LAPD’s Bratton Needs More Guts, Less Compassion, to Fight Crime
Joe Domanick writes about the LAPD as if he really knows its history and culture (“The Reformer, on Honeymoon,” Jan. 19). But he’s so far in the clouds it’s funny. He first lauds new police chief Bill Bratton like a puppy dog lapping up a bowl of dog chow. Any competent police manager knows that the LAPD will remain understaffed and politically fractured no matter how Bratton or the mayor fools with police deployment and reform.
Why hasn’t anyone voiced concern that Bratton, after promising to clean up Los Angeles with its own resources, reneged on that promise and is now bringing federal and state agencies into what is truly a local responsibility? Why not place the blame where it belongs--on duped voters, the City Council, the mayor and The Times?
Richard M. Holbrook
Sylmar
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Domanick writes that “Bratton is a slender man of medium height with the unimposing physicality of someone who could easily be mistaken for part of the office furniture.” I have looked at every piece of furniture in every office in my building, and so far I have mistaken no part of it for a slender man of medium height. Chief Bratton might not stand out in a crowd of average people, but from the photographs accompanying Domanick’s article, I surely do not see him resembling a desk or even a chair.
Amy Vineyard
Pasadena
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