The LACP Question of the Week ... the community response

The following input is related to the article Sheriff Baca - Forum on Police Misconduct and is the community response to the LACP Question of the Week ...

"What's your take on police misconduct?"

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Anonymous, Los Angeles - Dec. 5
It is very real and as a victim who is currently going through some a very dangerous situation with police misconduct, I find it to be totally frustrating not to be able to receive any type of assistance.

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Jean Marie Wisniewski, Atwater Village - Aug. 29

For what it is worth, here is my view.

I think, as a whole, the police department lives up admirably to "America's Finest". We depend on them. They take their lives in their hands every day for us, and I hope that no citizen out there ever forgets it.

There is police misconduct, but that is a few and not the many. To place a label on all of them is unjust and unfair. An Officer of the Law is here to set and uphold an example of human and civil rights, and when they fail then they [need] to be dealt with harshly and without alot of hand slapping, because we look up to them as examples.

If you really want to get into the meat of things, then a complete thorough change and study of our judicial system should really be the focus.

Police can arrest a criminal but it is the system with its endless loopholes that places them right back out on the street. While police consider pepper spray and rubber bullets, criminals carry guns. If a policeman makes an arrest and meets a lot of resistance he is in a bad position. He'd better be really careful because if he touches him he runs the risk of "police abuse."

Sure, lines have been crossed by the police, but more lines have been crossed by the citizens committing the crime, and when I see a person who stands to make a lot of money off of the system because he was abused after he committed a crime, then something is wrong there too.

How about the big shootout at the bank in North Hollywood a few years back? I thought the police were great through the whole situation, in spite of the very few firearms they hand in comparison with the AK47's the robbers had.

Yet the families of the robbers had the nerve to sue the City and bring charges against the department. They make a few bucks while they scream police brutality. I guess they forgot what their darling children were doing in order to get shot and killed.

Is there a certain irony to this?

I think the police could use a little more support on our part.

JeanMarie Wisniewski
JMW Insurance Services
Atwater Village

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Anonymous, Sun Valley - Aug. 26

Since I have not been a victim of police misconduct, I can not relate to the people who allege they have. The police in our area are wonderful men who daily put their lives on the line for us and I would hate to be without them.

Do I think there are "rotten apples" in every barrel? You betcha!

The big problem here in Sun Valley is that we see so few of them and so many gang members.

People look at video tapes of police brutality and immediately form an opinion. They don't see what happened just before the tape started running.

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Norm Swirin, Hollywood / Wilshire - Aug. 26

Hi, Bill!

No doubt, the members of the department -- working as they do (when they are on the "front lines") -- always under significant stress -- sometimes "lose it!!!"

That, however, is not an excuse!!! If the members of the force want to be treated and considered "Professionals," they must behave as Professionals!!!

Imagine a teacher doing what some members of the Force have done!!!

Hope this is helpful.

Norm Swirin

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Anonymous - Aug. 26

Reading his speech just reminded me why I voted for him.

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Charles Sudduth, El Sereno - Aug. 26

Dear Bill,

I suspect that police misconduct represents the attitude of our City Administration and is minor compared with what is happening elsewhere.

Charles Sudduth

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Susan Markowitz, Los Angeles - Aug. 25

PoliceMisconduct / ScrewUps

To Whom It May Concern,

I would not be surprised if this letter did not get published. There is sadness and the biggest loss involved.

The LAPD would have to admit I have received no apology for the "TWO" separate 911 phone calls were MISS handled. How, can that be? In addition, the two officers were slapped on the hand.

Burying a child, let alone it be your only [child] as Nick was mine, is the reason for my two suicide attempts. After the execution of my sweet Nicholas Samuel Markowitz I have no idea who I am.

I am not looking for revenge as one of the killers "Jesse James Hollywood." I am looking for ways tell people of how wonderful Nicholas Markowitz was and to say I would appreciate the public's help in capturing Jesse James Hollywood. We have put up 30k of the $50,000 reward.

In_Memory_Of_Nicholas

Please feel free to E-mail me at: Aching4Nick@aol.com

Lost and Broken,
Nick's Mom,
Susan Markowitz

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Eddie Durán, El Sereno - Aug. 25

Dear Mr. Murray:

"Lets see if together we can make the difference." Of course we can! As soon as we put our Judicial system in order,and all Judges are place on check as we do our police officers.

I feel this is our problem, not the police department.

We need to amend our Civil and Municipal Codes in order to make things work!

Sincerely,

Eddie Durán

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Elizabeth McClellan / Southeast Neighborhood Council - Aug. 25

Police conduct good or bad is tied into police attitudes. It is unfortunate that every law enforcement officer has to bear the blame or suffer from a "bad mark" each time a "rogue cop(s)" is caught with his hand in the "cookie jar," mainly because most of the blame, if not all of it, should be spread around to the jokers who are really to blame, including the infamous Sheriff Leroy Baca.

If I were responsible for hiring and assigning officers to neighborhoods, the first qualification would be that they also reside in the area that they serve. It is impossible for people who serve community neighborhoods to feel compassion towards the people when they just come in to work.

First of all, police officers come into communities, especially African American communities, with preconceived ideas about African American culture and folkways. It is no secret that black men are a prime target for Police as they were to slave owners and later on the "High Sheriff" in the South. They hung them and lynched them and beat them to death on a whim!

Many of the officers who serve on the force now are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those same racist lawmen and slave owners. As my 80 year-old aunt would phrase it, "The apple does not fall far from the tree."

And so, here we are in year 2002, over four hundred years afterward, experiencing the same plantation syndrome being acted out by offspring of those who portrayed the same attitudes yesteryear, and is rightly defined as a double dose of ignorance. There will never be change as long as police who behave ignorantly are allowed to polarize the people, bring out the posses and stir it up.

We all know that there are strong feelings of racism all over this country, and many people do not feel that the police are acting too aggressive when there are acts that are termed "misconduct" … they feel police are acting justly when they get aggressive with suspects. These are the same people who cry, "More, more police!!!!" They yet believe that they are in grave danger, due to the criminal elements that exist "down there, among them," and aggressive police assures safety and keeps them away from the "good neighborhood, law-abiding citizens."

On the other hand, those same people will say on behalf of the police officer who [engages in] misconduct [and who] is not going to trial (rightful so, they should be fired immediately) that let justice be done, because the police [officer] deserves a fair and due process of the law. [This is a] conflict of interest. They represent the law in the first place, or don't police know this?

Maybe that should be the place to start. Teaching police officers that their conduct should be that of a person who represent the law, and that beating and hurting unarmed people is not a fair representation of the laws of the land.

Secondly, is it [not] fair to say that the city governing body is as much to blame as the police who continue to behave so badly? Why isn't someone able to put zero tolerance laws in place to put a stop to this madness? A rogue cop who [performs] misconduct should be fired without recourse. Why is it necessary to drag it out, waste the tax payers money who received the beating and rouse up the black and white people? Is it that our lawmakers are just too dumb to figure it out, or are all of them geared toward "fiddling while LA burns." Seems like a plan to me!

Here is the bottom line; I reside in South LA and it seems to me, that police officers who come from outside the community to work do not have a clue about the people, other than the criminal element, which may amount to less than 1% of the population. So what about the other 99%? The police in this area feel that they have one job to do, and that is to report crime, and wait for crime to happen.

It is very difficult for police officers and their commanders to see the big picture. Their biggest concern should be "crime prevention" in order to be able to catch the real criminals. Instead they let it fester and mushroom, then they ALL go after it too late. Either someone is dead, or the little criminals think that it is ok to gang up and stand around liquor stores and like establishments. Community people can try to report suspicious incidents, and police officers just take it on the cuff, asking all kind of crazy things like, "What color clothes the person has on," [even if] it's midnight.

Someone has be killed to get their attention.

What about community policing? It never happened. That is why police continue to behave irregularly … they know nothing about the people of the communities they serve. To them, everyone who is not a potential criminal is only significant to attend police-controlled community meetings, where they report crimes and allow community people to speak on issues without solutions, and adhere to an agenda that the police proposes. This is repeated over and over again, [and is] the reason why neighborhood condition remain status quo.

The gangs are yet gangbanging, and writing on the whole neighborhood, and selling drugs … and the police are short on man power, but only working a three day week. This is the vicious cycle … that is, until one of the men in blue is accused (by the public, usually blacks), of acts of misconduct. Then police greatness is the order of the day. It is just that "one" guy who no one has a clue how he got in. It's like, "Who in the hell left that gate open, and let the mad dog out?"

NO ONE KNOWS WHO, OR WHY, OR HOW TO KEEP THE MAD DOG INSIDE THE GATE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Elizabeth McClellan
Southeast Neighborhood Council