Bush sees U.S. as meddling in local police affairs
Marsetco
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 1, 2000
Web posted at: 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 GMT)
WASHINGTON (LOS ANGELES TIMES) -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush says the federal
government should not be in the business of routinely investigating and
"second-guessing" local police departments, a position that stands in marked
contrast to the Justice Department's aggressive role in Los Angeles and other
cities racked by allegations of police corruption.
"I do not believe the Justice Department should routinely seek to conduct
oversight investigations, issue reports or undertake other activity that is
designed to function as a review of police operations in states, cities and
towns," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told the nation's
biggest police union in a questionnaire obtained by The Times.
Such a policy, if Bush sought to enact it as president, would mark a
potentially significant break from the Justice Department's efforts in recent
years to investigate police actions and, in some cases, force broad reforms at
departments in Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh, the state of New Jersey
and elsewhere.
Justice Dept. targets monitoring of LAPD
In one of its most sensitive police "pattern or practice" investigations to
date, the Justice Department is now working to get Los Angeles city officials
to sign a consent decree authorizing a third party to monitor the city's Police
Department and imposing other safeguards. Negotiations toward the decree, part
of the fallout from the Rampart scandal, continue today.
But the approach outlined by Bush, a strong defender of states' rights, calls
into question the propriety of such investigations.
Bush said in a written statement that while lawlessness by police cannot be
tolerated, "I also do not believe that the federal government should instruct
state and local authorities on how police department operations should be
conducted, becoming a separate internal affairs division."
Federal authorities can "assist" local police in resolving allegations of
misconduct, but "these cases should be the exception, rather than the rule,"
Bush said. As president, he would work to support local police, "rather than
constantly second-guessing local law enforcement decisions," he added.
Bush has not stated such a position publicly during the campaign, his aides
said. His written statement came in response to questions from the National
Fraternal Order of Police, which conducted written and in-person interviews
with Bush and Vice President Al Gore in April and May as part of its political
endorsement process.
As the nation's largest police union, with 290,000 members, the fraternal
order's endorsement is highly coveted by politicians eager to tout their
law-and-order credentials.
Ironically, FOP is now moving to endorse Gore, even though the vice president
generally supports the Justice Department's police misconduct investigations.
Union leaders consider the probes political "blackmail."
The police union's executive committee unanimously recommended last week that
Gore should get the group's endorsement when the full board of trustees
considers the issue in the fall.
Union sources said that despite Bush's opposition to the Justice Department's
misconduct investigations, the governor fared poorly on several issues of even
greater importance to the union--including collective bargaining rights for law
enforcement personnel.
While Gore said he supports a national collective bargaining bill to expand
officers' rights, Bush said such issues should best be left to state and local
authorities.
One union source said that in his in-person interview with union leaders, the
governor appeared "ill-prepared" to discuss the critical issue. And he came
across as somewhat flippant when asked what he had done to help state troopers
in Texas get more bargaining rights.
"He said, 'Well, we make sure they have a heck of a Christmas party.' That went
over pretty poorly," the source said.
On another issue important to the union--allowing active and retired police to
carry concealed weapons across state lines--Gore voiced strong support for the
idea, said FOP national President Gilbert Gallegos. But Bush seemed uninformed,
Gallegos said. "He was not fully aware of what that was all about," Gallegos
said.
Union leaders were even skeptical of the governor's strong words on police
misconduct investigations, suspecting that Bush was handing them "a line of
bull" because he thought that is what the union wanted to hear, the union
source said.
"Answers like that were seen as being meant more to appease us than anything,"
the source said. "There's no way that anyone can stop enforcing [federal
misconduct investigations] and expect to be president for long. There's just
too much of a groundswell of support."
Indeed, any attempt to curtail the Justice Department's power in probing police
misconduct allegations--the product of a 1995 law enacted in response to
controversy over the Rodney G. King beating--would be sure to provoke heated
debate.
Bush stand seen as reflecting ignorance
USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who is conducting an independent review of
the Rampart scandal for the Police Protective League in Los Angeles, said
Bush's stand is "very significant because it seems to reflect an ignorance of
what the Justice Department actually does."
Chemerinsky said "there are times when a local department is out of control,
and there's nowhere else to turn but the federal government, and I don't see
any recognition of that in his statement."
But Joseph McNamara, a former police chief in San Jose who is now a law
enforcement fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, said he found
Bush's stance to be "a pleasant surprise" because the governor seems to
recognize that the federal government has overstepped its authority in probing
such cases.
"What Bush is saying," McNamara said, "is that local police should be under the
control of local police. He's talking about what up until recently was a fairly
standard federal role."
For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.
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Micheal Keane
<20000602120351...@ng-fm1.news.cs.com>:
>leaders, the governor appeared "ill-prepared" to discuss the critical
>issue. And he came across as somewhat flippant when asked what he had
>done to help state troopers in Texas get more bargaining rights.
>
>"He said, 'Well, we make sure they have a heck of a Christmas party.'
>That went over pretty poorly," the source said.
That's sure an intelligent guy you GOPers have got there. You want this
frat boy's finger on the button?