Los Angeles Democrats Cut Fire Department Funding while Boosting Police Budgets

Los Angeles is burning. Several enormous wildfires, the most destructive in the city’s history, have scorched over 27,000 acres, killing five and forcing over 100,000 to evacuate. Extremely dry conditions have fuelled the devastation as California enters its ninth month with almost no rainfall. Climate change is squarely to blame: wildfires have increased dramatically across the world, and the risk of fast-spreading fires in California has risen by 25 percent. 

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But something else is also preventing the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) from containing the deadly blazes: budget cuts, while the city boosts funding for the police department (LAPD).

Last summer, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, cut funding for the LAFD by nearly $18 million. The LAPD, meanwhile, got a $126 million increase, bringing its total budget to $2.14 billion. Police receive 15 percent of the city’s funding, compared to just 6 percent for firefighters. In December, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley presciently explained that, “the [budget] reduction … has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.”

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Now, six months later, the results of these cuts are in full view. Firefighters have described how staffing and budget cuts have prevented the LAFD from carrying out preventive measures, and fire engine shortages have meant that not all available firefighters can be deployed. California increasingly relies on incarcerated people to combat wildfires. Enslaved people make up as much as 30 percent of firefighter crews, risking their lives for less than $1 an hour. 

Crumbling public infrastructure has also caused fire hydrants in some parts of the city to run dry. In an interview with The Intercept, lawyer and organizer Ricci Sargienko put it plainly:

The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences, and these elected officials do actually have blood on their hands. The city is unprepared to handle this fire, and Los Angeles shouldn’t be in that position.

Climate Catastrophe

The devastation in Los Angeles is a stark reminder of climate change under capitalism: As devastating weather events increase, both Democratic and Republican politicians will boost police budgets to repress the oppressed and exploited, instead of funding disaster recovery efforts, let alone climate mitigation measures.

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Whether we see wildfires or flooding, capitalists will do what it takes to protect their property and their profits, even as working-class people losing their homes, livelihoods, and lives. It’s always society’s poorest and most exploited who bear the brunt of climate disasters. 

To halt the growing climate catastrophe and mitigate the effects of extreme weather events, we can’t put any faith in bourgeois politicians to solve a crisis of their making. This includes Democratic politicians — after all, California is a heavily Democratic state, and Los Angeles City Council has a Democratic supermajority. In fact, as we saw during the 2024 presidential campaigns, Democrats have all but abandoned even the most tepid climate change measures, putting polluters before people and the planet at every turn. 

What’s the Alternative?

Only a socialist economy structured around human need and environmental sustainability can both slow climate change and help mitigate the devastation wrought by extreme weather events. The working class needs to use its immense power to demand the nationalization of the energy sector, a halt to fossil fuel extraction, and mass investment in both renewable energy and public transport. This fight needs to be connected to open borders for climate refugees, debt cancellation for dependent and semi-colonial countries, and the destruction of imperialism. 

As Donald Trump, a climate change denier and fossil fuel enthusiast re-enters the White House, this fight is more urgent than ever. What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is a taste of what we will likely face in the years to come. 2024 was the hottest year in history, and things will only get worse, with increased heat waves, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and fires. Capitalism only offers destruction — but the working class can fight back. In Los Angeles, people have shown immense solidarity with one another, risking their lives to take care of community members. Through the fire and ashes, there is a concern for humanity that is deeper than profits and exploitation.