Did LAPD Chief William Bratton Pick His Own Spawn To Replace Him?

There was a system in place to pick the new police chief in Los Angeles, that we were informed about in August, a couple of months ago thanks to the LA Times "La Now" blog in "How Los Angeles will search for the next LAPD chief".  The personnel department would present a list of candidates with at least 6 names to the Police Commission which would whittle the names down to three and send those to the mayor to make a choice.

Just like the departing Chief William Bratton had ordered, the three presented today were insiders to the department.   I'm guessing that the guy didn't want chance of being too upstaged by his successor, though there might be other reasons, too.  Knowing that anyone who stood his tenure wasn't a threat to the great Wizard of LA (Bratton himself.)

Well, the whittling has been done and the result you may be happy to know is three white guys.

Three insider white guys just like Bill Bratton ordered?  Police Commission head John Mack who is black, asserted that that results showed that racism is dead in Los Angeles because minority members helped promote the white men, and indeed with Mack and a woman on the commission board selecting the candidates that could be said.  

I find it strange though that the selection mirrored Bratton's call for an insider so closely.  What else did Bratton tell the commission on the down low?  Bratton's going, but he appears to still have sway in LA.  And I guess I'll still do my best to stay out of the city limits if the LAPD is going to be run by a clone.

News media have hinted that the old white man selections might not fit Los Angeles.  Just days ago a local NPR station report surmized that we might have  a black, hispanic, and or a woman for the next chief, as there were excellent choices in those categories.

And an LA Times report "Three insiders being considered for LAPD chief " appears to concur, mentioning Assistant Chiefs Earl Paysinger, and Sharon Papa as very good substitutions, especially over Deputy Chief Moore.

It would be fun to wonder at Moore's identification by the department as "Hispanic" because his father is half Basque, but Moore seems to be a decent guy after reading his take on the deaths of the Rajaram family a little over a year ago, though, of course any police chief needs to understand the problems that face families who live nowhere near gated communities as well. 

I'm not finding much else on any of the candidates this morning.

I'd be particularly interested to now if one of them was involved with ordering any of the actions surrounding the May 1, 2007 police riot in McArthur Park.  This is not just words I'm saying but was also noted by LA Times writers such as in "Initial outrage at LAPD not enough".

Also under consideration would be any actions taken by the up and coming officers during the Rampart Scandal.  (Reports on both can be found at "LAPD.com Police Commission ") .  I'm guessing that those obvious angles have been covered, already.

I guess I have some printing and reading to do.  (But first I'll have to buy paper.  I don't have the 100+ sheets I'd need to print out the reports even double sided).

Joel Rubin at the LA Times "LA Now" Blog  did report in "L.A. Police Commission conceals the identities of 2 outside candidates applying to be next LAPD chief" that there were two outside candidates that applied for the position, but their names were kept secret. It actually got dramatic.  Read original at link for details.

I believe Paul M. Walters, the current police chief of Santa Ana, California applied for the position during the interval in which William Bratton was first under consideration.  People I knew who knew the problems of Los Angeles and cared thought he would be a great chief who had unique ideas about dealing with our gang problems.  Okay, he looks white, too.  I'm just saying. (Bratton was selected by an outside group, not the commission and then Mayor James Hahn approved him.) 

Walters was one of two finalists for Orange County Sheriff after one time Karl Rove favorite Mike Carona resigned while fighting serious legal charges, and it has been well identified that Walters is ready for a move up after improving relations in the once dangerous city he still leads.  I don't know enough to say whether he or the current OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was or was not better and I applaud the decision by the county to move towards diversity, especially as it seemed to leave Walters still looking for that bigger position he probably deserves.  (Bratton couldn't last forever, I thought.)

Why would Bratton insist on an insider?  I'm think that there are skeletons that need to be kept in closets to keep the departing chief reputation standing up bright and shiny.  He needs continued control.

Is that what he demanded after leaving the NYPD? Like in LA, the mayor has the final say, but Bratton seems to have a peculiar almost hypnotic sway over mayors.  (Read Villaraigosa's over the top praise of Bratton in LA Times article above).

I ask, because the year after Bratton left the NYPD Police Chief position some officers used torture on one Abner Louima.  It seems likely to me that the past is more of an influence on that action than the future, and that past (past attitude past training) was influenced more by William Bratton than by his successor.   Indeed nothing that Bratton or his successors did stopped the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999, either.

There probably pleanty of reasons that people turned against the Los Angeles mayor, James Hahn as he sought reelection.  One of those reasons, for the poor people at least was William Bratton.

The last thing we need is a Bratton approved successor here, if he (as it turns out) is going to hide the worst things happening in the LAPD until another horror greets us in the morning paper.

But I have to credit the leaving chief with a good laugh.  He told one radio host that he was a bit affronted by LA's police commission.  When in NYC he was the commissioner as well as the police chief and there was no commission he informed us.  The thought of Bratton going up on the roof to send the Bat Signal brought  a little laugh to my day, but his ideas on policing are the same old, blame the poor, crap that set up some really bad incidents during his tenure in Los Angeles.

I'm happy to know that he's going.   I'd rather have an outsider become chief so that he or she could look into what really happened during the last 6 years.   Walters would have been a great one, in my humble opinion.

But This Is LA.

And one thing that has never been great is it's police department.  

Why should that change now.

tags: lapd  los angeles  police chief  lapd police commission  william bratton  

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