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LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Thu Aug 18, 2005 at 10:43:20 AM EST
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LA Police Chief Bill Bratton is earning kudos in Los Angeles. This LA Times editorial not only praises him, but talks about a second term.

Bratton is only three years into a five-year contract. It's early to talk about a second term(the maximum allowed), but 10 years under a single effective chief shouldn't be too much to hope for.

It was Bratton, not Guiliani, who reduced the crime rate in New York. I hope his success in LA makes more people realize this.

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    LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:28 PM EST
    Bratton is going to need support from someone else than the failed Chicago LA Times, which is going out of business right in front of our eyes. Occasional great articles by the few remaining bright lights of a(nother RIGHTWING) destroyed institution do not cover for the hate spiel of the (rightwing) 'opinion' pages, which have attempted to foist RW values on a very blue town. Surf's up. The Chicago LA Times is about as Los Angelean as a Lake Michigan mosquito. No moleste mosquito.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Bratton and a great deal of federal money brought into the City by Dinkins was the cause of the reduction in crime in NYC. Guiliani, being the prima donna he is, will take full credit for it, though.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#3)
    by txpublicdefender on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    According to "Freakonomics," it was the added police officers (which Kate Stone rightfully points out began under Dinkins--as did the drop in crime), and Roe v. Wade that led to NYC's drop in crime (along with the comparable drops in crime in every other major city in the country).

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Policy change toward crime take several years to hit the streets. If the decrease in crime had anything to do with tough on crime policy, Dinkins would be cause. Guilliani was and is a pompous ass who had zero effect on crime in NYC. But, as the right has successfully demonstrated, if you repeat a lie often enough it is accepted as truth. The drop in NYC crime was linked to demographic shifts. Crime dropped at a similar rate in cities across the US. I am surprised that the megalomaniacal Guilliani did not take credit for that as well.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#5)
    by jackl2400 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Correct, Squeaky and txpublic defender! It was neither the policy decisions of Guiliani nor their implementation by Bratton that led to any decrease in crime. It's questionable whether the showy, message-sending political theatre policing of the time, the "broken windows" theories of John Q. Wilson that you come down extra-hard on petty criminality like turnstile jumping, pot smoking, begging, street vending, graffiti and the like are, like, so '90s (especially now that we know they're fraudulent). All that did was make formerly tolerant, liberal New York City into some equivalent of a big Hazzard Kentucky, leading the nation in tens of thousands of nickle bag pot busts which the cops loved to the tune of four hours of time-and-a-half overtime for every bust. What a racket! What a guy, that Bratton! I guess Bratton also had that computerized crime mapping/quota thing going on too, I don't know whether that helped either. A pox on both Guiliani and Bratton IMHO! Of course, LA has such a well-deserved bad rep for bad cops going back to its founding (See, Mike Davis, City of Quartz), so maybe someone who unlike his predecessor Darryl Gates is not a total racist robocop, someone halfway professional like Bratton probably looks swell by comparison.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:29 PM EST
    Paul in LA, Are you kidding? The "right wing opinion pages" of the LA Times. What paper are you reading? I think the only paper you would be happy with is the Daily Worker.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:30 PM EST
    Actually, I don't find anything to read in the Daily Worker. Maybe you missed the third of a page racist Ramirez political cartoon that has offended just about everyone in Los Angeles. Or the endless run of rightwing opinion pieces. But it is plenty that the Chicago LA Times has ignored the many HUGE protests in Los Angeles, and IGNORED the stolen gubernatorial special (aka FRADULENT) election. The coverage on things that matter to people. The rightwing CEO's email (saying that the paper would not represent LA views, but rather 'mainstream' American, aka rightwing, views) was leaked. He's gone, but his policies have ruined the paper. One further word on Bratton. I do support him. I think he has done a decent job during this time period where TENS OF THOUSANDS of people are on the streets protesting every few months, and many hundreds are on the streets every week. He has for the most part held the LAPD back from jumping on Bush's Bastard-Fascist Bandwagon. And a good idea too -- Los Angeles will survive and get better. Bush is toast.

    Re: LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:31 PM EST
    txpublicdefender writes: "According to "Freakonomics,"...Roe v. Wade that led to NYC's drop in crime (along with the comparable drops in crime in every other major city in the country)." This old bugaboo again. Freakonomics could not be further from the truth. Yes, the birth rate declined precipitously in the 1970's, but less because of Roe and more because of The Pill and fewer people of child bearing years (birth rates were in a free fall beginning in 1961). Freakonomics is right in saying "there were simply less criminals" and hence crime went down, but it had more to do with basic demographic shifts and almost nothing to do with abortion. I have more on my blog, under the "Freakin Foolishness" post, if you're interested.

    LA Times Praises Police Chief Bill Bratton | 8 comments (8 topical)