The Wrath of Katrina

The sights and sounds of those in the New Orleans and Mississippi area are breathtaking. My thoughts go out to anyone who may be in the area or have any relatives or friend in the area. Despite the reports of looting, major emergencies such as this have been times when people all over the country and world join together to help out. While I am not endorsing the site at all, I do want to direct people to Network for Good. It is a site that I got off of Yahoo's main page that lists a number of non-profit organizations that are taking donations for hurricane victims.

Going Down the Unpredictable Path

Dealing with the struggle of recruiting qualified candidates, Chief Bill Bratton is proposing to revise the Police Officer hiring requirements for the Los Angeles Police Department. Bratton is developing changes to Department policy that will make it easier for the LAPD to hire candidates who have experimented with marijuana and have poor credit history. This would be in an effort to push the number of sworn LAPD officers to 10,000 by next summer.

If there is one danger when you embark on an aggressive expansion plan such as this, it is allowing unfit applicants to become officers. No one example could be any more clearer than Rafael Perez. Perez who became infamous because of his role in the LAPD Rampart scandal, was someone who joined the Marines and became an LAPD officer soon after. He came on the Department at a time that the Department was looking to hire a lot of people at one time. No one could describe this better than Jack Dunphy in a posting from 2000. Dunphy states:


No amount of oversight, by the federal government or anyone else, can prevent a Rafael Perez from abusing his office if he manages to slip through the hiring process. The challenge is in preventing him from being hired in the first place. The LAPD, like police departments in Miami, New Orleans, and elsewhere in recent years, tried to hire too many cops too quickly, while trying to satisfy racial quotas imposed through consent decrees. And like those other departments, in the Rampart scandal we have reaped the bitter harvest of those efforts.

From personal experience, finding interested and qualified police officer applicants is a tough job. Finding the best candidates is the tougher job. But why should a department relax policy to fulfill numbers?

According to the Times article, the policy change is aimed at drug usage and bad credit. While I do not support drug usage by any means, disqualifying a candidate based on smoking dope as a teenager over 10 years ago should not be automatic. Many departments in Southern California will consider this on a case by case basis. My biggest objection has to be poor credit history.

Poor credit history is a result of actions done as an adult. Yes, I do realize that some cases of poor credit are because of divorces or things outside of the control of individuals. But for those that have poor credit because of bad decisions, I do not support this at all for a few reasons.

First, credit history is a result in actions as an ADULT. As an officer of the law, you are often going after people who have made improper decisions. Yes, officers are human beings, but the nature of the job requires critical and responsible decision making.

Secondly, think about the amount of influence that officers hold. When you are in need of help and call 911, you should expect and receive the best police service possible. Officers are placed in positions where their integrity can and will determine the fate of someone's freedom or your own welfare. Now try and envision this if you will: You leave your apartment or house and someone breaks into it shortly there after. A neighbor notices something is going on and calls 911 and the police respond. The police show up and notice your door is open and suspects are inside. Instead of fleeing, the suspects offer the officers cash to let them go. Now, do you want an officer who will arrest the suspects and secure your home until you get home? Or would you want an officer who is willing to take the cash and let the suspects go?

Third, we need to think about the officers that are out there day in and day out doing their job. Why should we give them new officers who may not have been able to pass the background investigation last year? This is unacceptable, as their lives will depend on the new officers to make the RIGHT decisions. Academy training can only train you on basic concepts in law enforcement. It cannot make someone a critical thinker overnight.

Lastly, the risk is too high. In the Times article, some academic professors argued that it is okay to have people with blemishes in their backgrounds because they have real world experience. I wholeheartedly disagree. In the end, the job of being a police officer relies on two things decision making and integrity. Real world experience can help, but if you have shown a history of poor decision making, I would not want you to show up on my doorstep in the middle of the night with a badge and a gun.

While I was an undergrad at UCLA, I still remember reading Bratton's book "Turnaround," thinking to myself, "If anyone could turn the LAPD around it would be Bratton." This was during the time when Chief Bernard Parks was in control. When Chief Bratton was selected as the next Chief of the LAPD, I was happy.

I can even recall the one and only time that I heard Bratton speak in person, shortly after he took office. Bratton said, "The LAPD is one of the greatest, if not the greatest law enforcement agency in the nation. Right now, there is a small blemish on the badge, but in time, we can restore the shine to the LAPD badge and return it to its glory."

Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed in the Chief for his latest decision. To restore the shine to the LAPD badge, we should not relax hiring policy so that it will be easier to hit a quota, instead you do this by making it a premier law enforcement agency again. This is done through strong leadership and good management.

By relaxing the hiring policies, we are doing nothing but taking a giant risk and insult the integrity of anyone who has pinned on the badge.

Developing a Downtown Entertainment District

The Downtown area surrounding the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center have attracted the attention of Mayor Villaraigosa. The Convention Center, which in 1993, was expanded in an effort to try and attract major conventions and events to the Downtown region, has failed to meet expectations. The facility has cost the City over $500 million dollars to build has cost the City millions to help pay off the debt that has accrued. Now Villaraigosa and other city officials are considering in investing over $70 million for a hotel and entertainment complex in the parking lot area just north of the Staples Center. This would be an effort to try and attract major conventions to the area. Convention managers have said previously that the lack of a hotel attached to the Convention Center was the reason why they have chosen other facilities over Los Angeles.

From my point of view, this is a huge risk. I am not an expert in conventions and meetings, so I will not get into that. But, if you can recall, when the Staples Center was built, they touted this as an effort to have a 24 hour Downtown area where people would go to an event and stay around. But from my personal experience, in all of the years that I have been attending Staples Center events, the only place that is crowded after a game or concert is the 110 freeway. What do I mean by this? People do not stay in Downtown. This is the obstacle that both the Staples Center and the Convention Center must overcome to become successful. How do you keep people in Downtown Los Angeles? This is the million dollar question.

If you believe that people will come to Downtown if you build a million dollar entertainment complex, then you would support the idea that's currently being floated to build a hotel and perhaps movie theatre complex. But, I am sorry to say, I am not on this bandwagon.

In my opinion, you can only take a horse to water, but can't force it to drink. We can build all you want, but as long as there is no interest, people will not stay. If you can think back to the 2000 New Year's celebration, New York had Times Square, Paris had the Eiffel Tower, Las Vegas had the strip, and Los Angeles was Los Angeles. There was a light show at the Hollywood sign. That was about it. There was nothing in Downtown Los Angeles.

At the same time, this goes to the landscape of Los Angeles as well. We are a city built on cars. Freeways are a way of life. The City is spread out from the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro, from Westchester to Boyle Heights. This is something that other cities, like New York, don't have.

Solving the problem of the Downtown Entertainment District may not be as easy as spending millions of dollars to bring more people around.

LAPD Chief...2007

While Chief Bill Bratton still has another 2 years left as the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Times has argued in favor of retaining the current Chief. Jack Dunphy would like to reconsider. Dunphy states that while Bratton is a much better leader than former Chiefs Bernard Parks and Willie Williams, Bratton has not shown the leadership under tough times that rank and file officers are looking for. Dunphy cites the recent firing of Officer John Hatfield as the most recent example.

Officer Hatfield was the officer who was fired for striking a pursuit suspect with a flashlight after the end of a pursuit. The firing was viewed as a concession to the political atmosphere at the time. This has the potential of sending a bad message to the rank and file who may feel as if management will not have their back when they depend on it most.

In times of crisis, people like to know that they can depend on their managers and supervisors to back them. If this is not the case, people will worry that they will be second guessed in a critical situation. In an area such as law enforcement, where one error can ruin someone's entire career, this is critical.

Bratton is one of the biggest names in police management. If Chief Bratton is not able to lead the LAPD, who will? This could be the million dollar question come late 2006.

The Endless Bounds of Humans

The human body is truly amazing. If you step back and think about the accomplishments that people have made, it becomes truly awesome. Here are a few examples:

Take Lance Armstrong for example. The cyclist has won his seventh straight Tour de France. The Tour is arguable the most difficult sporting event today. As he retires and rides off to the sunset, we must not forget that Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer and was on the brink of death. Not only had Armstrong beat cancer, he has dominated the cycling world.

Then you have Tiger Woods. The 30 year old golfer has not only brought media attention to the sport, he has revolutionized the game. He has dominated the sport, and his career is relatively young. If you think about it, he could easily play for another 30 years into the senior circuit.

In 2003, the DC United Soccer team, signed a then 14 year old prodigy...Freddy Adu to a contract. Adu is the youngest player to have played in the MLS and to have scored a goal in the league. His career has only begun.

And then you have other examples that just take the human race back a few steps...

Let's take this...New York radio station WQHT was fined $240,000 by the State of New York for sponsoring "Smackfests." Basically, the smackfests were contests between two women who both agreed to slap each other to try and win money and tickets. (Do I really have to comment on this???)

Then you have these thrill seekers in Spain. A group of Spanish acrobats have established an alternative to bull fights. Instead of standing down with a bull, the acrobats leap over charging bulls. Yes, you read correctly, LEAP over charging bulls. So in essence, it is Cirque du Soleil meets the Running of the Bulls. My only question is...why?

And last, but not least, there is 18 year old Scott Harper. Harper and his friends were attending a New York Yankees game when he got the "brilliant" idea of testing the netting that covers the field level seats. Harper then made the 40 foot jump from the upper deck to the field level. Lucky for him...the netting worked. The game was then delayed 4 minutes as police and security rushed to arrest and detain the kid. Interestingly enough, another man made the stupid leap of faith from the upper deck to the field level in 2000.

The Ugly Side of Fear

A New York State legislator has announced that he will introduce a law that will allow police to use racial profiling to search the bags of Middle Easterners. The practice, which is illegal, is something that will be used as a tool to prevent terrorist attacks that took place in London last month. According to the report, the police have already stated that the practice would be ineffective and is not in line with the Department policy.

This can really open the can to some nasty things. Although some critics may argue that racial profiling is already in practice, passing a law such as this will in fact legitimize the act. This will cause a greater rift between minority communities and the police/government. History is cyclical. Whenever an event such as a terrorist attack takes place, it will automatically isolate one group from mainstream society, such as Japanese Americans during WWII. But is this the smart way of approaching the prevention of terrorist acts?

If you believe so, you will have to assume the position that these terrorist groups are static and will not change the way that they operate. But in my humble opinion, terrorist groups are dynamic and can adapt to change. For example, immediately after the 9/11 attacks in New York, the major security emphasis was placed on airports and baggage security. But since then, the only terrorist attacks to have taken place have been aboard land based transportation systems (trains in Spain and the subway and buses in London).

Now, is the change in attack methods the result of increased security at the airports? Possibly. But either way, you have to acknowledge that terrorist groups were able to adapt to find other vulnerabilities.

By focusing on Middle Easterners, you are approaching this with a closed mind and furthermore, you are minimizing the possibility that other groups can inflict as much damage as Al Qaida. Columbine was not an attack by Al Qaida, and Buford Furrow was not Middle Eastern. Hate has no boundaries or color lines.

Ooops...

What's an extra zero here and there??? Well, if you are H&R Block, this can be a lot when you are dealing with your own accounting books. Apparently, the accounting firm overstated its net income by a mere $91 million. A minor error, I would say?!?!?!

And to think, they are responsible for calculating the taxes of millions of citizens throughout this country every April. Doesn't this make Turbo Tax much better looking?