarded as one of the brightest and most up-and-coming political figures in the state of California.
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