Video on How to Be Arrested

Please let it not pass unnoted that the leadership of the black police officers of the LAPD in their recent statements giving support to Chief Gates have sent a clear message to the black community: “We black police officers are in no way going to protect you. Don’t count on us to blow the whistle. Our concerns are for our careers, our promotions and our fellow officers.”

Trotting out these all-too-willing black officers to make supportive statements of Gates and denial of the pervasive misconduct and abuse engaged in by the LAPD toward minorities may impress some naive white people, but it is simply public confirmation of the betrayal blacks have known and experienced for some time.

And then there was the case of the black policewoman who seized the Rodney King incident to publicize finding a Ku Klux Klan calling card on her car windshield in an area only accessed by police officers. Yet, despite the airing of these internal concerns, not one of the black officers has stood up and denounced or confirmed the abuse their people are experiencing at the hands of the LAPD in this community. What a shame!

JAMES T.A. BABINGTON-JOHNSON

Beverly Hills