Whenever I post anything that’s marginally critical of the LAPD specifically, or law enforcement in general, it is grindingly predictable that the sluice gates will open to dump a flood of outraged comments and emails accusing me of cop bashing.
Ironically, if I say something nice about the police—or about, God forbid, the LAPPL, the dreaded union—a whole other contingent of disgruntled types shows up to email their outrage, and some fool on KPFK denounces me as a pampered Westsider who Doesn’t Get It.
Interestingly, however, the one group I rarely get angry comments from is the cops themselves. Why? I suspect because most people who actually do the tough and often morally complex work of law enforcement welcome a fair discussion of the world they inhabit and its many challenges, rewards and risks.
For example, in response to my recent post about the circumstances leading up to the murder of Martha Puebla I got this from a smart police LAPD officer whom I know. I am putting it up with his permission but, to preserve his ability to speak freely, without his name:
THE MARTHA PUEBLA STORY: AN INSIDER’S OPINION
1) People don’t realize that we have some very incompetent (not most, but SOME) officers and detectives in the force. Unfortunately, these few can cause great damage to victims/suspects/society AND our credibility. I can debate at length over why these idiots survive within LAPD and are not weeded out quickly and efficiently, but that is a long topic by itself.2) Majority of the officers in LAPD hate these incompetent and inept employees, however, the vocal defense (“circling the wagon” attitude) comes from the Police League and old-timers who must defend ANYTHING that officers do. The department has radically changed in the last ten years, in fact the majority of the department consists of officers who have less than 5 years on the job. I find this single fact as the most revolutionary one – we will be rid of old-guard with insular mentality soon. This is not something that automatically segues into a completely progressive police department and policing, because the nature of policing itself can cause many of the problems we experience again and again as we try to become more progressive. It will be a constant battle.
3) Most of the problems come from incompetence and ignorance. We simply can’t train young officers fast enough. The nature of 4th Amendment is always shifting. Courts issue contradictory judgments. Officers have to learn and retain a lot (tactics, communication skills – dealing with mentally ill/belligerent/dealing with victims/suspects, law, search and seizure, rapid response and quick judgments in the field without the benefit of a law librarian to assist them, etc) and as a large metropolitan department, it is extremely expensive to continually train the force. The City would rather pay a few million in lawsuits than remove a substantial number of officers to train them continuously. The big exercise in mobile field force training after the May Day fiasco is the example. By the way, the entire May day fiasco could have been avoided by the simple use of technology – we did not have video downlink to the command post in the park. Imagine a blind general trying to lead the troops…
4) There are some criminal cops that hide amongst us. When I worked IAG [Internal Affairs Group], my work led to termination of [a number of]* officers. That should tell a lot. However, these crooks are very smart and they camouflage very well. Unfortunately, some of them cause quite a bit of damage before they are caught and weeded out (think Rafael Perez and Ruben Palomares and David Mack).
5) Sometimes cops take short cuts. It is my belief that most cops don’t. I haven’t been removed from the field for that long, so I am more in touch with patrol officers. What is portrayed as corruption is sometimes cops taking short cuts. However, the intent of these officers is not criminal. For example, the recent story about the Hollywood officers who [allegedly] gave false testimony in the court about drugs they recovered from their arrestees. Taking 20 minutes to find drugs and lying about it in an arrest report gives us all a black eye and destroys our credibility. This will forever be an ongoing battle as young and sometimes idealistic cops become jaded and get soured at the criminal justice system that doesn’t work very effectively (in their view) to convict criminals. AND, the fact is, most of us in the field personally KNOW the perpetrators. We mostly don’t catch them with evidence, but that is a different story.
6) The only way of moving on to have a better police department is to dissolve the current police departments and re-shape them into an integrated institution where social workers, psychologists, prosecutors, and victim-assistance advocates work under the same umbrella with sworn officers. That is my idealistic view and I will forever stick with it.
*I removed the number in case it was distinguishing
TOMORROW: ON BEING BLUE Part II – Deputy Chief Charlie Beck talks about last week’s bad days for the LAPD, and how the department has changed for the good.
Celeste: “Whenever I post anything that’s marginally critical of the LAPD specifically, or law enforcement in general, it is grindingly predictable that the sluice gates will open to dump a flood of outraged comments and emails accusing me of cop bashing.”
“Marginally critical?” You have an expansive view of the word marginal. That’s like calling Obama mainstream. But, why…what reason could we have to accuse you of being unfriendly to the police, other than the fact that you took another entire post to itemize what is wrong with the LAPD cops?
I can see you in the ’60s standing in a mob chanting that the police are PIGS. The only good ones must be the ones who criticize fellow officers.
Could you just post something, for once, positive about them without adding an attack?
Oh, this was only a “marginal criticism.”
Great post. Your officer associate, who by the way needs an alias!, makes some great points which reinforce my sense of the changes we’re seeing in the LAPD. It’s always hard to get a great sense of what’s going on from the outside. I hope you are able to post future dispatches from this officer. Thanks.
Good idea, Mavis, on both counts—the alias and the notion of future dispatches. Using you as inspiration, I’m going to pursue both.
I’m not an inspiration to say nice things about the police? I’m so hurt.
Interesting that there is nothing here addressing the whys. The cops I know speak of grossly lowered hiring standards and affirmative action policies that have become a joke.
How about the female academy cadet that needed a seat-belt extender? How about the rookie who quit in the middle of a patrol shift – but was sent out to finish the day by his supervisor? How about the numerous gang affiliations that are overlooked in backgroudn checks?
How about putting a woman on SWAT despite her numerous extraordinarily dangerous major safety violations in training?
The bottom line is, LA’s left never had and never will appreciate the nuances, complexities and realities of police work. They throw a bunch of feel good policies at things, and think its lovely, regardless of the corruption and incompetence in breeds.
Oh, yes, crime is down greatly over the last 10 years. But, prison populations have almost doubled in that time, thanks to three strikes.
I’m sure that has nothing to do with it though.
Celeste, why are we learning about these issues from RCJP rather than you?
RCJP: Thanks for coming by and asking these questions. As I said above, I’ll be posting an interview with Chief Beck, who’s the head of detectives, tomorrow. Please come back and, after you read it, pose some questions and I’ll see if I can get him to read the comments and respond to a few in a day or tow.
I know there’s much controversy with hiring practices, which seemed to have started during Bernard Parks’ watch. I hear both sides so, without doing a full-on investigation, I’ve been unsure of the Big Picture truth of it all. But your perspective is a helpful one to hear.
(And what’s up with the seat belt extender story? Never heard that one.)
Woody: (sigh.)
“Whenever I post anything that’s marginally critical of the LAPD”
You forgot your many stories about the gang members who were on the verge of turning their life around because they are writing poetry. And how the gang members are the real victims of society because of a lack of feel good programs for violent criminals.
I will post the stories which Celeste will not write about. In today’s news is a story about the attempted murder of the mother of cop in Whittier. Her house and car had been tagged by local gang members, before the attempted murder of this woman. According to Celeste the gang members are probably poor victims of society who need more money spent on social programs to turn their lives around. But I will label them as low life scum bags, who deserve the death penalty for this type of cowardly act against a defenseless old lady.
http://cbs2.com/local/West.Whittier.Shooting.2.765121.html
And here is a story from a mexican mafia member, who will tell you how many prisoners abuse our legal system. He tells us only death will stop prison gang members from committing crimes from behind prison bars.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/gangster/h1.html
And of course the non existent enforcement of immigration laws and L.A.’s sanctuary status have absolutely nothing to do with L.A. being the gang capital of the world. And of course all American citizens should jump for joy, when spending billions on social services for illegal immigrants, especially gang members and other criminals. And of course every illegal alien criminal like the one who nearly killed a friend in Miami (a gang member from Los Angeles) should not be “harassed” by police and immigration officials. By the way this low life was arrested in many states for violent crimes (so much for three strikes) and deported and returned to the U.S. many time before finally being charged with the attempted murder of my friend and the murder of somebody else. I say a give him a noose instead of a novel.
LR, I appreciate in particular the link to the American Radioworks series on the former EME member. I’d not seen it and will be sure to listen. (Here, by the way, is the link to the whole series. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/gangster/index.html)
American Radio Works has supported some excellent investigative reporting that too often print media tends to ignore. This looks like another example.
I like the pull quote for the series: “A man has to be more than the worst thing he’s ever done.”
– Rene Enriquez
Gotta agree with all LR’s points on this one, and that you’re fooling yourself if you believe “the sluice gates open” with criticism of you, when you’re “even marginally critical of the cops.”
Your report under the subtle title, “Killing the Witness,” clearly makes it clear who you believe bears “moral and legal responsibility” for this tragedy: “So what happens when the cops tell a gangster the supposed witness’s name, offering this as “proof”…then what if everything the cops have told and shown the gangster is a lie, a ruse, a trick?” (Okay, you had me at “lie” already.)…”If harm comes to the ‘witness,’ who should bear moral and legal responsibility?”
On the other hand, as LR says, the gangbangers — whether killed by other gangbangers or jailed for riding along on a driveby shooting — are all depicted with evocative language to emphasize them being victims of society, kids always “on the verge of turning their lives around” and basically nice kids who just needed more money and programs and hugs and — as LR says, more poetry programs. When cops are, meanwhile, depicted in such a negative light (by the Times, too, which had a “bash the cops week” last week), this serves as an attempt to push pubic opinion in a direction that, I feel, would be not only financially ruinous and wasteful, but harmful to society and the solving of our gang crisis. So it’s more than just rhetoric.
BUT your posting of the anon. police officer’s views is very interesting, and promotes more informed dialogue on the issue. I especially note his comment that what’s portrayed as corruption is often just a “short cut,” like the case last week of the two cops who claimed they’d found the perp’s drugs immediately when it in fact took 20 minutes. They didn’t plant the drugs, the case was essentially the same, but as your source says, some cops get so fed up by what they see as the failings of the justice system (like, if they didn’t claim to see the drop, the perp would claim the drugs weren’t his and walk, like he’d done before), that they “get creative” on details to win the case. — Meanwhile, the 3 strikes law means some people are put away for stealing snacks, so clearly our justice system IS amiss. The third strike shouldn’t include misdemeanors, and should give the sentencing judge more leeway.
TC II,
I just wrote a long meaningful response but my computer just now ate it before I could hit “submit.” So, I’ll just say that if you liked today’s post, I think you’ll enjoy the comments of Chief Beck as much or more. Unfortunately, I won’t be posting them Tuesday as I’d planned, but they’ll go up Wednesday a.m. (Was tending to a sick dog.) Let me know what you think.
Lets Get the quote correct ………..
“This morning’s LA Times has a well-researched story by Joel Rubin about the 2003 murder of a 16-year old girl named Martha Puebla. Vineland Boyz gang members allegedly killed her. And while that is tragic enough, what is worse is the way two LAPD homicide detectives callously marked Martha Puebla for her death.”
********************
Now tell me does this like an author minimizing the actions of a cold blooded low life, ordering the execution of a young girl, in a recorded phone conversation from jail. Most people would say we need to eliminate jail communication of murder suspects who have a long history of witness intimidation and extreme violence. I wonder who is really to blame for the 204st gang mudering a friend/witness by stabbing him over 80 times and slicing his throat?
Celeste its about time you get the take from a cop. What I find infuriates people is not that the LAPD is consistently criticized, but the poor, unbalanced, bias reporting by the papers. So many times when they write a negative hit piece on LAPD they miss so many facts that show the other side of the incident. If you look at all the polls on newspaper and TV websites especially after the May 1 incident you will see the majority of people in LA support LAPD. They don’t rush to judgement like our dumb ass politicians who speak out and make the most outrageous statements without knowing facts. Just last week after the Hollywood officer’s story broke the Mayor said “we won’t tolerate inappropriate behavior” yet he has been criticized on many blogs for his fundraisers with people who are receiving political payback, favors and very shading city dealings. He is the last person to criticize LAPD. Yet, he’s using them to campaign to get re-elected and they don’t like him at all.
Thanks for at least opening up the discussion
How about the L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies?? There are many very good deputies in the department, but unfortunately a LOT of really incompetent ones. I have found that even some of the dispatchers are woefully inept. I live in an unincorporated area of Whittier and wonder why the Board of Supervisors does not see that MORE deputies need to be hired as well as there needing to be more money spent also on perhaps some kind of retraining of the deputies/dispatchers out there now that need it. We citizens need the deputies to be out there for even the routine calls;not everything is going to be a dramatic high-speed car chase or dramatic hostage situation. When my husband and I have called the deputies on non-emergency situations in recent years, the deputies more often than not never come by even after multiple times calling. And even when they HAVE come by, some deputies are patronizing, as if our calls are insignificant to them and they cannot be bothered with such triviality(this has also been the case with some of the dispatchers) But then on the other side of the coin, I also know it must be frustrating for the department to want more deputies hired but they cannot because of money. Meanwhile, what is REALLY frustrating is that because of the lack of deputies out there many gangbangers take advantage of this because they know there’s a good chance nobody will come out, especially if it’s not a 911 situation, and they keep on committing their crimes, etc. We need more money for more cops for more police presence(LAPD as well as the Sheriff’s Dept.)so the gangbangers and others know that they better think twice before they assume the police won’t be responding swiftly(or at all) to calls.
interesting site