I recall former mayor fine giving a speech in 2020 to a credulous crowd gathered at King Plaza. He told him how he was going to fix our “unreformed” police department. Then City Hall defunded them by 20% and many left to find a community that didn’t pay for art celebrating people on the FBI’s most wanted list. Were I a police officer in Palo Alto I would carefully weigh the likelihood of the community’s outrage or possible legal charges against me before I attempted to arrest any criminal, knowing they’ve been empowered by society to resist and fight me. Where did we think all this would lead?

Correction @ john - Palo Alto never “defunded” the police with the intention you mean. The City did so due to a severe budget crisis when Covid hit and revenue plunged.

There was no choice but to make cuts in City services across the board including Fire and Police Depts. Hiring freezes were put in place, but no police officers were laid off. There was no intention to target or “defund the police”, only to keep the City afloat until revenue stabilized.

We are recovering economically, so the City Council just authorized hiring 5 police officers along with other new hires for other Departments.

As to the BLM mural, art often stimulates thinking, emotion, disagreement and discussion. That’s a good thing, not a reason for its destruction or banning. I too have thoughts and feelings about the mural, though different than yours.

Ladies were robbed of their purses and now a shooting. Is Stanford shopping center safe anymore?

@felix- at least 14 layoffs occurred in the police department at that time. It wasn’t highlighted locally for some reason. A bit of internet sleuthing will give you details.

Nobody is supporting banning art. Just understand that actions have consequences.

Two points, crime is dreadful whatever it is, and when we read about things like this we are right to be concerned. Thankfully the injuries were not severe, but what would we be saying if it was worse this time.

Secondly, please stop painting art on our streets. Self Drive cars, trucks, robot delivery vehicles, will not be able to handle them. We need to keep recognized street surfaces free of anything other than road striping and safety signs. Our streets are not blank canvasses for artists, they are dangerous places where safety should be top priority and anything to make stripes and similar invisible is dangerous. This trend must stop. The fish on Louis are a very bad distraction as the children crossing there look at the fish not for approaching vehicles.

This is a great social study. What is the elasticity of the Bay Area liberal voter when it comes to crime, inflation, ineptitude, corruption and a lower quality of life?

"...the man was not cooperating with the police investigation and hasn't provided law enforcement with additional information."

From the description it doesn't sound like an robbery. More like an attempted hit. The victim likely knows his attacker.

I’m with Screeedek, doesn’t sound like a robbery at all.

The cost of living continues to increase, and the quality of life continues to decrease (with this shooting being but one of many examples). How long can the cognitive dissonance that creates such a situation continue, before something gives?

The wage, housing, education gap is a gulf with deep fault lines — the Pandemic has hurried the crisis along. Wall Street cut off Main Street around 1974 . Prop 13, Tech revolution, Great Recession and COVID is nailing the lid down tight on average Joe and Jill Americans. Easier to own a gun then have a home, an education or a decent paying job. 300 million guns in USA. Enough for every man woman child and a pet to have a fire arm. Q: what will you sacrifice to make life better for others with less?

Agreed. He victim knows more than he is telling.

There are some highly peculiar aspects to this story, starting with the victim's unwillingness to cooperate. Add to that the failure of the witness to call 911. Who watches someone get shot, twice, and doesn't call 911 - but does hang around to be "found" by the police? Any why didn't the girlfriend call 911 instead of driving her shot-up boyfriend to "a" hospital?