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Report on Sheriff’s Century Station

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Re “No End to Sheriff’s Dept. Laxity,” editorial, June 17:

Members of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs are by now well accustomed to The Times’ misrepresentations of the broad-brush criticisms contained in Merrick Bobb’s semiannual reports. This time, however, the misrepresentations have taken on a new and destructive edge.

Comparisons in the number of officer-involved shootings between a Sheriff’s Department station and a Los Angeles Police Department station have no statistical validity. Yet Bobb and The Times use the misleading numbers to mischaracterize our ability to properly enforce the laws.

Why do The Times and Bobb believe our members should not protect the communities served by the Century station? Why do The Times and Bobb believe our members should stand by while a criminal defendant stabs two of our members in a courtroom, nearly taking their lives, simply because of the community in which the court is located? Which of the incidents that led to a shooting should our members have let go and let the crook have his/her way? Just which shootings were wrong? We say none. Each shooting was deemed appropriate.

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Lies and numerical misrepresentations have no place in public safety. Stop manufacturing a debate that does not exist. Stop trying to create a wedge between our members and the residents of neighborhoods who need our dedication to quality public safety services. Stop empowering the criminal element with your misguided editorials.

PETE BRODIE, President, ALADS, Los Angeles

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Excellent editorial concerning the excessive number of shootings at the Sheriff’s Department’s Century patrol station.

The lack of a reasoned response from either candidate demonstrates beyond any doubt that neither deserves to be elected sheriff in L.A. County. Law enforcement is a professional occupation, not a political one. Every major metropolitan area in the U.S. hires its chief law enforcement person on the basis of professional attainment and competence. Hasn’t L.A. County achieved major metropolitan status?

ROBERT J. BANNING, Pasadena

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