The story of LAPD officer Steven Garcia, who pumped 10 bullets into an unarmed 13-year-old Devin Brown as the youth backed a car toward him in 2005, already had many Angelenos enraged. And that was before he was cleared of any criminal charges. Then the January 8 internal police disciplinary hearing into his case was held in secret - reflecting a huge shift in departmental policy - and Garcia was never punished, despite a finding that the shootings were "out of policy." Since then, some of L.A.'s best-known community leaders and activists have joined the media storm surrounding the issue, mostly condemning the sudden policy shift that allows the LAPD's Board of Rights to conduct disciplinary meetings behind closed doors.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the police officers union, has vowed to fight any attempt to make the hearings public again. But it was City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo who single-handedly allowed for the change by recently declaring that the formerly public meetings could be held in private. In an L.A. Times op-ed on January 22, Protective League counsel Gary Ingemunson, who co-represented Garcia at the Board of Rights hearing, argued that public hearings undermine an officer's right to privacy. Ingemunson also said that to call the hearings "secret" was not accurate. "Confidentiality isn't the same as secrecy.
Delgadillo's interpretation has come under particular scrutiny because of the LAPD's sometimes troubled history with the African-American community.
On the same day, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa added, "We need open hearings. The people of this city have a right to know how police officer discipline is conducted, and the officers have a right to make the case to the public," but he also offered no suggestions as to how this would be done. "You can't separate politics from this [situation]," Hutchinson said. "We're talking about Devin Brown, a kid. Many African-American leaders, including John Mack of the Police Commision, were upset. [Bratton and Villaraigosa] read the political tea leaves," when crafting their responses. Chemerinsky also noted that there is another, more direct route to change: "The police commission does not have to follow the advice of the city attorney. They should take it into strong consideration, but they do not have to."
