Edhat StaffBy the edhat staff
A man sustained a major injury during some type of disturbance near Stearns Wharf early Saturday morning.
At 1:12 a.m., Santa Barbara City firefighters responded to the intersection of State Street and Cabrillo Blvd for a report of a man suffering a laceration to the face.
The Santa Barbara Police Department is investigating the incident as a possible fight between two potentially homeless people, although the investigation is ongoing.
The victim was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for treatment.
This is a developing story.
Reported by an edhat reader
I heard there was some kind of fight or assault at Stearns Wharf early this morning. What’s up?
Nice, another issue at the base of Stearns Wharf.
That’s what the City Police are calling an assault now……. a disturbance. Sounds more tourist-friendly.
So, is the city going to tell the truth about this one?
The City budget has quite a few million tourist dollars penciled in. Cut tourism and they will need to raise taxes on everything or- god forbid- fire some deadweight
Tourists have an equal right to protection. The South Coast averages 28,000 visitors a day, so it seems logical to raise police presence commensurately.
Look at the numbers in the report below:
13,000 people are employed in the tourism industry.
$1000 tax benefit to every South Coast household
Overnight visitors spend about $1 Billion
Day visitors spend $579 Million
1.38 Million “room nights” sold (probably does not count AirBnB)
https://santabarbaraca.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-20-VSB-Annual-Business-Plan-Final.pdf
There are a few bad doctors – should we defund the medical system?
*attempting to cover it up*
If the medical system is continuously and systematically targeting and killing innocent minorities and covering it up, then yeah… I think we should look changing the system.
Just like when you find a cop who is abusing the system or making significant mistakes that put people at risk, you TRAIN them to fulfill their duties.
If they can’t or won’t then you FIRE them.
Defund is not a literal statement for the vast majority of people that advocate for it, rather it’s a redeployment of funds to improve training.
That’s some impressive spin you put on that comment to make it fit. Like USTA level spin. ‘we want to take funds away from police, but we’re going to use those funds elsewhere so it doesn’t mean we’re defunding the police’.
VOICE – what do you think it means? You’re saying those who use the slogan want all money taken from the cops?
1:37 – Obviously, you have trouble understanding the definition of words in the English language.
“: to withdraw funding from” – Merrium Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defund
Asked and answered already.
@1:42, what’s the definition of “defund”. @ Sacjon, yes, wording it another way doesn’t change the meaning, just the words used. Redeploy funds allocated to A and use if for B, means you’re defunding A. How again does ‘defund the police’ not mean ‘defund the police’?
‘we want to take funds away from police, but we’re going to use those funds elsewhere so it doesn’t mean we’re defunding the police’.”
that is the same thing as saying, “”redeployment of funds” means take funds away and put it elsewhere.”
So….. what are you saying? You say one thing, then say the exact same thing in different words as if it’s the wrong thing. Your struggling on this one pal.
“So now defund means “take all the money” but not “take some of money”?” – Never said that, I ASKED if that’s what you mean. I’m not falling for your gaslighting, bub. Some reading material for you:
What Are Question Marks (?) And How Do You Use Them? https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/question-mark/
“want all money taken from the cops” weren’t you and others just ranting last week about not using absolutes? So now defund means “take all the money” but not “take some of money”? Your mental gymnastics are impressive.
1:42 – you have no idea. Not sure if you’re new here, but this guy is the bee knees at lying (intentionally presenting incorrect statements as facts), deflection, gaslighting, off topic ranting, you name it. And I’m the sucker who has trouble letting it go unanswered.
Sacjon, I’m not sure what you’re arguing here. You’re comments seems to agree with me that yes, ‘defund the police’ literally means takes funds away from the police.
2:46 – Yeah, I’m familiar with Mister Gish Gallop. He long ago opened his mouth, and “removed all doubt”, as they say.
VOICE – Yeah, “defund the police” means some money should be reallocated for office/departments that are more appropriately trained for mental health issues, etc, so they can more appropriately respond. Cool! I’m glad you agree with that!
Defund the police means exactly that to everyone that uses it. “redeployment of funds” means take funds away and put it elsewhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police#:~:text=%22Defund%20the%20police%22%20is%20a,healthcare%20and%20other%20community%20resources.
“Defund the police means exactly that to everyone that uses it.” – No, you’re wrong. According to Webster:
defund
verb
de·fund (ˌ)dē-ˈfənd
defunded; defunding; defunds
Synonyms of defund
transitive verb
: to withdraw funding from
Yes, withdrawing funds means taking some and putting them in other resources. It does NOT mean taking away all funding, or stopping or preventing further funding. It means taking some (ie “withdrawing” like when you withdraw a $20 at an ATM, not empty your bank account) money and giving it to other organizations/departments, etc to give them more resources to help with situations that a basic cop isn’t trained for.
If “the [law enforcement] system is continuously and systematically targeting and killing innocent minorities and covering it up…” .
If this is true systemically, continuously and systematically, then whoever is doing it is not very good at it at it.
First of all, there are 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the USA
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/police-officers-by-state
So 800,000 systematic racist killers managed to only kill about 530 Black and Hispanics in 2022 while also killing 520 or so whites.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1124036/number-people-killed-police-ethnicity-us/
In the 6 years between 2015 to 2021 these 800,000 officers who are systemically biased, racist and systematically hunting down black and brown people only managed to kill 135 unarmed black people, about 23 per year. So only 23 cops out of 800,000 per year killed an unarmed black person.
Vast vast majority of the 800,000 go an entire career without drawing their firearm on an armed person but some do it 2-3 times in their career. Looks bad but this could be a case of a bad cop or it could be the law of odds at work and that one cop is simply wrong place, wrong time unlucky
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/956177021/fatal-police-shootings-of-unarmed-black-people-reveal-troubling-patterns
Shootings of unarmed black people are not OK. Shooting 23 unarmed black people is probably around 23 people too many, but to look at a population of 800,000 and attribute those 23 to systemic, systematic action is wrong. I will concede it is continuous in the sense that it averages out to 2 a month.
I’d like to see us cut that in 1/2 and then 1/2 again and repeat. That involves training and some firings. We can’t afford to be sending the wrong men and women law enforcement officers into neighborhoods that have very high rates of gun violence. It takes a certain mentality to be able to handle that there are people around you who are armed and dangerous and not freak out.
The US military holds its 18-24 year olds accountable to standards, and that is in a war scenario. If we expect 18-24 year old infantry to behave to standard, then we can certainly require/train 24-60 year old police to stay off the trigger a little longer
We have no homeless in Santa Barbara…only “potentially” homeless.
I’m really tired of the dishonest language. Someone gets knifed in the face, and it’s a “disturbance.” Over on Noozhawk, there’s the story about about a “fight” … multiple stab woulds to the abdomen is properly called “attempted murder” … but we’ll go with “fight.”
All is sunny in SB though…. no problems… that’s the one thing all our leaders seem to agree on.
When is SB going to realize that they need to have best cops at strategic areas. The wharf and lower state and some of the side streets are exactly what we need.
JOJO – ” – they need to have best cops at strategic areas.” I’d like to think any cop, other than a rookie officer, can handle any assignment in any area. But, what I’d like to think isn’t always accurate. What criteria would you use to identify the “best cops?”
Respectfully to my down-voter, can you let me know what you would defend about headlines that describe these stabbings as a “disturbance” and a “fight”?
I’ll listen and not respond, I promise.
I’d recommend Carlin’s 30 year old bit on “Soft Language.” Sanitized language is anti-helpful. Feels kinder in the moment, but actually does harm. You can’t solve problems unless reality is front of you… including and especially the parts you wish weren’t true.
This wasn’t from me, but you really need to research what you’re talking about as there is no dishonest wording here. There was an altercation, aka fight and PD had no idea whether it was was mutual combat or an initial aggressor and self-defense. With the Noozhawk one it was non-life threatening and certainly not attempted murder.
Last year each time the cruise ships were in port I noticed two police cars and accompanying officers constantly hanging around where the cruise customers board shuttles to see the city. Seemed like overkill—I would have preferred they be patrolling my neighborhood. But perhaps they have a directive to be sure no “disturbances” afflict the cruise customers?
Who’s complaining ? All is well in S.B.: the mayor and the wokes repeat it all day long !
SBPD will comment on this in five weeks. “Mayor” Rowse will push the “nothing to see here, keep moving folks” narrative. No gang problem in SB; crime’s down. What a crock.
So “social workers” were supposed to do better at 1:12am? I’m asking you, the “defund” the police supporters. What do you say?
Personally, I think this incident chalks up to a bum, vagrant, drunk, rando SB late night fight, and I’d say that stuff’s ALAWAYS going to happen – in other words, don’t blame the police. They can’t be everywhere, all the time.
Agree. Tourism is more important than the citizenry. Amazing how crimes are concealed here….far, far more than other cities we have lived in. …and far less citizen involvement here too. Time to stop waiting for Gadot, or Ralph Nader AND organize! Do something.
Care to cite some statistics? I’d really appreciate that should make a good read.
I remember a few years back when the Rabobank down the street from me in Buellton was robbed. The robber was hiding in different yards in our neighborhood. No warning was ever given us. I only heard about it later that evening when my friend called to see if I was okay because her neighbor spotted him hiding behind a shed in her yard earlier that evening and told her about it. He was found the next day hiding in a tree a few blocks away. Not a word about it was mentioned by any of the News Stations on TV or the Newspapers. Likely because it happened during the Film Festival.
AWARE – this crime was literally reported to the public. If there are drunk homeless people, there will be fights. It’s no different from any town in this country. Until we provide adequate care for the mentally ill and addicts, they will roam our streets and get wasted and fight. They have been brawling for decades. Nothing new, nothing hidden. What would you have the PD do? Arrest anyone for being homeless and intoxicated? How many holding cells do you think the local jail has? Not enough for that.
It’s getting worse and worse downtown. Even at work, my colleagues have been reporting incidents during their morning commute through town. What is it going to take for the city leaders and cops to wake up and do something about it?
Andrea Smith: You’re wrong ! Just listen to the mayor: “All is FINE in S.B., there is ZERO tolerance” and two months after a MURDER at the dolphin fountain, they talk a little about it, reiterating that “all is fine”