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Friday, October 26, 2007

Chief Bill Bratton sworn-in for a second term


In a ceremony mixing "CHOWDER PRIDE" with Hollywood theatrics, LAPD Chief Bill Bratton was sworn-in for a second term at the Police Academy in Elysian Park.

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa looking on, the ceremonial "Pining of the Badge" was done by the chief's dad, William E. Bratton. This was a emotional moment for the chief. His father has been on hand for each of the chief's previous promotional ceremonies, except in 2002 when his mother, June was very ill.

One cannot argue that Bratton has turn around the state of affairs at the LAPD since taking over in 2002. Since then Bratton has become arguably the most popular politician in the city.

He has confronted controversy head on, whether it be the shooting of Devin Brown, or the May Day protest at MacArthur Park. Crime is down overall from 2002. Yet gang violence is still of paramount concern. One thing that is sure, Chief Bratton enjoys national support for his policing efforts, ....... and somewhere, is a former chief who bitterly laments what could of been.

P.S. who was the guy that had the insight to hire Bratton ????

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34 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hey, who hired Bratton because he knew Parks was a disaster and paid dearly for that act of political courage? Hint: He's also the guy who prevented the city from breaking up. I guess he should have promised a million tres and a subway to the sea instead.

October 26, 2007 9:56 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Why do the three stooges only call mexican councilman Ed Reyes, Jose Reyes shady? What about the other mexican councilman Tony Cardenas we need to show Tony Cardenas some Mayor Sam's love.

We have to insult and rant about about all mexican politicians!!!

October 26, 2007 10:11 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Congrats Bratton..... now lets talk about Special Order 40.

October 26, 2007 10:25 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Who could ever have done a better job than Bratton? NO ONE. Mayor Hahn was at ceremony and got bigger applause then gang banger Antonio. Antonio of course started his sorry speech praying for firefighters even though he could care less being out of city in Vegas for last couple of days. Who ask Reyes, Garcetti who gave the dumbest speeches to speak? LOSERS!!!! Bratton should run for Mayor but everyone is saying much much higher people will call on him in white house next year.

October 26, 2007 10:58 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"swornED in..." ??

Are you shittinged me?

Is this what attending public schools in CD14 produces?

SHEESH!

October 26, 2007 11:30 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The guy who pushed the hiring was Joe Gunn, former Commander, LAPD who at the time was the Chief of Staff to the Police Commission. Three of the five Commissioners voted for Bratton.

Jimmy, as usual, deferred.

But it was Antonio Villaraigosa who put aside petty stuff like Bratton campaigning with Hahn for the last month or so and saw the wisdom of having a good relationship with Bratton.

This leadership has benefited all of us in the City of Los Angeles.

Bratton is the first Chief since the new charter to be re-appointed.

A lesser person would have carried out a vendetta and we'd have been the losers. Antonio deserves the credit for this.

So, for once, maybe, just maybe, you guys can give some credit where credit is due.

Villaraigosa has also hired Geraldine Knatz at the Harbor and Gina Marie Lindsey at the Airport to strengthen both immeasurably. He's due some credit for that as well.

Or, do you all hate so much that you can't muster a "Well done" when it is deserved?

October 26, 2007 11:47 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Thank you for remembering Mayor Hahn's role in hiring Chief Bratton. It is a shame that the LA Times couldn't do the same.

October 26, 2007 11:52 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"La Antonia Times" at its bias best.

October 26, 2007 11:56 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Only the Councilmen we really know are on the take, like Huizar, Reyes, Alacon, and prior Councilman Villariagosa are the ones we are after. It just happens that there are more Mexicans on the take than the white men.

October 26, 2007 12:52 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Its so hard to remeber anything good that Villa has done. He seems to be a man bent on destroying himself doing stupid things.

October 26, 2007 12:56 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

You're not seriously arguing 11:47 that Antonio deserves credit for Bratton's success because he didn't retaliate against him after the election for supporting the guy who had the good sense -- and guts -- to hire him, angering every black leader in the city, are you?

October 26, 2007 1:11 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I do think Bratton is doing a better job. I just have issue with his crime statistics. When Bratton took over he changed how the statistics were done. He took domestic violence out of violent crimes one. That was about 20-30,000 more violence, gone like that. Then he compared himself to his predecessor Parks. Of course it would look like improvement just because they changed the math formula. That said, I think things have improved, just not by the leaps and bounds that they want you to believe.

The dog catcher lies about his numbers, the chief of police lies about his numbers, I bet all the departments lie about their numbers. The department heads are appointed to give good press for the mayor, period. The mayor doesn't really care if things get better or not. Case in point, animal services.

October 26, 2007 1:27 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It's easy to make it look like crime is down. Stop taking the reports, or just not file them. Another thing they do is reduce the severity of the reports.If you were hit in the head with a 2 by 4, they would write down "altercation" so it wouldn't be listed as a violent crime.

Maybe we had more cops under Parks but I think things were better based on my personal experience. They used to take reports, follow up, actually do something. Nowadays I get "we have one detective for every 250,000 people. We can only investigate so many cases. We investigate the rapes and murders first." If they'd investigate the other cases like threats and assaults, maybe they wouldn't have the rapes and murders. They could prevent crime.

October 26, 2007 2:06 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

bitter Bernie get off your computer. With a microscope on him Bratton wouldn't be dumb to cook the numbers like Bernie is saying. And who the hell is stupid enough to think Antonio should get credit for Bratton. Idiot!! Antonio would be a damn fool not to support Bratton cause every major magazine, newspaper and tv station has at one time or another stated he is the BEST CHIEF IN THE NATION. Every Jerry Brown mentioned his leadership and policing. Antonio tries to take credit for everyone else's hard work. And it was Caruso, Ochi, Boekman, Skorbin who supported Bratton. The only hold out was David Cunningham. Mayor Hahn was the one who called Bratton and urged him to come to NY. AV is too stupid to know great people. Look at all the losers he has in his administration and cost the city money when he fires them.

October 26, 2007 2:07 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

OH, how quickly all you "haters" forget. What about Tony V's crowning achievement in two years as a city councilmember?

He organized

80 FAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHES

(Mayor Sammie personally vouched for their existence, even though there wasn't a single cop in Hollenbeck or Northeast that could locate one!)

October 26, 2007 4:34 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"But Councilman Bernard Parks, who preceded Bratton as chief, questioned whether the crime figures are accurate. Parks has long complained that the department changes the way it measures crime by eliminating domestic-violence cases. Bratton and the department argue that they follow federal crime reporting guidelines.

"It's easy to say you've reduced violent crime when you've taken 20,000 to 30,000 violent crimes out of

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the reports," Parks said. "The fact is, the people I represent, if you ask them, do not feel any safer today."

October 26, 2007 4:46 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Funny, how every thread becomes just another bash-Antonio thread. The guy is blamed if he's in too many photo ops, blamed if he's out of town for two days and isn't. Blamed if he supports a recent opponent as police chief, for being opportunistic and riding on Hahn's coattails (who had nothing to do with bratton), but if he hadn't he'd be called spiteful like "Bitter Bernie."

Blamed for pandering to Hispanics, made fun of for trying to dance and support Armenians, Jews and other ethnics at their celebrations.

Just for the sake of argument, is there anything the guy could do that wouldn't be attacked on MS?

I didn't think so.

It's like the baby formula industry running ads for La Leche League, or Phillip Morris giving out the patch to quit smoking with each pack.

October 26, 2007 5:15 PM  

Blogger Red Spot in CD 14 said:

You want some more to whine about ?

October 26, 2007 5:26 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

So, let me get this straight. If I beat someone to a pulp I should say the person is my spouse or family member. That way the violent crime is no longer violent?

Welcome to the dark ages.

October 26, 2007 5:33 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Never before has a mayor been so criticized, attacked, made fun of, slammed. Say what you want but there is much more Antonio bashing then there ever was Hahn bashing. WHY? Because in two years Villaraigosa doesn't have a record to speak of but planting trees and maybe the traffic signals. That's it in two years. His more emphatic supporters have jumped shipped. His closest circle of friends bash him behind his back. I kind of feel sorry for him in a way because he doesn't have one soul he can trust.

October 26, 2007 5:42 PM  

Blogger Red Spot in CD 14 said:

.....including himself.

October 26, 2007 5:50 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

2:07 you have it all wrong.

Ouchi wanted a person of color and wouln't vote for Bratton and the Latina stood with her; The two white guys, Caruso and Boekmann voted for Bratton and Cunningham, Jr. cast the deciding vote. Skobin later replaced Boekmann.

It was the best vote he or his rascal father ever cast.

Go back and check the record. You must be getting your info from ZD who does a lot of history re-writing.

And, while Hahn deserves credit for not re-appointing Bernie, he was AWOL in the decision to hire the white guy, seeking "plausable deniability", That's why Antonio kicked his butt, because he showed no leadership except in one instance, and that hurt him because of the chickenshit way he did it.

At least Antonio makes decisions and stands up and says what he thinks.

October 26, 2007 5:57 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

How sad that our comparisons are two guys that failed at leadership 101. Hahn let others run the show if they could access a good banking account. Tony takes no one's word, unless they are a future high donor (which he will chew up and spit out). Accountability and "decisions" equal inaccurate PR, future donations, political backing and color.

We need someone who will roll up their sleeves, acknowledge the state of the city for what it is, try their wings to make the necessary changes (despite the press and political interests) and get to work.

October 26, 2007 6:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I is glad wet-spot learnded to spell "swornED in..." . Wet-spot is a berry smart blogger like Zuma Mutt who also learnded berry good inglish skills in skool.

yea, yea , hoody hoo

October 26, 2007 9:08 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hey, quit bashing my homie Zuma. He's my Butt Boy, and I am taking over exclusive rights to call him out for poor spelling, grammar, wrong facts, etc.

I also have exclusive rights to talk about his disgusting B.O., dress, and off-key sing-song indecipherable delivery of what passes for a "message".

So lay off.

He's my Butt-Boy.

Anybody else trying to bash him will be deleted immediately.

October 27, 2007 1:48 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Its hard to believe that out of 4 million people in Los Angeles when you see who is running city hall you have to scratch your head and wonder. Is this the best LA can do?

October 27, 2007 7:22 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Of course you are talking aobut my man, ZD, who runs City Hall now.

With Ron Deaton gone, ZD is in sole charge of the Council and Mayor, while still advising LAUSD and the Board of Supervisors.

October 27, 2007 7:56 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

6:29 Antonio hires people based on money. A certain wealthy business man agreed to give Antonio $10,000,000 if he hired the current dog catcher. Antonio said yes, hired the guy without a background check, then the business man stiffed him for the money. If anyone wants to help their brother become a director of a department, lie and promise to give antonio tons of money, then stiff him.

October 27, 2007 10:42 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Unfortunately, Bratton caved into the Mexicans! He had the stuff that could have made him great for L.A., but he caved to the Mexicans!

Things like..."If you don't like it (the illegals)..MOVE!

He copped out on his men...see MacArthur Park. He sold out his men!!! He is a big-time traitor, and also an OUTSIDER! Being an OUT OF TOWNER makes it even worse!

He won't rescind SP 40!

He's only interested in his inflated salary and his mansion in Hancock Park. It's all about MONEY AND GREED...NOT THE CITIZENS OF L.A.!

Power corrupts and Bratton is sooo corrupt!

October 27, 2007 10:59 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

October 26, 2007

“At least Antonio makes decisions and stands up and says what he thinks.”


Let’s not forget Antonio Villaraigosa mislead his constituents when he ran for CD 14, saying he would serve his full term. Villaraigosa was a Councilmember for only 1 ½ years. During this time, former Mayor Hahn had the decency to come before City Council asking for a Ballot Measure brought forth for more police. Chief Bratton also supported Hahn. Councilmember Villaraigosa voted against such a measure not once, but three times.

After being sworn Major on July 1, 2205, Antonio Villaraigosa took it upon himself to increase the trash fees for more police. This obviously was a self serving motive. It appears Villaraigosa wants to take credit for everything good that occurs under the sun.

However, when an internal audit found DWP ran up a $97-million overtime bill over an 11-month period, with some money going to employees who did not show up for work. The 2 million hours of overtime were incurred between March 2005 and February 2006. Yet, I don’t recall Villaraigosa holding a press conference taking responsibility for this and promising stakeholders reform within DWP.

October 27, 2007 10:43 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

After being sworn Mayor on July 1, 2005, Antonio Villaraigosa took it upon himself to increase the trash fees for more police.

October 27, 2007 10:50 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Can we file a class action suit to get a rebate on the DWP over charges? What are the chances of winning such a suit?

October 28, 2007 12:44 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I very much doubt that Bratton is on the take. But, he is clearly a Villaraigosa lapdog. BTW, the crime numbers are probably fake, too. And LA's crime problem would be significantly less if Special Order 40 was abolished. Significantly reduced crime is what LA should be like, now, if crime reduction was Bratton's main issue.

Look, the George W. Bush regime is behind the Mexification of S.Cal, and especially Los Angeles. If your next vote is for establishment Republicans or Democrats, the crime, blight, and corruption of Los Angeles will be worse. The Mexican school curriculum, yes the federal government of Mexico's School Curriculum, will be taught in "Villaraigosa" schools. Hey, why do you think that Valley schools will not participate and Superintendent David Brewer won't divulge details?

October 28, 2007 8:13 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Mayor Jim Hahn selected Bratton after the police commission followed the city charter and forwarded him three names: Oxnard Chief Art Lopez, Philadelphia chief John Timoney, and Bratton. Hahn personally interviewed all three finalists, and selected Bratton. Most speculation at the time predicted Hahn would not choose Bratton because Hahn would be jealous of Bratton's stardom, just like Rudy was in New York. Hahn was the only hands-on mayor of the last three, so stop re-writing history.

October 29, 2007 10:13 AM  

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