officers - The Black Vault

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The King tape is not the first display
of the depart~ent's freedom from accountability.
The LAPD's ferocious and
deadly 1975 confrontation with the
· Symbionese Liberation· Army" is still a
subject of amazement among police in
other, more restrained, places. During
one five-year stretch, twice as many
Angelenos died after suffering police
chokeholds as in the 20 other largest
·American cities combined. Without giving
any advance warning to potential
victims, officers of the LAPD's elite
Special Investigations Section have
w~tched suspects commit burglaries ~nd
armed robberies that police knew were
going to occur, so that they could
confront suspects afterwards, often with
bloody results.
And in a state where the mere
possession of nunchukas-a le­
-thal martial-arts device-is a
felony comparable to possession
of a switchblade knife, the department
is embroiled in a lawsuit
charging that officers unconstitutionally
used this tl").ug's
weapon against peaceful antiabortion
demonstrators.
In short, for encouraging and
tolerating brutali,t.y and excessive
force, the LAPD has for
several years been the outlaw
among big American police departments.
In providing Bill
· Parker with the authority he
needed to straighten out a badly
· bent police agency, Los Angeles'
·· city fathers insulated it from any
accountability to elected officials or the
public. In essence, for more than 40
years, the ~hief of police has been
answerable to nobody. Some of his
officers have learned that they need not
worry about anybody's judgment .but
his. The record shows that this chief's
judgments often have been indefensible. ·
'The Los Angeles Police Department
prides itself on its military organization,
: discipline and appearance. But as Gen.
MacArthur discovered, even our greatest
soldiers are accountable tO elected
officials. The city government must now
find ways of making the police department
and its chief accountable: In our
system. of justice, only the nine members
of the Supreme Court should have no
boss. ·
James J. Fyfe is a professor of justice at
American University in Washington, and
a former New York City police lieutenant .
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