Reasons to Believe

Commo Blackout

This post first appeared on the LA Daily News' Friendly Fire Blog.  I've re-posted it here for reasons that will be self explanatory. -RCJP

If you want to burst the enthusiasm of soldiers in Iraq, few words can do it like these two: Commo Blackout.

It means two very significant things, and, in the death-as-commodity environment of Baghdad that I knew in 2005, it was hard to judge which was worse. On the one hand, it meant all instant communication with the outside world was cut off. No Internet, no phones. Mail was delivered, but it took days any way.

The other thing it meant was that somebody was dead, or pretty close to it. Commo Blackout is the Army's way of keeping parents and spouses from being informed of a soldier's death by a passing comment in a grocery store, or via a reporter arriving at a door step ahead of the Notification Team.

There's a lot just about any Joe can complain about with regard to the Green Machine, but the dedication to supporting families is not really one of them. They honestly do the best they can, and inconveniencing troops for a couple of days so the most solemn ceremonies can be conducted as best possible is not even a question.

Of course, as soldiers, when you've survived another day, it's hard not to curse at prety much all involved when you walk to the phone trailer and find a scribbled note on the door, one that effectively says: "you're wife's just gonna have to wonder if you're alive, 'cause somebody else's is about to find out that her husband ain't."

I bring this up because an interesting trend has recently developed on my personal blog, Reasons to Believe. I've been posting a lot there lately, because over in the other Valley, my little town of Monrovia has been having a gang war in recent days. Certainly nothing akin to Baghdad, but enough to give me strange tickles, and make sure the personal protective systems for my family are in full working order, just like I would before a patrol in combat.

Anyway, while the traffic for my blog has spiked significantly, I've been getting a lot of referrals from Google, many of which are searches for those same two words. They all lead to this post: Things That Go Boom, Things That Do Not.

Now, two years seperated from the war zone, my heart sinks at that thought. Somewhere, somebody is getting the worst news possible. Somewhere not far away, someone else thinks she might. At some Army post in the south, or maybe Texas, a new bride who goes to bed worried each night hasn't heard from the love of her life for a week. Her nervous query has been met with a polite, stilted re-assurance from the head of the Family Readiness Group, "ah, don't worry, they're probably on a Commo Blackout." Knowing she already asks enough silly questions about the strange system in which she finds herself, she decides to figure that one out on her own.

My post, I assure you, supplies no solace.

I wonder if her silent world will awaken with a ring of the phone. Or, a knock at her door.

The LAPD's Assault on SWAT

My latest OpEd for the Los Angeles Times was published this morning. Entitled "The LAPD's Assault on SWAT," it details some very significant changes that are being made to the LAPD's SWAT team, in the name of one thing only: Political Correctness.

The results can have no positive outcome.  Many thanks to the current and former LAPD officers who provided me information, as well as to the Times' Nick Goldberg and company who, as always, did a highly professional, honest job of editing the piece.

THE LAPD'S ASSAULT ON SWAT

On a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2005, Jose Peña fueled himself with cocaine and grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol. Waving the gun at the head of his 19-month-old daughter, Suzie, he told the LAPD officers who arrived at the scene that he was Tony Montana -- the character played by Al Pacino in "Scarface" -- and that he was going to kill his daughter and himself. He'd already shot at her sister and at the police, so the threat was believable.

The situation was straightforward: If an LAPD SWAT crisis negotiator couldn't dispel Peña's narcotic fantasies, the little girl's life would rest with a SWAT rescue team's ability to cross a 50-foot alley, access the building, find and enter the room he was in and save Suzie before Peña pulled the trigger.

Now imagine for a moment that you were in Suzie Peña's position. Would you want the police SWAT team coming through the door to be the best of the best -- the toughest, most highly trained, most elite tacticians in the Los Angeles Police Department -- or would you want the team to "look like L.A."? Would you want rescuers who had not lost a hostage in three decades, or would you want a team with heartwarming, multicultural diversity?

A Good Man Gone

LAPD Officer Randy Simmons was killed in the line of duty this morning.

This tribute to him first appeared on the LA Daily News Friendly Fire Blog.

A GOOD MAN GONE

The first time I set eyes on Los Angeles Police Department Officer Randy Simmons, he was lifting a 200-pound man off the ground. In an enthusiastic bear hug.

Simmons, a large, gregarious rock of a man was warmly embracing a long-time friend, and fellow LAPD SWAT officer, who had graciously invited me to take a peek inside their fraternity, at the annual SWAT Dinner. 

That was barely 10 days ago, No one in that room at the Police Academy, no matter how tactically cynical, could anticipate that less than two weeks later, Simmons would be the first man from the Metropolitan Divisions D Platoon, as SWAT is officially known, to die in a gun fight.

Dick Singer Must Go!

Dick Singer must go!

Until recently, I really respected the man. The Monrovia City Web site is one of the best in the area. Great info. He seemed to do well, towing a line of balance in an obviously politcally tinged position.

But, his "Ministry of Truth" routine, as one local blog calls it, has gotten out of hand. 

The errors and arrogance of the Rumor Control box on the City Web site are shocking. On Jan 3, the Blog referred to another blog as the one that "usually gets things wrong." When does a City ever cast official comment on the conduct of a legal operating entity? NEVER!

On The Monrovia Racist Gang War

The following is from a lengthy comment I recently posted on the SGV Tribune Crime Scene Blog.

On Monrovia:

Neighborhood Watch and community unity are good things. We have strongly advocated such things in the North Primrose Neighborhood. But, much the same as with our speeding issue, the community can only do so much.

The bottom line is, the racist thugs who are behind these killings only understand the law of the street - bigger and badder wins.

We can hold hands and hum, but until the cops find these thugs and put them in jail for whatever charge they can, nothing will change.

My Man (of the Moment) Mitt

My latest OpEd for the Los Angeles Daily News ran this morning.  Opinion Editor Chris Weinkopf asked the bloggers from Friendly Fire to contribute pieces making the cases for our preferred candidates.  I came down, luke warmly, for Mitt Romney.  With Fred Thompson out of the race, that position is distinctly strengthened.

Here's the text of...

The Case For Mitt Romney

THE next president of the United States will have to lead this country through some of the most tumultuous times in its history. Our currency is plunging; the economy is stumbling; the military is stretched in the face of a tenacious, lethal threat; and our character and resources are being drained through the tattered remnants of our sovereignty.

Our next president will have to shore up the economy using a weak dollar while navigating an enormous foreign debt. Our borrowing from the Saudis and Chinese to ensure that the latter can get oil from the former, has cost us lives, treasure and made oil more scarce.

Speech to Monrovia City Council

Honorable Mayor, Lady and gentlemen of the City Council, Mr. City Manager:

      My name is Robert Charles Julian Parry. My wife, Maribel, and I are the co-founders of the North Primrose Residents Alliance, representing the residents of most of the houses and many of the apartments on Primrose between Foothill and Oaks – and hopefully, soon, our neighbors farther north.

      As you are all aware, within the last two days, our Alliance has launched an effort to address the dangerous situation of speeding traffic on our street. 

      I want to assure you that this public display of our frustration is the culmination of fear, anger, and, ultimately insult.  Within about 50 yards of my home live six children under the age of 7.  It’s just a matter of time before a bouncing ball or rolling scooter brings a child into the path of a Monster Truck accelerating to freeway speed on our narrow road.

      We have tried a variety of methods to address this issue.  Two weekends ago, I screamed and waved at a young man behind the wheel of just such a monster truck, who fish-tailed as he gunned his engine while turning onto the street.  His response to my plea -  A single finger salute. Other speeders blare their horns in defiance, as one did just last night.

      We have called the police repeatedly, as I did in response to my single-digit assailant.  Monrovia PD, as usual, could not find the violator, but an officer stopped by and told us they know that there's a problem – she’d spent many hours on Primrose when she worked traffic patrol.  And then she raced off to an urgent call.

      We've not seen a cop on our street since.

First Friendly Fire Post

My first post on the Los Angeles Daily News' Friendly fire blog, entitled "Welcome, Commissioner Saltzman. Please Read Your Business Card." has been posted.  Thanks again to Chris Weinkopf for making it happen.

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

I'm humbled and honored to annunce that I've been named as the latest addition to the LA Daily News' Friendly Fire blog.  DN OpEd Editor Chris Weinkopf learly hit the bottom of the barrel in his search for a quality scribe, but I'll take it.  My positings will generally be limited to outside work hours, so look for morning gems to brighten your sunrises.  The announcement is here: http://www.insidesocal.com/friendlyfire/2007/11/friendly_fire_gratitude.html#comments

Thanks, Chris!  I'll try not to screw it up for you!

New Los Angeles Times OpEd: The Blue You Don't See

My latest OpEd in the Los Angeles Times has been published this morning.  Published as an "Outside the Tent" piece, it covers the long littany of the Times' biased reporting against the LAPD.  This piece required a lot of professionalism from the Times' Nick Goldberg, who very fairly editted the piece with an eye to accuracy. "I don't want to have to publish a correction on a piece like this," he said more than once.  As it should be with any piece.  Nick's edits made it a stronger work.

THE BLUE YOU DON'T SEE

In its most recent editorial about the May Day demonstrations at MacArthur Park, The Times again showed its historic disregard for facts and history in its coverage of the Los Angeles Police Department and in its slavish devotion to the concept of police "reform," regardless of cost, consequences or wisdom.

The editorial, published in response to the Oct. 9 release of the LAPD's report on the MacArthur Park disturbance, described the scene at the park as "chaos" resulting from "missteps" by the department.

How did this terrible situation come to pass? Well, the editorial noted, among other things, that training "seems to have lapsed perilously -- the Metropolitan Division's basic training course was cut in 2005." It also described Chief William Bratton's ongoing struggles with the department's "cultural and institutional defects" connected to this lapse.

Yet, astonishingly, the paper failed to point out that it was Bratton's own decision to eliminate that training. Instead, the editorial praised the chief's "deserved" second term and his "impressive response" to the events of May 1. It seems that publicly condemning your subordinates for problems you helped cause impresses The Times.

Sadly, this intellectual dissonance is true to form. Looking back at The Times' coverage of the LAPD, it's easy to see decades of factual omissions, routine second-guessing of police officers and a consistent support of activist agendas.