Why can’t L.A. recruit cops?
An ad in The Bee on Nov. 29 advertised that the Los Angeles Police Department was now hiring and that there would be a workshop and exam in Fresno on Dec. 5. What? That means that a large city with a population of 15 million people within a 25-mile radius of downtown is having difficulties keeping 10,000 officers on its force?
This is why: What value is there in placing your life on the line every day protecting the very people who critique your every move?
When these thugs who die at the hands of the police doing what they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place to get themselves killed, and are then eulogized as someone’s unfortunate child, and the media demonizes the cop by repeatedly running the story, what is the attraction in a thankless job like that?
What the ad should have said is that it’s time to wake up, America. There is more unrest today than ever before, and eventually, we will be saying we wish we had some cops. Don’t think it can’t happen, because it has already started in L.A.
Mike Garabedian, Fresno
This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 6:22 AM with the headline "Why can’t L.A. recruit cops?."