Patterico's Pontifications

5/15/2005

Dunphy on Bratton

Filed under: Crime,Politics — Patterico @ 9:56 am



Last year, LAPD Police Chief William Bratton praised pseudonymous officer Jack Dunphy:

“I wish he’d come forward and identify himself, so I could throw him into my press office,” Bratton says. “My sense is that Dunphy reflects in a more articulate and thoughtful way the sentiments of the average L.A. cop.”

Bratton will probably change his tune after reading Dunphy’s op-ed in today’s L.A. Times:

Soon after Mayor James K. Hahn appointed Bratton to head the LAPD, officers began hearing that the chief had turned his office into a shrine to his own ego, filled with photographs of himself posing with movie stars, authors, politicians and various other figures from New York’s elite social circles.

No matter, I said. As long as Bratton provided the type of leadership here that he did in New York, his cops wouldn’t care if he had lunch at the Polo Lounge every day. One person, however, offered a warning: “It’s all about him,” he said. “He’ll sell out the cops in a minute if it gets him his next job.”

I refused to accept this assessment of the man I welcomed as the long-awaited savior of the LAPD. I have since apologized for doubting that critic.

This is not the first time that Dunphy has lit into Bratton. For example, in this National Review Online piece from April, Dunphy wrote that Bratton “apparently left his spine in New York when he packed his bags and came west. . . . If Antonio Villaraigosa goes on to defeat James Hahn in May and then forces Bratton out, his departure will be greeted by yawns, if not cheers, from the men and women of the LAPD.”

I wonder if Chief Bratton still thinks that Dunphy “reflects . . . the sentiments of the average L.A. cop.” In any event, I bet he still wishes Dunphy would “come forward and identify himself” — but not so he can throw him into his press office . . .

3 Responses to “Dunphy on Bratton”

  1. […] Carol Platt Liebau has a piece advocating the revision of Special Order 40. There is the aforementioned Jack Dunphy op-ed on William Bratton. And there is a piece titled Note to […]

    Patterico's Pontifications » L.A. Times Sunday Opinion Section is Excellent Today (0c6a63)

  2. […] coming to? The L.A. Times Sunday Opinion section was chock-full of sensible commentary. Noted: Jack Dunphy’s piece on William Bratton. I snark at David Greenberg’s […]

    Patterico's Pontifications » The Weekend Roundup (0c6a63)

  3. Great post, I’ve always wondered about that.

    Thanks!

    warts (f7c829)


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