Question: In the United States, who can commit heinous crimes and never go to jail?
Answer: Wall Street bankers and their system’s storm troopers, the police.
The Los Angeles Police Department is getting justified heat lately for its officer “discipline” policy. The policy has allowed police officers to receive nothing more than a warning for driving drunk, domestic violence, excessive force, false imprisonment and hate speech, among other crimes.
The policy is centered on giving cops “conditional official reprimands” for criminal behavior. These can be more accurately termed “get out of jail free” cards. Here’s how they work: a cop brutalizes or tazes someone without cause; that cop will then have an “extensive discussion” with the police brass, where the cop is supposed to explain the ways that their criminal behavior has affected their “mission” to protect the city. That is it.
Essentially, under this policy, police commit crimes and then get a warning that another offense of the same type could lead to more serious consequences in the future.
The old LAPD policy focused on punishment and would usually mean multiple successive suspensions without pay. So, the LAPD has moved to a policy that ensures even less accountability for police crimes against people. To justify the policy, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and the inventor of the policy, Deputy Chief Mark Perez, have declared that punishment is not a deterrent to misconduct.
Deputy Perez even told the Los Angeles Police Commission: “We have to lead as if we’re going to progress past just punishing people and expecting that to get anything done.”
If this is really how the city’s top cops feel, should they not employ equally lenient policies when it comes to working-class people who they deem to be “criminals?”
Not under this system.
Instead, cops commit crimes and have a discussion about them, while they arrest working people for doing some of the same things—or nothing at all. Then, those arrested get sentenced to months or years in overcrowded jails.
It seems that the theory of punishment not deterring misconduct is only good enough for the protectors of capitalism, not their victims. Workers get zero tolerance, while cops get a slap on the wrist.
Consider these statistics: In 2009, the most recent year that statistics were published, the LAPD made 140,212 adult arrests and 26,294 juvenile arrests. Of the adults arrested, 92,878 were charged with misdemeanor offenses and 23,873 were charged with felonies—all of these workers being forced into the court system in one way or another, facing exorbitant fines and prison time. Those arrested have one thing in common—none received a “conditional official reprimand” or anything remotely like it.
No punishment at all
The LAPD began using “conditional official reprimands” in 2008. That year, it issued 14 reprimands. In 2010, the LAPD issued 109 reprimands to officers for everything ranging from drunk driving to domestic violence and use of excessive force. This is more than a 700 percent increase in the use of reprimands.
The spike in usage of the “get out of jail free” cards has even elicited a response from the usually toothless and compliant Los Angeles Police Commission, a supposed oversight body. The Police Commission has overlooked LAPD brutality time and time again, including last year’s police killing of Manuel Jamines, a Guatemalan day laborer.
The Police Commission, however, expressed concern over the reprimands given to 22 officers for DUI, six for domestic violence, two for unauthorized use of force and four for false imprisonment. In one case, Chief Beck himself reprimanded a supervising sergeant who shouted racist slurs at a crime scene. The reprimand included vague language about “real punishment” if the sergeant was caught being overtly racist again. In any other workplace, racist slurs and hate speech would justifiably be met with immediate termination.
As if LAPD leniency wasn’t enough, the new policy has no guidelines. That is just how they want it. Responding to criticisms about the lack of guidelines, Chief Beck stated: “We don’t want to tie our hands. We need to be able to be flexible.” Beck also made it clear that decisions regarding discipline lie solely with him and that any attempt to create rules or oversight surrounding the use of reprimands would be resisted by the LAPD.
In other words, the cops are determined to prevent any form of accountability for their criminal behavior.
Mass movement needed
The new LAPD officer reprimand policy is an outrage. It sets no standards for the cops, puts them in charge of ensuring accountability and is hypocritical in all ways. This policy, along with all reactionary police policies, can be pushed back by the people.
A mass movement to hold police accountable is needed now more than ever before. The people must respond to every criminal act perpetrated by the police against workers and the poor.
Our main demand should be for community control over the police. From Los Angeles to New York City, we need local elected, all-civilian control boards with the power to discipline officers for breaches of department policy or violations of law. The police must answer to the people, not the other way around.
But to realize community control, building working-class consciousness is necessary. To do away with police misconduct once and for all, the role of police under capitalism must be laid bare.
Capitalism positions police as the enforcers for the rich. They are the protectors of the Wall Street bankers, the oil tycoons and the monopoly capitalists, who own everything in our society. The police work for them. They are well paid to stand firmly between the “haves” and “have-nots”—and have their batons on the necks of the “have-nots” at all times.
Police are used to oppress Black and Latino youth, immigrant workers, LGBT people and the poor. They are hired by the capitalists to beat strikers on the picket lines and utilized to disrupt the activities of social justice organizations and revolutionary political parties. But these crimes are considered legal—none would even elicit a “conditional official reprimand” because, for the cops, they are just part of the job.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is working to build a movement for police accountability and against police violence and terror. Around the country, the PSL has mobilized to defend the Jena 6, the Palmdale 4, the Irvine 11, Jeremy Marks and many others from racist police frame-ups. The PSL has fought to demand justice for Kenny Lazo, Chuniece Patterson, Raul Pinet, Doug Zerby, Jordan Miles, Manuel Jamines, Oscar Grant, and all victims of police violence.
Wherever the police attack the working class, the people must fight back. The PSL will continue to be at the forefront of these struggles.
