New Face of Police Union: Friendly --and Formidable

The shouting, chanting Los Angeles cops packed into a corridor outside the City Council chambers Tuesday were a clear sign of the anger gripping the LAPD’s rank and file.

They were a small part of more than 1,000 officers who walked four long blocks from 2nd and Alameda streets to City Hall in a Police Protective League union demonstration for higher wages and better working conditions.

A delegation of 300 was supposed to go into the council chambers while Dave Zeigler, president of the union, asked the lawmakers to approve a favorable contract. But the council was discussing the huge Playa Vista land development deal, which is backed by some of the town’s biggest campaign contributors. First things first. So the cops had to wait.

“We want in!” they shouted, their voices so loud that I wondered if I could put in for a workers’ comp claim. “No more bull----.”

A fire marshal asked them to clear the hall, explaining they’d be admitted in 30 minutes. “No! No!” the crowd shouted. “Hell, no! We won’t go!”

The cops eventually went, the marshal being a uniformed Fire Department officer. As one policeman said, “He’s a friendly.” But the anger lingered. “Morale’s at an all-time low,” Detective Bino Herrera told me. “This has never happened before,” he said, looking over at the mass of demonstrators. “You can never get police to agree on anything. They can’t even agree on where to eat.”

The march and demonstration was impressive for more than its size and noise level.

The crowd was composed of men and women from all ethnic groups. Diverse in composition, it seemed united in goals.

“We’re here to show the City Council we are together; we want them to know that, “ said Officer Harold Marinelli, who was pushing a stroller carrying his 16-month-old daughter, Crystal.

“We are out there every day risking our lives and we don’t get a fair deal,” said Officer Suzy Campbell, standing with three other officers from Rampart, a gang-ridden area just west of Downtown L.A. “Toughest eight miles in the city,” one of them said.

The police officers, who have been working without a contract for 14 months or a pay hike for two years, are seeking a raise at least as large as that recently granted to Department of Water and Power workers, who got 3% annual increases for the next three years plus a small retroactive payment.

In addition, the police want working conditions improved and the department enlarged. “One officer has been doing the work of two officers,” said Officer Daryl Russell, who is assigned to patrol in the area northeast of downtown. “Most of the patrol cars have 80,000 to 100,000 miles on them. Some have 140,000 miles. The seats sag. I don’t feel safe if we are in an accident.”

Anyone who has ridden in an LAPD patrol car would agree with Russell’s complaints. But the union is up against a city budget deficit estimated at $35 million this year and more than $200 million the year after. And Mayor Richard Riordan has pledged to put 3,000 more cops on the street, an expensive proposition.

The rest of the city employees--with the exception of the Water and Power workers--have also gone without raises for two years.

The league’s solution is shaky. Union President Zeigler said some of the money would come from revenue earned by the harbor and the airport. Riordan wants to use that money, too, but faces opposition from the big businesses that use both facilities. They’re afraid it means higher fees at the harbor and airport.

Zeigler found other funds scattered around the treasury but last week Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s finance committee, said his plans wouldn’t work.

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What the union has going for it is energy and a broader base of support than in the past.

The league used to be a secretive organization. Reporters found it hard to talk to a union president. You’d call and the person answering the phone would invariably say, “He’s in a meeting. I’ll slip a note under the door.” Seldom did anyone call back.

Monday, I got right through to Zeigler on the phone. On Tuesday, spokeswoman Rachel Heller-Ibarra was on the march to help reporters with their logistic problems. The cops I interviewed were all friendly.

The good will could be lost if the union members’ anger gets out of hand. There was a lot of talk of “blue flu,” the mysterious ailment that strikes cops involved in labor disputes. It’s already hard enough to find a cop without one of these work slowdowns.

But on Tuesday, the police union showed a different face to L.A. The cops even stopped for red lights as they walked to City Hall.

Riordan and the council will find this new, friendly version of the Police Protective League to be a formidable opponent.