LA VOZ DE AZTLAN EDITORIAL
Los Angeles, Alta California
August 13, 2009

Los Angeles should appoint
its first Latino police chief

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula

The USA now has its first Black president and the US Supreme Court has its first Latina associate justice but, incredibly, the Los Angeles Police Department after 54 consecutive police chiefs since 1869, has never had a police chief of Mexican or Latino descent. The LAPD which serves the second largest city population of Mexican descent, second only to Mexico City, has historically had a deeply entrenched White command structure.

Only recently has the LAPD had two Black police chiefs. The first was Willie L. Williams who served from 1992 to1997 as the 50th police chief. Willie Williams was appointed as a consequences of the racist LAPD beating of Black motorist Rodney King which resulted in the costly city riots of 1992. The second Black police chief was Bernard C. Parks who served from 1997 to 2002. All the 52 other LAPD chiefs have been White, many with a reputation of being extremely corrupt and some repugnantly racist.

Today, with the resignation of Police Chief William J. Bratton, who was appointed by former Mayor James K. Hahn, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has the opportunity to reverse many decades of discrimination and institutional racism within the LAPD. Antonio Villaraigosa is in fact the first mayor of Mexican descent of "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula" since after the Mexican-American War. Will the mayor make history? What historical legacy will Antonio Villaraigosa leave in Los Angeles?

There are today many extremely professional, qualified and respected Latino officers in the LAPD who have been bypassed by a discriminatory and biased personnel promotion system. These officers have prevailed in spite of the well known "White racist police culture" that still exists within the LAPD. One of these officers is Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz recently replaced the racist Deputy Chief Cayler Carter Jr, who was demoted in a major shake-up of his command staff after a May Day police melee at MacArthur Park. Carter was the highest ranking officer at MacArthur Park and led a vicious racist attack on Latino news reporters, women and children during an immigration rights rally. The city, because of the beatings, recently agreed to pay more than $30 million to settle lawsuits alleging LAPD misconduct.

In contrast, Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz handled subsequent immigration rights marches with great expertise which won the respect of Spanish speaking Los Angeles. Los Angeles needs this type of police leadership. We do not need any more destructive riots caused many times by racist police brutality.

The Los Angeles Personnel Department will formally begin the selection process for police chief next week. The department will be presenting at least six candidates to the Board of Police Commissioners, which will narrow the list to three candidates and send them to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in ranked order. Mayor Villaraigosa's choice will then be presented to the City Council for confirmation.

Call or write to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Tell him it is time to appoint a Latino police chief for the city of Los Angeles.