A brief rundown of Friday’s AND SATURDAY’S developments
THE GOOD NEWS: Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell has been tapped to lead up the LAPD investigation. McDonnell is an unusually good choice. He’s very well liked and respected in the department, but he’s always been willing, at least privately, to be brutally honest about what needs improvement in the LAPD. I still don’t think the department is capable of investigating itself. I’m not being critical, I’m simply stating a reality that nearly everyone except the LAPD knows to be true. All that said, if anybody within the department has a shot at running a fair investigation, it’s Jim McDonnell
THE EXPECTED NEWS: The first of the May 1 law suits have been filed. Patty Ballast, the Fox 11 camera woman who was knocked down and hit on camera is the first to file suit, in this whole LAPD/MacArthur Park mess. In her press conference this morning, Ballast showed some fairly nasty injuries. She says a cop jammed his baton full force into her breast (and she has a creepy bruise to prove it), and she fell hard on the ground, breaking her wrist in the fall.
That, my friends, is an assault.
THE ANNOYING NEWS: Luis Carrillo, ambulance chaser extraordinaire, was in front of the cameras Friday morning saying that he’s also got a bunch of clients ready to sue. Okay, fair enough. From the footage we all saw, there are a number of people with righteous claims. It’s just that attorney Carrillo’s claim to fame is not his legal skill (rumor has it the man is not hot in a courtroom), but his uncanny ability to get face time on TV. Really, if the police are involved, he materializes as if by magic, playing to the cheap seats. Friday morning, Carrillo demanded that Bill Bratton’s contract not be renewed until we get an outcome. Blah, blah, blah. Luis.. Just shut up.
READ THE REST OF THE GOOD, BAD AND ANNOYING AFTER THE JUMP
EXPECTED BUT STILL ANNOYING: “Our department is throwing our officers under the bus,” opined police union prez, Bob Baker. Oh, okay, I guess Baker needs to say that. He’s the union. Baker’s a genuinely good guy except when he does his knee-jerk union thingy. For instance, on Tuesday the he put out a press release with the absurdly skewed title of: ATTACK ON OFFICERS AT MAC ARTHUR PARK
Bob, this is the sort of thing that gives people the feeling that union can’t see beyond blue, if you take my meaning.
ANNOYING SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE HE OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER: On Wednesday, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez rightly called for Steve Cooley to investigate the incident, a good and sensible idea. (Although, at this point, probably unnecessary now that Bratton has called the Feebs in.) But by Thursday, Fabian’s good sense seemed to have left him when he insinuated that the Metro cops deliberately chased the demonstrators into MacArthur park because they wanted to beat up on immigrants. Or words to that effect.
Fabian, honey, that’s race baiting, and it’s just not helpful.
GOOD COMMENTARY: Pal and Blogfather, Marc Cooper, wrote a smart, balanced column for yesterdays LA Times that is well worth reading.
CONFUSING COMMENTARY: This morning’s LA Times says that anarchists may not have been involved in Tuesday’s melee. Or maybe they were. Or maybe they were but not in the numbers everybody thought they were. Anyway, this article said something interesting, it’s just not clear what it was.
CLARIFYING COMMENTARY: Also in today’s LA Times, a piece that lays out the fact that the LAPD agreed to clearly delineated protocols regarding crowd control and the rights of journalists after they beat up reporters and others after the 2000 Democratic Convention and had to pay out $4 million in settlements as a result. On Tuesday, a lot of folks seem to agree, a bunch of riot-geared-up Metro Division officers violated the protocols in a big way. [We already said as much here two days ago, but who’s counting…?]
********************SATURDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE*********************
VERY SMART COMMENTARY ABOUT THE DANCE BETWEEN COPS AND MEDIA – Tim Rutten’s “Regarding Media’ column in today’s LA Times is a good one. Among other things, he says that if the media fails to keep a sharp and informed focus on the investigations coming out of the MacArthur Park incident then, if and when it happens again—as it will—they (we) are complicit. But he also says a lot more, so be sure to click and read.
I saw some more clips, and the police were definitely provoked and attacked before they responded. But, if the police had not responded, the Left would be laughing, saying that the police are wimps and that a few young men had made them back down. You know that I’m right. The Left does no wrong and the police are always wrong.
It’s time to get the facts and do what’s right at this time rather than do what’s popular for political purposes and for the leftist agenda.
Woody, there’s responding, then there’s reacting. Big difference.
By the way, I noticed that I had about six zillion typos in the post as I was ver-r-r-rrry sleepy when I posted it late last night. Most of them, including my creative misspelling of Jim McDonnell’s name, have now been corrected. (Spell check is my friend. Spell check is my friend.)
Thanks to the nice woman who wrote to alert me of this.
Good comment on this mess in the LAT Calander section today. Bratton says he’s never seen anything this in “47 yrs of police work.” Well, says the commenter, “Welcome to LA!” and he’s right. Every few years we get a police riot and nothing ever gets done. Why anyone should believe this time it will be different eludes me.
And can we ask when Antonio is going to show some cojones? First there was the smack-down of his school board plan. Nothing from the Mayor!
Yesterday the “Living Wage” ordinence shot down. What will he do after another “Cute” by-pass of the electorate is declared a no-no.
And the police.
Come on Mayor! You want to succeed Arnold in Sacramento? Right now Gavin is looking better and better, mistress and all!
Arrrgggghhhh. Ghosts in the machine. I happened to notice another typo in today’s post, corrected it, and the program saw fit to mark the post as “private,” which means it disappears.
Woody, thank you for alerting me. Good gravy. There’s obviously something I did that cued the program in that way but damned if I know what it is. It happens every so often.
Anyway, thanks many times over. Fortunately, I was not attacked by either baton wielding cops or bandanna wearing anarchists.
Celeste wrote: Woody, there’s responding, then there’s reacting. Big difference.
And, I say the same thing when it comes to reactions and coverage of this.
“…. partnership between police and public not simply ethically desirable, but also politically indispensable…. ”
Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you Celeste, and it appears to me, that you (personally) are holding up your end of the ‘bargain.’
Good job keeping their feet to the fire.
Tempest in a teacup – or – Paris in Prison
For some reason I find it more interesting that Paris is going to spend 45 days in jail, then wondering if a cop should go to jail for smacking a egotistical journalist who just ignored his lawful command to disperse.
When the LAPD dispersed the crowd at MacArthur Park Tuesday evening, it was not Bloody Sunday or the summer of ‘68 in Chicago. It was a deliberate exercise in crowd control, which showed police restraint and application of force.
The officers who entered the park in riot gear were from Metropolitan Division, an elite group specially trained and equipped to control and disperse large crowds with minimal force. Guess what – they used minimal force. The people who got hurt (none of them very seriously) where one of three types:
1) 15 police, who were hit by rocks and bottles.
2) The masked young men throwing rocks and bottles.
3) The Journalists ignoring the orders of the Police to disperse.
Now they are even blaming the police for not having enough multi-linguistic bull horn operators, since so many of the rock throwing thug victims were illegal aliens who spoke no English. Not sure, what language the police should be announcing in since it would be politically incorrect to assume the demonstrators are Spanish Speaking. It just so happens that Pokey knows more illegal’s who speak Filipino, Swahili or Russian than Spanish, so Pokey would never assume such a thing.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week in the case of Scott v. Harris to DENY an offender who refused to OBEY THE POLICE the right to sue for the injuries he sustained, when police used force to stop the offender, even though this force caused the offender to be paralyzed.
SO TOO BAD for you boozed elbows and egos, it looks like your suits will go no-where.
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Oh – Can’t help but find it amusing — PARIS IN PRISON.
Paris in prison can be a new “Simple Life” series with Nicole Ritchie visiting her. If Paris is as careless in her prison duties as she is on her work duties in the series, then she’ll probably be in for ten years.
On MacArthur Park, next time let the police use police dogs and fire hoses. I think that we could get some volunteers from Alabama to take charge.
This is being blown waaaaaaay out of proportion.
“it looks like your suits will go no-where.”
Pokey….a little gentleperson’s bet on that?
Listener, I appreciate your help and smart analysis. It takes a village. (Or maybe that was the kid raising thingy. But I’m sure it applies to keeping the police on the righteous path too, no?)
No Doubt the CITY (tax payers) will pay big, and none of these suits will ever go to trial. That is what these spineless politicians do best —- They spend other people’s money.
I sure the BOO HOO dollars will come quickly taken from other important city projects that deserve the money a hundred times more.
You know, Pokey, all the taunts and nah-nahs could be kind of fun, but LA kind of strikes me as the wrong place for the cops not to have a grip on themselves. I can accept all kinds of perspectives on this situation; lots of observers and lots of vantage points. But of all the cities in the US that really need a sophisticated force, I’d think LA would be at the top of the list. This scenario with the media representatives and the police officers that were involved, suggests a lot of things, but precious little in the way of sophistication.
Sophistication
You are so right; the police should have used a much more sophisticated way to disperse the crowd. The military have a new RAY GUN for dispersing crowds. (NPR recently reported)
This would have been much simpler and more sophisticated than having to fire all those rubber bullets and push reporters around.
— Imagine the police saying on their bull horns, “Please Disperseâ€Â.
— Most people obey the order and are just fine.
— Police direct the RAY at reporters and demonstrators who ignore the order.
— Reporters and demonstrators think that their skin is on fire and they run from the area without a policeman touching them.
GREAT IDEA – I love this new sophistication.
Don’t you just love technology???
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2psqay