LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to take a look at whether Los Angeles County’s law enforcement agencies can do more to mitigate implicit racial bias.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended the review of anti-bias programs and focused on training for sheriff’s cadets. However, he and the board also requested information from the Probation Department, District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender and Alternate Public Defender, Superior Court and Fire Department.
“This is an unprecedented moment in the history of our nation,” Ridley-Thomas said. He later added, “There is no denying that there is a crisis of confidence” in law enforcement.
In his motion, Ridley-Thomas pointed out that training criteria and certification for law enforcement professionals in California prohibit racial profiling, but said less overt bias can be equally damaging. [Read the motion here.]
One advocate was more direct.
“We must challenge the insidious idea that ‘criminals’ and ‘dangerous’ are synonymous with black people and people of color,” said Alex Johnson of the Children’s Defense Fund-California.
A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said even unconscious bias can lead to tragic outcomes.
“We know that racial disparity in everyday stops also means racial disparity in the number of incidents that escalate from the stop to a shooting or other use of force,” the ACLU’s Catherine Wagner told the board.
The supervisors asked departments to report back in 45 days on training related to implicit bias. A second report on national best practices is expected in three months.
–
PdIZZL says
The most concerning statistic is how a small portion of the black community is responsible for a substantially disparate amount of crime.
Until the community bands together to out the serial criminals in their midst and stops teaching such sayings as “snitches get stitches” then their will be no improvements in police/minority relations.
Change the police force from within. I urge law abiding people of color to sign up for the force and see what an officer goes through on a daily basis
Tim Scott says
It’s always funny when someone apologizing for the police talks about how a “community should band together to out the serial criminals in their midst.” If the “good” (and I use the term loosely) cops took policing themselves more seriously than they take their “honor code as brothers” we’d have a lot less problems.
Justicer says
At the corner of challenger way and ave J, in those shopping centers, there are in average of 15 -20 robberies and assaults per year, and is very rare that one of those crimes are committed by other races but blacks in an area where the black population is only 20%, so I dont see where the racism fact is when the cops arrest them. And the other thing, how come when a single undocumented latino commit a crime in the whole United States, Donald Trump and Fox News go after them, like dogs to theirs prey, but yet while 2 undocumented people committed a crime, in USA, 100s of black people do the same, and nobody, no Trump no Fox News say anything, cowers?
tommy says
Live in denial if you want, but simple fact people of color create per person 47 times more crime, so yes Mark the cops need to focus on your people, like it or not thats the truth
Tim Scott says
Hey…what a surprise…the people the cops focus on catching get caught more…who would ever have thought?
Pdizzl says
Perhaps the people committing more crimes are caught more often?
Tim Scott says
Maybe, but there’s no way to tell. There’s no question that law enforcement is focused on catching criminals in “high crime areas,” which is a self fulfilling prophecy. Increased police presence leads to more cases solved leads to a high crime area. Meanwhile you can stand on a street corner in a good neighborhood wearing nice clothes and a white skin and sling all the dope you can lay your hands on.
Shane Falco says
They are “high crime” areas, not “high arrest”. That means there are crimes reported (and many not reported) by the people in those areas.
So here is the rub Tim. People in “high crime” neighborhoods call the police more to report crimes which in turn gets more police in those areas. The more contact the police have, the more people they come in contact with that have warrants or are suspects in neighborhood crimes, which results in arrests. Most would say that’s a good thing.
Now, what would you do as a police captain or chief? Do you devote more resources to the high crime neighborhoods to try to protect those getting preyed upon, or do you park them in the white affluent areas with little to no crime so as not to appear to be racial profiling?
Tim Scott says
What I would do as police captain or chief is make sure there were no Falcos or people who think like Falcos in my command. Why do you ask?
Shane Falco says
I asked because I knew you couldn’t answer the question when your hyperbole doesn’t hold water.
Police don’t create crime rates, they respond to the crimes reported. The crimes reported makes the crime rate.
Tim Scott says
I said what I’d do as chief or captain because i think you are a disgusting human being. Now that our motives have been thoroughly explored, anything else?
Tim Scott says
Good.
Everyone needs to ask themselves “do I live in a Ferguson?”
There is no way to guess where an incident will happen. Big city. Suburb. Small city. Could be anywhere.
There is no way to tell what it will be, and often we aren’t even sure what it was afterwards. Good cop in a bad situation doing the right thing? Bad cop on a power trip? Accident?
But what you can figure out ahead of time is that a place like Ferguson, with years of history showing a police force seemingly committed to preying on a public they consider the enemy, if it does draw the short straw and host the incident, is gonna go up in flames. Same with Milwaukee. ANYONE watching the sheriff of Milwaukee County rant, spittle frothing from his lips, about “cop haters” and the horrors of law enforcement being “handcuffed” by such trivialities as the constitution, could have guessed that if Milwaukee’s number ever happened to come up it would be a disaster.
So we need to be exploring this continuously. We need to know that if our number comes up and the incident happens here we have not set the stage for a disaster.
White male who has brain says
That’s right Timmy. And just saying I haven’t seen 1 trump sticker on a car yet. I have a suspicion it because his supporters are cowards.
William says
“cowards” you say? Why they are just like Trump himself.
Consider that he’s fearful of the debates with a woman he considers weak, old, tired, ill, etc., etc., etc.
Consider that he says the polls are wrong and rigged.
Consider that he’s already declared that if he loses, the election was rigged.
As Senator Elizabeth Warren indicated in one of her tweets, he’ll be losing to a ‘girl’.
Oh, the humanity!!!
Only a loser would say things like that and Trump is a loser. A guy whose companies suffered multiple bankruptcies is a loser. A guy who needs money to ‘buy’ a wife is a loser. Would any woman marry him if he worked the night shift at a convenience store? Such a lady killer.
His defeat on November 8 will fit the very definition of schadenfreude for those who didn’t vote for him. The ones who did will need to be watched carefully lest they might hurt themselves.
Just wondering says
…why it has been 270 days since Mrs. Clinton has held a press conference? Vote Libertarian.
Tim Scott says
The focus on “held a press conference” is hilarious. During that time she has given over four hundred speeches, appeared at dozens of “town halls” where she took questions from the public, and done dozens of interviews with the media.
What is it about the formal press conference is it that you are missing?
William says
Press conferences are a big joke, every single one of them.
Watch the reporters endlessly ask questions of Chief of Police, mayor, or any other official after a tragic event whether it’s a plane crash, murder or what-have-you.
They are like children generating questions to forestall bedtime.
To top it off, they ‘enhance’ the answers given and distort the facts anyway. And, mostly the first answers are incorrect anyway but the reporters have to be first with the wrong answers.
When Hillary becomes president I’d like to have the White House press conferences go like this.
-reporters submit written questions.
-the WH Press Secretary reads the questions aloud w/o saying who asked them or which news outlet they are from and then,
-answer them.
The current ‘show’ that goes on is ridiculous, trying to catch the Press Secretary somehow and make a name for themselves.
Face it, the right asks questions while never being willing to accept the answers. It’s a thing with them.
Just wondering says
…if it isn’t for the fact that they don’t want the vehicle they worked hard for to get damaged. I see the brave Trump protesters on TV scaring old people & causing damage. Vote Libertarian.
Anon says
Cowards? Not at all. We just have quietly observed how the liberal Hillary fans suddenly feel that vandalism, arson, rioting, thievery, assault, battery, and other crimes all become acceptable to commit against Trump supporters any time they see a Trump sign, bumper sticker, hat or rally. I just choose not to have to deal with you at all. But all of us quiet ones will take you completely off guard with our vast numbers come Election Day.
Tim Scott says
Sure. There was a news story just the other day about a guy who had three signs stolen from his yard…and the third time they destroyed his car in the driveway and poisoned his dog.
But they were Clinton signs.