UPDATE: Tweets from the mayor:
12:27pm: Just stood with Councilman Zine to oppose cuts in our police force. There are fiscally responsible ways to maintain current force levels.
12:29pm: Today’s record lows in crime would have been unthinkable15 years ago. Violent crime is down 20 %. Homicides are at a 40-year low.
12:32pm: The reason for such good stats? Crime is at a record low in Los Angeles becauseour police force is at a record high: http://bit.ly/47auNW
1:14pm: To see what cutting police would really mean for you, take a look at how police hiring has affected your part of the city: http://bit.ly/3YOzul.
As he packs up and prepares to leave town a hero — his name to be emblazoned on the new Police Headquarters building — Chief Bill Bratton only needed 12 seconds to drive the stake of truth into the heart of what’s wrong with City Hall (bratton1.mp3).
Bratton was being polite in this interview last week with KPCC’s Frank Stoltze by saying LA is a city that “almost” doesn’t work. Or perhaps he qualified his statement only because the LAPD which he has led for the last seven years is City Hall’s only success story. Crime is down sharply, officer morale is up and the department’s reputation restored.
Not bad at a time when the city teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, when water mains are bursting, services being cut and the public growing increasingly restless with a government that is as corrupt as it is incompetent.
Bratton was brought to town by the lethargic Jimmy Hahn but it’s the current mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who has draped himself in the chief’s laurels.
Saturday’s engagement with some 400 activists at the Congress of Neighborhood Empowerment was no exception.
Villaraigosa did his slide presentation showing how crime is down all over the city and insisted he won’t back down on hiring cops just because he’s got a $400 million hole in his budget and it’s getting worse by a million dollars a day.
What the mayor didn’t say — what he hasn’t said in all these months of a worsening financial crisis — is how to pay for the cops, or for that matter, how to pay any of the city’s bills.
Under the circumstances, you can hardly blame him for dashing out of the City Council Chamber without taking any questions.
The task of figuring out how to pay for the cops and still reduce spending is left to the Council, paralyzed by panic as it is. It’s hard to see them screwing up the courage Tuesday to halt police hiring since it would make them responsible if crime goes up in the months ahead — and taking responsibility is not the strong card of anyone at City Hall.
The mayor is escalating the stakes at 11 a.m. this morning by bringing ex-motorcycle cop Dennis Zine into his fold at a news conference in Canoga Park at the Topanga Community Police Station. He’s bringing along other top brass, including Jim McDonnell, Earl Paysinger, Sharon Papa, Charlie Beck, Michael Moore and members of Topanga Community Police Advisory Board Other Community and several local civic leaders.
The email blast from one of those leaders, Neighborhood Empowerment Commissioner Al Abrams, is headlined LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN JOIN WITH ME AND MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA AND COUNCILMAN ZINE TO VOICE SUPPORT TO MAINTAIN CURRENT NUMBER OF LOS ANGELES POLICE OFFICERS.
Dear Fellow NC Board Member,
The Mayor has asked me to invite you to join us tomorrow morning at a press
conference in Canoga Park to show support to maintain the current number of
LAPD officers. See the details below.
Please let me know by e-mail if you can make it. The Mayor would like a
list of names of community leaders who will be attending and be a part of
the press conference.
Many thanks,
Al
The use of commissioners appointed by the mayor to promote his political agenda touches on another point Bratton made last week: “Unfortunately, I think it’s an unnecessary layer of government …(an) extra layer of government and oversight.”
It’s not supposed to be that way. The commission system was supposed to provide independent oversight but the process has been so corrupted over time that the appointees are little more the ciphers for the politicians and pn those rare occasions when they do show independence like Jane Usher and Nick Patsaouras, they get the boot.
Topanga Community Police Station
21501 Schoenbourne,Canoga Park
1-818-756-4800
Bratton deserves credit for a lot of good things that happened under his watch; the uppermost being restoration of community relations.
But I was troubled by Bratton’s politicization of his position through two actions – his endorsement and campaigning for candidates and his “threat” to reduce manpower in districts whose Council member didn’t back him up on funding for the LAPD.
“Almost?”
I have decided to try to attend this meeting. I am a citizen of LACITY since 1955, have always paid my taxes, am as interested in good government as I can be, I am an activist. No signs, no outbursts. I just want to hear all
these public servants’ excuses. They might even
decide to be honest.
They are going to have to admit that they need to have help because they have put us in an
untenable position – no money to pay the police force??? What????
If they do not let me in, I shall just wait in the car until it is over and come home and let you know what happened. OK?
Teddy Howell
Teddy Howell
I will miss Bratton. I will miss his plain-speaking style and his intelligence. He’s courageous enough just to come out and say what all citizens have known for decades: some cops are idiots. Not all, not the majority, just some.
Let’s hope whoever replaces him will have observed him enough to be a good imitator of him.
We also all know we have to keep our police levels up. How to pay for that? I dunno….maybe stop building a few skyscrapers for a while? Or cut back on the expense accounts at city hall? Or audit every single department and find all the waste?
I agree with Walter, Ron.
Give us a clue as to what works.
All five “top brass” are competimg for Chief. They don`t dare not to show up.
Spiffy, the audit should start with the Mayor and Council offices where most of the waste is.
The audit should start with the sustainability of employee pensions and LACERS.
Hey veteran City employees:
Have fun taking your ERIP early retirement. As soon as bankruptcy is declared, you are just a creditor on the unfunded portion of your pension, maybe more. Enjoy it for the few months you can.
7:55 = Trutanich hypocrite. you had no problem with the County DA recruiting, twisting arms to fundraise for Trutanich and get him endorsements, coaching him and his campaign mgr Shallman to lie about his career and use ONLY “the sliver” dating back before 25 years earlier to when Trutanich was starting out and worked for Cooley, while since, he’s been on the opposite side of the public and is NOW showing his true stripes. Trutanich/Cooley being joined at the hip on everything, Trutanich doing Cooley’s bidding directly and via Cooley’s OWN long-time top aides Carter and Livesay now doing the real work in the CA’s office, is VERY, VERY troubling and unethical.
– If you listen to the transcripts of this breakfast meeting, Bratton held up Jack Weiss as someone who stood steady on the importance of the anti-terrorism unit at LAPD and getting it established, despite getting a lot of flak from colleagues who didn’t “get it,” or other things to do with LAPD. Telling the voters who’d have been the better candidate was not only his right but duty and this city would be “getting things done” with Weiss instead of Trutanich/Cooley acting like a rightwing wrench.
THIS divisive situation we have now with the Republican clique forcing the council to choose sides for and agaisnt the mayor stymying any sort of steady course is exactly the kind of thing Bratton refers to as NOT a good thing. He speaks out on behalf of a strong mayor system: then if people don’t like it, blame him and take him out, but obstructing him (and each other and the Chief) at every step is the kind of pettiness and “micro-micro-managing” referring to Parks but applicable to some others, that makes L A so dysfunctional.
Anonymous at 12:10 PM bleats: “Bratton … speaks out on behalf of a strong mayor system: then if people don’t like it, blame him and take him out, but obstructing him (and each other and the Chief) at every step is the kind of pettiness and “micro-micro-managing”
Exactly. We need a system that works. We need the system they used in Germany in the 1930s. Sieg Heil!
You can’t talk sense to the 12:10 robot. It needs to be squashed. Cut the wires that feed it.
I believe the City cannot avoid bankruptcy. Ron has been right all along.
Just some Facts and 12:51: If you “need the system they used in German in the 1930s. Sieg Heil!” (a REALLY, REALLY offensive and typical “reply” about a Jewish candidate) you HAVE IT in Trutanich/ Cooley — they are ramming through their rightwing, reactionary (neo-Fascist to use your favored terminology) agenda over the will of the people, having lied about their intentions to get elected to EVERYONE from officials like Chick to special interest groups like the medical cannabis advocates, who are not going to let them get away with it. That’s exactly the point, thank you for demonstrating it.
Greig Smith is quoted in the Times as saying Bratton has no call to call Koretz “naive” because he’s elected by his district to do their will. (Perry having the nerve to tell Bratton he doesn’t “understand” the situation doesn’t even deserve a reply – can you imagine her as Mayor?) Koretz blithely saying that civilians could relieve cops of desk duty to make up for it is an insult to the LAPD officers who have been doing what they can in that regard already.
Hate to break it to Smith but the will of CD5 IS more cops – Koretz attended a Town Hall meeting in December hosted by Rosendahl for CDs 11 & 5 where people were angry that Bratton had to pull some cops out of their districts to deploy to more crime-heavy areas and the 2 new stations opened in Koreatown and the W Valley (Smith/Zine’s area).
Bratton made clear that the only way he could KEEP COPS in these outlying areas was to increase the number to over 10,000, ideally 12,500. (Right now L A has about 1 cop to almost 500 residents vs. 1:: 250 in NYC, Chicago and other big cities.) The Compstat System of “cops on the dots” enabled LAPD to deploy cops as needed but people at the meeting complained it could take 20 mins. to get a cop to Palisades and Bel Air hills and other areas that paid the most in taxes. They said it seemed property crimes were up – while no one disagreed that reducing violent crime and homicides was most important, this is a trade-off they didn’t want.
Bratton said then that the public would have to urge Councilmembers to prioritize public safety because if they cut the force further their areas would be among those who’d be unhappy. This is what he re-iterated since: he did NOT “threaten” Rosendahl with pulling out cops because of his later flip-flopping on the issue and supporting Smith/ Parks on reducing hiring: he always made clear what the situation was and what the consequences would be, it’s all about numbers.
We really MUST be on the side of Bratton on this: we all demand cops in our neighborhoods, safety is even more important that potholes. Plus we were persuaded to support (at least not oppose) the trash fee hikes for LAPD and public safety (incl. fire safety), as well as from Phone Tax S.
(Greig Smith saying the trash fee hikes were always meant to go to offset “real cost of trash pickup” seems some sort of local deal he made with his district over Sunshine Canyon, but it’s counter to what the rest of the whole city, LAPD and the Mayor understood and said. This may explain Smith’s particular peeve with Bratton: Smith wants to close Sunshine Canyon or something, some local promise that he wants the REST OF US in the city to subsidize.)
I always get a kick out of when media types or local pols say things such as crime rates are at the lowest since the Eisenhower administration and praise be to the almighty Chief Bratton.
I would like to see an independent audit and analysis of these rates; how they are collected, defined, what’s not included etc. (If someone has this, please post.) Most everyone I speak with cannot affirmatively respond to the question: do you feel safer now than you did 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago?
Good post Ron. People are e-mailing asking if they should attend tomorrow’s city council meeting to support to continue to hire cops even though they don’t support the Mayor. ABSOLUTELY. Poor cops have busted their asses out in the field for years with no support from this city or its politicians. Bratton is leaving LAPD 1,000 times better then Parks could have. The LA Times poll and Harvard Study points out his accomplishments. Koretz keeps harping on the 10,000 cop figure. He needs to get a clue and know LAPD still lags behind 5 major cities with fewer cops so 10,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to NY with 40,000. You read city council agenda’s every week and they are still wasting money on crap. They sure found millions for all their development projects and hellloooo do they not think people are still coming to LA? Increase development but not your police force. That is the small town minds we having running our city and created this budget deficit.
2:17 what will it take to make you crawl back under the rock you came from.
Anonymous at 1:29bloviates: If you “need the system they used in German in the 1930s. … you HAVE IT in Trutanich/ Cooley
You were the one that wanted a strong Mayor because … obstructing him (and each other and the Chief) at every step is the kind of pettiness and “micro-micro-managing” … that makes L A so dysfunctional.
I really think it’s too soon for you to start the “Trutanich for Mayor” campaign you are now suggesting.
What works?
Corruption in City Hall. Great deals with high-rolling land developer contributors. One-way shared sacrifice. Lying to get more taxes (fees) to hire more police that they aren’t hiring. Doctoring the crime statistics and putting them in different categories to make it look like crime is down. Not posting all of the crime stats on the City’s Web site. Making us think V. can improve the schools where he has no legal juristiction. Chasing businesses out of town including movie and TV production.
A lot of stuff works…but not for us.
Oh, and the mayor’s travel agent is doing very well…thank you very much!
I can’t believe what this Mayor is doing to the public with the aid of highly paid consultants on the public dime. LA is not a Hobbesian state of nature where people are living at the basest level of mankind. Playing on the fear of some people, all we hear from him is police, police and more police. It is not healthy for the city to turn it into for or against police. This is not a police state, and the police is paid handsomely along with the Fire dept at 70% of the city budget. They had better be doing their job right. In no other city do you see the “police” being highlighted as the only accomplishment of a Mayor, who dares to represent a world class city that is gradually turning into a third class city.
Meanwhile, our streets and sidewalks are broken along with the water pipes, while high density housing continues to be dished out by lackeys on the Planning Commissions with no regard to infrastructure. Along with knucleheads like Ed Reyes-stick low-income housing in all neighborhoods-, head of PLUM, which should be a check and balance over bad decsions made by commissions and planning department, and not an enabler, billboards, marijuana pot-shops and other illegal quality of life issues proliferate all over the city.
Police and Fire are at the very existential spectrum of all cultured societies. They are the foundation, not the reason for that society to exist. Do dear Mayor tell us what else you have done for this city, other than hide under questionable crime statistics which if opened to an independent body would show the hype and lies.
Villaraigosa really puts the “Twit” in “Twitter.”
To: By Anonymous on October 12, 2009 12:10 PM:
From: 7:55 AM
My comments about the politicization of the Chief would apply whether Bratton campaigned for Trutanich or Weiss. This was the recommendation of the Christopher Commission in the 90′s and it makes sense.
Also do you support the idea of Bratton threatening Council members who wanted slow down or stop back-filling of uniform positions? On this issue, the Chief should definitely air his position since it is within his jurisdiction, however, it is improper for him to unilaterally make the kind of threat he made.
As I said at the beginning, despite these TWO items, even though they are important, Bratton does deserved credit for his many accomplishments as chief which earend him respect by both elected officials and members of the public.
Here’s my problem. You mention Police and the most structured budget mind seems to float away. Yes, violent crime is down in LA. And, it is also down in MOST of the cities and counties in the West, particularly in California. And, yes, we have 1 cop per 500 residences , while New York has two. New York also pays their starting officers about HALF what we pay ours.
Come on, people. Those same people who have a real issue with salaries and benefits of city workers cannot go brain dead when the LAPD/LAFD is discussed.
And, it is not anti Police or anti public safety to ask these questions when the city is spending 1 million dollars a day more than what they are taking in.
As I understand it, 70% of our general budget goes to Public Safety with most of that in personnel, while the average of cities near us is close to 50%. Where is the simple solution for more cops now which is to replace officer office duties with some civilians (lift the ban in this case), this freeing more LAPD to do their real job.
Please can we use the same accountability and transparency that we use on other departments so we can really discuss policing? If we cannot, tell us why we can’t?
In tough economic times, we need to take a tough look at our police/fire department. The decisions regarding other city employees MUST be taken into account when we are dealing with the police department. And none of us can forget that.
Bratton is a “Kool-Aid” drinker. He parrots the party’s “crisis clarion call”. They’ll say anything to attempt to send “chills down our spine”, all the while THEY KEEP DOING THE SAME THING, same old same old.
Are they stupid? Are they paralyzed, as Ron Kaye says. OF COURSE NOT. THEY’RE DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEY PLANNED AND INTEND TO DO. DON’T YOU REALIZE THAT LOS ANGELES IS TOO BIG TO FAIL??????? Do you really believe that the banks will pull the plug on the money supply? Where else has the OBAMITES uttered that phrase “too big to fail”, remember?
THEY ARE GOING TO TAX THE HELL OUTTA YOU, BROTHER. OH NO, not if you’re poor or have the appropriate tax write-offs, ie. GREEN GREEN , CARBON TRADEOFFS, etc. Start hiding your taxable income, now. That’s because the tax hikes will start at the Federal level, the continue at the State level. If Ron Kaye has he way, the taxes (probably sales tax) will also be raised at the City level.
The Democrats will force us into socialism and government dependency even if it starts by chasing all the productive people out of Los Angeles. Those who remain, don’t worry. There’s plenty of illegal immigrants to replace them from south of the border, or what was the border. Remember, the government goal is to increase our population in California by 100% in 5 years (I should recheck that stat).
You think Ron Kaye wants to invade your wallet with City taxes? Look what the proposed Federal ObamaCare would do to your wallet.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/12/morning-bell-obamacare-invades-your-wallet/
Here’s the problem 5:34:
Your use of Conservative national Bogeyman figures–Carbon trade-off, and green and (horrors) TAXES–stops the conversation from getting anywhere when you are talking to a registered decline to state voter and resident like me. And the majority of people in the city are registered democrats.
If you want change in your city, then, you must recognize that throwing around conservative mantras from the lands of the silver gopher is eliminating 70% of the people who might agree you about the problems with THIS city’s government. I’d complain about the liberal side too, but the only people I see are public employee unions members and I have HUGE problems with their employment benefits. Which I expect 5:47 and I agree on.
“UPDATE: Tweets from the mayor:
12:27pm: Just stood with Councilman Zine to oppose cuts in our police force. There are fiscally responsible ways to maintain current force levels.
12:29pm: Today’s record lows in crime would have been unthinkable15 years ago. Violent crime is down 20 %. Homicides are at a 40-year low.
12:32pm: The reason for such good stats? Crime is at a record low in Los Angeles becauseour police force is at a record high: http://bit.ly/47auNW
1:14pm: To see what cutting police would really mean for you, take a look at how police hiring has affected your part of the city: http://bit.ly/3YOzul“
These times and comments are accurate – I have
them in my notes. What does this have to do with
the financial disaster we are experiencing in our city which is too large for these ordinary
mortals to manage. It is time to split up. Teddy Howell
What does this have to do with the financial disaster the city is facing?
Because 70% of the budget is devoted to public safety, most of which is personnal. Since it is a city department, do you kinda think that maybe there might be some waste and padding in the system? And, do you want to just take the word of public employees and politicians?
That wimp Garcetti kowtowing to Antonio. And he wants to be the next Mayor! Anybody but pretty Eric. The one who has recently shown cojones is Perry. Puts all men in the Council to shame. Bankruptcy is inevitable, thanx to the tough LITTLE boys…………
Don’t forget, Eric Garcetti has been a long time supporter of Chief Bratton and a good friend to LAPD. Eric is loved by the rank and file Officers.
This isn’t a recent thing. He has been a strong pro law enforcement Councilman for a long time. Just look at the Untag program. Probably one of the best Graffiti reduction programs in the Country. He is also in the Naval Reserves.
He would make a great Mayor. Thanks for bringing it up.
Bratton blotted his copybook with his endorsement of Jack Weiss. Never mind whether you believe Weiss was the right man or not, Bratton should not have done it any more than he should have endorsed Trutanich.
I have no doubt at all that Bratton’s endorsement was not something he wanted to do.
Weiss was a hardly a poster boy for law enforcement with his own ‘issues’ about illegal campaign donations that he refused to return, illegal fundraising with a sitting city commissioner, blatant manipulation of the rape kit crisis, and associating with a fundraiser who had been convicted of felonies. Clearly the Mayor forced Bratton to endorse Weiss; after all, the Mayor managed Weiss’s campaign.
If Bratton could not stand up to the Mayor, then good riddance. I hope our next Police Chief will be someone who has the guts to take a stand against corruption in City Hall instead of being at best a passive bystander and at worst an active enabler.
Dennis Zine called for an investigation into Weiss’s fundraising shenanigans, what has been Bratton’s response? Nothing. No comment. No action.
But leave Weiss out of it and Bratton still comes up smelling like the Mayor’s under garments. Let’s not forget the recent convenient “leak” of a scandal that caused the Department of Building and Safety’s General Manager to resign over unfounded date-rape charges.
It is no coincidence that the GM stood in the way of the Mayor’s office who wanted to get a permit for an illegal billboard, and the GM refused to comply. So details of an ongoing investigation were leaked. Very convenient and very damning of LAPD’s protocol. Has Bratton taken any action against those who leaked the unfounded charges? You can cut and paste the Chief’s response to the Weiss situation.
Goodbye Bill Bratton. Don’t let the door to your new office ….
Patty ,will you the…..shut up. I`m getting angry now with your b.s. about pretty Eric and that this wimp will make a good Mayor. He is desroying our city and I`m PISSED OFF!!
Ron is there anyway you can find out for us whether the police hiring issue will be discussed at this morning’s meeting. Some newspapers are reporting Garcetti may delay.
12:13 = incoherent babbling idiot trying to bring up straw men tech issues that the Ethics Commission said were nothing, tech violation oversights that had been dealt with, but they harp on for soundbites, to hide that Trutovich flat-out lies to people’s faces to get their endorsements when he intends all along to throw them under the bus when he doesn’t need them any more.
THAT is the kind of stunning “ethical violation” that disqualifies a man (or woman) for ANYTHING of responsibility, let alone a job like this.
Trutovich and Cooley have taken on more than they can chew with the medical pot community who isn’t letting him get away with tricking them to go out and work for him saying he’d be a lot MORE sympathetic to pot dispensaries than Weiss, and now they’re telling them ALL such sales are illegal. Citing a court ruling from LAST year, U. S. Atty General Holder’s ruling this February that the feds would no longer make busting shops a priority in states like Calif. so that Cooley/ Trutovich decide THEY must step in and “be the law and order.” These were both WAY before they used this community as ground troops for the election.
IF they want to shut all shops down and be true to their rightwing Republican colors that would have been fine IF they’d said so, not lied about it all along. Babbling idiocies and distractions will NOT work any more. (The papers have even wised up a bit – Jim Newton at the Times is out, the new publisher isn’t happy about how the paper was dishonest in working for Shallman.)
P.S. to 12:13 babbling idiot, as to claiming endorsing Weiss was “something that Bratton didn’t really want to do” check out the YouTubes of his breakfast this week hosted by L A Magazine, where he singles out Weiss for “getting” the big issues involving LAPD like the importance of the anti- terror unit, maintaining the force, Compstat etc., even though he took a lot of flak from colleagues who did NOT get it.
You only make yourselves look like MORE bitter whiners when you claim a man like Bratton would have endorsed someone he didn’t know and believe in – that’s a far cry from Cooley recruiting and tutoring Trutnuch to run so he can have a surrogate/ alter-ego at the city attorney, letting him/ Cooley get at stuff that had eluded him so far. Weiss and Bratton respect each other as equals and you just can’t stand that fact.
“Trutovich and Cooley have taken on more than they can chew with the medical pot community”
Yummm, Brownies…
“Weiss and Bratton respect each other as equals”
Bhahhahahahahahah
Something smell funny in your koolaid today?
Referring to Trutanich as “Trutovich” twice exposes the antisemitic a**hole you really are.
You’ve got a City that’s creating massive deficits with no sign of abating, you’ve got banks that are honoring City checks without the City resources to back them, you’ve got National leaders (Dems, as in Bill Clinton BTW) celebrating the City as if it’s a shining star, you’ve got City Community Leaders crying crisis while nobody in power listens, you’ve got looming worldwide crises such as Global Warming and Global Epidemics, and you’ve got the worldwide desire to significantly roll back U.S. prosperity in order to share among the needy nations, and what as a result do you get… conspiracy.
KK, you are incoherent. The majority of people in the city are poor and ignorant (my definition of most Democrats). Think about it. They don’t know what any of this means.
To RK, issues don’t matter to most here, as you know. You need a charismatic leader to change the City, not debates on issues. But, why change. The billionaire boys and the Unions are doing to us precisely what they intend.
The Mayor and company are not faux-socilaists, whatever it means. They are robber barrons, except they rob the union moneys which are forced out of reluctant workers to the tune of 3% of their hard earned money. They produce nothing and have no legacy to leave behind that benefited society other than their own pocket books.
“They are robber barrons, except they rob the union moneys which are forced out of reluctant workers to the tune of 3% of their hard earned money. They produce nothing and have no legacy to leave behind that benefited society other than their own pocket books”
You seem to have enough of a grasp on the nature of these beasts that I’m surprized you don’t see the additional nuance of how “faux” applies to those who pretend to be uber-progressive.
Ach, I bet you won’t like the German either….
Whatever term we use, we agree that they are robbers period. Not good for our city though, to have 16 politicos and their henchmen freeload of the public treasury.
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Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
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