LAPD Does The Right Thing

Hmmm, well perhaps the bar for LAPD behavior has been raised slightly since Bratton arrived. On Thursday, a LAPD disciplinary board recommended that an LAPD officer be fired for his videotaped actions last year in the flashlight beating of an unarmed Black motorist named Stanley Miller. Officer John Hatfield was "an out-of-control officer at best," said Captain Gary Williams, the chair of the 3-member panel (which has only one civillian member). Other disciplinary actions which have been taken in response to the "Stanley Miller incident" include the suspensions for "misconduct" of four other LAPD officers: Michael O'Conner, Todd Behrens, Peter Bueno and Phillip Watson. Another officer, David Hale is scheduled to go before a similar panel in the fall.

This is a step in the right direction and I commend the LAPD for doing this. So, let it not be said I never say anything nice about the LAPD. I do, still, think Jack Dunphy is a clueless idiot.

Also, in my opinion, District Attorney Steve Cooley's decision to decline to file charges against any of the officers involved in this egregious incident is troubling and leads to the ongoing mistrust of "the [justice] system" by communities of color. We know that the only reason anything was done in this case was that the incident was caught on videotaped and broadcast on the local news stations in Summer 2004 repeatedly. What about all the other "unfortunate incidents" which become a "we said, cop said" argument due to the lack of videotape?