After the death of former LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner, accusation of corruption has reared its head lately, and it appears that the LAPD Command Staff is in the middle of this political brouhaha, leading all the way up to the Mayor's Office. Excessive punishment, depending on the rank and in some cases, ethnicity of the officer. But one thing for sure, if you're a commanding officer, your job is spared...and this may be the reason why Dorner died.

In the past, the LAPD was an autonomous city government organization. The City Hall had little say what form of punishment the LAPD could dole out on their officers. After the Rodney King incident, the people voted to hand the LAPD to the City Hall and that's when the problem started. The image of the LAPD had to coincide with the City Hall and any form of malfeasance or accusation of malfeasance was treated all the same. Example, if a mentally ill person said that an officer smashed their UFO with their patrol car but the officer was in roll call, the officer had to answer to the complaint (lot #1.28). Do the same for a commanding officer, and the same 1.28 form is thrown away in the trash can.The 1.28 was created when former chief Bernard Parks became chief and wanted to clean house.

Fast forward to today. According to L.A. Downtown News, senior lead officers Earl Wright, Mike Fernandez and Marie Kardiban filed a complaint against three officers: Tim Nambu, Randall McCain, Ken Lew and Sergeant Pete Foster for racism and sexual harassment. Foster was the only person who was fired while the other three officers lost their rank and were transferred out of Central Division in downtown Los Angeles.

Also, according to court documents, Wright filed for bankruptcy about the same time he filed the harassment accusation. And according to official LAPD documents, which are public record, Fernandez's comments in his Internal Affairs and Board Of Rights hearing, which are under oath, conflicts with the civil court hearing currently in progress.

During the court hearing, Wright accused Foster of trying to coerce him about lying to the Captain about a text sent to Wright. Yet under oath, at the Internal Affairs Office and Board Of Rights meeting, which is documented, Fernandez stated on the record and under oath that Foster did not tell Wright to lie about the text.Yet at the court hearing under oath, Fernandez said that Foster told Wright to not say a word.

So why the coverup? From researching reams of files about the case, officer(s), off the record told me that the current Chief Charlie Beck ordered the commanders in charge to fire anyone who fails their Board Of Rights hearing. There is also a tape of Beck confirming this. Yet according to my human resources professor, unless there is a law separating civilians from government workers and unless the conviction is blatant, there are steps to correct the incident. The steps are:

1. Verbal warning
2. Written warning
3. Days off
4. Demotions?
5. Firing

According to LAPD records, the city may be violating federal and state labor laws for firing Foster. If the city followed proper protocols, Foster SHOULD have been demoted and have days off.

So is this what Dorner was talking about in his manifesto when he spoke about how there is a two-tiered system of justice for rank-and-file vs. command staff? If the same thing happened to a commanding officer, would they have been demoted or fired? No, not according to:

LAPD command staff under fire in wake of $38 million in harassment, discrimination payouts
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_19275067

"I have a running joke," said attorney Gregory Smith, who has filed about 50 lawsuits on behalf of officers against the Los Angeles Police Department.

"If I sue a supervisor, they're going to get promoted within the next six months. Why that happens is anybody's guess." 

Oh and how powerful is the mayor's control over the LAPD? I got word that LAPD's DHD (Detective Headquarters Division) was investigating the bank fraud back in 2008, but the mayor's office quashed it because, most of his donation came from the same people the LAPD was investigating.