LAPD’s Response to the Riot
In response to “Criticism Over Use of Force Inhibited Police, Gates Says,” May 7:
Chief Daryl Gates says, “I know police officers on the street are scared to death to use any kind of force because they think they’re going to be second-guessed. It doesn’t impact me, because . . . I’m retiring. But for those who have their careers to think about, they’re looking at what has been said we ought to do, and that’s the soft approach to policing.”
Well, Gates doesn’t speak for me or the overwhelming majority of real police officers. Gates may have weighed every action he ever took on how it would affect his career but the rest of us are more concerned with the duties we swore to perform. We want the public to know that the working police officers, of all ranks, will do their jobs without regard to personal consequences. We have and will defend our cities and citizens, risking our personal safety and future. We feel that our job is the crux of the matter, and to that end we took an oath to the public safety.
And if there’s still a question in anyone’s mind, go ask the street officers in Los Angeles who were held back from doing their jobs.
STEPHEN H. WHITSON, Treasurer, Anaheim Police Assn.
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