“Does anyone have the decency to be embarrassed by this?”
Oh, I love it! This is great! Obviously there are many officers, to include me, that are embarrassed by this latest Bratton initiative to weaken another entity of the LAPD. Most likely Bratton’s people are not embarrassed by this latest decision to “wussify” the police department.
The Chief and the Department’s management team – notice I did not write leadership-do not have to concern themselves with decency when all they have to do is wrap themselves in the warm, politically correct blanket of cultural and racial diversity. Those who argue against this particular Chief Bratton initiative of lowering physical standards for incoming SWAT officers risk the label of pariah, sexist, or racist. Not to mention the alreay overt threat of his “Godfather” quote by using the Department’s disciplinary system against all who oppose the Bratton Family. Watch out Vito!
Could it be more obvious that Bratton is a capable politician? He certainly is, but a leader of men and women he is not.
Too bad for Bratton and the Board of Inquiry that the death of a great man, Police Officer III+I Randy Simmons, and the severe injury of another, Police Officer III+I Jim Veenstra, exposed so much positive light on the great deeds and overwhelming sacrifices the men of SWAT make daily for the citizens of Los Angeles. Those sacrifices and great deeds have really played hell, at least temporarily, with Mr. Bratton’s political ambitions for the next Democratic presidential administration. Sorry Chief!
I. M. Copper
