City Council Must Control Commission Chaos

Los Angeles has allowed its police commission hearings to be hijacked by radical bullies. 

A small group of extremist radicals took over this week’s meeting — and not for the first time.

Some of them are familiar from the Black Lives Matter movement, and are ideologically opposed to the existence of the police.

Others are selfish performance artists, who appear to use confrontation and chaos to boost their social media accounts and their egos.

The LA Police Protective League commented: “The same anti-democratic, vulgar and vile individuals have been disrupting police commission meetings for years now.”

Radical bullies have repeatedly hijacked Los Angeles police commission hearings. Ringo Chiu for California Post

And no one is stopping them, as they destroy a crucial mechanism for holding our police force accountable.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has been governed by a civilian board since the 1920s.

City leaders decided that corruption in the police force was out of control. It was the era of Prohibition, and gangs had infiltrated police forces across the nation, from Chicago to L.A. 

The commission helped restore integrity by shining sunlight on the inner workings of the police force.

It fell short in some crucial areas — notably, monitoring the use of force by officers.

That was the conclusion of the separate Christopher Commission, which Mayor Tom Bradley appointed in 1991, after the horrific beating of Rodney King was captured on video.

The Christopher Commission recognized that the police commission had an important role to play, but “needed new personnel, more resources, and an enhanced commitment.”

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Over the next three decades, relations between police and communities improved markedly.

There were ups and downs, but the commission played a key role in allowing the public to raise concerns, and holding police accountable.

Then the Black Lives Matter movement emerged — not because of events in LA, but in other cities.

Through it all, the commission remained an important tool for the public.

But a tiny minority of extremists has decided that they have the right to shut it down.

In their hatred of police, they are disrupting the best mechanism the public has to hold police to account.

In the process, they are abusing the public. This week, they attacked one of our reporters.

The question is why that sort of behavior is tolerated.

And the answer suggests itself from reporting at The California Post.

Some of the activists who disrupted the hearing had been invited to participate in another City Hall event that day, hosted by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, of MacArthur Park infamy.

Hernandez is one of several members of the Democratic Socialists of America vying to take majority control of the City Council this year.

One of the activists who stood up at the commission to accuse police of ““rape, torture and murder” was part of a city-funded organization.

The mob that mauled the commission — and the media — could not get away with its mad behavior without protection from inside, and higher up.

It is time for the City Council to take action against these bullies. Security at commission hearings must be improved. And those who abuse the hearings should be barred from them.

And if the City Council won’t act, let the voting public hold them politically accountable.