Charlie Beck and Willie Bratton's Chocolate Factory.

Los Angeles, Aerial View

Can the LAPD be a force for good in the inner city?

'The installation of William Bratton's hand picked successor may still bring change, but will it be in the right direction?

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Lock Up Those sneaky Oompaloompas!  They've been tagging again!

And the legacy of former police chief Bill Bratton lives on.

Bratton's hand picked successor, Charlie Beck, is stepping into his shoes if the Mayor of Los Angeles has his way, but the LA Times wants to school us in "Behind closed doors, Los Angeles police chief pick was no shoo-in " that the man had to overcome extra resistance because he was  the favorite of the former police chief, who had become an expert in manipulating Los Angeles area officials.  

The hypocrisy is rising like bile, but the report goes through all the people who supposedly resisted the manipulation of the retiring chief. Before, in fact, they selected his choice.

He's the best man, they proclaim, just like William Bratton said.

The police commission, currently consisting of 3 men, chooses at least three candidates from which the Mayor selects his choice for a successor to a departing police chief with the approval and of the City Council.  The Times is very clear in saying that Bratton's behind the scenes pressure for his favorite actually made them all more wary of selecting the man.  Maybe it did, but someone or something made them decide in the end to extend something like Bratton's odious reign over Los Angeles.

Is Bratton's hand picked successor going to recognize, as the former chief couldn't ( though the County Sheriff and department heads of nearby cities do) that there is a race war is ongoing in Southern California?   I'm not going to be holding my breath.

Could part of Beck's appeal may be the tough but ruggedly well. acceptable police chief looks and a mustache that's almost like Bernard Kerik's.  Okay looks aren't everything to some of us, but for some like a certain former president I might name, looks counted for a lot.

The article reveals that Michel Moore presented the commission with ways to shake up the LAPD, and  find cost savings.  It also notes that people recognize that Moore is very intelligent and more independent of Willam Bratton than the other two choices from the commission were.  The commission tossed out applications from people recognized as demographically superior for the city, and at least two unknown applicants from without the LAPD, one of which I earlier surmized might be Paul M. Walters, the chief and the Santa Ana Police Department and whom I favor because people working with minority and poor youths in the city said he would be good for LA when he had applied for the position the year William Bratton was chosen.

The article also shows that LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who's job it was to select between the commission's three choices at first favored Michel Moore and got a lot of positive input from important people in the city on him, so of course. 

No wait.  He went with Bill Bratton's man. I wonder how high, now east coast situated, Bratton's phone bill will be for the week, unless he snuck back and whispered into keyholes.

Beck, currently Deputy Chief in the LAPD promises the city a virtual continuation of Bratton's policy of locking up youths for petty crimes and getting them on the track of unemployability ("cracking down on small crimes as a way of preventing big crimes" -- Times). Yeah, that will help. 

He does give lip service to anti-gang measures that might in our imagination include real jobs programs, or not.  In fact, what I read here doesn't give me a clue.

And I don't see Fr Greg Boyle standing up with him so I'm not impressed. 

Beck proclaimed as reported in the Times "Charlie Beck vows to focus on gang violence, quality-of-life crimes and more 'transparency' as LAPD chief" that reducing crime helps business in the city and therefore adds jobs (but those jobs not for those whom you've made unemployable or dead in the process, Sir.  Outsiders are likely to come in for those jobs rather than people from the ghettos.)

I has been long noted that crime has decreased during William Bratton's term, and in fact the piece on the selection of Beck notes that one of the arguments for choosing Bratton's crony is that maybe that crime reduction would reverse if they didn't.

In braver days the LA Times noted that the crime reduction in LA was more the result of gentrification which drove a portion of the desperate poor out of LA city limits than of police programs which have mostly consisted, under Bratton, of locking up minority youths for every small crime, especially tagging.

That makes many a young man virtually incapapble of getting a job, and they think such a person won't sell drugs or run a prostitution ring? 

From what I've seen the gentrification of LA neighborhoods which were difficult to recover and still can be dangerous even in the most affluent areas was a result of rising gas prices and ecologically minded commuters.  Instead of moving further and further away some people who worked in Los Angeles, especially those making very good incomes chose to move closer.  There were, even at that time, still neighborhoods that were beautiful with large old houses.  People with money moving into Los Angeles and some redevelopment worked to push home prices and rents up.  Rising rents and home prices pushed families in poverty out of the area.   

But kudos to the professional LA Times reporters for getting the self serving statements from city officials, and even hinting that things might not all be as the officials claim they are, though that is placed way down in the piece where many people don't even go often if they are presented with a coverup at the top.  I don't think hiding the truth between lines is good, valid news gathering by itself.   Nor can we rely on professional analysts who like the pupblisher, editors, and reporters at a mainstream news organization rely on ad from the most powerful and wealthy businesses and other interests for their better than average salaries. 

The Los Angeles City Council  has to approve Beck's appointment. but seeing that Bratton got the council to reappoint him soon after calling the entire group some very nasty names the last time he was up for renewal, I don't see a problem, just a bigger phone bill for the former chief.

But hold on there, pardner.  The Times assures us that "Beck's style and strategy are notably different from Bratton's "  and manage to make him sound scarier than the former chief.

Beck claims to be just one of the boys in blue if I might paraphrase his words, but being too cozy with a crew that formerly has committed some attrocious  crimes taken some unavoidable actions that local citizens have found distasteful, that is not reassuring,

He also claims he will give more head to lower level commanders.

No really, Dude.  Are you up to date on the history of the LAPD?

His focus on gangs gangs gangs sounds really dangerous.  I hope he has something hidden like a special secret candy that he can drag out and change the picture. We don't need to see more of the same, whether pre-Bratton or during Boston Bill's tenure coming out of Los Angeles and it's police department.

tags: charlie beck  lapd  william bratton  los angeles  tagging  unemployable  gang intervention  

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