LAPD CHIEF A SKELETON IN RUDY’S CLOSET?
Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, claims that he was behind an historic drop in crime in New York City. Yet, in reality the crime drop belongs to LA’s own chief of police, Bill Bratton-–Giuliani’s first police commissioner, and the guy whom the narcissistic Giuliani forced out when Bratton started drawing too much press attention. The AP flags the issue in an article naming and ranking the various potentially pesky skeletons in Rudy’s walk-in-sized closet.
[KEEP READING….THERE’S MORE]
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PRISON GUARD PREZ HAS A PERSONAL ABOUT FACE
A couple of years ago, a small group of reporters, myself among them, spent an hour or two talking privately with Mike Jimenez, the president of the ultra-powerful California prison guards union. The most jaw-dropping thing that Jimanez said in the course of the conversation was that, in all his years as a corrections officer, he’d never met a prisoner that he thought could be rehabilitated. At all. Not one. (Just the guy you want heading up the union during the state’s prison crisis, what with the recidivism rate holding at 71 percent, the highest in the nation.)
It seems now, however, Jimenez and the union have had a change of heart, according to yesterday’s LA Times. The shift occurred, Jimenez told the Times, when his seventeen year old started getting in trouble with the law for drinking and petty theft. He credits the personal experience with transforming his views on rehabilitation and on prison policies.
“I’ve been humbled,” Jimenez said. “I gotta believe in redemption. I gotta believe that you can convert.” Referring to the union, he added: “We’ve come to understand that what’s bad for inmates is bad for our members.”
(Well, yeah, Mike. A lot of us could have told you that, like, a while ago if you’d bothered to ask.)
Some suggest that Jimenez and the union—who have, for years, called virtually all the shots inside the California state legislature on prison policy—may have had a change of heart for more practical and self-serving reasons.
“I think the prison guards have been the victims of their own success,” said Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and a longtime critic who has been meeting with the union. “Reality is hitting them in the face. And they run the risk that federal courts will nullify their contract if they’re perceived as an obstacle to having the system changed.”
Hey, whatever works. We’ll take the change however we can get it.
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GANG REALPOLITIK?
South LA gang homicide cop and hard-boiled mystery author, Will Beall, has an opinion piece in Sunday’s LA Times, in which he advances an interesting and informed take on the black/brown racial violence that’s been a consistent media drum beat in recent months. Beall may not have everything right. (There’s still much more racial pressure coming out of the jails and prisons than many in law enforcement feel comfortable admitting.) But he’s got a lot right. The preponderance of gang-related tragedies on LA’s streets are cases of young men shooting at other young men who are racially, culturally, and socio-economically, their mirror image.
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ELIZABETH EDWARDS ON WHY HER HUSBAND WON’T AND SHOULDN’T DROP OUT
Many have figured that John Edwards would bail from the presidential race once a dignified amount of time has passed, but Elizabeth says otherwise—and explains why— in this excellent article in today’s New York Times. A more definitive statement of what the couple is thinking will no doubt be presented during their interview on tonight’s edition of “60 Minutes.” But, until then, the Times piece is likely the best out there.
Whatever road you choose, Elizabeth, we wish you well.
*UPDATE* Whether or not Edwards is your ideal candidate or not, he and his wife were certainly impressive, affecting and graceful—simply as human beings— in their 60 Minutes segment tonight.
If a politician can get the blame when something goes wrong, then he can take the credit when it goes right.
Hiring the right people, giving them goals, providing the necessary tools and support, and managing the job to a favorable conclusion is the sign of a good administrator, and it takes nothing from the leader that others under him actually handle the operations.
It sounds as if the AP is already on the Democratic bandwagon to discredit Republican candidates.
True, but when you fire the guy because he’s getting more than you it kind of makes you look petty don’t you think? Particularly when the guy you replace him with and tout to others for Cabinet posts is Bernie Kerik!
“Walk-in Closet”? This guy has a whole loft of skeletons! He’s got to be an oppo research guy’s dream!
Of course Giuliani can take the credit for something that goes right on his watch as mayor—UNLESS he does nearly everything in his power to stand in the way of that new thing getting accomplished, and then forces the guy out who made the new strides, because he, Rudy, is too threatened by the attention the other guy is getting.
Because I report on Bratton, when he was first hired as LAPD chief, I read copious amounts about his years as the NYC Police commissioner under Giuliani. And, while Rudy had the good sense to hire Bratton, his ability to actually delegate effectively was somewhat…um…challenged. The mayor promptly began meddling at every turn, mostly in effort to make sure he got the credit for everything, not the Commissioner. And Bratton, while very press friendly, doesn’t push himself out in front. I’ve seen him with two ego-driven mayors here in LA—particularly Antonio. He’s great at that balance. But Rudy got in a snit over the pettiest stuff. It was wa-a-a-aaay adolescent. Trust me, Woody, if you do research on this, you’ll start pulling it up. Plus I’ve had long talks with someone very much on the inside during that period who saw it close up. And it wasn’t very pretty.
So, no, I don’t think this is some kind of partisan hiccup on the part of the AP. When I first started researching I liked Rudy because it was the year after 9/11 and we all admired how Rudy handled things, and I was suspicious of Bratton. Now I see Bratton, for all his flaws, as the real straight shooter. A very capable grown-up. Rudy—not so much. It’s not about partisanship. Personally, I’d much prefer to have Rudy as the Repub. candidate as, on social issues, he’s far more progressive than the rest of the pack.
What a surprise. A mayor wanting the limelight for actions of the police department. I’ve seen that so many times, both Republican and Democratic. The police capture a major criminal and it’s the mayor announcing it in front of all the cameras. You might be right about Giuliani, but I suspect that I’m right in saying that the AP would not have covered this story as they did if he was a Democrat.
Gee Woody maybe they do that in Atlanta but out here in LA its always been the Chief of Police – or maybe the DA – that comes out when there’s a big case. Maybe you heard of this guy OJ and his freeway ride?
O.J.? That guy who was found innocent? Yeah, the LAPD and the D.A.’s office did a great job on that. What a surprise that the mayor wasn’t taking credit for their work. The reason that the L.A. mayor sits back is due to their reputations. I don’t think that he wanted to take credit for Rodney King’s arrest, either.
As a matter of fact, mayors usually do take front stage in major cases, and that certainly is true in Atlanta. It’s just human nature for the type of people who become mayors.
I’m just glad that not all of our politicians are narcissistic. My guess is that nothing will get done if these people don’t have egos bigger than ours. With so many blogs and other media taking shots at each of the candidates, whether truthful or not, it is an unusual person who wishes to and succeeds to win a high political office. I dare say that many, most, or even all of us are unwilling to step up to the challenge and put our closets on the open printed page. It is so easy to complain and so difficult to actually do something about the issues other than talk about it. Rather than complain and point fingers, unless you do it for all candidates, maybe more time could be spent with looking at the results, even if you don’t like them, in a positive way. Most people will respond to positive statements faster than negative. Try it sometime, it may work.
Jake, you’re right I suspect about the necessary correlation between politicians and egos. Actually, I rather like Giuliani in many ways, as I said above. But, trust me, he behaved badly with Bratton, which perhaps says something not so positive about his executive skills. I used the AP link, for the story, but I’ve got my own corroborating stuff on the issue. For one thing, I just heard a lotta back stage info about this from John Miller who worked for Rudy during those days and then followed Bratton to LA to be the Counter Terrorism guy for the LAPD. (Now Miller’s the main spokesperson for the FBI.)
It wasn’t that Bratton took center stage. He didn’t. But Rudy didn’t want him even in the same room with the stage—because when he was, all eyes naturally gravitated to Bratton. Bill Bratton’s short, pock-marked, and not particularly a looker. But he has that THING you can’t manufacture. “Command presence” the cops and the military call it.