Keep Watchdogs Tough

So much is still unsettled about the 1999 death of Margaret Laverne Mitchell. And as it turns out, the questions surrounding an LAPD officer’s shooting of the mentally ill homeless woman may never be fully laid to rest.

Answers were promised by an investigation begun in January by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, then newly elected. According to a 60-page report Cooley released Wednesday, what the investigation found instead was a mess of conflicting witness testimony that in some cases changed radically over time. His decision not to prosecute Officer Edward Larrigan was merely an acknowledgement that the testimony wasn’t good enough to withstand a criminal trial. This is not the same as saying the shooting was right.

The L.A. Police Commission last year ruled it was not. It broke with Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, who argued that although Larrigan and his partner made serious errors in their encounter with Mitchell, the shooting was justifiable because the 5-foot-1, 102-pound woman wielded a large screwdriver. The commission’s inspector general and three of the five commissioners ruled that even if the officers felt threatened, they had not exhausted alternatives. What seems like just common sense was a gutsy stand for a civilian panel that usually bowed to the Police Department.

More such stands will be needed as the commission, which has the final say on police-involved shootings, works to unravel the Rampart Division scandal amid growing signs that LAPD problems go deeper still. Take another 1999 shooting that commissioners, on the chief’s recommendation, last year agreed was self-defense. The Times disclosed Tuesday that the officer involved was, even then, the subject of an active criminal investigation. Parks says he didn’t tell the commissioners at the time because he didn’t know, which is puzzling given his well-publicized interest in controlling all within the department.

As reported by staff writers Matt Lait and Scott Glover, contradictory witness testimony includes allegations of a planted weapon, an echo of Rampart. In one chaotic moment, recorded on tape, the teenagers confronted by the officer actually called 911 for help.

Newly elected Mayor James K. Hahn has nominated replacements for all but one of the five commissioners. The Los Angeles City Council, which must approve the mayor’s nominees, should not be a rubber stamp. It needs to ask hard questions to ensure that these commissioners will be tough enough, independent enough, dogged enough to find answers.