The LAPD: Racial Profiling and the Federal Government
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The federal Department of Justice has warned the Los Angeles Police Department it's not doing enough to end the practice of racial profiling. The Police Commission is reportedly impatient because so few officers have been called to account for a practice the Commission thinks is continuing. We talk with Chief Charlie Beck about that and other issues, including cooperation with the FBI and the decreasing rate of crime. Also, LA County's Board of Supervisors bans plastic bags, and increasing tension over the ballot count for State Attorney General. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, it's down to the wire for the lame-duck session of Congress with Democrats still in control but drastically weakened by Republican victories in the mid-term elections. We get a preview.
Banner image: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Making News
Los Angeles County Bans Plastic Bags ()
The LA Board of Supervisors today banned plastic bags from all stores in the unincorporated parts of the County. It also approved a 10-cent surcharge on paper carry-out bags. Elizabeth Marcellino reports for the City News Service.
Guests:
- Elizabeth Marcellino: County Beat Reporter, City News Service
Links:
Main Topic
LA Police Chief Beck Discusses Racial Profiling ()
After the Rampart scandal in 2001, the Los Angeles Police Department was under a federal consent decree that required monitoring of various reforms. When Judge Gary Feess lifted the decree last year, he said the Department of Justice should continue its oversight of the LAPD’s effort to get rid of racial profiling. On Sunday, the LA Times reported on a letter from Washington warning that the LAPD’s are inadequate, quoting an officer as saying he “couldn’t do [his] job without racial profiling. We hear more from LA Police Chief Charlie Beck.
Guests:
- Charlie Beck: Chief, Los Angeles Police Department, @LAPDChiefBeck
Reporter's Notebook
Attorney General Campaigns Focus on the Ballot Counting ()
The recent election is by no means over for District Attorneys Steve Cooley of Los Angeles and Kamala Harris of San Francisco. Their race for State Attorney General is so close that provisional ballots that are still being counted will decide the winner, unless one side demands a recount. Gene Maddaus of the LA Weekly went to the LA County Registrar-Recorder and found an atmosphere of increasing tension.
Guests:
- Gene Maddaus: Reporter, LA Weekly, @GeneMaddaus
Main Topic
Can the Lame Duck Congress Get Anything Done? ()
Democrats postponed some of their most important business until after the mid-term elections. Now, they’re facing a lame-duck session with no appropriations bills passed and the Bush tax cuts about to expire before the end of the year.
Guests:
- John Maggs: Financial Reporter, Politico.com
- Jim Thurber: Director, American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies
- Robert Borosage: Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future
- James Antle: Associate Editor, American Spectator, @jimantle
Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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