Guess How Many Bias Claims Were Upheld By the LAPD From 2012-2014?

Hint: It's a round number. Like, really round.

The LAPD's civilian watchdog Police Commission has just released a report finding

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that none of the 1,356 bias claims filed against its officers from 2012-2014 were upheld.

That means either the LAPD has come a remarkably long way from the early 1990s, when Rodney King was savagely beaten by a group of white officers, or that the department simply can't be trusted to police its own allegations of abuse. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, the commission's president Matt Johnson has called for a "deep-dive briefing" on how the department investigates itself, adding, "I don't think anybody believes that there are actually no incidents of biased policing."

Also from the Times article:

Commissioner Robert Saltzman echoed Johnson's remarks, calling the lack of substantiated allegations "quite troubling and disappointing."

"While no doubt the vast majority of LAPD officers do not engage in biased policing, it strains credibility to suggest that … there were zero instances of biased policing," he told The Times. "It should not be surprising that there is diminished trust in the LAPD given these results."

Apparently, one officer was deemed by the LAPD to have "engaged in biased policing a few years ago" and his termination was recommended, according to the department's Internal Affairs chief Cmdr. Stuart Maislin. However, "the board of rights panel found the officer not guilty of the biased policing allegations and fired him on a different charge."

Last year, the AP reported that a survey of 500 LAPD officers revealed "widespread concerns" about the department's discipline system and that "many of those interviewed said they believed internal investigations were unfair and that punishments were subjective."

Comments

[colorblindkid]

Can black officers be charged with bias crimes against black victims? What about Hispanics? 44% of the department is Hispanic. Honest questions I don't know the answer to.

[R C Dean]

Interesting question. If we apply proglogic, bias complaints against minorities will be dismissed out of hand. That right there probably takes care of half the complaints.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

In fact, any white drivers pulled over by black cops are automatically racist by virtue of their privilege.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The privilege continuum goes black -- hispanic -- "white hispanic" -- white. So I'm guessing that Hispanic officers can discriminate against black victims.

[SimonJester]

Where do Asians fall on there? Or Pac Islanders?

[Bob Meyer]

If General Motors had an internal audit that found absolutely no instances of sub standard engineering practices they would be subject to overwhelming ridicule. The LAPD should be subject to the same skepticism.

[sarcasmic]

General Motors is a profit-seeking corporation. They will absolutely cut corners in their greedy quest for obscene profits. That's why they need to be watched at all times.

The LAPD is government. They're "us," since government is "the people." They're no corrupted by profit motive. They're selfless and without greed. How dare you question government?

Duh.

[CZmacure]

It takes a village to hire a policeman to shoot a child.

[Jimbo]

As Old Man with Candy would say: What a waste of a perfectly good child!

[Adans smith]

He built that basement for nothing!

[Lord Rollingpin]

He didn't build that!

[gaoxiaen]

He just refurbished it with, um... necessary equipment.

[CZmacure]

" Craig Lally, head of the union that represents officers, said that officers usually can't tell the race of a motorist when they make a traffic stop. Even if an officer was racist, he said, it's nearly impossible to prove whether he or she stopped someone because of that bias, rather than appropriate probable cause or reasonable suspicion. "

So he's saying the only solution to assholes like him policing unfairly is to give them much less power?

Your ideas intrigue me, Craig, and I wish to subscribe to your periodical publication!

[Adam330]

I'm more intrigued by his claim that officers "usually" can't tell the race of the motorist. Is LAPD hiring only blind people? While I grant there are certainly some people whose race isn't clear from a quick look, it's a pretty small number.

[Jerryskids]

Hang out in a black neighborhood and stop every low-rider with gold spinners and I'm sure you're going to find lots of little old white ladies on their way to church bake sales.

What I'm interested in is his claim that there's no bias because they don't know the race of the driver they're pulling over (despite the possibility that they're patrolling black neighborhoods and pulling over low-riders with gold spinners) as if the stop itself is the alpha and the omega of the potential for bias. What is the average length of a stop for white drivers versus black drivers? How many get treated to a sniff-and-squat by Foamy The Wonder Dog? What proportion of white drivers compared to black drivers are let go with a warning rather than a ticket? What percentage of blacks and whites wind up charged with other offenses beyond the initial reason for the stop? What percentage of whites and blacks complain about rude treatment? And on and on - the guy might just as well said "Oh, there's no bias here, we love cookies and ice cream!" and been just as responsive to the question.

[kbolino]

The problem is that there is also a correlation between driving "low-riders with gold spinners" and being involved in criminal activity. The problem that anyone complaining about racially motivated bias among police faces is that the argument is confounded by the variable of underlying rates of criminality. The police have incentives to go after the low-hanging fruit. There is no reason why the racial make-up of that group has to exactly mirror the racial make-up of the population at large. The focus of local policing tends to correspond with the loci of minor-league criminal activity; the race of the participants in those activities is incidental to that fact.

[dantheserene]

In my youth any Nissan Maxima was driven by black person. It doesn't have to be as obvious as a low rider if you know how to read the vehicle.

[R C Dean]

officers usually can't tell the race of a motorist when they make a traffic stop.

Why would people with eyesight that bad be enforcing traffic laws, anyway?

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

When I'm talking with someone and they keep saying 'like', I get this urge to just slap them silly. It's ten times worse when someone inserts it into writing. It's a lame speech affectation, it doesn't need to be written. I mean, it's, like, lame, ya know?

[sarcasmic]

I like totally agree and stuff, you know?

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Totally.

[MSimon]

Like.

[SimonJester]

feerrrrr sherrrr!

[Jimbo]

I like it!

[BiPolarMoment]

I LIKE WHAT YOU GOT!

[CZmacure]

" "It doesn't matter if it's 13 hundred or 13 million [complaints], it's always going to be the same," he said. "We don't want racist cops because that makes us all look bad. But there's no way to really do it. I haven't seen a real system in place that could weed that out." "
.
I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them.

[R C Dean]

It doesn't matter if it's 13 hundred or 13 million [complaints], it's always going to be the same,

No shit, Sherlock. And that's the problem. Just like no scandal sticks to Hillary, no complaint sticks to an LAPD cop.

[MSimon]

The woodchippers are very active on my street. Taking down a tree today.

[Adans smith]

Accountant applies for a job.The Boss says,'what's 2+2?' The accountant leans over the desk and asks 'what do you want it to be?'

[Ted S.]

I would have guessed i, since everybody knows police bias is an imaginary idea.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Isn't accusing an officer with bias like dividing by zero, in that you're an idiot who wants to destroy everything?

[Almanian's Rusty Woodchipper]

[ERROR]

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

As of September, Fed officials expected perhaps four rate hikes next year.

"The statement...should be relatively hawkish. The Fed will look to project confidence," the analysis said.

so if I understand this analyst, the Fed isn't moving because the data supports a move, they're moving because the data doesn't support a move, and so they must manipulate markets into making the data support a move, after the move has been made, with the magical faery dust of "confidence".

http://www.reuters.com/article.....EX20151216

[Jerryskids]

This just puts me in mind of the Simpson's episode where Homer promised the kids they could go to Kamp Krusty if they got all A's and B's on their report cards. Bart changed all his F's to A+'s and Homer chided him with a "Do you think your old man's an idiot? F's turn into B's so easily but you had to get greedy and go for the A+'s." If you're going to cheat on your report card, making it a perfect report card is just laughably suspicious. You gotta throw at least one or two bad marks in there, fellas!