Police Have No Right to Pick Their Boss
* Re: Santa Paula police wanting to control who the police chief will be.
I just came back from Tacoma, Wash., where the same contest is going on between the police and the police chief. I have also heard of this happening in other cities around the country.
My question is: How come the police expect to have the privilege of determining who their boss will be? I know of no other group of workers who expect this privilege. I don’t hear the workers at General Motors, Boeing, Disney or any other place trying to determine who the boss will be.
Police, after all, are a quasi-military organization and it seems especially inappropriate for them to have this attitude.
If there are true grievances or management problems, they can be resolved by many other means such as civil service commissions or city councils. There shouldn’t be a contest over who is going to be in control, the union or the chief of police.
ROBERT C. MASON
Simi Valley
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