The Protected Class

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The court actually coined the term "Protected Class" and defined who would be a part of of that category. And the term truly meant "Hands Off" or "King's X" as it pertained disqualifying applicant for hire. The LAPD was ordered to bring their labor force into parity with the LA demographics fast, no matter what. But, it went even deeper. To retain those protected classes that were hired, LAPD did everything they could to promote them, not discipline them, never assign them to less desirable assignments, and keep them happy at all costs.

Before the days of Affirmative Action, in 1976, Officer McCreedy, a White male, would snag a 25-cent newspaper from a lawn on his beat to take with him to the donut shop to read most every morning. When a resident complained, he was fired. It all had to do with what LAPD called a violation of Moral Turpitude. The Moral Turpitude list included, any theft, any sex crime, any lie, no matter how petty, and anything else that embarrassed the City.

In 1998, an officer's boots disappeared from the locker room. Posters were placed in the hall ways of the station, and announcements were read aloud about the missing boots at roll call for several weeks. The facts that the boots had custom soles and the officer's name inside were not released. Several weeks later, the officer recognized footprints from his boots left on a wet sidewalk by a peer, Officer Williamson. Williamson was summoned to the station, but insisted the boots he wore were his. When he was ordered to take the boots off to allow further inspection, he refused. A search warrant was obtained and the boots were removed revealing that they in fact were the stolen boots. Following an investigation, the Captain recommended that Williamson be terminated. However, the Chief reduced that penalty to a written reprimand. Williamson was a "Protected Class" and was retained, despite the still written policy about Moral Turpitude. It was also revealed that Williamson had convictions for theft and marijuana use, prior to his appointment to LAPD. But those, once automatic disqualifiers had been removed when AA began to take hold.

About the same time, Sergeant Smitson, a protected class employee, performed a strip tease routine in a male only tavern while wearing his police uniform. He was terminated, but the court ordered his reinstatement with back pay. Although the LAPD had rules regarding wearing a uniform while off duty, the court ruled that because Smitson didn't wear his pistol during the routine, it was not a uniform. In 2001, Officer Turndale, another protected class employee, posed nude for Playboy wearing only an LAPD uniform shirt and badge. The LAPD didn't even pursue that one.

Your comments.. How do you think these actual incidents affected the quality of law enforcement in Los Angeles? Please keep in mind that the names that have been used in this, and all posts, have been changed to protect the protected.

Tomorrow.. More things from the Thought Dock about what the LAPD did to comply with AA.
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