Police Union Complaints

Assistant Chief Bernard Parks ordered an audit of the LAPD’s West Los Angeles station to determine whether alleged sexual harassment had made working conditions difficult for female officers (Aug. 17)? How dare he! And now he’s trying to promote minority and female officers because of a longstanding dearth in upper- and middle-management ranks?

Sounds like a man doing his job to me.

ARLENE L. WALKER

Compton

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Re “City Council Members Back LAPD Official,” Aug. 20:

I know what I’m about to say isn’t politically correct, and that it will probably offend those who are, but what is wrong is wrong. What’s wrong in Los Angeles is how City Council members would stand up so vehemently with Assistant Chief Parks for a policy that is so obviously unfair and unjust. Is it just for officers who work harder and perform at a higher level than their co-workers to be passed over because they are white and male?

Is it just to tell minority and female officers that they receive promotions not because they excel over their peers but because standards must be made lower for them (because in the minds of the politically correct they could not make it on their own merits)? Is it just to these people to make them feel inferior by constantly telling them that the only way they can compete or succeed in the world is by expecting less from them, and lowering standards for them?

Is it just to the people of Los Angeles for them to have to accept officers of lesser capability simply because of race or gender? No, I can’t accept such injustice.

JOHN T. WOODRUFF

Hacienda Heights

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What a grim and pathetic situation our society has become since the racist, sexist institution of affirmative action set us all against each other. Now black LAPD officers talk of seceding from the Police Protective League since the league has the audacity to challenge the new Jim Crow laws of our society, which have already made it impossible for new white male applicants to enter the LAPD, even with perfect scores.

White males were not even allowed to fill out an application to take the exam for the Los Angeles Fire Department recently, and now this. There is only one way out of this mess, people, and that is a race-blind, sex-blind meritocracy. The black officers should be the first to understand that people should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must be turning over in his grave.

STEPHEN G. HAYES

La Canada