During my 20-year career with the LAPD, I frequently was the victim of persecution and a hostile work environment because I did not “go along to get along.” Instead, to paraphrase educator Horace Mann, I always sought to win some victory for humanity. I was never alone in this fight. For example, in 2006, 19-year Buffalo police veteran Cariol Holloman-Horne…
LOS ANGELES – A new editorial column called “Eye on Justice” debuts on the Voices page this week intended to highlight criminal, social or public policy injustices affecting disenfranchised communities throughout Los Angeles and the nation, Wave officials announced this week. Written by retired Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Cheryl Dorsey, the column will expose social and institutional disparities and…
Beatriz Paez is just one of the many recent victims of what I like to call “Contempt of Cop”; fortunately, Paez lived to talk about her encounter. Ms. Paez witnessed plain clothes officers detaining several individuals at gunpoint and decided to record the incident on her cell phone. One of the officers, a U.S. Marshal, told Paez to stop recording…
After a massive 48-day manhunt, three deputy U. S. Marshals saw accused cop killer Eric Frein “moving through tall grass…” and they “could see his hands… he had no weapon.” Frein was taken into custody near an abandoned airport hangar without incident. This was very different from the Christopher Dorner manhunt which ended in a shootout and Dorner’s death. Very…
Prior to the death of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Wakeshia Wilson, and Philando Castile, police brutality had been a heavy topic for Black America, dating back to historical events like the ‘1992 L.A. Uprising,’ the police beating of Rodney King, and the death of LaTasha Harlins.
After several days of much maligning of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement with regard to recent police shootings, I think it is time to address the (blue) elephant in the room. As a retired, twenty-year veteran sergeant of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and a black woman and a mother of four black young men, I come from…