December 9, 2008
L.A. County Balks at MPD Request for Inauguration
The LA Times is reporting that D.C. has requested that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department send 350 officers to Washington to help out with the presidential inauguration, at an estimated cost of $1.6 million, but has only offered to reimburse about $600,000 of that amount. Naturally, the county's Board of Supervisors isn't too keen on being asked to give the District a big handout, and apparently the Sheriff's Department has already told the MPD it will only send as many officers as the District can afford to pay for. But the story makes you wonder: why is the city asking for help all the way from Los Angeles? Are there really not enough officers available closer by?
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Maybe MPD was impressed by LA's riot "control" experience?
I just want to know if CHiPs will be here!
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yeah, i was thinking that the district was looking for police that have experience with beating african american males.
too soon?
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I guess Philly, Baltimore, New York and Boston are out of Cops.
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2 words: race riots.
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They're looking for jurisdictions dumb enough to foot the bill that the feds won't pay.
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NYPD has shown itself to be race-blind when it comes to forcibly sodomizing suspects...maybe we could get them to send some extra help?
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While I understand LA's unwillingness to foot the bill, it's what DC police does everyday.
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The city has historically asked other major cities to provide extra law enforcement agencies. They deputize officers from all over the country as it is an exciting event for officers to be part of as there is also a need for more security.
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So how many Californians are going to be in DC over inauguration? Perhaps LA could fly out a detective for them if they get mugged while they're here.
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If there is any force that has proven effective at riot control, race relations, and solving cases it is the LAPD! Will you please reconsider? We promise there will be some people to beat.
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I remember seeing Ohio Highway Patrol officers on my block during the 2004 Innauguration. I think they ask large departments, since they would rather have 300 from one department then 1 or 2 from smaller departments. Makes it easier to coordinate things I guess. Plus, all of the surrounding jurisidictions are going to be very busy that day with traffic and things like that. If they are really talking about staging busses in Laurel and at Wolf Trap, then you can believe that most MD and VA cops are going to be on duty, so they extras will have to come from farther away.
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Who's to say they didn't ask every major city/urban area in the country and this is the only one we've heard about publicly?
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Just a primer lesson, folks: The LA Sheriff's Dept. (LASD) is a totally separate agency from the Los Angeles (city) Police Department (LAPD), and as such has a distinct history on riots, race relations, etc. from its much more maligned neighboring agency.
Cure 'The More You Know...' music/graphics...
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Bullneck:
We'll have no facts or reasons introduced here to try and trick us from our preconceived ideas.
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I'm guessing the NYC cops were all out of broomsticks.
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Hillman: Heh. Well, just trying to do my part as someone who knows how tired LASD officers are with being tarred with LAPD's brush.
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LAPD is the LAST department I want out here "protecting" the streets of DC during Inauguration Weekend.
I'm from L.A.
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I remember at the World Bank protests in 2002, there were cops from EVERYWHERE - Alabama, Texas, Tennessee - so as someone else mentioned, there's historical precedence here.
(Note: I wasn't protesting in 2002. I was a GW freshman trying to get back to my dorm.)