There's something about cops that's always intriguing: They think that 2 plus 2 always equals 4, well almost always. It's that just the facts, M'am, literal-mindedness they need to turn hard evidence into theories of crimes and nail suspects.
A case in point is the appointment of Charlie Beck as Chief of Police.
Now Beck is a street cop, popular with the troops, immensely likeable and off to a great start in wooing the concerned citizens who are showing up at meetings all around the city for meet-and-greets accompanied by the mayor himself who continues to wear his imaginary LAPD badge as a fig leaf over his administration's many failings.
But for some in the upper ranks of the LAPD and others with insider's knowledge of how the process worked, the selection of Beck as Chief doesn't add up
Even by the standards of how Bratton (with leverage from insiders) and Willie Williams (with grade inflation on oral interviews to boost his low scores) got to be in charge of the LAPD, the selection of Beck seemed like a "screwball" process.
Some facts stand out immediately.
There was no nationwide search by a headhunting firm as has been the practice (and is being done to find someone to run the DWP) and it only took a month or so to pick the next chief based on a couple of interviews each with the mayor.
Bratton indicated for months that Beck was his favorite and made it perfectly clear in the end that the Chief of Detectives was his first and only choice for a successor.
His top cronies from the Police Executive Research Forum, Chuck Wexler and Miami Chief John Timoney, formerly chief in Philadelphia, also apparently weighed in with their own advice to help Beck move up the list where he ranked well below a host of other candidates based on overall command experience.
Timoney slipped into LA late in the process and met with commissioners with the story being put out that he was applying for the job. Yet, he didn't make the cut despite credentials far more impressive than any of the LAPD candidates, raising suspicions he wasn't there as a candidate but as an adviser.
What supposedly happened in this curtailed process without clear requirements set down in advance for the job, itself extraordinary for such an important post, was that dark horse Michel Moore, who wasn't on anybody's short list, came out at the top of the finalists' list Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, Bratton's well-liked No. 2, coming in second.
With two white guys at the top of the list and a couple of women deputy chiefs and Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger, who is black, in the running, Beck still jumped over all of them to reportedly complete the list of three submitted to the mayor.
In the minds of some in the know, with no offense to Beck, it just doesn't add up.
The whispers among insiders is that Beck really didn't make the list of three but was inserted into the third spot when the commission was confronted with the knowledge that the situation could turn into a controversy instead of a coronation because the mayor already had agreed to follow Bratton's advice.
A case in point is the appointment of Charlie Beck as Chief of Police.
Now Beck is a street cop, popular with the troops, immensely likeable and off to a great start in wooing the concerned citizens who are showing up at meetings all around the city for meet-and-greets accompanied by the mayor himself who continues to wear his imaginary LAPD badge as a fig leaf over his administration's many failings.
But for some in the upper ranks of the LAPD and others with insider's knowledge of how the process worked, the selection of Beck as Chief doesn't add up
Even by the standards of how Bratton (with leverage from insiders) and Willie Williams (with grade inflation on oral interviews to boost his low scores) got to be in charge of the LAPD, the selection of Beck seemed like a "screwball" process.
Some facts stand out immediately.
There was no nationwide search by a headhunting firm as has been the practice (and is being done to find someone to run the DWP) and it only took a month or so to pick the next chief based on a couple of interviews each with the mayor.
Bratton indicated for months that Beck was his favorite and made it perfectly clear in the end that the Chief of Detectives was his first and only choice for a successor.
His top cronies from the Police Executive Research Forum, Chuck Wexler and Miami Chief John Timoney, formerly chief in Philadelphia, also apparently weighed in with their own advice to help Beck move up the list where he ranked well below a host of other candidates based on overall command experience.
Timoney slipped into LA late in the process and met with commissioners with the story being put out that he was applying for the job. Yet, he didn't make the cut despite credentials far more impressive than any of the LAPD candidates, raising suspicions he wasn't there as a candidate but as an adviser.
What supposedly happened in this curtailed process without clear requirements set down in advance for the job, itself extraordinary for such an important post, was that dark horse Michel Moore, who wasn't on anybody's short list, came out at the top of the finalists' list Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, Bratton's well-liked No. 2, coming in second.
With two white guys at the top of the list and a couple of women deputy chiefs and Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger, who is black, in the running, Beck still jumped over all of them to reportedly complete the list of three submitted to the mayor.
In the minds of some in the know, with no offense to Beck, it just doesn't add up.
The whispers among insiders is that Beck really didn't make the list of three but was inserted into the third spot when the commission was confronted with the knowledge that the situation could turn into a controversy instead of a coronation because the mayor already had agreed to follow Bratton's advice.
Continue reading Some Things Just Don't Add Up About Selecting the New LAPD Chief.
Ron Kaye