URBAN PERSPECTIVE- Atrocities Part 2-When last we spoke, we discussed what I considered to be the number one atrocity to befall the Southland’s African American population: the bigoted, anti-human nationally published rant of a crazy LAPD cop named Sunil Dutta who, in effect, expressed the belief that cops don’t kill unarmed black men, but rather unarmed black men kill themselves by mouthing-off at crazy cops.
In the wake of the recent killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri policeman, Dutta --- an LAPD cop for 17 years --- wrote an opinion piece that was published in the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune that put the onus of Brown’s death --- as well as the police killing by Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas of our own Ezell Ford Jr. and anybody else similarly dispatched by a cop --- on the increasing number of black youths killed by cops. In essence, Dutta maintained that irritating a cop is grounds for a black man’s immediate execution by the offended cop.
Dutta wrote: “I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me...If you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you!” Every civilized human being on the planet was appalled by this attitude and I took the expresser of it, his superiors, Los Angeles’ mayor, the City Council, the Police Commission and the alleged Public Safety Committee to task for remaining silent about Dutta’s rant and his glaring unfitness to “protect and serve.”
After you and I discussed this mess, Cmdr. Andrew Smith, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Media Relations and Community Affairs Group, contacted me and told me the following:
“The Washington Post recently published an article submitted by Sgt. Sunil Dutta, an employee of the Los Angeles Police Department, in which he expressed his personal opinion regarding a variety of issues. The opinions expressed by Sgt. Dutta are his alone and do not reflect the official position or opinions of the Los Angeles Police Department, chief of police, or the city of Los Angeles. Sgt. Dutta submitted the article as a private citizen and the LAPD has neither approved nor endorsed any of his statements or opinions.”
Through my many years as a working Los Angeles journalist, I have come to know Cmdr. Smith pretty well. He’s a cop, but he’s a good guy and I know he does not come anywhere near sharing Dutta’s published opinions. However, Smith’s above statement on the issue at hand is not good enough. It does not assuage our horror of Dutta’s opinion of us nor does it mitigate the gravity of the consequences Dutta feels empowered to mete out. While the LAPD has “neither approved nor endorsed” Dutta’s statements, the LAPD has not repudiated them, either.
The LAPD should not have allowed Dutta to express such repugnant opinions --- opinions that reflect so abominably on the department as a whole and on its many fine members as individuals. Hell, I spent considerable time a while ago explaining to my 5-year-old granddaughter who police are and what they do.
We were walking downtown that day and we saw a uniformed cop; I took her to him, introduced her to him, explained who and what he was; told her that he’s one of the city’s good guys and that if she’s ever lost or in trouble and needed help she should find a policeman, a guy dressed like him, and he would help her. Dutta made a liar out of me!!
Dutta is a public employee and his employer, the LAPD, ought not permit its employees to express opinions that undermine the public’s trust --- all the public, including the black men public.
Secondly, Cmdr. Smith speaks only for the LAPD. The mayor and the City Council speak for the city and neither entity has said a word about the Dutta rant. Do they “approve or endorse any of his statements or opinions?”
And by the way, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, which, too, has been silent on Dutta, is comprised of Mitchell Englander, chairman; Joe Buscaino, vice chair; and members Mike Bonin, Mitch O’Farrell and Nury Martinez. What is wrong with this picture?
BLACK CAUCUS STEPS UP --- While everybody else in the nation was watching Michael Brown’s funeral last month, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus --- with pictures of unarmed men killed by law enforcement displayed behind them---held a news conference and both denounced escalating violence against men of color by law enforcement and committed themselves to pursuing tangible policies that address this issue in California, including the increased militarization of police departments across the state.
“In 2012, white officers killed black suspects about twice a week in the United States, or an average of 96 times,” cited Assemblymember Shirley N. Weber (D-San Diego), who led the discussion at the press conference entitled, “Young, Black and Unarmed,” which was held in the state capitol.
“Why? I have to say that we are dealing with a systemic and persistent form of racism that allows guilt to be presumed and the assumption that violence is inevitable when dealing with black youth,” she said.
CLBC Chair, Sen. Holly Mitchell, stated: “Young, black, unarmed men are dying at a disproportionate rate whenever there is an interaction with law enforcement. From Oscar Grant, to Michael Brown to Ezell Ford, these men had brief encounters with white police officers and instead of having a chance to defend themselves in a court of law, they lost their lives,” Mitchell said. (Soulvine: See there. It’s that crazy Dutta mindset working!!)
Assemblymember Steven Bradford, chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Boys and Men of Color, noted that there had been four law enforcement killings of black youth in the month of August, alone. “We need to address this lack of value for African American life,” he said.
We will discuss specific actions by the caucus as they are developed and implemented.
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WHICH LEADS US TO Atrocity #2: The militarization of the Compton school police!
In July, the Compton Unified School District Board of Education unanimously voted to approve the request of Compton school police chief William Wu that his officers be provided with AR-15 semiautomatic rifles. Is that not the craziest thing you’ve ever heard? Compton schools have black and brown majority student bodies.
Black and brown youths are already the disproportionate victims of police killings by handguns, and this school district has chosen to arm these crazy Duttas with assault rifles and put them on their campuses?! Why? None of their answers make sense.
The Compton NAACP is fighting it. “Compton schools are not located in Beirut, Gaza or Kabul,” said president Paulette Simpson-Gipson. “They are located in the heart of a hard-working, proud community in Los Angeles County. We won’t be satisfied until this decision is abrogated,” she added.
Compton parents should remove their children from that school district --- home school them, if they must. The next thing you know, Wu will be requesting tanks, self propelled guns, mortars and howitzers (you can get ‘em on eBay!). This is a tragically dangerous experiment and it must be stopped.
You know, when I heard about this, I made numerous telephone calls to Micah Ali, president of the Compton School Board, to talk to him about this nonsense. But he never returned any of my calls.
Isn’t he running for another office? He needs to lose. He’s not right. In fact, none of them sitting up there on the school board making this kind of potentially catastrophic decision is right.
(Betty Pleasant, a longtime columnist and urban voice, writes Soulvine and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 73
Pub: Sep 9, 2014
