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Is a SWAT Team the Place to Get PC?
The selection process for the LAPD's top-notch SWAT team is being adjusted to bring in women — and the brass don't want to hear any objections to their affirmative action decision.
There are days when a cop looks around at the state of affairs in the Los Angeles Police Department and asks himself, “Does anyone have the decency to be embarrassed by this?” Those who toil in the lower ranks of the LAPD, those who go out on the streets and do the work the public expects cops to do, those who must bear the consequences of whatever misguided policies are thrust upon them by others far removed from the grit and tumult of real police work, very often have cause to look at some new edict handed down and wonder what on Earth their superiors might have been thinking when they dreamed it up.
The latest cause for befuddlement among the troops is the controversy surrounding the LAPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team (discussed previously here, on National Review Online). More precisely, the controversy concerns the manner in which candidates are selected for placement on the SWAT roster. Until very recently, those applying for such a position were run through a five-day series of drills that tested their physical fitness, weapons-handling abilities, judgment, adaptability, and leadership. This selection process had been in place for twenty years and had produced what arguably has been the finest such police unit in America.
If at this point the reader is asking himself why any changes to this process were required, he is unfamiliar with the political climate here in Los Angeles, where good intentions carry greater weight than the actual consequences of any given policy. Until now, you see, no female police officer has succeeded in making the SWAT team, a fact that LAPD Chief William Bratton cannot abide.
“I would like to see women in every part of the Los Angeles Police Department and fully expect that we will see women on the SWAT unit,” Bratton told reporters last week. “We have women fighting in our armed forces in Iraq, we have women in every other walk of life, and women will in fact have the opportunity in this department to serve in any capacity. I am committed to that.”
Fine. Having women on the SWAT team is surely an issue worthy of public debate, and in 2008 there are many who would consider an all-male police unit an anachronism. But debate of any kind on the subject is what Bratton has sought to avoid, and he has promised – in very colorful and cinematic terms – to punish anyone on the LAPD who expresses dissent from his approved way of thinking.
Back in August 2005, Bratton commissioned a panel of so-called experts to examine an incident in which a 19-month-old girl was killed by police gunfire. The girl was being used as a shield by her drug-crazed father, who fired at the police officers trying to rescue her. Though the commission, known as a Board of Inquiry, was established to some public fanfare, the report they completed was kept secret for more than a year until Robert C.J. Parry, a former Army National Guard infantry officer who served in Iraq, obtained a copy and wrote about it in the Los Angeles Times. The report was later obtained by Los Angeles radio station KFI, who posted it on their website.
It is now clear that the report was merely a pretext to justify the modified selection process that will presumably allow at least one of the two women now applying for the SWAT team to succeed. Bratton obviously hoped that none of this would come to light until a woman had been named to the team, at which time he would bask in the fawning attention of his friends in the media, none of whom would have delved too deeply into how this result came to pass. The unfortunate irony is that one of those women, a much-respected officer in the elite Metropolitan Division (of which SWAT is a part), would very likely have succeeded under the former selection process. She was injured while trying out two years ago but has since recovered. If she is appointed to the SWAT team under the present circumstances, she will bear the stigma of having done so under conditions that were less challenging than those her more tenured peers were subjected to.
If indeed the Board of Inquiry had been interested in a true comparison of LAPD’s SWAT team to those in other cities, they might have consulted with Dr. David Klinger, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and author of the book Into the Kill Zone, a Cop’s Eye View of Deadly Force. In 2000, Klinger published what remains the only National Institute of Justice-funded study of American SWAT teams. “By any objective measure,” Klinger told me, “the LAPD’s SWAT team is one of the most effective in the country.” Members of the Board were made aware of Klinger’s research, yet they made no effort to contact him or include his findings in their report.
Since Bratton’s plan was exposed, he has busied himself in denouncing anyone who dares to question the changes to the SWAT selection process, going so far as to threaten current team members with transfers if they are caught speaking out against them. Incredibly, he drew a comparison to the film “The Godfather” when discussing his plan for retribution against his critics. “You’re all familiar with ‘The Godfather’ movie” he told reporters, “and throughout most of the movie the Corleones are getting banged around pretty good and then Michael makes a statement that all debts will be settled. And at the end of the movie, all debts are settled in a very bloody way . . . I’m more than willing to take the slings and arrows for a couple more weeks, but like Michael Corleone, I’ll get my time.”
Well now.
A very interesting choice of words. LAPD officers are now expected, evidently, to subscribe to Bratton’s very own code of omerta or risk some very unpleasant consequences. Chief Bratton may wish otherwise, but unlike members of the Mafia, police officers enjoy all the rights accorded by the First Amendment, most especially when addressing matters of public policy. Speaking on behalf of my colleagues, I can promise that any attempt to abridge those rights will be most vigorously opposed.
But in the meantime, if I see Chief Bratton carrying a violin case, I’m going to run.
“Jack Dunphy” is the pseudonym of an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
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9 Comments
1. I. M. Copper:“Does anyone have the decency to be embarrassed by this?”
Oh, I love it! This is great! Obviously there are many officers, to include me, that are embarrassed by this latest Bratton initiative to weaken another entity of the LAPD. Most likely Bratton’s people are not embarrassed by this latest decision to “wussify” the police department.
The Chief and the Department’s management team – notice I did not write leadership-do not have to concern themselves with decency when all they have to do is wrap themselves in the warm, politically correct blanket of cultural and racial diversity. Those who argue against this particular Chief Bratton initiative of lowering physical standards for incoming SWAT officers risk the label of pariah, sexist, or racist. Not to mention the alreay overt threat of his “Godfather” quote by using the Department’s disciplinary system against all who oppose the Bratton Family. Watch out Vito!
Could it be more obvious that Bratton is a capable politician? He certainly is, but a leader of men and women he is not.
Too bad for Bratton and the Board of Inquiry that the death of a great man, Police Officer III+I Randy Simmons, and the severe injury of another, Police Officer III+I Jim Veenstra, exposed so much positive light on the great deeds and overwhelming sacrifices the men of SWAT make daily for the citizens of Los Angeles. Those sacrifices and great deeds have really played hell, at least temporarily, with Mr. Bratton’s political ambitions for the next Democratic presidential administration. Sorry Chief!
I. M. Copper
Mar 26, 2008 - 10:54 am 2. I. M. Citizen:The consequences of this won’t be seen for sometime, probably years before some under qualified SWAT team member screws up and gets her, some innocent civilian or one of her team killed. But, just like the fire department you’ll never hear about any of it because most of the media will focus on the “tragedy” of the event not on the fact that it could have been prevented by actually putting the best people for the job in that position.
I am, on the other hand, somewhat conflicted since I am opposed to the way most SWAT teams are used now days. Taking out some drug-crazed dude that’s using his kid as a shield is what the SWAT team was invented for. Unfortunately, the use of SWAT teams nation wide to serve search warrants has moved us one step more to a police state type totalitarian society and resulted in the deaths of many innocent people that had no expectation that their home was going to be invaded at 3 AM by a bunch of armed masked men (or women as the case may be). And since that is what most SWAT teams appear to be used for (at least on Cops and other TV shows) why not let women have some of the fun breaking down doors to arrest some kid with a couple of joints in his possession? Just let the guys handle the battering ram and it’ll be alright.
Mar 26, 2008 - 1:08 pm 3. Big Bill:IM Citizen is right. You won’t see the resutls for years. How long did it take you to notice California K-12 going from number 1 to number 47? We all know the reason: the raw material you have to work with. Your hospitals and ER’s are shutting down. Your friends are building in gated neighborhoods. Your power plants have more blackouts. Americans who want first world service have been leaving for years and years. The ones replacing them have what you might call “lower expectations”.
Look, it’s just like South Africa. Lots of big dreams and big talk, but after 14 years the roads suck, the power grid is shutting down, people have barbed wire around their houses, floodlights and alarm services, and chat about household generators. Clean water is disappearing as wastewater plants crumble, TB is taking hold, and dysentery is right around the corner.
You are doing the third world shuffle. You cannot expect Mexicans, Asians, women and blacks to want the best service if they don’t get the jobs and call the shots.
Your choice is simple. Just ask yourself, “do I want to stick around as California slides into the third world, or do I want to go to a better place where my kids will have a chance?” If you are old, you have to balance that against the chance that you will forfeit your pension and seniority and maybe never get your old job back. Then again, (and I know you are thinking this), does it really look like your pension will be there when you retire?
In South Africa, white folks face the same question every day. Do I want to go down with the country, or do I want to move? It’s really no different for you.
Mar 26, 2008 - 4:08 pm 4. Escaped From LA:As a proud California Native I’m appalled at Bratton’s actions. Women on the SWAT team is fine, there are many fine capable female officers serving on tactical teams around the nation. A 19 year old female Army Spc was just awarded the Silver Star for heroism under fire while serving as a medic in Afghanistan and a female Sgt was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry under fire during an ambush in Iraq in 2005.
The issue at hand is the pathetically obvious pollitcal pandering by Bratton. His actions are an insult to women, not an assistance. Sorry ladies your sex is too inferior to serve on SWAT so we must lower our standards to help you.
Bratton you make me sick.
I’m glad I’m no longer a resident of Southern California.
Mar 28, 2008 - 3:36 am 5. true fred:once again our nations greatest enemy “political correctness” rears it’s ugly head. this time it is politician bratton who is guilty as sin. we all know the truth. shame on you mr bratton. you want this gesture to engraciate you with female voters but you are turning off the entire police force, anyone who values free speech and anyone with a brain. bad move.
Mar 28, 2008 - 10:56 am 6. gnubi:Random thoughts…
The ones who will suffer most are the men on the SWAT. They’ll break down the doors, they’ll be the first ones through, they’ll get all risk all the time without rotation. After the action, on the news it’ll look like the women did it all by themselves.
Take the firemen and the fireladies. When women couldn’t demonstrate the necessary strength to pass the original test (one that many men failed) they changed the test. And if you film a training exercise that proves it, kiss that career bye-bye.
A fireman has got to wonder when he looks over at the little firefighter next to him, “Is she gonna be able to drag my unconscious flaming butt out of this place if it comes to that?”
Too bad we haven’t figured out a way evaluate people for jobs without knowing their age, sex, religious affiliation, etc.
I agree that one of the reasons that the state is falling apart is because we aren’t putting the best people in important jobs. Taxpayers are stuck with incompetent services AND the lawsuits that will inevitably erupt.
LMAO every time I see the SFPD chief on TV. At least I think she’s still the chief. Or maybe she’s on RENO 911 now….
Mar 28, 2008 - 7:43 pm 7. john galt:i attended a high school basketball playoff game at Taft HS a few weeks back, and the LAPD officers there were one male officer who looked like he could take care of himself and two female officers who might have been six feet tall if stacked on top of each other. okay, a bit of an exagerration, they wouldn’t have been six feet tall if stacked together… but what isn’t an exagerration is that there was nobody in the arena, except children under ten years of age, who were the same size as those women… and they were there for crowd control? good luck, sweetheart. if anything had happened, you would have gotten tossed over a car.
and now the LAPD has decided to put midgets and fairies on the SWAT team… how refreshing… how encouraging to know that someone that half the population can toss like a frisbee is our ace in the hole when trouble starts.
living in LA is a kick…
we just had the Los Angeles Marathon, where they started the female runner three days before the men started, then declared her the winner when none of the men could catch up to her. what most people couldn’t understand is why they started the men before the women finished? you’re playing with the narrative if there’s more than three seconds on the clock, ladies.
i’m just saying….
i’m waiting for the day when the oakland raiders come back to los angeles, and then are required to have some 4×4 buttercup play offensive tackle for them. it’ll be a big advantage, because the other teams will have to strap a piano on the back of the male defensive lineman opposing her, and he will be required to count to three before rushing the passer. it’ll put a whole new dimension into the game…. i could see madelaine albright making all-pro…
all joking aside, are you kidding me, bratton?
wake me when it’s over…
Mar 29, 2008 - 12:17 am 8. Clark Baker:Because the LAPD has lowered standards since the 1980s, it’s not surprising that the prostitutes and gang members recruited into LAPD ranks have replaced the former pool of exceptional candidates.
Thirty years ago, most officers would have attended the LAPD Academy for free. Today, LA issues bonuses to officers for not dropping out – a sure sign of the LAPD’s current mediocrity.
To fill SWAT ranks today, the LAPD must select from the gangsters, cocaine users, and former prostitutes who now patrol our streets.
(LAPD Retired)
Apr 4, 2008 - 4:29 pm 9. Luca Brasi:It’s mildly amusing to hear Mr. Police himself, Billy Bratton, the tough kid from Dorchester, paraphrase a classic movie and use some of its dialogue to subsidize another foolhardy venture by making a tacit threat against anyone who may have the gall to enagage in discourse against an LAPD policy. If that’s the case, bear in mind Paul to the Corinthians when the Lord made it clear, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay all debts.” Instead of throwing down the gauntlet, Mr. Chief, why not consider listening to the troops; after all most of them have been real LAPD a hell of a lot longer than you. Recall what the Don said to Santino: Don’t ever tell anyone outside of the family what you’ thinking.”
Jul 24, 2008 - 6:27 pm