May
27, 2003, 8:45 a.m. Honeymoon’s
Over
Chief
Bratton gets Los Angeles politicians fuming.
ell, it took
a bit longer than most people expected, but after seven months as chief
of the Los Angeles Police Department, William Bratton once again has the
politicians fuming. Recall that Bratton, as chief of the New York Police
Department from 1994 to 1996, oversaw a decline in the city's crime that
can best be described as miraculous. Most notably, homicides were cut
in half during his 27-month stewardship of the NYPD. Oddly, it was his
success as a crime fighter that led to Bratton's undoing in New York.
So spectacular were his accomplishments, so unbounded was his ego, so
unrestrained and adoring was the media attention that he soon clashed
with then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another man whose name fairly
leaps to mind when the discussion turns to accomplishments, ego, and media
attention. When Bratton got more column inches in the papers and more
mentions on the news shows than the mayor who gave him his job and at
whose pleasure he served, well, that was just a little more than a man
with aspirations far beyond the gates of Gracie Mansion could take. Bratton
was handed his hat and rather unceremoniously shown the door.
Bratton worked in
the private sector as a security consultant before being selected to succeed
Bernard Parks, under whose direction the LAPD saw a sharp rise in crime
and a similarly sharp decline in officer morale. Back in September 2000
I
wrote that things in the LAPD would begin to improve the very day
Parks was ushered to the exit, and I'm happy to report that this happy
result has indeed come to pass. Homicides are down 26 percent from a year
ago after years of double-digit increases, and officer morale is on the
upswing with the abandonment of Parks's ludicrously draconian disciplinary
system and the retirement of some of his more loathsome underlings. Chief
Bratton, however, seems to have forgotten one hard-learned lesson from
his time in New York: Thou shalt not embarrass the politicians, for theirs
is a wrathful vengeance.
Unlike his experience
in New York, Bratton enjoys the full support of L.A.'s mayor, James Hahn,
who made law and order the centerpiece of his 2001 campaign. It is the
city council, rather, that has thrown sand in the gears of Bratton's plans.
Bratton and his staff have worked on reorganizing the LAPD, placing the
new chief's imprint on an organization he saw as moribund and inefficient.
In this effort Bratton has promoted or transferred some senior officers
and nudged (or shoved) others toward retirement. In the LAPD budget for
the fiscal year beginning July 1, he has asked for the funding required
to complete the reorganization and to hire an additional 320 police officers,
a modest enough desire for a man who in New York commanded nearly 40,000
officers but now has fewer than 10,000 to police a city of nearly four
million residents.
Rebuffing the mayor
and the chief, the council's budget committee voted 4-1 to delay any increase
in spending for the LAPD by six months, setting off a war of words that
has them positively giddy over at the Los Angeles Times. "Bratton
and Hahn Pull No Punches," read one Times headline from two
weeks ago. "Hahn, Chief Rip Council Over Funding," read another.
The Times reported on a joint interview given by Hahn and Bratton
to public radio station KPCC, in which both the mayor and the chief blasted
the committee vote. Bratton was particularly strident in his criticism,
likening himself to a battlefield general. "It's like if Eisenhower
at D-day had already launched the boats to go toward the beachhead at
Normandy," Bratton told radio host Larry Mantle, "and then all
of a sudden he gets the call from Roosevelt to have the boats circle for
the next six months to see if we can afford the invasion."
Okay, a little over
the top, perhaps, but the underlying point is nonetheless valid. Bratton
was hired to do a job and has now been denied the resources he feels necessary
to do it properly. The chief's outburst was soon met by the full city
council's veto-proof 11-4 endorsement of the budget committee's action.
And it won't get any easier for Bratton, either. Though no one on the
L.A. city council is as far out on the lunatic fringe as, say, New York
Councilman Charles Barron, it has tilted left for years. And the tilt
is now even more pronounced with the election of such as former California
Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, whose political views lie only
slightly to the right of Che Guevara's. When the newly formed council
takes over on July 1, it will bring what the L.A. Times described
as a "commitment to a liberal social agenda." (Read: Hang on
to your wallets.) Making things even more interesting on the council is
the presence of Bernard Parks, who rebounded from his ouster from the
LAPD to win a seat. As a 37-year veteran of law enforcement, Parks would
seem an unlikely addition the council's liberal bloc, but the ex-chief
is nothing if not vindictive; how gleeful he must be at the prospect of
standing in Bratton's way.
All of this will
make for high drama in the coming months, and it will no doubt be fodder
for discussion among those who pay attention to such things. But what
a pity it will be if the decline in crime already brought about in Bratton's
tenure is sacrificed in the din of politicians' petty squabbles. The LAPD's
success or failure will be measured in lives, not dollars. Get ready for
a long, hot summer.
—
Jack Dunphy is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. "Jack
Dunphy" is the author's nom de cyber. The opinions expressed are
his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
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ell, it took
a bit longer than most people expected, but after seven months as chief
of the Los Angeles Police Department, William Bratton once again has the
politicians fuming. Recall that Bratton, as chief of the New York Police
Department from 1994 to 1996, oversaw a decline in the city's crime that
can best be described as miraculous. Most notably, homicides were cut
in half during his 27-month stewardship of the NYPD. Oddly, it was his
success as a crime fighter that led to Bratton's undoing in New York.
So spectacular were his accomplishments, so unbounded was his ego, so
unrestrained and adoring was the media attention that he soon clashed
with then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another man whose name fairly
leaps to mind when the discussion turns to accomplishments, ego, and media
attention. When Bratton got more column inches in the papers and more
mentions on the news shows than the mayor who gave him his job and at
whose pleasure he served, well, that was just a little more than a man
with aspirations far beyond the gates of Gracie Mansion could take. Bratton
was handed his hat and rather unceremoniously shown the door. 
