The law enforcement officers of LAAPOA stand with all law enforcement officers — local, state and federal — in the City of Los Angeles who are unified in protecting the community, its citizens and property during the riots that have taken place over the last week.
It has been another difficult chapter in policing history as we witness politicians working to pit protectors of the public against each other. LAAPOA has long stood unique in straddling many walls and breaking stereotypes, mainly due to being a majority–minority police force in the best-known, most-populated city on the West Coast of America and, until recently, the second-busiest airport in the world, LAX.
LAX is its own multicultural city in a city. It houses the largest proprietary airport police force in America within the second-largest city in the United States. LAXPD oversees the interactions of people from generations of conflicting relationships from complex international cultures, including our own mini “Gaza strip” inside the international terminal, which has conflict countries having ticket counters next to each other.
The pressure cooker environment of travel and the symbolism that airports and aircraft have as terrorism tools have made LAX a target of Osama Bin Ladin in his handwritten diaries, of a terrorist shooting at Israel’s El Al ticket counter, of a crazed shooter who killed a TSA agent and various others.
Furthermore, our officers deal with difficult issues relating to immigration daily, with LAX being the gateway to the world. We work alongside our federal counterparts, most notably the U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency. The relationship is strong and respectful. We could not do our jobs if they did not do theirs.
“Witnessing the interference of politics into the public safety work of law enforcement officers and the denigration of those who serve is beneath our country and has put officers, their families, the people, the communities, and the property they protect under siege. It must stop now,” LAAPOA President Marshall McClain says. “Watching how grown human beings cannot take a breath and walk back rhetoric when it does not serve the common good places everyone in danger. We have seen a deterioration of leadership at our own airport, LAX, starting with our new CEO. Big things are coming LAX’s way — the World Cup, the Olympics and the Paralympics. We are worried. LAX is not ready. LAXPD is not staffed to handle it. If the last week has taught us anything, it would be how not to handle things, especially with police departments. CEO Ackerman should learn. Sadly, he has not shown the capability or temperament to do so. We are all suffering from those unfortunate personality traits. Let’s hope he digs deep and finds the capacity to be better for all of us.”