The Cold, Clear Call of Duty

In the explosion of rhetoric that followed guilty verdicts in the trial of three LAPD Rampart officers, someone said that their convictions would adversely affect the ability of cops to do their jobs.

Excuse me?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the verdicts based on the corruption of their jobs as cops in the first place? Like obstructing justice and filing false reports? As I understand it, these are not practices normally expected of those who protect and serve.

Show me where in the police manual it says that in order to satisfy one’s hatred of minorities, or in order to lower the crime rate in any given area, it is OK for a police officer to beat, shoot, plant false evidence and lie.

You won’t find it.

I thought it was Ted Hunt, head of the Police Protective League, who emerged amid the babble to say that the verdicts would adversely affect a cop’s ability to do his job. Union leaders often go to unlikely extremes to protect their members.

Hunt says it wasn’t him, and that the league is as anxious as everyone else to get to the bottom of police corruption. But then he adds, “Some of the younger cops say that if they don’t break the rules, going to jail can’t happen to them. But we know that it can.”

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We’re all tired of the dark cloud that has hovered over the LAPD for about the past 30 years. At least part of the darkness has to do with the men who have occupied the chief’s chair.

To say that the department’s leadership has been wanting is a towering understatement. Not one of them has been a shining example of either intelligence or diplomacy. Ed Davis, who went on to become a state senator, wanted to hang skyjackers at the airport. Daryl Gates used a tank to batter down doors and thought of nonwhites as not being “normal.” Willie Williams didn’t seem to know exactly what was going on, and Bernard Parks is just plain overwhelmed by events.

What this has done to the men and women in the department is drop their morale to a point lower than a possum’s behind. Hunt puts it another way: “If the LAPD were a body, it would be in full cardiac arrest.”

I don’t think so.

I don’t believe that the verdicts returned against Edward Ortiz, Brian Liddy and Michael Buchanan will in any way affect a cop’s ability to do a cop’s job, unless, of course, the inclination to corrupt was there in the first place.

The reason I don’t believe it is that I’ve known too many policemen over the years. There was a time when cops and reporters were as close as brothers, and we knew that most of them wanted to do the right thing and were willing to risk their lives to do it.

While the fraternal feeling probably no longer exists, I still think that the majority of those who wear the blue are honest and dedicated people.

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Ever since the videotaped police beating of Rodney King shocked the world, the LAPD has been studied, probed, investigated and reported upon by everyone but the PTA.

Whether the verdicts and the various recommendations emerging from the studies will make the department any better is problematic. The Rampart scandal isn’t over. The process of appeals could take forever.

Hunt believes that until the “culture” within the department changes, nothing will improve. He describes that culture as an interface between beliefs and values that ultimately determines attitudes. And once attitudes are established, he says, behavior follows.

That sounds a little esoteric, but I think what he means is that the whole attitude of the department has to change before the action of its officers improves, and the change has to come from the top.

That may be true, but it still shouldn’t be a big secret to anyone who signs on as a cop that unnecessary shootings or beatings aren’t part of his or her duties. Granted, this is an imperfect world, and even when we do the best we can, that isn’t always good enough.

There are bad guys out there who are heavily armed and hate-filled, and a policeman’s life is never easy. But a job accepted is a commitment to do it well. A cop I knew replied when I asked about the political fallout from the Rodney King beating that he had no idea what was going on. “I shut out all the noises,” he said, “except the cold, clear call of duty.”

And the call of duty, regardless of scandal, is still there to be heard.

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Al Martinez’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached online at al.martinez@latimes.com.