The Los Angeles fires have put the state’s breach of the basic social contract on full, horrific display. The citizens upheld their end of the deal: they paid taxes and complied with the law in exchange for basic services like safety and functional fire hydrants. Yet Los Angeles, one of America’s great cities, is burning down before our eyes.
The Los Angeles fires have caused unprecedented devastation. As of Jan. 15, they have claimed 25 lives, with search and rescue operations ongoing. Over 12,300 structures are destroyed, including homes, businesses and vehicles. Approximately 319,000 residents have been subjected to evacuation orders and warnings to seek refuge from the advancing flames.
More than 40,000 Los Angeles acres have burned; the Palisades fire alone has consumed over 23,700 acres. To put this in perspective, all of Manhattan is 14,600 acres.
Preliminary damage estimates days ago ranged between $250 billion and $275 billion, with the end to the damage not yet in sight. This is very likely the costliest disaster in U.S. history.
California residents endure one of the highest tax burdens in the nation, with property tax rates in Los Angeles taking 1.25 percent from residents and a state income tax rate that tops out at 13.3 percent. Based on property and income tax estimates, Pacific Palisades residents contribute over $715 million in taxes annually to the state and county. According to Zillow, the average value of a Pacific Palisades home was $3.46 million. With the total number of Palisades homes estimated at 8,892, that’s $385 million in annual property taxes to the state and approximately $330 million in state income tax, based on an estimated average Palisades household income at the 10.3 percent tax rate.
In exchange for these revenues, however, Pacific Palisades got empty reservoirs, inoperable fire hydrants, deaths and injuries of neighbors, and a city that no longer exists.
In an interview with Chris Cuomo posted on Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) angrily blamed the residents of Palisades for losing their homes, claiming the failed fire response was because Palisades residents did not pay “their fair taxes.” Note that no Los Angeles leader has ever suggested that fire preparedness and response is fatally defective due to insufficient tax revenue. There is also no evidence that city or state leadership ever proposed higher taxes for Pacific Palisades residents to meet fire safety requirements or that those residents resisted such a proposal.
The inescapable fact is delivery of basic services, for which government is responsible, would have substantially mitigated this disaster. The citizens of California and Los Angeles are paying a high price for the gross negligence of the state and local governments, a breach of contract with unprecedented damages.
The concept of the social contract, as articulated by political theorists, suggests a tacit agreement whereby citizens cede various rights in exchange for government services. Citizens voluntarily surrender certain freedoms and contribute taxes and resources in exchange for the state’s obligation to provide safety, justice and public infrastructure. This mutual agreement is the cornerstone of organized society: the state ensures order and security, while citizens comply with laws and contribute to the collective good.
On Friday, I helped evacuate my parents from our Los Angeles family home. As my nephew and I were packing up our cars, we did so knowing that America has the capability and resources to put this fire out and fast. The continuing disaster is a leadership issue. The state breached its contract before the fire and in its response after the blazes ensued.
In Los Angeles, the government has left the citizen without even functioning fire hydrants; The Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades was inexplicably drained and has been offline since February of last year. The Santa Ynez Reservoir’s capacity is 117 million gallons of water. Firefighters resorted to three 1-million-gallon tanks that went dry at a critical point of the firefight. Already stretched thin, firefighters were left without essential tools to combat the infernos.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has repeatedly warned about these systemic issues, but leadership remained arrogant and rejected their pleas.
Since the start of the fires, more than 100 fire-related arrests have been made, including two arson arrests and dozens of alleged looters. There is a direct cause-and-effect relationship between Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s deliberate erosion of rule of law in California and the start of these fires. Criminals have become fully emboldened by the lack of law enforcement. Though arson investigations are active, arrests have been scarce. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has taken over investigations into the causes of the LA fires.
Political philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote that “the safety of the people is the supreme law.” Californians and Angelenos are told to rely on the state for safety but are then abandoned when danger strikes. The social contract requires citizens to relinquish the right to enforce justice and use violence as vigilantes in exchange for the state providing law enforcement and public safety. But this state does not protect its citizens, leaving them to defend themselves. Then it denies them the right to protect themselves by denying their concealed carry permit applications. The system thus effectively criminalizes the human right of self-defense and the constitutionally guaranteed Second Amendment right to bear arms.
In Los Angeles, gunpoint robberies at restaurants, home burglaries and murder are now an expected part of life. Similar trends plague Democrat-run New York City and Chicago, where defunded, under-utilized or demoralized police forces struggle to maintain order. In New York City, a woman was burned alive on the subway, and a citizen acting in defense of self and of others was prosecuted for it. In Chicago, murder rates within various periods have exceeded casualty rates in the Iraq war.
Criminals are completely out of control. There is no deterrence and no fear of law enforcement.
This is not governance; it is malpractice, and arguably criminal negligence.
It’s time to renegotiate the social contract. That starts not just with ending the careers of Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom but terminating this criminally negligent Bass-Newsom brand of leadership.
We should “reimagine” governance that returns to the basics of delivering public safety, infrastructure and protecting the fundamental rights of the people. The bar is pretty low for new leadership.
It is time for California to return to being the Golden State and Los Angeles to again become the shining city on the hill. Let’s re-author the social contract, before the fires consuming our cities spread irreparably to the basic fabric of our society.
Omar Qudrat is an attorney, former U.S. Department of Defense official and counterterrorism prosecutor. He holds the rank of major in the U.S. Army Reserve. Born and raised in Los Angeles, his parents were married in their relative’s Pacific Palisades home that has burned down in the LA fires.
