Koon’s Book on the LAPD

I have often chastised my minority friends for shouldering blame or for being embarrassed by someone of their own ethnicity who has said or done something exceedingly inappropriate. Some often feel inclined to give explanations or excuses for actions that in no way could be attributed to an entire group. I have always followed such explanations or excuses with advice given to me when I was very young: Just because one apple in the bushel is rotten, it does not necessarily follow that all of the apples in the bushel are rotten.

I now understand why some of my friends have felt embarrassed or have been shamed by acts attributed to one of their own ethnicity. I am a white Los Angeles Police Department officer who was not only shocked and humiliated by the recent verdicts of the “Foothill Four,” but who was also embarrassed and disgraced by the comments attributed to Koon.

I can only ask that Los Angeles not judge all white LAPD officers by the statements attributed to one. No, we do not all think and speak the racist “gallows humor” Koon so graphically credited to us--by far the majority of us are empathetic, kind, considerate, open-minded professionals who want to protect all who seek our valued service. And it follows, just as with the rotten apple in the bushel, just because one cop on the force is rotten, it does not follow that all cops are rotten. Please judge us individually, just as you would want us to judge you.

MARK R. LaBONTA, Los Angeles