Guilty - Even If Proven Innocent
Tim Dees
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
It’s another fine, sunny day in Los Angeles, where being a cop means always having to say you’re sorry.
I already mentioned the MacArthur Park May Day riot in my last installment. Since then, the mayor of Los Angeles, the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, with a little help from the LA Times, has stirred the pot. Mayor Villaraigosa made an appearance at an inner city Catholic church last Saturday (Cinco de Mayo, which is now a bigger deal in LA than Independence Day ever was) to promise “There will be consequences.” The LA Times chose to report this under a headline reading “LA mayor vows action against guilty officers.”
The Times is revealing its own agenda a little more than usual by presupposing that any of the LAPD officers involved in the May Day incident are guilty. Thus far, they haven’t even been accused of anything. Chief Bratton has taken the involved officers off of the street, which is prudent for vicarious liability purposes, and is non-punitive for the officers, who continue to get paid. It deprives Los Angeles of some much-needed police protection, but I can’t fault him for doing that. I’m far more concerned for the fate of the involved officers, who have already been convicted where the Times and the mayor are concerned, and have about zero chance of getting a fair trial if this escalates to a criminal level.
LA has some history with ensuring that its police officers are punished for their actions, no matter how long or how many trials it takes. The officers involved in the infamous Rodney King incident (which took place an incredible 16 years ago, believe it or not — there are now cops working at LAPD that know about it only from history books) were tried and acquitted in state criminal court. Even though the flagship piece of evidence, a video clip depicting four officers striking a proned-out man with batons, was prima facie evidence of police brutality, the jury found it much less so once it was analyzed by experts from both sides.
Most of the time, hearing a verdict of “not guilty” means that you can go home and resume your life. But the feds decided to step in with the extraordinary measure of charging the cops again in federal court, which is about the only way to do it without creating a double jeopardy defense. They made sure that the jury pool was selected mainly from South Central Los Angeles, and they still couldn’t convict all four cops. They did manage to send Stacy Koon and Lawrence Powell to federal prison for two years, then failed to extend their prison terms on the grounds that the sentencing judge didn’t follow federal guidelines. The judge could see that Koon and Powell were light at least a pound of flesh and declined to take any more.
The Times also quoted the sermon of the parish priest, who asked of the assembled flock, “We’re not seeking revenge. But what do we do about officers who fire weapons at innocent people? What do we do about officers who swing batons at peaceful demonstrators?” Father Amezcua should stick to liturgical terms of art. The people at the May Day “immigrant rally” ceased being peaceful demonstrators when they failed to follow the orders to disperse. Law enforcement practice has shown that repeating the unlawful assembly pronouncement and adding “pretty please” seldom produces the desired result.
Hizzoner took the pulpit himself to make the remarks “It doesn’t matter to me whether you have papers or not. You came to work. We all have the same dreams. We want peace and decent jobs.”
The first sentence tells me that the Villaraigosa doesn’t care if his constituents are law-breakers or not. Immigration laws may not be popular in his house, but they are still laws, and it is both irresponsible and a violation of his oath of office to endorse their violation. The mayor should also consider that his statement applies not only to illegal immigrants, but to the police officers that protect him and the people that elected him. They came to work, they have dreams, and they want peace and decent jobs. Unlike many of the people in the congregation where this address took place, they all have “papers,” as LAPD is pickier about its membership than is the church. They don’t want to be called to quell a riot and then be condemned for it because the cause of the rioters happens to be a fashionable one.
The LAPD officers I have know have been, to a man and woman, fine people and fine policepersons, and I’d ride with them anytime. Despite the rep that the Times tries to give it, the department is one of the best-trained and most progressive in the country. They pay their officers well and there are lots of different paths for one’s career to follow. With all that, I can’t say that I could recommend to anyone that they go to work there now.
God bless the working men of the LAPD. I am truly blessed to be a road supervisor in a large, urban agency whose Chief has your back 110% until PROVEN you have done something blatanty and intentionally wrong. I always knew it was the “left coast” out there but how the LAPD’s union and the men themselves allow this to happen is baffling. Maybe they should be made familiar with how the “Blue Flu” works… I wonder how the city schmucks would respond to a total work stoppage and 75% of the force out sick at a time until their men in blue were treated right… I truly feel for my brothers and sisters amongst theleft coast liberals. “First Iraq, then Hollywood???” I’d be honored to walk a post or have a beer with you all. Maybe someone could drop a line to Bill O’Reilly and see if he’d help expose the nonsense out there and back up the boys in blue. He’s always had our backs, and his grandfather was on the job in the NYPD. God Bless.
It seems that Chief Bratton got his job by promising to “clean up” a perceived dirty police department. It seems he keeps it by pouring more dirt and promising to clean it up again. I think the mayor has jumped on that bandwagon. There’s a lot of votes at stake here, even though the real culprits in this problem can’t vote. At least not yet. That may be the next right they give them.
Not that any house is perfectly clean. There’s room for improvement, I’m sure. But a rush to judgement on this case seems to be politically motivated. Hear the evidence first.
I agree, it happens way too often where the press and politicians try and turn evry incident into a relection issue.Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of air time. Cops are one of a very few professions (the military being another) that are held to a much higher standard than the public. If the officers are guilty of violating a department policy then they will be held to answer. If they are accused of a criminal act, then let the courts decide if they are guilty.
Amen Brother.
Another great article. It seems the police are always, ALWAYS the scape goat nowadays. God forbid they actually be allowed to protect us crime. I mean, it just isn’t fair to the thousands of illegal immigrants who come over and commit sex crimes, whom we have trouble tracking, because they’re %($*ing illegals, to not get a job.
Tim, I am an old retired cop. During my time as a police officer,I remember the 1960 riots around the nation. I was a police officer at Southern Illinois University during this time. We experienced riots that occured when Dr. King was killed and we also experienced the riots over the Viet Nam war. In those days, there was a different mentality about anything that happened to rioters when they refused to disperse when ordered by the riot squad. I remember being in a line and moving against the rioters with riot batons. If anyone was in front of this line and did not disperse and tried to stand their ground, did so at their own peril. The line moved over anyone who did not move out of the way and this included any news media personnel who forgot where they were supposed to be when they covered the riot. Just think what would happen in this day and age if rioters were treated this way now. The L A Officers were tame compared to what occured in the sixtys.
I rember when a large group of students decided to take over the University Presidents office one night. We, the University Police, promptly removed them from the office and we were not concerned about any of them challenging us. The University President at that time was contacted by a major Chicago Television news man for a statement. The President told him, “An unruly mob took over my office last night, the University Police ejected them. Some are in jail, some are in the hospital and all are expelled. The local VFW Chapter had those words engraved on a plack and presented it to the President.
In todays mentality, We would all have lost our job including the President and some would have been prosecuted. But you know what, no one was killed and no one was badly injured, but they did thik twice before being involved in a riot again.
As I have written in the past an Officer without support all the way up the chain of command will always feel as though they are hanging by a thread. In this day and age of Political correctness it seems again, in the case of LA Mayor Villaraigosa, it doesn’t apply to him in this case. Continuing stereo-types of all cops as criminal in action or intent is just wrong and hopefully Chief Bratton will take him to task on that, at least in private. I also hope that the officer union speaks out on this topic as well,, because brewing increased distrust against the Police Force will only make current and future matters worse. Mayor Villaraigosa has to realize that regardless of any small political gain he will make within the Hispanic community will eventually come back to haunt him.
Whenever there is a public outrage against perceived excessive use of force, why doesn’t the leadership of the community stand up and speak the truth, a few people got a whole lot more people fired up and then walked away leaving the “innocent” to take the heat. Numbers is what should be getting everyone’s attention because when the decision is made to use force, I would guess 99.9% of the time the police presence is outnumbered quite handily by the demonstrators. Fear is a part of every officer’s daily life and sometimes that fear can cause an improper response, most times it does not. The fear should be the other way around, when someone or group is breaking the law or not following the directions of law enforcement, they should expect to be hurt, injured or at the least locked up, but politicians have created an atmosphere where the opposite is the norm.
So I say to Governors, mayors and city/town councils support your officers until all the facts are in, then, make a calm decision based upon correct and logical criteria. Stop bashing your police force, because these men & women and their families make tremendous sacrifices everyday to provide the safety that you have come to expect and need. Try to think of a world without that protection, and if you can’t just look elsewhere in the world for examples.
Let’s change our policing strategy so that no one has to obey the law. Since people resist the police when they attempt to enforce it, and then it’s the police that are prosecuted, we must be attacking the problem from the wrong perspective. Better yet, let the mayor and the news media maintain control at protests and mass gatherings. If they must arrest someone, tell them to drive over to the local PD and we will house them.
Yeah, Bill Bratton came rolling into LA making it appear he was going to be a cop’s cop. Oh boy, were we wrong! I’m sure last night’s Medal of Valor ceremony was a very uncomfortable place to be.
One question for ‘ol Bill: Who’s the “nit wit” now?
Shame on you, Bratton!
Everyone knows that now politicians are making their career by punishing police officers for enforcing the laws. Politicians and civil right leaders should protect the public whenever is a demostration. No wonder why it is so hard for police agencies to recruit good qualified applicants.
Nice Article! I’m a california cop and I’m tired of all of this BS. Bill “politically correct” Bratton is an absolute joke. No way I would work for that organization. LAPD officers get no community support and no admin support, nice. Last time I checked they were about 900 positions down from full staffing. Imagine that! I wonder why that is? Stay safe.