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BETWEEN THE LINES: The Reformed LAPD -- Still Crazy (and Dysfunctional) After All These Years
*A special "blue ribbon" review panel gave what essentially will be the final report on the Los Angeles Police Department's infamous Rampart Scandal. It was supposed to be an interim report to the final report, but LAPD has given up on a final report.
The department probably became exhausted in trying to figure out itself.or it wasn't inclined to let civilians go too far down into the deep, dark abyss we know as the LAPD "blue code of silence."
Led by Civil Rights Attorney, Connie Rice (who gets as deep as one can get on the police misconduct tip), the panel could only come up with one conclusion about LAPD's ten year "reform" efforts; that LAPD is still a mad-crazy place to try to figure out.even after all these years. And despite playing musical chairs with the top spot-the rank and file could give damn about who's Chief of Police. Dysfunctional reform efforts are as much of the culture as the abuse.
It's interesting to watch how LAPD holds these press conferences every five years to tell the community (and the world) what we already know-that LAPD ain't quite figured out the reform piece yet.but they working on it. Meanwhile, there hasn't been one year in the LAPD "reform era" that they haven't had a major abuse or misconduct scandal.
Rampart was just the most blatant example of how crazy things had gotten over at "big blue" (and I ain't talking about the Dodgers). Rampart broke in the middle of LAPD's reform efforts-in the midst of part two of its diversity experiments with the Chief of Police. Tired of waiting for community leadership to talk about the issue, I started a public discussion forum for the community to talk about what it wanted to talk about.
The community wanted to talk about Rampart, So, almost seven years ago, the very first speaker of the Urban Issues Breakfast Forum of Greater Los Angeles was then-LAPD Chief of Police, Bernard C. Parks. Standing proudly in his blue uniform, stars on his collar-stripes on his sleeves, "Chief" Parks told the full house at Frank's Place that LAPD was in full reform and that Rampart was an "anomaly." I said to myself-and the person sitting next to me, "He crazy."
Of course, a month later the top blew off the investigation and what was supposed to be a small group of rogue officers in one precinct had spread to four other divisions. Part of the problem LAPD has always had, was admitting that it had a problem. The report clearly stated that. The Rampart report cited that LAPD was part of the problem 40 years-cited in the McCone Commission after the 1965 Riots, part of the problem after the 1992 Riots-cited the federal consent decree report, and now the most recent report is still telling us that not only does LAPD still have big problems with its suppression policing and thin blue line policy tactics, but reform efforts face too many internal barriers to be adequately resolved. And LAPD still has "an image problem" and are beating people down in the streets while they're "reforming," as deadline after deadline on reform compliance measures pass. Months become years. Years become decades, and LAPD is still LAPD. Still crazy (and dysfunctional) after
all these years (decades of years).
One thing we do know about LAPD.is that the code of silence conduct is still very much alive, and to some degree-the latest "outsider" to lead the department, William Bratton, has chosen not to challenge the culture. We have witnessed no culture change in the LAPD under Bratton. LAPD's policy, under Bratton, is "police first, justify later-and justify what you can justify, and if it doesn't hold water, then you're out." How many internal "investigations" have we seen under Bratton? And how many (other than Devin Brown-who he justified and the police commission reversed on him) has come out in the community's favor? So LAPD has not become more proficient at reform. They're become more proficient at documenting their dysfunction (where they hadn't been in the past). LAPD has not become any less abusive. They're just more diplomatic. Sort of like colorblindness as the new "Jim Crow," racism with a smile. No progress has been made, and the racial divide is still in place. That's LAPD. The abuse still surfaces on a regular basis, code of silence (the cover-up) is still in place and the community still don't trust LAPD to do the right thing in a dark alley on a lonely night. That's how I read the Rampart report.
At the end of the day, taxpayers spent a whole bunch of money, cut down a few hundred trees, and engaged some pretty brilliant minds to tell what we already know, and have known for years.That "LAPD is changing." Yeah, right.but changing into what? Certainly not reform.
Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum.com) and author of 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America. He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
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