Law Enforcement

Preservation of Life award: a terrible idea that will put officers in even more danger
The daily work of Los Angeles Police Department officers is among the most challenging and dangerous jobs in the nation. Those who choose to do this hazardous work do so because they feel called to protect their community and have faith that the world-class training they received will protect not only the community, but also themselves. LAPD officers are not seeking to receive an award. In fact, they are well aware that police work is often a thankless job, especially today, when anti-police rhetoric is prominent and perpetuated by the media and special interest groups. The least we can do for these officers is preserve their right to go home to their families each night, and their right to take action to defend their own lives, and by extension, the lives of the public.
LAPD.com

LAPD Inaugural Transgender Walk Of Remembrance
Sunday, November 20 will mark the annual observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance where the memory of lives lost in acts of anti-transgender violence is commemorated. In honor of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the Los Angeles Police Department invites the community to walk for the Inaugural Transgender Walk of Remembrance on Thursday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. Canyon News confirmed with Senior Lead Officer Ian Lewis of the Community Relationship Division, that The Walk of Remembrance, “memorializing the courage and perseverance of victims and their families,” will be led by Deputy Chief Commanding Officer Beatrice M. Girmala.
Canyon News

Fight For Life: LA Deputies and Officers Box For City Of Hope Hospital
The Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are about to duke it out for a good cause. The "Fight for Life" charity match is much more about raising money for cancer patients than who is the better boxer. "People who work and back each other up on the street come together one night a year to be able to go at it against each other for the best of all causes, to raise money for the City of Hope," Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said.
ABC 7

LAPD serves warrants in connection with Montecito Heights park slayings
An uneasiness settled into the Northeast L.A. neighborhood as detectives tried to find who killed Gabriela Calzada, 19, and Briana Gallegos, 17. Joggers and dog walkers said they were worried about going back to the park. Residents organized a vigil at the spot where the girls were found. On Thursday, two weeks after the bodies were found, police appeared to make some progress in the case, searching three homes about a mile from Ernest E. Debs Regional Park and questioning several people in connection with the killings.
Los Angeles Times

2 guns, 3 shot, 2 dead in South LA family dispute
A person shot two relatives today, one fatally, during a family dispute in the South Los Angeles area, and was then fatally shot by another family member, police said. The shootings occurred about 11 a.m. in the 1100 block of West 55th Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Two people died at the scene and the third person was taken to a hospital with wounds that were not life-threatening, police said.
Los Angeles Daily News

Man found dead of head injury in Southeast Los Angeles alley
A man was found dead today of a head injury in an alley in southeast Los Angeles, and his death was classified as a homicide, authorities said. The body of the man, who was in his 30s, was discovered at about 6:20 a.m. by a passerby in the 9100 block of Compton Avenue, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. The man had suffered “blunt trauma to the head,” according to the LAPD. His name was withheld, pending notification of his relatives.
Los Angeles Daily News

California Police Officer Buys Shoes For Barefoot Homeless Woman
An act of kindness from a Temecula, California police officer helping a homeless woman has gone viral. It was just another day at Promenade Temecula, with Officer Bruce Pierson making the rounds, when he received a radio call about some kind of dispute between mall security and a homeless woman who was only 18-years-old. The accusation was that the woman had been spotted peering into parked cars in the parking lot. "It was a heated debate," Pierson said. "She explained that I wasn't doing anything wrong, I'm being harassed."
ABC 13

Customs and Border Protection rules out body cameras for officers, at least for now
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has decided against requiring its officers to wear body cameras, upsetting critics who say the technology is needed to hold the nation's largest law enforcement agency accountable. Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, who based his decision on a yearlong internal study, said officers would wear body cameras during training, and he released a plan to examine the devices for more widespread use in the future. However, "a full-scale deployment on every person is not necessary."
Los Angeles Times

Death Penalty

Federal appeals court upholds California's death penalty
A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a fed­er­al judge's rul­ing that found the state death penalty system unconstitutional. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument on a technicality that it did not address the question of whether life on death row in California constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Los Angeles Times