Mayor Garcetti backs U.S. military response to nerve gas use in Syria

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday he supports President Obama’s call for a military strike against Syria as punishment for the alleged Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people outside Damascus.

“I don’t think we should get deeply enmeshed in the civil war directly, but I think it cannot go unanswered, just from a humanitarian perspective,” Garcetti said in an interview between a round of meetings with constituents at his satellite office in Van Nuys.

“If the international community lets something like this go, it says that it’s OK to do in the future, that there will be no consequence. And that’s unacceptable for me, personally.”

Garcetti, a liberal Democrat who is nearing the end of eight years of service in the Navy Reserve, said he was convinced that intelligence reports blaming President Bashar Assad for the chemical weapons assault were correct.

“It’s hard for me to look at those pictures,” Garcetti said, alluding to images of the Syrian dead and injured, among them more than 400 children killed by poison gas.

In the interview, Garcetti also said he was preparing to launch an aggressive effort to stimulate the Los Angeles economy once he completes his key administration appointments in the weeks ahead. It will include steps to broaden access to job training programs, reduce youth unemployment, cut business taxes and revamp the city’s system for approving real estate development projects, he said.

“Those are going to be the top of my agenda,” he said.

Garcetti’s remarks came during a break in a series of 15-minute meetings with constituents who asked to visit with him during his “office hours” at the Van Nuys municipal building. It was the second time since Garcetti took office two months ago that the mayor has held such office hours.

Most of those he saw were advocates for community causes. Garcetti assured Paul Dumont, an advocate for the homeless, that he would speak with Police Chief Charlie Beck about officer sensitivity to mental health issues when they confront the homeless.

Garcetti told Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition riders’ group, that he would soon meet with L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas about public transport to Los Angeles International Airport.

And he thanked Susan E. Dilkes, executive director of Filipino American Service Group Inc., for giving him a list of recommendations of Filipinos to appoint to city boards.

“They’d all be qualified for commissions and stuff like that?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “highly qualified people.”

Dilkes told Garcetti that Filipino community leaders wanted to honor him at a reception. He said he would try to attend.

“We’ll follow up and hopefully have some good news with different commissioners in these coming few weeks,” he said.

“Just hire the best,” Dilkes told him.

“Absolutely, that’s all we do,” Garcetti responded. “If they happen to be Filipino, even better.”

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Twitter: @finneganlatimesmichael.finnegan@latimes.com