Car thief hits lottery, posthumously

Congratulations Brian Dunn, attorney for the family of teenage car thief Devin Brown, who tried to run over a policeman a year ago, and was shot by the officer trying to protect himself . I hope the few hundred thousand dollars you and the Cochran law firm will receive as a result of the expected $1.5-million settlement from the taxpayers of Los Angeles is worth the damage this and similar cases have done to urban law enforcement.

Our mayor wants to hire a thousand new officers. Even though your picture will never be on a recruiting advertisement, you will certainly be on the minds of young citizens as they choose a career of service to protect society from the hoodlums whose favor you seek.

That goes double for the jelly backboned police commission which can’t make up its mind whether a cop is supposed to use his training and God-given judgment to make a life-and-death decision, or call “time out” so he can consult a policy manual of obtuse regulations.

What is a cop supposed to do now, if a criminal drives a car toward him? Even if it’s going only two miles an hour, it’s still a lethal weapon.

Why wasn’t any blame attached to the mother, for letting her little future gang banger out on the streets, stealing a car at 4 o’clock in the morning? Does bad parenting have no consequences?

What kind of message does it send to the community to award the family of a thief a million and a half dollars?

What will potential future police officers feel about joining a force where their city has no interest in backing them up when they do their duty or try to protect themselves?

Los Angeles would be better off fighting these cases, and running the risk of paying out a few more million, than simply giving up. There are times when principle is worth fighting for. If our city attorney doesn’t have the talent in his office to challenge such a case, then he should contract the case out to a law firm that does, as does the school board and other municipal entities.

Even if the trial collected a jury that was hopelessly ignorant of right from wrong, the city could appeal to whatever level it took to obtain justice. If the city never prevailed, at least we would have the satisfaction of knowing we were on the side of honor and our protectors in blue.