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Last Wednesday, the council unanimously approved a motion instructing the Los Angeles police commission to establish policies that would “prohibit pretextual stops of motorists and cyclists” by LAPD officers.The members of the council hold views that represent the broad range of political thought in L.A., which is to say, from left to far left to far, far left, and Wednesday’s vote reflects the magical thinking, sadly common among such people, that crime statistics among ethnic groups should mirror each group’s share of the population. The burden of pretext stops, they say, falls most heavily on black and brown residents, and these disparities simply cannot be tolerated.The U.S. Supreme Court, in Whren v. United States (1996), held that pretextual stops are lawful, and my own experience as an LAPD officer has shown how valuable they can be in detecting and curtailing crime. All across the country, the prisons are full of people whose path to the penitentiary began with a broken taillight or an expired car registration....The LAPD investigated 230 murders in 2025, 54 fewer than in 2024. In 1992, at the height of the gang and drug wars that plagued the city, the number was a horrifying 1,092. It was creative, proactive police work over the years that brought about this change, including the use of pretextual stops when circumstances warranted.In voting to deny the LAPD the use of this valuable and perfectly legal tool, the L.A. city council is showing a willingness to take a step toward the bad old days. How many lives will be lost because of it?
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Topic: The Los Angeles City Council Lives in the Land of Make-Believe (Read 21 times)
