Activism or Cowardice?
by LAPD Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph

March 06, 2008

At a recent public hearing, an activist group, who will remain nameless as always, entered the hearing and began their usual chants and rhetorical pot shots against the Los Angeles Police Department and myself.  This is nothing new.  Most people are immune to their tactics, which are almost comical, until we see the negative results of their activities.

Yet what was different than before, was the fact that these activist took it upon themselves to attack a fallen officer, who had valiantly given up his life trying to save lives, along with his injured partner.  This officer is not able to defend himself.  As we all know, we recently lost not only a great officer, but also a wonderful human being.  On duty and off duty, SWAT Officer Randy Simmons dedicated his life to protecting the community and mentoring to children.

In the wake of his death, a member of this activist group decided to verbally assault the memory of this officer, by implying that his death was punishment from God, as a result of our police activities in skid row.  If that were the case, don't you think the incident would have been more localized.  Furthermore, the officer was a man of God who had a solid faith in the Lord.  This in my opinion is low even for this particular activist group.  As I have written many times, I do not care if anyone speaks negatively of me, it is their right to do so.  But I will always defend our officers and myself when they slander us.

This act is one of many acts of cowardice displayed by some radical groups in the area.  They, know that we cannot verbally confront their lies, as we are required to carefully try to ensure their right to free speech (even their hate speech).  If we respond to them, they twist our words and run down to the police station and make a complaint, which is more than likely not based on fact and can potentially hurt the career of the officer who responds to them.  For years they knew that we could not respond.  But I decided to change that.  I did not give up my right to defend myself and speak out when I was sworn into the police academy.

I decided after the Democratic National Convention in 2000, that being silent was not taking the moral high ground, for what is immoral against standing up to those who lie and defame us.  If we continue to allow this, we only enable our detractors to continue to drag this Department through the mud, causing the focus to be on the few negative exceptions of law enforcement rather than the honorable rule.  This causes a divide between the community and the police department that hinders positive relationships with each other.

But now I use my 1st Amendment right to tell you the Skid Row community, about how I truly feel about serving you, instead of just letting you hear it from liars and embellisher's with an agenda.

Their display was a disgusting act and a clear indicator of the length some activists will go to just to make a statement.  As disgusting were the men and women who stood up and said that this group was “honorable,” after they made these horrible statements about a man that was not a coward, but a hero in every sense of the word.

I am limited in what I can say in response to them, for as I said before, I am held to a standard of professionalism, which they are not.  But I would not wish or gloat over a tragedy involving them, for I only have disdain for their tactics, but not for them individually as my faith teaches.  In closing, I leave you with comparisons of our brave LAPD officers to some radical activist groups:

Officers like Randall Simmons run to danger to try to save people's lives.  Activist groups throw stones at them from a safe place for doing so. 

Officers are not afraid to put their reputations on the line when they do their jobs. Activists are afraid of how they will be perceived if they actually take a stand against the criminal element.

This Department and some others have largely been alone in the fight to make Skid Row a safer place.  Radical activists only hide and criticize us for trying to do so, with no clue of how difficult it is to combat crime.

Officers do the best they can to tackle the gang problems, which hinder a safe environment for Skid Row residents.  Activists sit back and watch this occur and refuse to report it, even as it occurs in front of their office.

Activists have the audacity to ask City officials to violate my first Amendment rights to tell the truth about their tactics, and hide behind the same rights to spread lies, paranoia, and propaganda against the Department.

I will leave it to you to decide who the real cowards are.

Sincerely,

LAPD Central Area Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph