Letters to the Editor

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and have been a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney for over 21 years. I write this letter in my individual capacity.

 

Having worked hundreds of prosecutions, many of them murders, with the fine men and women of the LAPD, I found Mr. Golab’s article on the decline of L.A.’s police force (“How Racial P.C. Corrupted the LAPD,” June) to be absolutely accurate. He captured the true spirit of the grave problem in Los Angeles with sub-standard hiring (and promotional practices) of police officers. Political correctness has cost local citizens numerous lives and millions of dollars.

 

In one case I handled, a Latino patrol officer with the LAPD was charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend and assaulting her. In looking into his background, I learned he was hired with the LAPD’s knowledge of his prior criminal conviction—for battery on a peace officer. This small example, along with those cited by Mr. Golab, paints a truly scary situation.

 

Scot Carbaugh

Los Angeles, California

 

 

I was an L.A. cop from 1980-2000. Much of what Jan Golab writes has been told to Los Angeles Times reporters for 20 years. The Times clearly collaborated with local politicians in creating today’s mess.

 

One more example of political correctness: Female LAPD officers comprise roughly 12 percent of LAPD’s uniformed officers, yet that 12 percent generate roughly 60 percent of LAPD’s excessive force lawsuits. Women use greater force more often than their male counterparts when put on the streets as police officers, yet the LAPD, politicians, and the press never discuss it. Prosecutors have not pursued a single female officer in L.A. during the past 25 years despite this data.

 

Clark Baker

Los Angeles, California

 

 

I just retired as a Background Investigator in Los Angeles, and I can tell you that Jan Golab’s account of the LAPD and political correctness is very much on target. A white male with a perfect score is not a “viable” candidate. A minority can get 60 on the written test and still be selected. The Background Unit is demoralized and sickened by what has happened to our beloved police department.

 

Name Withheld

Oxnard, California

 

 

I appreciate your article on P.C. and the LAPD. Political correctness is a lethal epidemic—it permeates our entire society in order to benefit a few people. P.C. does away with any type of standards or rules. Whatever the favored individual or group wants is O.K.!

 

More and more people are going to run up against these low standards put in place to accomodate a few. And ultimately, the preferential treatment doesn’t even benefit those who are the “recipients” of political correctness.

 

Jim Allen

Bremen, Georgia

 

 

Jan Golab speaks for a lot of people who are sick of our society being dragged down by political fashions and favoritism.

 

Don Baggarly

Lakewood, Washington

 

 

Three cheers for “Political Fashion Can Hurt, Even Kill” (BIRD’S EYE, June).

 

Three more cheers for Christina Sommers and Sally Satel for their exposure of “therapism”—today’s exaggerated focus on feelings and emotional self-absorption. How right they are. The beliefs of contemporary therapists have the familiar ring of mind control that makes individuals wards of the state.

 

Toby Elster

Wichita, Kansas

 

 

As a Christian who falls politically somewhere between “conservative” and “libertarian,” I was intrigued by Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Confessions of an Old-Fashioned Liberal” (June).

 

But while Llosa’s ideals sound nice, without a solid basis in Christian faith they will eventually succumb to inherent human selfishness and the will to power. As even the atheistic German philosopher Juergen Habermas admits,“Christianity alone is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy.” Since the Enlightenment, liberals have been trying to rebase the Western fruits of Christianity on some other “neutral” basis, but without success.

 

Steven Sawyer

Fountain Hills, Arizona