After lying low for two months and two days in its hard-edged campaign to drive Chief Don Pedersen out of town, anywhere, the police union is scheduled to splash the perceived strongest punch remaining in its arsenal tomorrow, a charge that crime is on the rise in Culver City directly because of Mr. Pedersen’s policies.
Moving more slowly than expected after starting out with sock, the union, hoping for a spot of momentum, has surrendered the element of surprise. The other side was first. The chief and his allies have been publicly predicting this precise “crime is up all around Culver City, and it’s his fault” strategy since shortly after the rebellious officers went public in July with their uprising agenda. (See www.culvercitypolice.com)
“It is the most obvious card to play,” said a Pedersen backer.
The effectiveness of the banner attempt already is in doubt. A City Hall personality said the union’s prolonged invisibility might have been a tactical blunder. “I have not seen their statement,” he said. “But if it isn’t heftier than their list of charges against the chief during the summer, I may yawn.”
Instead of opening with a blinding blizzard of eye-catching, market-tested punches that have worked in other law enforcement ouster settings, the union enigmatically threw one punch and sat down.
The hoped-for explosion of support from across Culver City never materialized. As the union puzzlingly slipped out of view, their campaign resembled a snow-sphere rolling through the afterlife, smothered by a blanket of unpersuaded silence.
“Just because we have not been doing any media does not mean that nothing has been happening,” said a union spokesperson before declining to elaborate.
His comments came after an unconfirmed report that a woman officer has filed “a kind of harassment” charge against the police chief. Human Resources Director Serena Wright appeared to scotch the story. “I am not aware of a complaint against the chief,” she told the newspaper.
Stung by the lack of an anticipated groundswell of communal support after blasting the fifth-year chief with full-page newspaper advertisements on July 21, the grittily determined five-member board of the Police Officers Assn. hopes this declaration will reignite their engine.
A Councilman with Doubts
At City Hall this afternoon, though, the talk was of seeing the same movie for the second or third time.
Mr. Pedersen has said privately and publicly that he is not going anywhere, that when he steps down as chief, it will be at a time of his choosing, not after nudging from rebel officers. His superiors seem to agree.
Last heard from, the City Council, Mr. Pedersen’s five bosses, had locked arms in unanimous support.
Councilmember Andy Weissman is skeptical of the POA’s claims.
“You can do anything you want with statistics,” he said.
“I don’t believe there is a rise in crime. I have not seen any comparisons. How does one assert there is a rise in crime? I don’t know what they are comparing their numbers with. I don’t know how you can assert there is a rise unless they are claiming something about 1972 and contrasting it with now.
“There are categories of crimes. I am not sure you can do an objective analysis. If you take, say, armed robberies that occurred in a certain year and those for this year, you can probably say there was an average of 9 a month in 1992 and 10.7 per month in 2010.
“From that,” Mr. Weissman said with irony rather than conviction, “you can conclude there is a rise in crime.”
