First of two parts
Fighting back as he has consistently vowed he would, Police Chief Don Pedersen delivered an unusually icy response this morning to the police union leaders who are hoping to get him fired by warning the community that violent crime is rising — and the chief’s “weak” leadership is to blame.
Adroitly, the chief quickly reversed their critique of him, kicking their blistering criticism of him right back into the laps of the union.
Tut-tutting his taunters, Mr. Pedersen suggested that it may be the complainers themselves who are at fault if the crime-increase is reaching worry levels — which his enemies maintain it is, an assertion with which he virulently disagrees.
His views were noteworthy and unusual. There have been virtually no direct confrontations through the 11 months that the board of the Police Officers Assn. has been trying to force his resignation, or to convince the City Council to can him.
Certainly there have been none this public.
“As a veteran of the Police Dept.,” Mr. Pedersen calmly told the newspaper after the latest attack, “if crime is increasing in the city, the police officers out there ought to be taking some responsibility for that.”
A faint smile almost was detected in his voice as he added, “I don’t think you can say the chief is responsible for crime in that particular sense.”
How should officers show increased responsibility?
“They should be more attentive to their duty, perhaps,” the chief said. “They should be more responsible for the actions of the criminal element here in the city.”
It was with a wry look on his face that Mr. Pedersen consumed all 2,255 words of yesterday’s heavily trumpeted press release (culvercitypolice.com)
For the first time since the rebellion driven by five officers began last winter, Mr. Pedersen publicly talked back to a direct accusation.
The union’s lengthy, rambling, sometimes-ambiguous press release purported to prove to a skeptical, non-supportive community that it is the chief’s fault Culver City sustained three more robberies than Santa Monica last month and four more than Burbank.
Banking on one month’s worthy of tiny numbers apparently is the strongest accusation the union has to bring.
Such an assessment includes one mild caveat.
Curiously, in comparing last month’s robbery numbers in relatively similar nearby communities, the union only identified the exact numbers in towns where there were fewer August robberies. They refused to identify the precise totals in cities where they acknowledged there was more crime than Culver City, namely Pasadena, Gardena and Glendale.
The press release was the union’s first public pronouncement since going dark after firing a first round of charges two months ago, on July 21.
With virtually no evidence of communal backing of their fairly amorphous charges, the police union was hoping to build the drama to a deafening level in its uneven drive, accompanied yesterday by a clap of thunder and the rolling of tympani drums.
(To be continued)
