officers - The Black Vault

the city if you wo.esign?
A: No. I'd listen to my wife first. And I
asked her this morning how she felt about
it . . . ·. Hhink it's hard on me-actually I
can handle it, but it's really tough on her.
Tough on my kids and tough on my
grandkids. And so I asked her this
morning, "Sima, would you rather I quit?"
Sh.e said absolutely not. And absolutely
not. You can't. And that's my answe_r.
Q: Is this controversy hurting the ability
of patrol officers to do their jobs? .
A: •••• We're working. We're working
very hard. But I'd be lying if I didn't
tell you that I think a lot of things . . ,
aren't done that need to be done.
That's the reason I made the speech
yesterday. I want to get them out of that
lethargy, I want to start building their
pride. One reason I think I need to stay is
because they will follow me . . . .
.J still have the support of the members
of this department and yesterday you saw
· I have the support, of all things, of the
Protective League [the Police Officers
Assn.]-that I ,Peat over the head for 13
year~. That's the kind of leadership I
provide, I think that's the kind of leadership
we need right now. That's the kind of
leadership that will turn this around. If
you. want a departmentthat's gonna build
up the pride the morale, you need me. You
can bring someone in from the outside
and I guarantee you you won't have that.
As a matter of fact, you'll have a malaise
in his department. I think that'll last for a
long period of time. .A very unhappy
departme:nt.
Q: About the mayor, do you think-
A: -No one's asking him to retire. He's
been here longer than I have. No .one's
asking {L.A. County Sheriff) Sherm
Block-he just had all his' deputies, all
that scandal. I don't hear anybody criti­
Cizing him. And they shouldn't . . . .
Q: Do you think Bradley thinks you're a
;politicall'f.ability?
A: I would think so today.
Q: Hq.s he told you that?
A:No.
Q: The mayor hasn't asked you to resign?
A: No. He has not asked me to resign
Q: This, one incident is .on video~ape.
How many other incidents take place in a
year that aren't videotaped. One thing that
may be running through many people's
·minds is that this wasn't an isolated
incident-just one where someone was
there filming it.
A: I can't say.· We have sustained
excessive force complaints over the years
we know that there have been other
excessive force incidents. I say this is an
aberration because I have never wit- .
nessed one or heard of one or investigated
one or had an investigation done of this
significance. Usually it's one of those.
disputable things. . •
This there wasn't any question. Absolutely
any question. We've had officers
kick somebody that had their hands
handcuffed. We've had them punch
somebody that was handcuffed. We've
had them use a club excessively. We've
·had those cases. To my best knowledge,
we've done complete investigations and,
where we have determined they were at
fault, we have taken very very stringent
action. I',m not an easy disciplinarian.
They say. you 'Can't fire people in the
Civil-service system. You can. I fire them
every year. I fire police officers every
year ....
Q: In spite of training, do your/inflammatory
remarks send a different message.
Does your remark that black people don't
have normal veins send a different mes-·
sage? Or your remark that aU casual drug
users must be shdt. What do your remarks
say?
A: . • . . I would admit to being a little
inelegant in my spe~ch at times and didn't
say it precisely the way I meant it. You
never let me forget any of that . . ...
Thirteen years of speaking without notes
without prepared texts, speaking on the
record, 13 years of that. I just tell you that
anyone in this nation that can say 'that
they've spoken that often and that long
without making a few n;tistakes in ·the
comments. Some of them I meant. And
· some of them I'm not the least bit
ashamed of-and I pointed that out o~ the
casual drug user issue.
Some of them I did not mean, some I
think are a total distortion of what I
meant and what I said. Total distortions.
I don't think they impact my police
officers. I believe my police officers are
far more intelligent than that and far
more understanding. We say "casual drug
users," they know they're not going to go
out and shoot people who are casual drug
users. To think ·that that is somehow
going to incite police officers to take some
special action is total nonsense. They
know better. They don't go out and
execute murderers even though the state
says there is a death penalty. They know
better. ·
. . . . You know we restrict our police
officers from saying anything. They have
to bite their tongues all the. time and
'there's a certain sense of frustration that
exists in their not being able to say certain
things. . . . . Somebody needs to $peak
out. "Chief, speak out." I speak out.
.And so 13 years of speaking out 13
years of being on the record and 13 years ·
of never having a press agent to [make)
press statements to the media. I do them
witho~t, maybe a note here or there, but I
speak right from the top of my head and
·right from my heart in most cases. I just
tell you that there's no one else in this
country that could have done it for 13
years and not make ~n inelegant .statement
now and then.
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