Joe Domanick has a smart, insightful, authoritative, and wonderfully gossipy story on LAPD Chief Bill Bratton in February’s Playboy Magazine. It covers Bratton’s past, present and future and includes such hot spot topics as the LAPD’s May Day debacle, Bratton’s relationship with Rudy Guiliani and how he’d feel about a job offer from a new President of the United States, should such an offer be forthcoming.
Regrettably, Playboy doesn’t post its articles online so you’re going have to actually get the magazine to read the whole thing. But I’ve clipped a couple of excerpts to give you the tenor of the piece. (And Kevin Roderick at LA Observed has still other excerpts.)
ON BRATTON AND GUILIANI:
He wore expensive doublebreasted suits, tasseled loafers and Hermes ties, and instead of sitting around and kissing up to Giuliani, he surrounded himself with his own cadre of innovative police thinkers . The cynical, hardedged New York press loved it all, seeing him as an effective, savvy cop who knew what New York reporters needed and gave it to them. Predictably, the press coverage angered Giuliani because it wasn’t about Giuliani—who once banned ads for New York magazine from city buses because of the tagline POSSIBLY THE ONLY GOOD THING IN NEW YORK RUDY HASN’T TAKEN CREDIT FOR. So when Bratton appeared on the cover of Time he was unceremoniously dumped for the sin of upstaging Giuliani and for forgetting that, in the narcissistic loopiness of Giuliani World, there could be only one king. After that Bratton formed his own security firm advising police departments in South America. When the planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 he found himself in his Manhattan apartment, watching the biggest calamity in New York City history unfold on a television screen. “As a police officer,” says Bratton, “you live to deal with crisis and be tested by it. It’s very frustrating when you’re not in a position to do anything, particularly when you know what needs to be done.”
ON WHETHER BB WOULD TAKE A POSITION IN A DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION:
He answers the next question before it is asked. “In terms of Homeland Security and the FBI, those are very significant positions. And when the president of the United States knocks on the door, you certainly have to respond to the knock and give it consideration. I’m somebody who needs to be stimulated; I’m not a maintenance-type person. But I don’t see myself going into maintenance mode in Los Angeles anytime soon.” In any case, not until January, when a new administration moves into the White House.
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By the way, in addition to what Bratton told Joe D, back door rumors from those in a position to know also have it that if there is a Democratic president, Bratton will not finish out his new five-year contract but will be likely to head to Washington. About two weeks ago, when I was in D.C., a very close friend of Bratton’s was even more specific when we talked about the possibility of Bratton moving on. “Bill likes to fix things that are broken,” said the friend. And Homeland Security would, for that reason, be “very attractive.”
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PS: I want to emphasize again that it is very much worth your while to go to the newsstand and pick up the physical magazine featuring those siliconed naked girls so that you can read the whole damned article. Angelenos in particular should read it, because Bill’s our guy. But, his relevance doesn’t stop at LA’s city borders. Bratton is, and is going to be in the foreseeable future, America’s most forward looking cop. This is not to say he’s the most visionary person in law enforcement, necessarily. But, more than any other law enforcement figure in America, he understands all the necessary pieces and how to move them forward into a kind of 21st century policing that is both high tech and humane, and he has the force of will and leadership ability to do it.
Joe spent hours and hours with Bratton and with loads of people around him. Then he took his stacks of material and distilled it all down to a smart, breezily-written piece that’s very entertaining and informative both—and also has much to say about Big Picture issues in law enforcement. I just randomly pulled clips as it was 2 am when I posted and I thought the Rudy/Hillary stuff might be the most interesting in a blog setting. But it’s all very much worth the price of admission.
Playboy has articles?
I wasn’t impressed with what I read. It’s more slanted opinion and short on facts…sort of like Keith Olbermann. Celeste should have left the description of it at “wonderfully gossipy.”
But, there was this revealing tidbit: “The chief says his politcal positions are very aligned with those of Hillary and Bill Clinton…and calls himself ‘a political independent.'” Uh, yeah.
Will the next wonderfully gossipy expose’ come from Rolling Stone?
The smartest Rudy Giuliani ever did was appoint Bill Bratton NYC Police Commissioner. One of the many stupid things Giuliani did was let his ego get in the way of keeping Bratton on the job.
I’d hate to lose him but the second smartest thing we could do is make Bratton the new Secretary of Homeland Security.
The smaertest thing, of course, would be to admit that we made a mistake and dismantle it.
Consider picking up the mag and reading the whole thing, Woody. I promise you’ll be entertained. Joe’s ultra knowledgeable about LAPD history (He quite literally wrote the book on it.) And the whole thing is written from an extremely well-informed and rigorously researched perspective (and I’m a tough sell because of my own inside baseball knowledge). Joe spent hours and hours with Bratton and with loads of people around him. Then he took his stacks of material and distilled it all down to a smart, breezily-written piece that’s very entertaining and informative both. I just randomly pulled clips as it was 2 am and I thought the Rudy/Hillary stuff might be the most interesting in a blog setting. But it’s all very much worth reading.
The moment that I would pick up a copy, there’s going to be someone from my church at the check-out counter to see me buy it–not that I go to places that sell the magazine. Then, it would be more awkard if I actually said that I was buying it for the articles.
You don’t go to 7-11?
Gotta agree with Woody on last point. Isn’t it kind of weird that Playboy is the rag Bratton chooses to give a “serious” interview to re: his past and possible future intentions?
I also find it odd that he was so dismissive of the City Council’s taking jurisdiction of the financial disclosure issue, sticking like glue to Mack and the Police Commission on that decision. It may be that the judge rules that their draconian interpretation of the financial disclosure ruling sticks — but this will not have been a wasted effort, as Bratton implies. The fact that the Council voted unanimously on that (despite Zine initially indicating he wouldn’t and that it wouldn’t carry), and that the media from the conservative Daily News to the more liberal L A Times ran Editorials against it (your Op Ed also), shows that the city is pretty much united in opposing this ruling.
That gives the LAPD rank and file a boost in the arm, I think, and calls attention to the situation so that even if the judge decides in favor of the disclosure as proposed, and there is in fact attrition in the dept. of seasoned gang patrols, the city (officials and media) can’t be accused of being caught sleeping on the job.
I’d have thought it would be more politic of Bratton to say that the Council taking jurisdiction may have no impact in the long run, other than a one-month stay to appeal the situation, but that it was worth a shot. Considering how the Mayor and some Councilmembers came out slugging on his behalf just a few weeks ago, when Bernie Parks tried to swipe the trash fee hike for cops into the General Fund, and questioned the LAPD’s “inflated” budget overall, isn’t this a little, um, disloyal, or lone rangerish of him? (Maybe the problem in relations wasn’t all Rudy’s fault?)
Could he already have one foot out the door, looking at a federal job? After all, he’s almost 60, retirement age for a cop, so if he wants another job where he serves 4-8 years, his clock may be ticking. Could this be one reason he did choose Playboy: to bolster his image as still a macho man/ alpha male?
(Baca’s in the same position, in terms of any possible future career moves, but he isn’t being given quite the same build-up — he comes off as well-meaning but too indecisive for a top cop. Besides, he seems to like his current job. He and the Sheriff’s dept. have little scrutiny compared to the LAPD — the recent issues re: “celebrity justice” have been an anomaly, and really a red herring, compared to more serious failures in the jails as highlighted in this blog and elsewhere: like the guy who was murdered by a cell-mate, in prison for — killing his last cellmate.)
This Week in History
Do you know what happened this week back in 1850, 158 years ago?
*California became a state.
*The State had no electricity.
*The State had no money.
*Almost everyone spoke Spanish.
*There were gunfights in the streets.
So basically, it was just like California today, except the women had real breasts and the men didn’t hold hands.
And it was still a better place to live than Georgia!
Only for those of you men who like holding hands with other men.
Bratton didn’t so much choose Playboy as much as just agree to do the article with Joe D, whom he trusts as Joe knows his stuff and had profiled Bratton for the LA Times Magazine (when THAT publication still did serious articles)early in Bratton’s first year in LA.
As for Joe’s choice of Playboy, I never asked him about it specifically but I do know the number of publications willing to do pieces like this one is ever shrinking. And over the years, Playboy has occasionally published excellent work, despite the annoying sleaze factor of the venue. Their interviews used to be stellar—legendary even— during the late 70’s early 80’s period period when Barry Golson was the editor in charge. I had several friends who did fine writing for Playboy during that era.
Ned Beatty would agree with RLC. 🙂