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Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has recorded a robo-call campaign message on behalf of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. Bratton, who was scheduled to deliver an address on urban policing at Johns Hopkins University this evening, could not be reached immediately for comment. The message reportedly criticizes the record of Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain on law enforcement issues. A spokesperson for Bratton confirms that he has recorded the political campaign message but would not provide details of its content

LAPD Chief William Bratton warns that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda could be preparing an attack to disrupt or influence the U.S. elections. Bratton said in a New York Daily News opinion piece, "Bin Laden probably realizes it could become markedly more difficult to paint the United States as the great Satan with a new president who is admired internationally."

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

January 15, 2008 'Supercop' Bratton in Playboy A nod to laobserved for catching this one. Los Angeles Police Chief Wililam Bratton is touted as "the most influential crime fighter in recent history" in the February issue of Playboy, on sale starting today. Joe Domanick, a long-time chronicler of the nation's second-largest police force in the nation, pens the piece with the headline "Supercop." Bratton is rumored to be on the short list to head the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI in a Hillary Clinton administration. He’s so influential that his archnemesis, former New York City mayor and now...

EXCERPT William J. Bratton, former NYC police commissioner under Mayor Giuliani endorsed Gov Spitzer's plan to license illegals. Chief Bratton was NYC police commissioner from 1994-96, during the first term of Mayor Giuliani, but the two men famously feuded, with Giuliani resentful that Mr. Bratton — a pioneer of the city’s Compstat program — was getting credit for the city’s reduction in crime. In March 2007, Giuliani began trying to mend fences with Bratton and met privately; afterward, Mr. Bratton said he “enjoyed” the tête-à-tête. In May 2007, the two men met in Los Angeles. In a statement released by...

Rudy Giuliani floated an extraordinary olive branch to bitter rival William Bratton, hinting he'd consider his estranged former top cop for a high federal post.....in this week's New Yorker magazine.....

The two men, Rudolph W. Giuliani and his former police commissioner William J. Bratton, had not spoken to each other in 10 years. When they had crossed paths at social gatherings, they exchanged little more than icy nods. But time, tragedy and a presidential campaign have started to change all that.

The highest-ranking offical at MacArthur Park immigration rally has been demoted from deputy-chief to commander, officals announced today, as the fallout continued over the clash between police and demonstrators

In a show of solidarity with families confronted by police during Tuesday's immigrant rally at MacArthur Park, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Cinco de Mayo audiences around Los Angeles on Saturday that action would be taken against officers found to have violated the law. The mayor stepped up to a downtown pulpit Saturday night and vowed, "There will be consequences.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Sunday offered his strongest apology yet for the actions of an elite platoon of Metropolitan Division officers who swarmed a May Day immigration rally in MacArthur Park, and said that those officers are off the streets until he finds out what went wrong. Saying he watched extensive videos of Tuesday's incident, which left several reporters and rally attendees injured by batons and rounds of foam bullets and sock-like projectiles, Bratton called the officers' conduct indefensible. "I feel comfortable apologizing…. Things were done that shouldn't have been done," Bratton told a group of...

Los Angeles (AP) -- William Bratton, the nation's most famous man in blue, was tapped to lead a Los Angeles Police Department shamed by scandal and to win public trust while stamping out crime in the gang-ridden neighborhoods most distrustful of police. Five years later, he is up for another contract and on an offensive to show his progress to a public shocked by images of police violently clashing with protesters Tuesday at an immigration rally. Bratton's bid for a new contract has earned endorsements from key groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and most City Council members. And...

LAPD Veteran Taped Assaulting TeenVideotape Shows Officer Assaulting Handcuffed Youngster Inside Holding Cell LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8, 2006(AP) A videotape shows an officer assaulting a handcuffed teenager inside a police station holding cell, but the images won't be made public, the police chief said. Sean Joseph Meade, 41, was arrested Thursday for investigation of assault under color of authority. He was released on $10,000 bail, and a court appearance was scheduled for Monday. Police Chief William J. Bratton said the confrontation was part of an internal investigation, so the videotape won't be released publicly. The department is still wrestling with...

A defiant Police Chief William J. Bratton on Tuesday rejected a call to apologize for criticism of some Los Angeles City Council members, including Bernard C. Parks. Bratton said he had a right to speak his mind because the former police chief turned politician has been attacking him for more than a year. Bratton made the remarks a day after City Council President Eric Garcetti called on the chief to apologize for and recant a statement he made publicly that Parks and Councilman Dennis Zine "don't know what the hell they are talking about" when they criticized changes in LAPD...

City Council President Eric Garcetti called Monday on LAPD Chief William Bratton to apologize for telling two city councilmen to "mind their own business" on the issue of the LAPD's hiring standards. Garcetti joins five other City Council members, who last week asked the Police Commission to investigate Bratton's "unprofessional and unnecessary" comments. In a letter sent directly to the chief, Garcetti said the remarks were inappropriate for a general manager, and he asked Bratton for a retraction. "These unprofessional words on your part are significant because you are a high-ranking representative of our city, and your tone sets an...

CalGunLaws.com reports another example of how the natural right of self defense is infringed by the city of Los Angeles. In this case it's LAPD chief William Bratton's application for a concealed carry weapon permit, which you can view here.(pdf format) "Chief Bratton needed a permit because when he became Chief of LAPD he was not a sworn California peace officer legally entitled to carry a firearm. Bratton got a CCW, despite the fact that his 'good cause' justification for needing a CCW was completely inadequate under LAPD's current standards as applied to ordinary citizens." It's true that California law...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Los Angeles's police chief dismissed as "just rhetoric" a taped threat by a purported al-Qaida member that was aired by ABC News on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing," the masked man says on the tape that ABC said it received Saturday. The man - believed to be an American - speaks in unaccented English. "And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion," he says on the tape, aired Sunday on ABC's "Good Morning America." The network said the tape had...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version August 17, 2005, 8:08 a.m. Bratton? No. The police chief has some work to do before the rank-and-file will want him back. Once again, I have a bone to pick with the Los Angeles Times. In an editorial in Sunday's edition, the Times made the early case for retaining William Bratton as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department when his five-year contract expires in 2007. Bratton may indeed prove deserving of another term when the time comes, but for now many LAPD officers are unpersuaded. Granted, when compared to...

LOS ANGELES - Police Chief William Bratton on Friday proposed a new policy that would ban officers from firing at moving vehicles, less than a week after the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old suspected car thief. The change would prohibit officers from firing at a moving vehicle "unless the officer or another person is being threatened with deadly force by means other than the moving vehicle," Bratton said in a memo to police commissioners. He asked the civilian Police Commission to approve the policy at its meeting Tuesday. Police departments in major cities, including Boston, Cincinnati and Detroit, in...

Los Angeles -- Mayor James Hahn on Tuesday said he was angry and frustrated over the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old black youth at the end of a stolen-car chase and he urged an immediate revision of Police Department policy to limit when officers can shoot at moving vehicles. Hahn said he wanted a "swift, thorough, transparent" investigation into the killing of Devin Brown, who was shot early Sunday when he reportedly backed a stolen car into a police car after a short pursuit. The killing angered residents and community leaders in South Los Angeles where the shooting occurred....

Once a decorated cop, Frank Sheehan spent the past two decades of his life living with labels he despised: rogue cop, leader of a crew of renegade detectives known as the ``Boston Seven,'' and ex-con. Sheehan and six other Boston cops were indicted in 1988 for providing protection to bar owners in exchange for free food and cash bribes after a six-year federal investigation. All seven were convicted and some - including Sheehan - were sent to prison. In 1998 John Morris, the lead FBI agent in charge of the investigation into the Boston Seven, confessed to being a rogue...

LOS ANGELES - The police chief and sheriff of Los Angeles could be candidates to become the next secretary of homeland security, outgoing secretary Tom Ridge says  but both men say they're not interested in the job. Ridge praised Police Chief William Bratton and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, saying they understand how to protect large cities from terrorism. "These two are doing this for their entire careers, so it's no surprise that their names are being publicly mentioned and maybe even privately discussed," Ridge said Wednesday at a news conference to announce $282 million in homeland-security money for...

Gun Makers Already Market Assault Weapons Gun Manufacturers, Facing Federal Ban, Already Marketing Assault Weapons, Study Finds The Associated Press WASHINGTON Sept. 7, 2004 — With the federal ban on assault weapons set to expire next Monday, gun manufacturers are marketing military-style firearms and are ready to sell them as soon as Sept. 14, a consumer group said Tuesday. "The gun industry is champing at the bit for the ban to expire," said Susan Peschin, firearms project director at the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of 300 consumer groups that released the study. The consumer group interviewed gun...