Wow. "The problem with Rodney King is that they didn't kill him." There's not much to say after that...
Posted on 05/06/2005 9:28:58 AM PDT by Abathar
The LAPD was once known as "the world's greatest police department," due largely to its stringent character screening. Back in the era of Sergeant Joe Friday, LAPD candidates were checked out as thoroughly as homicide suspects. Even a casual relationship with any known criminal excluded a candidate from being considered as a police officer.
All that is now history. In a bid to appease racial activists and meet federal decrees, strict screening and testing measures were dismantled. New black and Hispanic officer candidates were hustled into the ranks at any cost. What former deputy chief Steve Downing called "a quagmire of quota systems" was set up, and "standards were lowered and merit took a back seat to the new political imperatives."
It was back in 1981 that the LAPD first entered into a federal consent decree that instituted quotas for female and minority hiring. To meet these demands, the standards for physical capability, intellectual capacity, and personal character were lowered. The result was that many incapable or mediocre recruits--even significant numbers with criminal links or gang associations--were accepted into the department.
L.A. is not the only city that damaged its police force in a headlong rush for "diversity." During the 1990s, Washington, D.C. had to fire or indict 250 cops after a similar lowering of standards, and New Orleans indicted more than 100 crooked or inept cops who had been hired--it was later found--due to "political pressures." Miami had a similar scandal after scores of cops hastily recruited in response to race riots and an immigration surge got involved in robbing cocaine dealers and reselling their drugs. "We didn't get the quality of officers we should have," acknowledged department spokesman Dave Magnusson.
(Excerpt) Read more at taemag.com ...
Wow. "The problem with Rodney King is that they didn't kill him." There's not much to say after that...
One of the more lomig reasonI quit being an LEO after 12 years. I could not take the PC policies coming up and I got a good look at the new recruits.
My kids are young. SO I always hold hope for the future when I have more spare time.
Well then- Happy golfing!
BTW- speaking of sports- do you like racing?
I am an Indy 500 girl myself! And it is right around the corner!!
Check out:
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/42/cops-domanick2.php
for evidence of this.
No. I'm not into racing. Went to the infield for a race at the Texas Motor Speedway last year, and still didn't get it. I'd rather watch an ace on a par 3 or knocking a quarterback into next week than racing.
I don't care to watch it on TV either. Being there front and center is the most fun.. but it will spoil you forever! I hope you will try it again- you just may like it!
I would like to point out that anyone who in all earnestness maintains that corruption of police forces is exclusively (or even essentially) a modern, black, and major-metropolitan phenomenon is no serious -nay! not even a casual- student of the history of the topic.
Such an one could easily gain the rudiments of a clue by reading two fine books of "historical" fiction by the fine historian Caleb Carr: The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. Such a slight and enjoyable expenditure of time and effort would amply reward the reader with the beginnings of an understanding of the endemic nature of police corruption.
The reader could then quite profitably pursue more general and detailed knowledge of the subject, branching out to encompass not only the mercenary and political corruption of metropolitan police forces but also the histories of similar corruption of small-town police forces nationwide. As an example, to get such a reader started, consider the penetration of such forces by the Ku Klux Clan, from 1880 to 1980... One could also look into the current influence of methamphetamine networks on such small forces.
The field is quite richly detailed and quite, ah, polychromatic.
One need only look, with eyes undimmed by melanin-selective filters.
I would further posit that one who *makes* so false a claim as defined above, yet who is NOT pathetically ignorant of the history of the subject, is almost certainly one who pursues an odious agenda of propaganda and discord.
For the Mods, an observation and a question:
There seems to be a building wave of black-bashing -some oblique, some direct- going on here on FR. How long shall this be permitted to continue? It galls me that some of my family here are being pestered by small-minded, shriveled-soul buffoons. It wounds many very good FReepers, it rouses my ire, it demeans this great site, and befouls conservatism in general. I wish to register with you my concern in this matter. Thank you.
RKBA (and others):
Many of you are already aware of the wave of unpleasantry to which I refer, above. I am beginning to think that we, as FReepers, might need to initiate a bit of self-surveillance and, as far as it lies within our powers, a bit of self-policing. This puling racist grotesquery needs to be crushed. What say you?
Yes.
This glaringly racist tripe wave is bothering me greatly.
Something needs to be done.
And the repeat pic posting troll also needs to be prosecuted as he's stalking Mhking, cyborg, and others as well as committing internet harassment which is prosecutable under law.
The two are intertwined and linked.
If it gets any warmer than that, I head for the house and a cold drink.
agreed.
given my serial absences from FR over the last month, I was only slightly aware of the vulgar shenanigans, but I am now quite aware and my ire is fully roused.
protocol for now: eyes on, lists of possibles, all data to be shared, yes?
LAPD was a cesspool of corruption in the '40's and '50's, but was cleaned up considerably under Chief Parker in the early '60's. For the next 20 or so years it was a model department. And then... well, you know the rest.
I think quotas, particularly in terms of advancement have caused problems, but they're not unique to LA. You have to love an article that starts Back in the era of Sergeant Joe Friday.... Only in Hollywood.
Same as Miami PD....
http://www.marijuana.com/pdf/currupt.pdf
Yes.
I don't have any new info myself.
And the problems lie at the feet of the administrators. The military has no problem recruiting and training minorities.
for every list, there is a first entry.
People should deal with the reality of the history of the LAPD and not an idealized version of what they think it was. The LAPD had been out of control for at least 20 years prior to King. They were rude, racist and acted outside the law for a long, long time. They had KKK newsletters among themselves, for God sakes.
The LAPD is not an organization brought down by PC. It was brought down by Gates, his unions and their predecessors.
;} cute!
Very true.
It wasn't a model dept. to the citizens and to the thousands who experienced their "kick first and ask questions later" style.
I never crossed them or had to deal with them but I watched them in action many a time and saw a lot of out-of-control behavior. Well, it would be called that if you or I did it but they used it to totally control people that showed not the least bit of resistance or rudeness.
LA cops were nasty bastards in the 1960s. The King incident was no surprise.
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