Privacy laws make it too difficult to learn outcomes when and if police are disciplined
To the editor: The article about the LAPD and the racist comments that were made by some officers is disturbing but not surprising ("Secret recordings reveal LAPD cops spewing racist, sexist and homophobic comments, complaint alleges," March 10). Yet the public will never find out what happened to these officers because of privacy laws. So we have accomplished nothing — just another report with no conclusion.
Luis Cruz, La Mirada
..
To the editor: The history of racist remarks at the LAPD is clearly illustrated in the novels of Joseph Wambaugh, a former police officer who was prolific in the 1970s. 'The New Centurions," 'The Blue Knight' and 'The Choirboys' all sound exactly like the recordings described in the article. Obviously, little or nothing has changed in the ensuing years.
Noel Park, Rancho Palos Verdes
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
15-Year-Old Boy Dies After Being Pinned by Car in Private School Parking Lot Crash
A teen is dead and five others are injured after a car crash in the parking lot of a private school in California on June 4 The 15-year-old boy who died was pinned between two SUVs while waiting to be picked up after school, according to reports Classes and finals at Campbell Hall in Studio City were canceled for June 5A teenager has died and five others were injured after a crash in a private school parking lot in California. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson David Cuellar said the incident occurred at Campbell Hall, located in Studio City, just after 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, June 4, according to the Associated Press. The driver of a green Rivian SUV is said to have struck a 15-year-old boy who was walking between cars at the rear of the campus as school ended, CW affiliate KTLA and ABC affiliate KABC-TV reported. The teen became pinned between two SUVs as a result of the collision, according to the reports. The 'gravely injured' victim and his uninjured father were then transported to a local hospital, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The teen later died from his injuries. Footage from the scene, shared by KABC and NBC affiliate KNBC, showed authorities working near multiple SUVs that were very close in proximity to each other. Parents told KABC-TV that the teen's dad was at the school to pick up his son when he witnessed the crash. Five other people came forward with non-life-threatening injuries from the crash, the fire department later stated. Among them are another teen male, an unidentified minor and three adults. "This is a very tragic situation," said LAFD Capt. Adam Vangerpen, CBS affiliate KCBS-TV reported. "This is hard on all the witnesses who witnessed this. There's a lot of kids getting out of school and getting ready for summer." The LAPD and Campbell Hall did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment. The Mayor's Crisis Response Team responded to the scene of the crash on Wednesday, according to the fire department. LAFD Captain Adam Van Gerpen said the team also responded to the children's hospital where the teen was being treated, KABC-TV reported. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. LAPD Lieutenant Matthew Bielski said no citations will be issued since the crash 'was determined to be an accident.' Classes and finals were canceled for Thursday, June 5, according to KABC-TV and KTLA. Head of School Rev. Canon Julian P. Bull said in an email to parents of students at the Episcopalian school that school officials were 'heartbroken.' 'Our collective hearts and thoughts are with the family,' Bull said, KTLA reported. 'I know that the Campbell Hall community will be there for all of them in the challenging days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, please respect the family's privacy as they process this overwhelming loss.' Counseling reportedly will be made available at the school's gym between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Thursday. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Contributor: Every shooting reflects our culture of violence, which the president cheers
On May 21, as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot, and because they were employees of the Israeli Embassy and the suspect was associated with pro-Palestinian politics, the story was reported in the familiar mode of Middle East politics. The questions that reporters and pundits have been asking are: 'Was this antisemitic?' 'Was this killing a direct result of Israel's starving of Palestinians in Gaza?' 'Was this another act of pro-Palestinian terrorism?' 'Is this the direct result of 'globalizing the intifada'?' While these are valid questions, they miss a central part of the story. Only in the eighth paragraph of the New York Times report are we told that the night before the shooting, according to officials, the suspect 'had checked a gun with his baggage when he flew from Chicago to the Washington area for a work conference' and, further, that officials said 'The gun used in the killings had been purchased legally in Illinois.' (The Los Angeles Times article does not mention these facts.) This tragic shooting, however, is not unique. In November 2023, a Burlington, Vt., man was arrested and charged with shooting three Palestinian college students without saying a word to them. (He has pleaded not guilty.) In October 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 Jews at prayer. In 2015, three Muslim students were shot and killed by their neighbor in Chapel Hill, N.C. This brief and very incomplete list of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed by guns in the U.S. in the last decade does not include the racist mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.; or the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017. This macabre list also leaves out the thousands of people who have been shot and killed by law enforcement. The elephant in the room — so fundamentally accepted that it largely goes unmentioned — is the deeply ingrained culture of violence in the United States. Gun ownership, police violence and abuse, and mass shootings are symptoms of that culture. However, the militaristic approach to international conflict (from Vietnam to Ukraine) and the disdain for nonviolent solutions are also grounded in this culture, as are the manosphere and the cruelty of predatory capitalism. Now we have a presidential administration that embodies this culture. Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, personifies this ethos of cruelty and violence when she is photographed in front of a cage full of humans in a Salvadoran jail known for torturous treatment of inmates or writing casually about killing her dog. Noem is a key player in the theater of cruelty, but she is not the only one, and the unparalleled star is of course President Trump. Trump's policy agenda is based on vengeance. He revels in the theatricality of violence of the world of mixed martial arts, and he signs executive orders that aim to destroy individuals, law firms and universities that have not bent the knee, and the economics of his 'Big Beautiful' budget moves money from those in need to those who need for naught. Now, the president wants a military parade on his birthday that will include tanks, helicopters and soldiers. Although Trump himself evaded the draft, and he reportedly called American soldiers who were killed in war suckers and losers, he likes the strongman aesthetic of an army that is at his beck and call. He exulted in the fact that 'we train our boys to be killing machines.' Although some want to draw a dubious line from pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations to the killings of Lischinsky and Milgrim, the direct line that should be drawn is the one that everyone seems to have agreed to ignore: a culture of violence coupled with the widespread availability and ownership of guns inevitably leads to more death. The only way we get out of this cycle of violence is by addressing the elephant in the room. Aryeh Cohen is a rabbi and a professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. @ If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Every shooting reflects our culture of violence, which the president cheers
On May 21, as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot, and because they were employees of the Israeli Embassy and the suspect was associated with pro-Palestinian politics, the story was reported in the familiar mode of Middle East politics. The questions that reporters and pundits have been asking are: 'Was this antisemitic?' 'Was this killing a direct result of Israel's starving of Palestinians in Gaza?' 'Was this another act of pro-Palestinian terrorism?' 'Is this the direct result of 'globalizing the intifada'?' While these are valid questions, they miss a central part of the story. Only in the eighth paragraph of the New York Times report are we told that the night before the shooting, according to officials, the suspect 'had checked a gun with his baggage when he flew from Chicago to the Washington area for a work conference' and, further, that officials said 'The gun used in the killings had been purchased legally in Illinois.' (The Los Angeles Times article does not mention these facts.) This tragic shooting, however, is not unique. In November 2023, a Burlington, Vt., man was arrested and charged with shooting three Palestinian college students without saying a word to them. (He has pleaded not guilty.) In October 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 Jews at prayer. In 2015, three Muslim students were shot and killed by their neighbor in Chapel Hill, N.C. This brief and very incomplete list of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed by guns in the U.S. in the last decade does not include the racist mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.; the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.; or the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017. This macabre list also leaves out the thousands of people who have been shot and killed by law enforcement. The elephant in the room — so fundamentally accepted that it largely goes unmentioned — is the deeply ingrained culture of violence in the United States. Gun ownership, police violence and abuse, and mass shootings are symptoms of that culture. However, the militaristic approach to international conflict (from Vietnam to Ukraine) and the disdain for nonviolent solutions are also grounded in this culture, as are the manosphere and the cruelty of predatory capitalism. Now we have a presidential administration that embodies this culture. Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, personifies this ethos of cruelty and violence when she is photographed in front of a cage full of humans in a Salvadoran jail known for torturous treatment of inmates or writing casually about killing her dog. Noem is a key player in the theater of cruelty, but she is not the only one, and the unparalleled star is of course President Trump. Trump's policy agenda is based on vengeance. He revels in the theatricality of violence of the world of mixed martial arts, and he signs executive orders that aim to destroy individuals, law firms and universities that have not bent the knee, and the economics of his 'Big Beautiful' budget moves money from those in need to those who need for naught. Now, the president wants a military parade on his birthday that will include tanks, helicopters and soldiers. Although Trump himself evaded the draft, and he reportedly called American soldiers who were killed in war suckers and losers, he likes the strongman aesthetic of an army that is at his beck and call. He exulted in the fact that 'we train our boys to be killing machines.' Although some want to draw a dubious line from pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations to the killings of Lischinsky and Milgrim, the direct line that should be drawn is the one that everyone seems to have agreed to ignore: a culture of violence coupled with the widespread availability and ownership of guns inevitably leads to more death. The only way we get out of this cycle of violence is by addressing the elephant in the room. Aryeh Cohen is a rabbi and a professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. @