California Budget Edmund G. Brown, Jr. (Jerry) Education Juvenile Justice LASD Prison School to Prison Pipeline Sheriff Lee Baca Zero Tolerance and School Discipline

Governor’s Budget Proposal Banks on a Postponed Overcrowding Deadline…New Federal Guidelines on School Discipline…Must Read LASD Editorials

GOV. BROWN’S NEW BUDGET PROPOSAL AIMS TO REDUCE PRISON OVERCROWDING

Counting on a two-year reprieve on a looming deadline from federal judges to reduce the prison population by about 9,000 inmates, Gov. Jerry Brown’s new budget proposal designates more than $23M for substance abuse treatment and mentally ill parolees, $40M for re-entry programs, $62M for prison guard training, and another $500M for new prison facilities. Brown also calls for, among other reforms, split sentencing and expanded parole eligibility for the elderly, mentally ill, and those with serious medical issues. (Go here and here for previous WLA posts on this issue.)

The Sacramento Bee has the story on their Capitol Alert blog. Here are some clips:

The imperative to depopulate prisons led Brown to ask the Legislature last year for $315 million to spend on housing inmates.

But California will spend only $228 million of that in the current fiscal year, the new budget blueprint predicts. The reason for not needing to spend it all?

“The Administration has assumed the court will grant a two-year extension to meet the cap,” the budget document states.

If true, that would buy Brown a substantial amount of breathing room as he seeks to mollify federal judges. If not, the budget proposal states, California will need to spend the full $315 million.

[SNIP]

Brown’s proposal would spend $11.8 million on substance abuse treatment and $11.3 million on mentally ill parolees while directing $40 million from the state’s Recidivism Reduction Fund to re-entry programs.

That’s not to say Brown is done pouring money into incarceration capacity. Despite spending $1.7 billion in jail construction, the administration argues there remains a significant need to house offenders. To that end, Brown proposes another $500 million for more facilities with a 10 percent county match requirement.

The LA Times’ Paige St. John, who has been following the Gov. Brown prison-overcrowding saga from the start, also reported on the new proposal. Here’s a clip:

Under the new program, prisoners over 60 years old who have served at least 25 years would be eligible to be considered for parole. So, too, would inmates who suffer severe medical conditions or who are mentally impaired.

Brown’s budget says inmates serving doubled sentences under the state’s Three Strikes law, but whose second offense was not violent, will now be able to shave off a third of their time. Previously, they were limited by law to a 20% reduction.

Brown uses his spending plan to also announce support for split sentences, requiring judges to reduce local jail terms for felons but adding time for community probation. Judges would be able to sentence a felon to jail alone only if they identified a reason. Brown’s budget document says the change will help offenders get access to community services while helping jails reduce crowding.


NATIONAL STANDARDS ISSUED ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE POLICIES

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education released meaningful new federal guidelines addressing zero-tolerance school discipline. The guideline package includes resources for training school police and staff on constructive alternatives to kicking kids out of school.

The Center for Public Integrity’s Susan Ferriss (who has done some excellent reporting on harsh school discipline, here and here) has more on the new guidelines. Here are some clips:

The ideas are a response to mounting concerns that overly punitive discipline is pushing too many low-income and minority students out of schools and toward failure rather than helping them engage academically. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice teamed up in a two-year effort to develop lists of resources and principles that educators have found effective at keeping campuses orderly without resorting to kicking out kids.

The package is intended to help schools chart new practices. Federal officials also emphasize that educators are obliged not to violate students’ civil rights when punishing them. The package also provides resources for school police training and employee training in discipline techniques considered more productive than ejecting kids.

[SNIP]

The U.S. departments of Education and Justice both have civil rights offices that have stepped up investigations into complaints of disparate and harsh disciplinary practices affecting special-education students and ethnic-minority children. Complaints have included excessive suspensions of black children compared to white children accused of the same cell phone use violations.

“Everyone understands that school leaders need to have effective policies in place to make their campuses safe havens where learning can actually flourish,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in an announcement Wednesday. “Yet most exclusionary and disciplinary actions are for non-violent student behaviors, many of which once meant a phone call home.”

In his own statement, U.S Attorney General Eric Holder said: “A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not in a police precinct.”


THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE AND THE ABSENCE OF REHABILITATION AND EDUCATION FOR LOCKED-UP KIDS

Al Jazeera America has a worthwhile piece by Molly Knefel about the damage done by still-prevalent policies of dumping kids into the juvenile or criminal justice system for minor offenses and what activists are trying to do to change these counter-productive systems. Here are some clips:

When Marvin Bing Jr. was 12 years old, he was living in a foster home in central Pennsylvania.

One day he decided to take a kitchen knife to school in his book bag. He didn’t have any intention to use it, but he thought it would seem cool to classmates. When the teacher noticed kids gathered around Bing’s desk, oohing and ahhing, he was sent to the principal’s office.

But that was just the beginning. Bing was arrested, taken away in a police car and sent to a juvenile holding facility to await a court date. “It was lockup,” he said. “I had a cell. It was all blue. I had a little bed and a steel locked door. The whole thing, at 12 years old.”

In a single moment, something that happened in school changed Bing’s life, yanking him into the justice system — all before even becoming a teenager. But he is far from alone.

On any given day in the United States, about 70,000 children are held in residential juvenile centers like the one Bing was sent to, and at least two thirds of them are charged with nonviolent offenses. Another 10,000 are detained in adult prisons and jails. Each year, as many as 250,000 youths under 18 are tried, sentenced or incarcerated as adults.

In both the juvenile and adult systems, some critics say, young people are at a high risk of physical and sexual abuse, educational disruption and psychological trauma as they deal with institutions that might be unsuited to dealing with their problems and are focused more on punishment than on rehabilitation. “The more you treat people as criminals at younger and younger ages, the more damage you’re likely to do to their psyche,” said Niaz Kasravi, director of the criminal-justice program at the NAACP.

[SNIP]

Once a child is arrested, access to education may be limited or nonexistent, depending on the detention center. Wendy Greene, director of North Carolina Prison and Legal Services’ incarcerated-youth advocacy project, represents young people and is familiar with confinement conditions in the state. One of her clients — whom she declined to name — is a special-education student awaiting a court date in a North Carolina county jail. Though he has not been convicted of a crime, he has been there for months.

According to Greene, law-enforcement officials have refused to allow the local public school to send in a teacher to work one on one with the child, claiming there’s no space for such an arrangement. As a result, he has been receiving assignment packets from school but no instruction. She says his work comes back with scores of zero. Regardless of whether he is found guilty, she pointed out, his experience with detention has significantly set back his education.


EDITORIAL ROUND-UP: SHERIFF BACA’S RESIGNATION AND THE DEPARTMENT’S FUTURE

The LA Times and the LA Daily News each had two particularly good editorials regarding the unexpected resignation of current LA County Sheriff Lee Baca. (The backstory can be found here and here, if you missed it.)

In the first LAT editorial, Robert Greene says that the current sheriff election process and methods of oversight are “untenable” and need to be revamped. Here’s a clip:

…In this county, sheriffs simply don’t get bounced from office by voters. We have 10 million people, more than any other county in the nation, more than 42 states. Of those, close to half live in cities with their own police departments, so those voters don’t really have much reason to care who gets elected sheriff or whether the incumbent is doing a good job. Getting the attention of those voters is nearly impossible. Actual political and democratic oversight of the Los Angeles County sheriff has crumbled while the form — the veneer — of democracy persists.

Baca is the only Los Angeles County sheriff in modern times to get the job by defeating the incumbent, and he managed that in large part because the incumbent was dead (Sherman Block died in the final days of his 1998 campaign for reelection). Other than that instance, voters in this county haven’t removed a sheriff in living memory. The last time an L.A. County sheriff was ousted was in 1921 — and that wasn’t by the voters but by the spork, the Board of Supervisors. History records that the sheriff resigned.

Baca’s resignation follows at least the first part of the more common practice for sheriffs. For the pattern to be complete, he would have to name his own successor and the Board of Supervisors would have to rubber-stamp it, leaving voters with an incumbent to return to office.

Perhaps the sheriff should be elected but subject to removal by the board; or appointed by the board but subject to periodic approval by the voters, as with Superior Court judges; or appointed by the board but with carefully designed oversight. Like an inspector general. And a commission. Any of those moves would require a statewide vote.

And here’s a clip from what the Times’ editorial board had to say about Baca’s exit (also well worth a full read-through):

Even the most honorable deputies in a department struggling with a corrupted culture need to know that the old ways will not be tolerated. They must see persistent attention to the department’s problems, not the intermittent public focus that comes with elections or verdicts, or the occasional critique or initiative offered by the Board of Supervisors. Deputies must know they are working under a sheriff with the highest integrity, subject to a workable system of oversight.

Baca’s departure will allow for a more sweeping revamp of the department. But county leaders and the public should not view a change at the top, by itself, as sufficient. Baca was a problem, but he was not the only problem. He may not have been up to the task of balancing politics and law enforcement, and he may have been too flawed or tired or incompetent to imbue his entire force of deputies with his stated vision, but for any Los Angeles County sheriff to do better in a strange job that combines elected politics with jail management, mental health care, inmate rehabilitation and law enforcement, there must be a system of oversight that doesn’t rely merely on federal probes and periodic elections.

Exactly who the new sheriff will be and just how an effective oversight system will be structured should become the central debate of the sheriff’s race over the coming year. Candidates should make clear not merely how they would eliminate inmate abuse and misconduct by deputies but how and where they would draw the line between their own independence as sheriff and their accountability for reform.

The LA Daily News’ editorial board calls for a strong candidate for sheriff and permanent civilian oversight of the department. Here’s a small clip from the opening:

Lee Baca’s sudden resignation comes as a pleasant surprise. Now, with the old sheriff out of the way, Los Angeles County can get on with choosing new leadership for the nation’s largest sheriff’s department and cleaning up the scandals in its law-enforcement force and jail staff.

But let’s be clear: This cleanup is a huge task. As Baca departs, the culture of violence and corruption that developed in his 15 years in charge remains. It will take both a strong successor and forceful oversight to repair the damage…

And, in an op-ed for the Daily News, Long Beach city prosecutor Doug Haubert throws his weight behind Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, who is expected to announce soon whether he will join the race. Here’s a clip:

Sometimes, police get blamed for everything, and rarely do they get the credit they deserve. I watched as Chief McDonnell slowly built up a confidence level within the department and the community. That’s the kind of thing the county could use right now.

Also, the chief came in at the worst budget time imaginable. His first days on the job, he saw his department’s budget cut from under him, like a carpet ripped out from under his feet. I know because I came into my office under the same circumstances, one-third of my prosecutors have been cut from my department.

The chief showed grace under pressure, and that’s the kind of mettle needed in the next sheriff. I don’t envy the current sheriff, nor the next one. However, we will need someone with the courage to make tough decisions and take responsibility for those decisions. I can’t think of a better person to do this than Chief McDonnell.

34 Comments

  • All this anger, corruption and heartache just because of four men who were totally out of control; William Stonich, Larry Waldie, Paul Tanaka and the head of the snake Lee (I quit) Baca!

    And now that’s it’s safe to come back into the water comes McDonell from LBPD! Tell us Chief McDonell: Is it easier to jump into the race now when you are safe? Or when you are facing a giant and you face the corrupt monster (your buddy) Lee Baca? Not much courage on your part but,that has always been your way to the top!

    That’s right folks, McDonell and Baca are the best of friends and McDonell was scared off by the likes of Lee Baca!

  • McDonnell? Please. He’s another one if these opportunist “police chiefs” that jump from job to job cherry picking top supervisory spots for his own gain. The LA and OC area has a ton of them. Don’t believe me? Look up where the former chiefs of the CIty of Bell and Fullerton came from. Or most police chiefs for the municipal agencies for that matter. He can take his carpet bag and go somewhere else. Maybe Newport Beach or some other cushy money loaded city will have an opening soon.

  • Sorry to double post, but the news about LASD is just flying off the shelf.

    In short, the Sheriff is going to try to make Teri McDonald the Undersheriff to circumvent California State Law regarding the qualifications for the Office of Sheriff. He was told it was unethical and probably illegal, but he didn’t care. Go figure…

  • Celeste:

    The members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (current and retired) are indebted to you for all your hard work during the past year. You have affected the lives of a great many people and gave us place for our voices to be heard. You have given us the opportunity to reclaim a once proud organization. You will not be forgotten!

  • Barbara…if you rely on this to educate you on who is qualified or corrupt…..your going to be easily be mislead and probably vote ( if you live in LA ) for the wrong and worst qualified person. This whole site is based off of people’s opinions….right or wrong

  • #6 Tanaka who? Ahhh but you are mistaken! 99% of the statements on this site are factually correct and come from years of experience working with the very candidates that are running for Sheriff or are in command of the Department. Read and listen to the editorials and media interviews that Celeste does, you will discover that she is very well informed and has cultivated contacts that are deeply rooted in the LASD.

  • I  don’t know about Long  Beach Chief Jim McDonnell  being  Leroy’s buddy. He was after all  part of the CCJV  commission that was critical of the Sheriff’s performance. The  voting public’s  attention to the dept. continues to grow with the  18 arrested  last month and Baca’s announcement this week. If Baca, Tanaka, and others are indicted  by the Feds, it could diminish the chances of Rogers and others within the Dept.  to be Sheriff. Voters may not trust those with ties to Baca or Tanaka to  clean up  their  mess, especially if it continues to grow. That might  leave the door wide open for an outsider like  a Jim McDonnell, should he decide to run like it or not.  

  • Word on the street is that McDonnell is already nosing around LAPD, asking his buddies if they want to go with him to clean up LASD. What arrogance. Please, we don’t need to become clones of LAPD. We have flaws, but we absolutely don’t need some Johnny-Come-Lately smarty pants and his cronies running amok in our great organization. Bob Olmsted for Sheriff!

  • #7 You are spot on. Celeste and company are responsible being the impetus for restoring dignity and greatness to LASD. Those who don’t recgnize this fact need to grow some wiskers , because they are too yong or imature to not see it. Celeste’s reporting is civilian oversight at its finest.

    Thank you, Celeste

  • 7: I agree that many of the situations written about have factual basis. Also, that C tries to find out the truth and understands that some folks may use the site to vent their personal animus against others. However, once in a while the most unbelievable crap will come out without any evidence to support a view. But, #6 if you contact C she will look into it and determine what is the truth or not. Plus it’s difficult to catch onto all the corruption in such a target rich environment. A very sad state of affairs on the LASD. I still thank Olmsted and Gomez for standing against what is wrong!

  • #6, give it a rest. Many of us who have been there to witness corruption did tell higher ups all the way to SHB Executives and SOME. did nothing. Only when they were provided with evidence from reports, emails,memos, video and audio and cooboration from others deemed CREDIBLE did crap hit the fan.

    I Know for a fact some people are still trying to bury more evidence. Thank goodness there is such a button called PRINT on our computer keyboard.

  • McDonnell and his merry band of LAPD clones should stay on their side of the fence, they will never be welcome here. Yes, the place is a mess, but we aim to clean it up and make the residents proud of us once again.

    This message is for you, McDonnell. You’re a smart man, been around a while in large organizations, well read. You should know that a lot of turmoil and inner strife will not be resolved by an outsider who knows nothing of the organization’s culture. Your presence in this organization will be branded from the beginning as an “opportunity,” which you yourself labeled it in your press release. You cannot lead what you cannot heal.

    We don’t need opportunists or politicians, we need strong leadership the department and the community can trust. You don’t have both, and you never will. You had a chance last year to challenge Baca at his game, demonstrating to the troops that you can be trusted to speak truth to power, but you bowed down. Lord knows what special interests and entrenched status quo from county government are trying to woo you over here, but I guarantee it’s not in the best interest of the community or the department.

    Olmsted can fix this mess, and he will. Stay where you are needed, LBPD or LAPD. Thousands of department members will rally to support Olmsted and keep the office in-house. The city of Los Angeles rejected then Chief Baca as the head of LAPD, and in much the same way we will reject you as head of LASD, nothing personal.

  • LATBG: We almost didn’t have Baca as sheriff. As I recall he finished second or third to become LAPD chief! No sense crying over spilled milk!!

  • #14 – LATBG. You are way off base about LAPD. You need us bad. The same thing LASO is experiencing happens daily at LAPD. The difference is your reputation is in the toilet and LAPD is considered the foremost policing agency in the nation. The reason is LAPD handles its problems internally, not on a web page or in the newspapers. LAPD shot up innocent newspaper delivery ladies during Dorner. LAPD shot and killed a clearly unarmed man in a Corvette at the end of pursuit downtown. LAPD sexually assaulted a female in Korea Town and she jumped from their unit and broke her jaw.

    All of these incidents with no firing of any officer. All of Chief Beck’s relatives, (at least 5 and counting), are immediately hired by LAPD and put in sought after assignments. Any one of these incidents would have put LASO on the hot seat for months and caused resignations and firings. LASO can’t solve its own problems and can’t keep off of the web pages sniping at each other. You need a strong LAPD leader to handle things in house and try to rebuild your reputation to that of LAPD.

  • Blue Knight- I have been a long time reader of WLA but your skewed perspective left me no choice but to address it.

    LASD’s problems are many, but don’t hold a candle to LAPD’s impressive record. None of our scandals include deputies robbing banks on duty, jacking drug dealers, or murdering the opposition. Now let me address your comment directly. By your own admission LAPD still has many problems that resemble LASD’s yet you claim LAPD “handles it’s problems internally”. I could be wrong and I usually am, but weren’t your problems solved by convictions and consent decrees?

    As to LAPD being the foremost policing agency, take a poll of LA County residents and see if they echo your claim. Better yet take a drive through LAPD patrolled areas vs LASD patrolled areas. You will see a trend.

    As I said previously we are in a state of turmoil but even in our current diminished state we are head and shoulders above LAPD. I think the current and former LASD personnel would agree with me when I say I choose LASD with all of its issues right now over LAPD at any time in history.

  • #16 LASD is in need of positive change, but doesn’t need LAPD to do it. That is equivalent to having a wolf guard the sheep. Don’t get me wrong… LAPD is full of great folks, many of them are my friends. You obviously have your head in the sand about LAPD’s reputation. LAPD isn’t handling it’s own affairs as you claim and has not done so for many years. When you get sworn in or off training, just ask your T.O.

  • #16- Please. You reference incidents that are still under review by your department, ones which will likely result in terminations. Not that the level of firings have much to do with the topic at hand. I can tell you, however, that the last thing we want or need is the “LAPD” way of doing things. Our deputies are able and entrusted to make their own decisions, our investigators do thorough work, not worried about pressures from lame politicians (Brian Stow case anyone?), and our specialized units generally run circles around yours. Even the crooks know where they can caper a lot easier (I know you’ve heard the recording). Yeah, we may have our issues right now, but don’t bring up reputations. Yours has been tarnished for years, which now means your department has to be so over supervised, your officers are paralyzed from doing any police work. Anyone who has spent any time working an area that borders an LAPD area knows we don’t want to be like you. So don’t worry about us, we will be just fine. Your department can be on TV shows, and we will keep the county safe.

  • 18/19 and 20. The facts don’t back your statements.

    “Take a poll of LA County residents and see if they echo your claim. Better yet take a drive through LAPD patrolled areas vs LASD patrolled areas. You will see a trend.” – Sorry, provide a link to one publication or quote anywhere that states LASD patrolled areas are better policed than LAPD areas. They don’t exist. You guys love the internet. Find me a WLA article that states LASO does anything better than LAPD. Just look at the number of negative WLA articles to the number of negative LAPD articles. They are astronomically skewed against LASD.

    “LAPD isn’t handling it’s own affairs as you claim and has not done so for many years.” Again, where are the negative WLA stories and posts about LAPD. Do the math.

    “Our deputies are able and entrusted to make their own decisions, our investigators do thorough work, not worried about pressures from lame politicians” Really! You pay Tanaka and his cronies for promotions and plum assignments. You hire misfits that are friends and relatives of the Sheriff. You hire 80 misfits from a misfit agency, County Police. Is that what you call your own decision making.

    “LAPD’s reputation has been tarnished for years” – How many hundreds of agencies across the US model their policies after LAPD? How many send officers on a daily basis to LAPD to study their procedures. How many simply model their uniforms and mottos after LAPD.

    Chief Harra, Chief McDonnell and many other LAPD command personnel would make a great Sheriff and could guide LASO in the right direction, get you off of the web pages and toward respectability. The internet is a pitiful way to run a law enforcement agency. LASO has never compared with LAPD.

  • @”Blue Knight”: Wow, I was going to hit you with more than the obvious, criminals don’t respect or fear you guys, but my “partners” checked you faster than I could. You, nor any of your cronies should “not” try to take advantage of us while we are a little down, because like always, we will band together and ultimately run circles around you.

    I too worked with three of your different stations around me and the best compliment I can give you is, damn you guys look good in uniform. Shiny shoes and Sam Browns, but if you were taking people to jail you wouldn’t look that good. Thanks for the offer, but we don’t need your help. The last thing we need is a bunch of Deputies writing their reports in the briefing room and people who actually use Code 7!

  • LATBG-Congratulations! after all your rants on here and free Olmstead campaign coverage you’ve finally made some sense. I couldn’t agree with you more about keeping LAPD on the other side of the fence. Nobody in their right mind would want an LAPD officer running our department. He wasn’t even good enough to run LAPD, so why does anybody believe he can run the complex LASD? The backroom deals he is making with the BOS as we speak will serve no purpose. He is selling his soul out to the power elite and I’d recommend every deputy sheriff in L.A. County speak out and prevent us from becoming LAPD Jr. Can you imagine him bringing in his cronies as top executives? No thanks! Now for the real news. LATBG- for several months you have gone about freely throwing unchecked assertions all over this site,somehow managing to convince a few simple-minded people you are right. I promise from here on out you will be checked on not only your current diatribes, but many of your past ones too. I’m afraid it’s time to pay the piper. You will be held to answer!! Talk soon!

  • IthacaBoomer, I don’t bother ranting, just posting what I know from first hand experience and that of other witnesses. I’m really curious what you mean by “held to answer!” Is that a threat? Your timing is quite suspicious, and I’m going to venture a guess that your gravy train got derailed and now your trying to hitch your wagon to someone I considered unqualified to be sheriff.

    If the truth hits close to home and that makes you uncomfortable – bummer.

  • Blue Knight- you are further proving my point. Truth and facts are not exclusive to the internet and books. You have to interact with people in order to understand them. But that’s ok if you are too scared to leave your station and face the truth, we understand. It is par for the course for you and your LAPD cohorts. Stay inside, keep your windows rolled up when you patrol, and keep your head in the sand it is easier that way.

    If you ever feel like facing the truth or seeing what real police work looks like, I will set you up with a jail tour with a 2 year custody deputy that will school you on the criminal element. But make sure you bring a notebook so you can write an article and validate it as truth.

  • Blue Knight- You would like everyone to believe you are employed by LAPD, but I’m not buying it… Your rants are not well thought out and you don’t really reflect the current mood that real LAPD officers do. I showed your responses to a group of “REAL” LAPD friends of mine and they think you’re a fraud as well.. If there is a slight chance that you are for real… Stop now and go 10-8, because you really need to gain knowledge and experience before you make comment of behalf of the LAPD.. You are embarrassing!

  • LATBG- Will you please answer Interested Party’s question from nearly two weeks ago? You’ve had plenty of time to spin. For someone who has so much to say about everyone else the cat mysteriously caught your tongue when you were put on front street. It’s painfully obvious your rehearsed campaign rhetoric doesn’t include answering tough questions. I’m patiently awaiting your answer.

    29. Interested Party Says:
    December 30th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
    LATBG you talk a great game but how have you stood up to the department to better it?

    30. LATBG Says:
    December 30th, 2013 at 8:07 pm
    Interested Party, I’d love to share with you all that has been done, but you will know sooner or later. When you do, you will appreciate the resolve in what I write…

  • IthacaBoomer, you continue to amaze me. The whole sheriff’s race has been radically altered, and that post from two weeks ago is what keeps you up at night? Like I said then, and I say now, all in due time. While you’re at it, care to reveal yourself? Thought so.

  • With indictments being handed out, careers being ruined and a LASD that is crumbling, you have children on here ranting about who is more hardcore LASD vs LAPD! Windows being rolled up on radio cars, making fun of uniforms, where you sit to write reports. Grown men, Cops, having a D#%K measuring contest in a public forum! You just confirm what 80% of the public believe, and that is most cops are soft, insecure men that were probably stuffed in lockers all 4 years of High School!

  • Blue knight, the problems the Sheriff Department is suffering from are for the most part as a result of executives that compromised their integrity and used their power for their benefit. Overall, the line deputies and specialized units on our department are the best in the country. I have worked at a station bordered by lapdog and saw your department in action on a command post. They enjoy briefing every 30 minutes Instead of taking action. Let me ask you this, when is the last time you watched the Sheriff’s Department sit on its butt while the city starts to riot and innocence people get brutally assaulted.

  • Stuff, its called department, station, or unit pride. Yes the department is going through unprecedented problems and issues as you described, but we are still able to express our opinions in regards to the candidates. As far as your statement regarding police men getting stuffed in lockers, really that’s the best you can come up with. You also forgot that we love donuts. Regardless of our differences with lapd, we would respond to assist them and vise versa, without a second thought. Not many professions can say the same. Soldiers and Marines think they are better than the other, but
    they would still give their lives to assist the other. Do u think Apple would help Microsoft if they had problems, absolutely not!!

  • #31 You are correct I forgot that cops are partial to donuts, bad clothes and 70’s porn star mustaches. I was just stating that some of the comments were quite goofy and reflected nothing in the form of Dept., station or unit pride. Believe me when I was in my 20’s working station(s) that were surrounded by LAPD I barked the same non-sense about LAPD not policing the “ghetto properly” and I look back and it was immature, unwarranted and plain goofy.

  • Stuff, I would expect every hard working deputy to respond to anyone claiming we, Sheriff’s Department, need lapd “bad” as stated by Blue Knight. I can except that our executives need revamping and jail deputies need to learn when and how much force is acceptable, but I will not stand for an lapd guy telling us how much we need them. Reginald Denny needed them, and they never came!!!!

  • LAPD is a fantastic organization…. until you need to call them for service.

    In the off chance that they get to you within 14 hours, they’ll be sure to call their field supervisor over to tell them what to do after their sergeant calls the lieutenant to ask them what they think should be done.

    Our department has lots of problems. They won’t be solved by creating more bureaucracy. Our department over the last few years has created so many “special” units… and the problems escalate. It isn’t a lack of bureaucracy that is the problem. It is a lack of leadership. Those sergeants that have been promoted over the last few years that have ZERO experience and fail to discipline those that earn it…. and a department tendency to punish everyone and make new policy instead of directly addressing those that are at fault.

    Once the department goes back to holding individuals responsible instead of creating new policies that endanger deputies and the public, we’ll get back on track.

    Anyone remember the Waldie e-mails? Prime example. Why bother punishing Waldie for his drunken escapades when we can just send e-mails out from his office telling everyone that drinking is bad, mmmkay?

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