All LAPD Officers Never Racially Profiled Anyone. Ever. (So Says the LAPD)

In a baffling release of new statistics, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has once more confirmed that every single complaint of racial profiling filed against the department is false. Yes, Every Single One.

In 2007, according to the LAPD, 320 lying, confused, or otherwise ill-informed individuals unnecessarily went through the process to file an official complaint for having been racially profiled by a member of the department. The LAPD would like you to rest assured that absolutely none of those complaint cases had anything to do with race. The department further went on to appreciate the texture of snow in hell and the latest design of flying pigs.

Lest you think it an anomaly, you may feel safe to know, in fact, that the LAPD has not racially profiled anyone – absolutely no one! – for at least the last six years, so says the LAPD. That makes over a thousand racial profiling complaints filed against the LAPD, and all of them the department claims to have investigated and found false.

These numbers were presented, despite the findings of a 2006 study, commissioned by the LA Police Commission, which found that “Latino and African American motorists in most areas of Los Angeles are significantly more likely than whites to be asked during police stops to leave their vehicles and submit to searches.”

Despite this evidence, further down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, we come across the LAPD’s anger over any questioning of these perplexing statistics, including questioning by the Police Commission, the body tasked with responsibility to question such statistics.

The LA Times reports that, after Police Commissioner John Mack stated, respectfully:

“In my mind, there is no such thing as a perfect institution…I find baffling that we have these zeros.”

Tim Sands, president of the department’s union was incensed:

“I am really outraged. They are using a circular logic that just because someone makes an allegation, then the officer has to be found guilty. That’s mid-century thinking. They are supposed to be in a role of leadership. I’m sorry but that is not an attitude of leadership.”

Readers, please make note: questioning statistically impossible statistics is not an act of leadership! Or, once more, so says the LAPD.

As amusing as the LAPD’s absurdity can be, when we get to a point where a government body no longer even has to present a façade of caring about the concerns of the citizens they serve, we are in serious trouble. What this absurdity actually does is to reassure the public that any complaint one may have about law enforcement has a 100% likelihood of being ignored. And with Police Chief William J. Bratton fully endorsing the embarrassing institutional cover-up, accountability will not be found within the LAPD.

This outrage and dismissal of public concern has continued on for six years now. It’s a testament to institutional ineffectiveness that no change has been made in that time. When it comes to local government and the police force that is suppose to protect the public, who is left to show an actual attitude of leadership and demand change?

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd30apr30,0,356351.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oldracial,0,2739888.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oldracial2,0,59807.story