Previously, ‘Responding to Our Columnist: What It’s Like to Walk in a Cop’s Boots’
In my response on Wednesday to Jessica Gadsden, I talked about police departments that are motivated to ignore wrongdoing or crimes committed by their officers because they want to preserve the purity of their image.
We don't want to look bad, they say.
Take the current case of LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus. She was recently arrested and charged with murdering a woman 23 years ago. It has been a front-page story ever since. A four-column picture of her in a bright orange jailhouse jumpsuit was on Page 1 of yesterday’s Los Angeles Times.
This sounds like the old Culver City story, to me.
Police officer commits crime.
People know he/she committed crime, or there is strong evidence to suggest the officer is guilty.
No one at the police department investigates, however.
If you investigate, you may discover one of your own committed a crime.
Now how would that look?
The police chief gets a letter about police officers committing crimes. But nothing is done. Life goes on.
I congratulate the LAPD and their detectives who uncovered this old cold case allegedly involving Det. Lazarus.
The old saying about the evidence or suspect being right under your nose the whole time applies here.
Maybe the LAPD is ready to police itself after all of these years and get out from under the consent decree that was imposed nine years ago.
Maybe someday the Culver City Police Dept. will be able to police itself again.
Or perhaps they will continue to ignore and cover up their problems.
Greg Smith, a retired Culver City police officer, may be contacted at scsinternationalinvestigations.com
