L.A. Police Scandal

Why should the LAPD get all the blame for the wrongful prosecution, i.e., “framing” of Javier Francisco Ovando (Sept. 17)? It would seem that the buck really stops with Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

No one in Los Angeles County can be prosecuted for any serious crime without Garcetti doing it. Garcetti took an oath to “do justice.” Either the D.A. naively believed everything the cops told him (remember how they trusted Mark Fuhrman so implicitly in the O.J. Simpson case) or justice simply was not being done. The alacrity with which Garcetti’s office jumped to free this man, rather than being a cause for rejoicing, should actually give the citizenry pause. Could it be that Garcetti’s prosecutors had a guilty conscience?

MICHAEL “Miguel” FALOTICO

Attorney, Claremont

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The request by LAPD management to clarify the requirement for the inspector general to be given complete and immediate access to all files is simple to grant (Sept. 19). Just append the sentence: “Comply or be fired.”

As long as the code of silence exists, the 99% of police who are honest is a myth. It is time for the voters to realize that elected officials who allow this condition to exist by failing to support effective oversight sleep in the same silent blue filth.

ROBERT W. MURRAY

Lakewood

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Let’s get real; they are just scratching the surface. I suggest that the probe of the LAPD be widened and that the FBI take a deeper look into the background of every officer on the force. There are so many rogue officers out there killing and maiming blacks and browns with impunity. They lie, cheat and kill hiding behind their badges.

There are so many Javier Ovandos, Rodney Kings, Tyisha Millers, Margaret Mitchells and Mario Pazes that the practices of police in this entire state need to be probed! Minorities are too many times the victims of improprieties by the police and we, as a group, must unite and demand that it stop!

MADONNA B. DOURGE

Burbank

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Am I the only one who came away from the Sept. 18 article on Police Chief Bernard Parks feeling patronized and brushed aside by Parks? His remark that the Valley citizenry’s perception of the demise of Neighborhood Watch through loss of direct local access to officers “is totally different from that of the West Valley captain” sounds like Parks has forgotten who his clients and his employers are.

We need a new attitude, with a fuller and satisfactory explanation of how we are better served by Parks’ new deployment of officers, or a changing of the guard to someone who cares what we want and responds to it.

MARIBETH HAMBY

Studio City