The L.A. Daily News reports that "Diversity Bolsters the LAPD," proving the value of the long held "liberal" view that government works best when its makeup mirrors the actual population it is governing. The Daily News reports, "As the Los Angeles Police Department enjoys a resurgence of its public approval, one of the key factors has been a sharp increase in the diversity of the force, to nearly match the texture of Los Angeles itself."
The Daily News article is here:
http://www.dailynews.com/...
The Daily News states:
With 83 percent of residents surveyed saying the department is doing a good or excellent job, [LAPD Police Chief] Bratton says a police force that a decade ago was embroiled in corruption and brutality scandals may now become a national example of how to regain the trust of minority communities.
This is good news for L.A. and shows what can happen when progressive policies are actually implemented. This result also supports, of course, Obama's premise that his new Supreme Court Justice should be "empathetic."
The Daily News reported on a Harvard University Study released last week that revealed that in 1990, 45 percent of graduates from the Police Academy were white; 30 percent were Latino and 19 percent were black. By 2008, 53 percent of new graduates were Latino; 29 percent were white; and 7 percent were black.
Correspondingly, the LAPD has received higher approval ratings from minority communities in recent years. From 2005 to 2009, surveys found the number of residents giving positive results to the question "Do you think that the police in your community treat all racial and ethnic groups fairly" increased to 51 percent, from 39 percent four years earlier.
In what was described as "one of the most complete assessments ever conducted" of a police department, the Harvard Study authors noted "crime has fallen to levels not seen since the 1950s and the most serious uses of [police] force - shootings, carotid artery control holds or head strikes with impact weapons - have fallen 30 percent since 2004."
Notably, "the incidence of serious force used against blacks and Latinos decreased more than such force used against whites."
By 2008, Latinos made up 42 percent of all sworn officers, up from 33 percent in 1999. The proportion of white officers fell from 47 percent to 37 percent.
While the percentage of black officers dropped from 14 percent to 12 percent in that time, the distribution of black officers shifted because of longer years of service. "They now account for 22 percent of officers with more than 10 years of service and more than 20 percent of the LAPD's captains."
The Daily News reports that even as the city faces massive budget cuts, "Bratton is optimistic the LAPD can continue to build on its recent success and continue to be on the cutting edge of improving race relations."
"Nobody is claiming that we've reached a destination on a journey we set out on many years ago," Bratton said. "But rather, at this particular point in the journey, it seems we're going in the right direction, we're picking up momentum - and as we're going along we're gathering more people willing to take the journey with us."
"The journey is to arrive at a city that is not gripped by racial tensions, but one that benefits from racial harmony. In one of America's most racially mixed cities, wouldn't that be a great thing because we could show the way for the rest of America."
Wouldn't it be great? Yes.