LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A proposed $500 million tax increase to put more police on the streets of Los Angeles has drawn fire from opponents who say top law-enforcement officials are trying to scare voters into approving it with commercials that raise the specter of a suburban crime nightmare.
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But most galling to the opponents is a commercial that shows a woman and her daughter cowering next to a bed in a suburban home, screaming helplessly for police who are too late to save them from a shadowy intruder slowly climbing the stairs.
The ad ends before the little girl and her mother meet their presumably violent fate. It fades to black as the woman screams "No!" -- followed by the sound of a heartbeat and empty dial tone.
"It's extortion. That's what an extortionist does, try to scare people into giving up their money," Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said of the ad. "When somebody puts a gun in your ribs and asks for money you give it to them because you are frightened."
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A Web site for the proposal had also drawn criticism for implying that crime was at an all-time high in Los Angeles, using headlines borrowed from an Arkansas newspaper. In fact, major crime rates in Los Angeles are down by about 40 percent over the past decade. The claims were pulled from the Web site this week after local newspapers drew attention to them.
A police state doesn't just fund itself, you know. Someone's got to pay for it...
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