LA voters, and Nithya Raman, should listen to top cops warning

When former LA Police Department (LAPD) chief Bill Bratton talks, people in LA listen. So when Bratton says Nithya Raman would be making a terrible mistake if she were to follow through on her campaign pledge to fire current LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, that ought to count.Angelenos remember Bratton as the man who cleaned up the LAPD and repaired its relationship with the African-American community.Bratton took the extraordinary step of reaching out to Connie Rice, one of the department’s most vociferous critics, and enlisting her to help reform the department.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story The results were astonishing. The LAPD moved toward “community policing” — not Raman’s unarmed “alternatives” to police, but rather a police force that took part in the everyday lives of the people that it was assigned to protect.The LAPD also became more diverse, and more reflective of the city it serves.Even though LA, like other big cities, exploded in anti-police riots in 2020, in a way, much of the work of reform had already been done.Bratton has also been the commissioner of police in Boston and New York.In both cities, he oversaw improvements in public safety.

He is probably the nation’s most highly regarded authority on policing.Raman has flip-flopped on the issue — a fact that came up in the last mayoral debate.But she has never recanted her stated desire to see McDonnell leave ASAP.Bratton, who worked alongside McDonnell for years at the LAPD, told The California Post that replacing McDonnell before his term ends in 2030 would be a disaster.“I can almost predict with certainty… that you will see a potential mass exodus from the LAPD with that type of political posturing and political drama,” he said.He also noted that Raman’s rumored pi...