I'm Tired of Apologizing for Doing What Police Should Be Doing

In today's Los Angeles County edition of the LA Times, one of the headline stories deals with LAPD apologizing and taking the blame for disturbances that broke out at a demonstration at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on May 1, 2007.

A couple of preliminary remarks are in order.

First, most of the report is accurate but nevertheless unsettling to me in ways I might explain later in this post. Police work has evolved over the years since I began (1969) and, although many of the changes are a result of police abuses of power, those abuses are generally few and should have been dealt with as individual cases rather than "reining in" all of the police across the country. For example, Police in Los Angeles (and elsewhere) are now required to do everything possible to make sure that demonstrators who are usually intent on being noticed by the news media, and who often strain the bounds (if they don't cross them altogether) of lawful behavior in order to increase the likelihood of gaining their sought after media attention, are coddled, babied, and appeased at every turn. In fact, I was surprised that the Department took any action at all on May Day, because since the Rodney King-related fiasco of 1991, that's what we've done. Nothing. And it works.

Oh business owners get understandably upset when their windows and outdoor fixtures get broken, spray painted or otherwise vandalized, but these are people who work so hard to make a barely average living that they don't have the time or money to raise much of a ruckus. They just grumble, clean up and continue working. Interestingly enough, many of these are legal immigrants to our country. Ironic isn't it when you consider that this particular protest was staged in order to promote illegal immigration.

My second point is somewhat remote. I was in San Francisco area last Saturday where our youngest son was sworn in as an officer in the United States Navy. During the proceedings, the officer in charge noted that our son's blog is well read and somewhat infamous for being politically conservative. I believe the phrase used by the Navy Lieutenant was, "that will stop today," meaning no more controversial blogs. I, having less than a year to go in my sometimes but usually not illustrious career, have the luxury of criticizing the Department whenever I want to. Technically I'm already retired so unless I commit a crime, I'm untouchable.

To be sure, I'm not so much criticizing the Department as the tendency among news media types and some segments of society to blame police for everything.

I hope that most honest and hardworking citizens understand that Police are people too. We are mothers fathers, sisters and brothers. we are sons and daughters. We have lives and live in or near and are a part of the communities we serve.

We had to be darn good people to get the job in the first place and the vast majority of us still are. We have a strong sense of justice which is brutalized on nearly a daily basis as we see criminals walk free for various reasons be it liberal courts, lack of prison space or intimidated witnesses. Yet when there is an increase in crime, or an insufficient decrease, the first people we blame are usually the police.

Mark Fuhrman who was my roommate for a time and who I consider to be a dear friend was basically forced from his career by news media reports intent on spinning him as a "racist cop" which could not possibly have been farther from the truth. The truth was that he is a talented and smart investigator who should still be on the job working for all of the citizens of Los Angeles like he was working when he left. He would literally have thrown himself in harms way to protect anyone in this city. He was willing to risk his life so that average citizens could feel safer.

Most of the officers on the job today would do the same thing which brings me to the "Consent Decree." A few years ago we had the "Rampart Scandal" where an officer who was obviously a horrible exception to the rule, was caught stealing. He then began claiming that corruption, brutality and racism were rampant in LAPD. He made numerous allegations nearly all of which turned out to be false. The most intensive investigations revealed only minuscule impropriety by a very few officers.

And now we are saddled with a consent decree where we use hundreds of officers (closer to a thousand, I believe) investigating other officer before there is even a hint of misconduct. We pay police officers to call up other police officers faking a desire to complain about yet more police officers in order to see that we handle these "fake" complaints properly. We pay police officers to, on an under cover basis, turn in wallets and other valuables to other police officers to make sure they don't steal anything. These "sting" operations are being done even when there is not a shred of indication that there is any stealing going on at all.

So police officers who are already overworked because so many other police officers aren't available, have to go out and face dangerous situations with inadequate back up. And because so much money is needed to support the stings and other consent decree-related activities, the officers who are doing real police work are under-supported by technology and other equipment.

Many times I have sat as a Watch Commander at 77th Street Area police station while one of my desk officers called numerous people who had requested an emergency police response and we ask if we (the police) are still needed. Imagine calling the police in your neighborhood because a guy was prowling through your back yard and nobody comes. Then when you finally get the doors locked, lights on all over and the wife and kids to settle down and get to bed, we call you back and ask if you still need us. This happens all over LA many times every week.

It won't ever happen, but I'd love to see a chief of police stand up in front of news media microphones and cameras and say something like, "While we're sorry if any innocent people got hurt, we were doing our jobs clearing a rowdy and dangerous crowd out and trying to get them to disburse. We are reviewing the incident to identify any issues that we need to resolve in the way we handle these events. I would like to point out that we respect everyone including members of the news media equally and everyone can be expected to be treated equally. Other than that, I have no other comment."

I believe that many of the problems we face are the responsibility of professional journalists who have evolved from presenting unvarnished objective facts to the public to now spinning those facts in order to try to manufacture controversy.

The result is that you have a chief of police apologizing for officers who are in an impossible, no win situation.