Human Relations Award

When an LAPD officer(s) saves the life of a person(s), they are awarded the Medal of Valor. The highest medal for a sworn employee who would put their lives on the line to protect not only the people in the City of Los Angeles but the citizens of the State of California and the United States. Yet another medal, whose actions are also well-respected is the Human Relations Medal.

LAPD Human Relations Medal

 
The medal is presented to the officer(s) for going above and beyond to help a person in need. And the officers who received this medal were: Sgt Peter Foster, Officers Ken Lew, Mike Fernandez and Deon Joseph. What did they do to deserve this medal? Helped a woman. More than just helping the woman, out of their own pockets, they helped her to get to her destination. Here is the story.

There was a meeting at Los Angeles' Grand Central Terminal with Foster and Lew, when the manager at the station said that he was going to throw away an electric wheelchair abandoned on their property. Foster then contacted the Senior Lead Officers to see if they could give it to someone. Joseph said that he knew a black woman who had back surgery, on Section 8 housing. So Foster and Lew drove the wheelchair to the woman's home and gave it to her.

The problem was, the battery was not charging and all it was was a giant paperweight. They then decided that since they brought the wheelchair over, and wanted to woman to go to her doctor, meet with friends and eat lunch, they decided to chip in and buy the battery, which cost $200. When all was said and done, they went back to work.

Again the officers received the coveted medal and chalked it up as another day at work. Yet apparently, Foster is now deemed a racist. Being an Asian American and victim of racism, does a one-time silliness justify being a racist? And was the firing of Foster justifiable? There is a cliché according to the LAPD of "Kissing Off " something. If Foster and the officers did not want to help the woman, something they are not obligated to do, they would kiss off the woman to the proper department.

But they didn't.

So then I ask, does one incident of silliness at the LAPD Community Relations Office in Central Division make one a racist for life? Honestly? No. But apparently, after the Christopher Dorner case, accusations of racism is a red flag for the LAPD. So what do they do? They sweep the issue under the rug, not only because it can be embarrassing, but because, they may have played a role in the issue in the first case.


The Rodney King incident was famous for this. The management approved of what you saw on this video. The federal government said that it was in violation of King's civil rights, so why weren't the management punished? Same goes with the Rampart scandal, which led to the federal investigation under the Consent Decree, proving that LAPD was not racist, but millions if not nearly billions were spent for a New York corporation to admit this...yet where were the managment?

Now after the Foster case, the issue at hand is reminiscent of past LAPD management policy of sweeping anything under the carpet that isn't kosher to the name of the LAPD command staff. According to the local Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, the racist material were strewn all over the LAPD Central division and again, the question must be asked: why didn't Central Bureau Commander Blake Chow and captains Daryl Russell or Todd Chamberlain step in and end the racism and harassment? Why did they tolerate this injustice? Maybe because they are racist? No, not really because Chow is now head of the Counter Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau, Russell is now Captain I Devonshire Area and Chamberlain is now Captain III Mission Area, while Officers Tim Nambu and Randall McCain, Ken Lew were demoted and Foster fired?

The death of Christopher Dorner promised an in-depth investigation into the history of racism in the LAPD and to clean house of the bad apples. Yet it makes you wonder if  U.S. District Judge Gary Feess who lifted the consent decree placed upon the LAPD officers accused of racial profiling and racism, would he then put the same decree on the command staff? Because it seems that the racism and profiling is not practiced by the rank and file, but by the command staff and upon their own officers, when higher ups, like Chow, Russell and Chamberlain who turned a blind-eye to the officer's silliness, came down upon them when an officer, Earl Wright broke rank when he filed a complaint and has been awarded by a jury $1.2 million. Wright still works for a racist organization.

If Judge Feess reads this blog, I think it's time the federal Department of Justice investigates the LAPD command staff before allowing officers like Foster, Nambu, McCain, and Lew to be punished for being "racist" yet allow the command staff  off the hook. After reading Dorner's manifesto, carefully, this is what Dorner died about. Not from the horsing around by the LAPD officer, but the disregard LAPD Charlie Beck and his command staff have on their own...from Captain up to the police of chief ranks.