Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, reacting to outcries about his deputies being too quick on the draw, is instituting a new policy designed to reduce the number of people getting shot by LASO.
If it has a stripe like a skunk, if it lifts its tail like a skunk, and if it stinks like a skunk, it must be Lee Baca. Pepe LePew Baca has no credibility with me. This is the guy whose department consistently shows favoritism to Hollywood celebrities.
After only 72 hours of confinement, Baca released Paris Hilton from a 45-day jail sentence with an electronic monitoring bracelet to detention in her family's multi-million dollar Hollywood Hills mansion. After an angry judge ordered her re-jailed, Baca gave Hilton special visiting priveleges. He also released actress Michelle Rodriguez, former star of ABC's Lost, from jail after she served less than one day of a 60 day sentence.
And this is the guy whose department tried to cover up his personal friend Mel Gibson's rant against Jews during a drunk driving arrest. He and/or his commanders ordered the arresting deputy to sanitize the arrest by rewriting the initial report, deleting all references to Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst.
As for Baca’s new policy, it doesn’t appear to be much different from the previous confrontation policy. The new policy seems deliberately vague and looks like a ‘cover your ass’ ploy which makes it easy for Pepe LePew to fault his officers. His claim that the policy was designed to “keep deputies from placing themselves in harm's way” is a big joke. Baca’s new policy is nothing more than an attempt to avoid civil liability in LASO shooting cases and the panel of experts who wrote it appear to be little more than ass kissers.
SHERIFF BACA TO ANNOUCE NEW POLICY MEANT TO REDUCE VIOLENT CONFRONTATTIONS BETWEEN DEPUTIES, SUSPECTS
By Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein
The Los Angeles Times
February 17, 2010
In response to an increase in fatal shootings by L.A. County sheriff's deputies, Sheriff Lee Baca today will announce a revised policy aimed at reducing violent confrontations between deputies and suspects.
Under the new policy, deputies will be encouraged to contain suspects and wait for back up rather than immediately confronting and attempting to arrest them.
"When dealing with a perceived armed suspect, sworn members shall be cautiously persistent in performing their duties," the policy states. "Consistent with this philosophy, while every situation is not absolute, in many cases, it may be safer to chase to contain rather than chase to apprehend."
The policy change is important because it is a key factor in how the department decides whether a deputy acted appropriately during a shooting. Deputies fatally shot 16 people in 2009 compared to nine in 2008.
The new containment approach stems from an expert panel Baca convened in September to address what deputies should do if a person they believe is armed runs from them.
That panel of veteran training officers was convened after a series of much-publicized deputy-involved shootings during chases. One of those killings involved a deputy shooting a 36-year unarmed man through a gate during a foot pursuit.
The man, it was later learned, was not the robbery suspect deputies were seeking. The new deadly-force policy will be announced later today by Baca.
According to a copy of the proposed policy change, it is intended to keep deputies from placing themselves in harm's way or putting anyone else in jeopardy.
1 comment:
Like Sheriff Bacca, Mr. Tehrune, the Director of the California Department of Corrections changed our shooting policy. This was back in the late 90's.
The "new" shooting policy was essentially the same as the old one....just phrased a little differently, so nothing actually changed.
But it sure looked good (at least to those who didn't know any better) that he changed it.
He was considerd by the uninformed to have made a real difference...
God save us from the Bureaucrats...
Post a Comment