As LAPD Chief Bratton announces his resignation to pursue opportunities into the private sector, I can't help but wonder if the move is in response to the economic uncertainty of the workforce spreading to the public sector. Two weeks ago my father unexpectedly told me that after 30 years of working for the telephone company, he retired so he could pursue his own artistic passions. As more baby-boomers are entering the age of retirement, I wonder how people of their generation, who have been defined by their value of hard work, will define themselves now that their work is done. While Gen-Xers are defined by their entrepreneurial savvy and the current generation is being defined by the economic crisis that has gripped the nation, it looks like baby-boomers might be the last to successfully navigate the job maze.
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In Los Angeles on August 5, LAPD Chief, William J. Bratton, announced his resignation from duty. Since shortly before the beginning of Chief Bratton's tenure in 2002, the LAPD has been overseen by the federal government under the authority of a consent decree, which was put in place to stop police practices such as racial profiling. Read more...
Two weeks after his passing and one week after his nationally televised memorial, Michael Jackson is still leaving his mark on the world. Unfortunately for the city of Los Angeles, the mark left by the late singer was a hefty financial one. So heavy, that city officials have engaged in a little bit of in-fighting.
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I have lived in Los Angeles for less than a year, and already, the amount of encounters I’ve had with law enforcement almost matches the amount accumulated before I moved here.
That’s a lot of stops, while driving AND on foot. While Michael Cherkasky- a monitor appointed by the court to hold the LAPD to their agreement with the Department of Justice to reform their patterns of corruption, brutality and racial bias- feels the LAPD has made vast improvements my experiences convince me otherwise. In the last two months I’ve been pulled over 8 times for things like a tail light, loud music, and “just looking suspicious” as one officer told me. That stop, as well as one other out of the 8, have resulted in searches. None of these stops resulted in tickets or citations.
I was put in the back of a squad car while being searched on a traffic stop for looking like a robbery suspect that JUST came over the radio. While in the back a call came in that we were fighting with the officers, of course an error, and ANOTHER squad car came over to investigate. Meaning I was pulled over WHILE being pulled over!
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