L.A. Mayor Directs LAPD to Diversify, Lower Standards, Weed Out Officers with Ties to ‘Right-Wing Domestic Extremist’ Groups

(CNSNews.com)—Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is looking to further diversify the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) by removing “obstacles” for recruits who initially failed minimum qualifications, and to weed out members of the police force with ties to “right-wing domestic extremist organizations.”  

Fox News Digital obtained a summary of the mayor’s public safety goals, in which she says she wants to loosen the qualification requirements for a recruit to receive a badge with the LAPD. The goals are accompanied by progress report deadlines.

“We think that particular provision or that goal or that idea is dangerous,” Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) spokesperson, Tom Saggau, told Fox News Digital:

“If you have police officers that can’t make minimum qualifications or attained minimum standards, for instance, there are recruits that have been in the academy that just can’t score the minimum requirements for a physical fitness test.

“One hundred is the maximum score, 50 is acceptable. There are folks that are scoring under 10. That’s just dangerous.”

“That’s just a recipe for disaster,” Saggau told Fox News. “We think lowering standards is a dangerous precedent.”

Mayor Bass is seeking suggestions for ways to remove obstacles to hiring, especially when it comes to “ethnic groups disproportionately left out of new officer training.”

Furthermore, Fox News Digital reports that one of the mayor’s goals is to “identify, discipline, and/or terminate officers associated with right-wing domestic extremist organizations.” The LAPD is directed to accomplish this mandate by using data from the Justice Department and to provide a progress report in August.

LAPPL agrees that some radical elements should not be associated with the LAPD, but it shouldn’t matter which end of the political spectrum they represent. Saggau added that he supports the mayor’s efforts to hire more officers, as long as it’s done in a reasonable way:

“Mayor Bass sees the dire need for more officers. The question is, how do you get there? And we are totally committed and completely supportive of civilianizing positions where police officers should be doing police work and civilians should be doing civilian work.”

Mayor Bass issued her directive on the heels of the death of Tyre Nichols, which resulted from brutal beating by five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee. Ironically, at least two of the five police officers were, reportedly, hired after City of Memphis officials lowered their standards for minimum qualification in an attempt to diversify the police force. All five officers are minorities.

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