By Michael Hernandez
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is now in solitary with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department in a battle that is raging against the recruitment of conservative law enforcement officers.
Ironically, LAPD Police Chief Michel Moore, sparked the battle of who is an appropriate law enforcement officer by using social media to denounce a job recruitment advertisement for police officers placed on Breitbart News that appeared on Friday, Sept. 27th.
The advertisement in question—a Google placed advertisement—stated: “Chose your future. LAPD is Hiring!”
LAPD responded to criticism of the advertisement by stating the conservative website goes against the LAPD’s “core values.” The police department tweeted Sept. 28 (Saturday): “We take matters like this very seriously, and have begun an initial inquiry into the matter and to determine its validity, as well as what future steps can and will be taken to avoid this situation occurring in the future.”
Later the police department said the “ads were purchased through Google and ended up on sites that do not reflect the city’s values through automatic placement.
“We have stopped these Google Ads altogether while we re-examine our ad filters and take all necessary steps to ensure tighter control of ad settings,” the Join LAPD Twitter account wrote Saturday.
The Deadline.com a website critical of Breitbart News for running stories supportive of President Donald J. Trump calls Breitbart “a publication for white nationalists” which repeatedly posts “racist and biased content” with such headlines as “Trump ending welfare-dependent immigration,” “Data: Young Muslims are a ticking time bomb in the West,” and “Obama goes golfing after terrorist attack in Afghanistan kills six.”
Meanwhile, Breitbart News has gone on the attack stating: “LAPD thinks you should be ineligible for employment because you, as conservatives, must be racist, sexist, homophobes.
“In the last few days, LAPD has been targeted by dishonest political activists and fooled into doing their bidding by removing advertising from Breitbart and making public comments that support their false claims—specifically that Breitbart readers are a negative juxtaposition to their core values.
“Breitbart News is a diverse news organization, with a diverse group of 20 million monthly website readers who are pro-law enforcement.”
Breitbart’s response to this controversy is the creation of a petition that will be emailed to LAPD Chief Michel Moore, and LAPD Police Commissioners: President Eileen Decker; Vice President Shane Murphy Goldsmith; Commissioner Dale Bonner; Commissioner Steve Soboroff; Commissioner Sandra Figueroa-Villa; and General Manager of Los Angeles City Personnel Department Wendy Macy.
The Breitbart News petition to the Los Angeles Police Department reads:
“Shame on your, LAPD. I am a Breitbart reader. Breitbart neither propagates nor tolerates hate of any kind. Nor do I. I am insulted and disrespected by your public and false criticism. It is wrong to discriminate against conservative citizens.
“It is wrong to blacklist Breitbart and other mainstream conservative websites from LAPD advertising. Please tell the citizens of Los Angeles that LAPD welcomes recruits of all political beliefs who are willing and able to meet your rigorous standards.
Another irony, is that Breitbart News reported (July 19) that more than 1,000 Google employees signed an internal petition (which was leaked to Project Veritas) “to end Google’s business with Breitbart” and called for labeling Breitbart News as “prohibited content” to block the news outlet from “all Google-served ads.” The Google employees wanted to cut off the news platform from ad revenue.
“These people are employees of Google,” said a Google insider to James O’Keefe of Project Veritas, “They are unhappy with the election, and they are unhappy with the narratives that are being put out there that contradict the mainstream media’s narrative.”
(Editor’s Note: To find out more news; and if you are willing to trust the reporting of Breitbart News go to: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/07/10/poject-veritas-1000-google-employees-signed-internal-anti-breitbart-petition/.)
Meanwhile, Law Enforcement Today (LET), (comprised of career cops from across the nation and claim “we are the voice of law enforcement…uniting the Blue Family…support our brothers and sisters who hold the Thin Blue Line”) posted an extensive Sept. 30 feature article entitled: “Los Angeles: You can be a cop if you’re a gang member, but not a conservative?”
“Police departments across America are struggling to hire new officers, and they say that desperate times call for desperate measure. But now one of the very cities being investigated by the FBI for allegations that an agency there is hiring gang members…seems to have a department that’s openly come out against hiring conservatives.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the ads were first questioned when Noah Shactman, editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, tweeted asking “why LAPD recruitment ads were appearing on Breitbart.”
The LA Times reports that Matt Rivitz, founder of Sleeping Giants, who has waged a war against companies using the Breitbart News platform for advertising revenue, claims that LAPD dropping its advertisements would make it one of 4,300 other companies, nonprofit groups and others that have publicly pulled their advertising from the Breitbart website.
(Editor’s Note: To see the LA Times story that broke the news about the LAPD job ads go to: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-28/lapd-inquiry-job-listing-breitbart-police-chief-michel-moore-recruitment.)
Meanwhile, Law Enforcement Today, posted an extensive feature that claims: “The law enforcement community is simply a microcosm of our greater society. The problems and issues we see in our communities will most likely be present in police departments, sheriff’s offices and federal agencies. Issues include: alcoholism, drug use, abuse, theft, suicide and yes, even murder. But among the things that should never be present at any level, much less at a large degree, is gang membership and activity.
“It is that very alleged activity that has led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to launch a probe into multiple gangs hidden within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“The Banditos, Spartans, Regulators, and Reapers are literal gangs that are claimed to exist with the Los Angeles law enforcement agency. The investigation started after allegations of abuse by the Banditos in March.
“All members of the Banditos have tattoos of a skeleton wearing a sombrero, bandolier, and pistol. Allegations against these deputies include using gang tactics to recruit young Latino deputies, and punishing those who reject their advances with physical attacks.
“An unidentified source told the Los Angeles Times that FBI agents “are trying to determine whether leaders of the Banditos require or encourage aspiring members to commit criminal acts, such as planting evidence or writing false incident reports, to secure membership in the group.
“Four deputies were put on paid leave following the aforementioned allegations. Sheriff Alex Villanueva minimized the danger, calling the gangs a ‘cultural norm,’ and believes that any problems with these types of activities were eliminated as a result of previous investigations.
“In the last decade, there have been accusations against ‘gang member’ deputies of police brutality, even breaking the bones of suspects in their custody as an initiation ritual, allowing the deputies to be deemed worthy of their ‘inclusion.’
“Sheriff Villanueva has chalked that fault up to previous leadership saying the gangs ‘ran roughshod’ over past sheriffs.
“The latest allegations stemmed from a party last September. New deputies working East L.A. were celebrating the completion of their probationary period with the department.
“It was at the end of this party when several veteran deputies showed up that things went south.
“According to legal documents filed against the county by seven deputies, the men belonged to the Banditos.
“The claims are a precursor to a civil suit, which will seek tens of millions of dollars from the county for failing to address the hostile work environment the Banditos are alleged to have created.”
(Editor’s Note: For the complete comprehensive story go to the LET website at: https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/los-angeles-gang-members-welcome-as-cops-but-conservatives-are-not/).
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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