Photo by stevelyon via Flickr For the sixth year in a row, complaints of racial profiling towards LAPD officers have all been dismissed, according to the LA Times who reviewed documents from the police department's Internal Affairs Group. In 2007, all 320 cases that allege that officers stopped, questioned or confronted someone because of race, were closed, 80% of them as "unfounded." And for reactions? As told to the Times: "In my mind, there......

Reporter Leo Stallworth and Chief Bratton have a difference of opinion and at yesterday's press conference about violence in South LA, the no-nonsense East Coast sensibilites of LAPD's top cop came out in front of everyone... and ABC aired it. Stallworth asked about racial tensions, maybe in a more speculative way, based off interviews with community members. Bratton did not like that and responded. "We have to work with fact and speculation... You're a......

"Sister Cities" | Photo by Stephanie Asher via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update on yesterday's Harbor-Gateway shooting of a 6-year-old in a car. LAPD Chief Bratton announced: "We are very confident that we have the people who were involved in the actual shooting in custody." For the Lakers fans out there, LA City Councilman Bernard Parks declared today as "Derek Fisher Day." 1,817. That's the number of teacher layoffs so......

The City of Los Angeles in 2007 saw a 5% drop in serious crimes, bringing the number of homicides down to the lowest it's been in 37 years. The LA Times reports that, "The Watts area alone last year saw a nearly 50% drop in homicides, according to LAPD crime statistics." The Times goes on to report that LAPD Chief William J. Bratton claims that this drop can be attributed to police officers doing their......

As 2007 winds down to its close, local law enforcement agencies anticipate the year's homicide numbers to be lower than the low set in 1970. The Daily News is reporting that "As of Dec. 15, 379 people had been killed in Los Angeles this year, with about 200 of those incidents gang-related. The overall homicide rate is down 17 percent from last year." In 1970, 394 people were killed in Los Angeles. More cops in......

Last minute plans? Try some culture via ExperienceLA's calendar. Or try our picks for tonight: Canon at Union Station, Pee Wee's Big Adventure at Angel City Drive-In, or Tonight in Rock. Toady, Oprah Winfrey held a swanky fundraiser for Barack Obama south of Santa Barbara expecting to raise $3-million. Hot chick boards Southwest plane, finds her seat, gets kicked off for being too sexy. The LA Triathlon is tomorrow morning. Find out if you'll......

See the 1995 60 Minutes segment about the horrendous Red Line subway construction. Apparently, in democracy you cannot run against your boss' political allies without getting fired. That's what happened when city councilman Ed Reyes fired his office manager after she lost the 2005 election to Jose Huizar. She sued. She won. All the Wilshire Blvd. bus lane info you could want. The Zaca wildfire has been going for a month and now Governor......

Feel like returning to the scene of the crime with the Mayor of LA and help him protest his own police force? This evening at 5:30pm at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at Wilshire Boulevard and Berendo Street there will be a short town hall meeting followed by a 10-block march to MacArthur Park where there will be a rally to denounce the LAPD behavior during the infamous Mayday Melee. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker......

The LAPD's civil rights consent decree just got extended this past summer for another three years. Do videos like this and witness accounts help end this decree and get more officers back on the street instead of desk duty for consent decree paperwork? Not really. Here is some excerpts from Daniel Hernandez's blog: "The sight of cops standing shoulder-to-shoulder menacingly holding batons drew more onlookers, which drew more cops, which drew more onlookers. The......

Wilshire & Alvarado - May Day The presence of a police force lined up with riot gear presupposes trouble. And when someone supposedly threw a bottle near MacArthur Park Tuesday evening, it was a call to action. Or as Chief Bratton later rationalized: "Missiles were being thrown at the officers, and officers [were] responding." Last year's May Day march down Wilshire featured amiable members of LA's finest police and fire squads lined up on......

More than 500 federal agents and local officers raided several South L.A. locations this morning and arrested nearly two dozen members and associates of the Rolling 60's neighborhood Crips gang. This is the biggest sting yet in a two-and-a-half year joint investigation involving the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and LAPD. 300 members of the LAPD were in on this morning's sting, along with members of the U.S. Secret Service and......

Yea citizens, when the cold light of justice turns its unflinching beam on evildoers everywhere, it will no longer shine from a two pound metal club. Ace crimefighters from the LAPD will soon be equipped with a new weapon in the arsenal of righteousness…the Pelican 7060 LED flashlight! Presented to the public yesterday, the 7060 was developed to specifications set by the LAPD after Chief Bratton banned their standard issue two foot-long metal flashlight.......

At last night's 10th Annual Los Angeles Political Roast, a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, there was more than just poking fun at the no-nonsense East Coast talking LAPD Chief - William Bratton. The LA Times did not get into it (LAObserved did), but there was a little tiff between Mayor Villaraigosa and District Attorney, Steve Cooley. The DA took a swing at the Mayor's supposed marriage situation and later while Mayor V......

By week's end, Los Angeles is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, pretty please let us know, or better yet, drop it in the comments section......

Los Angeles Sunday on NPR Last night, NPR featured, almost back to back, two stories about LA. The first, an interview with LAPD Chief Bratton on LA's increased gang problem. A few minutes later, Al Shelton's Western Art storefront on Ventura Blvd. is featured. (All Things Considered, NPR) LA's Reservoirs "Facing new water regulations prohibiting open-air reservoirs of potable water, the city would prefer to cover Elysian and Upper Stone Canyon reservoirs with fabric, metal......

- Just like Mel Gibson, Judith Regan allegedly has a Jew problem too - LA Times - Sean Penn accepts award by asking for the impeachment of President Bush to begin - E&P - The prosecution calls The Vice President of the United States - CBS - Don't call it a comeback: Inflation returns with a bullet. Two percent jump is largest spike in 30 years. Heck of a job, Bushie - Breitbart -......

- Among several persons being promoted, Chief Bratton will present a commander’s badge to Captain Sandy Jo MacArthur, who will become the first woman on LAPD to oversee all training functions in the police department as the commanding officer of Training Group. - 77 sworn officers, 25 civilian personnel, 18 helicopters, one airplane, over 18,000 hours of flight time a year and the largest rooftop heliport in the United States of America. Congrats to......

8% - Crime won't drop that much next year if Chief Bratton's overtime funding request doesn't go through. (LAT) 459 - Number of seats held in the California state senate and house. Redistricting is on the rise. (Daily News) 1.4 Million - Number of uninsured drivers in Los Angeles County. (LAT) 1911 - Year Crisco became to be. Los Angeles City Council is looking into banning the use of trans fat in restaurants. (Daily......

- That loveable racist Kramer, aka Michael Richards, is not a Jew, not that there's anything wrong with that - Jewish Journal - Mayor Tony doesnt care about black firemen who are fed dogfood and awarded millions - Firefighting News - Did Fox offer the Browns "hush money" to be cool about the OJ book & interview? - TV Squad - The California Supreme Court has made it safer to be a blogger -......

While UCPD tinkers around with tasers, LAPD has been playing with their audio equipment. What they presented on their blog yesterday is not truly a podcast, but merely an audio stream of a news conference. But hey, one step at a time, right? The first "podcast" is an audio recording of Chief Bratton's November 14th press conference where he reads a statement in response to the videos floating around the 'net (one, two) and......

Yesterday, Sean Bonner of Metroblogging Los Angeles, who helped the LAPD birth a blog of their own, caught wind of a video taken on August 11 and posted on YouTube on October 18, showing a splice of an arrest with an officer punching a man in the face. Immediately, LAist wrote Council District 13, requesting a response. They were not aware of it and said they would let us know of any details to......

What do Pee-Wee Herman, Johnny "Drama," and Alice Nelson from the Brady Bunch all have in common? They are part of Blogging.la's Fictional LA series that has been running since Monday. 25 in total, today is the last day. Who will be the #1 Los Angeles fictional character? Lots of buzz going on about the new ValleyNews.com. We did a test run last night and a few bugs and design elements aside, this site......

"The state has so far received 74,108 applications for an allotment of 75,000 decals permitting hybrid owners to drive solo in HOV lanes." ~ L.A. Times Blogging.LA does the math on hate crimes in LA: "...for every one hate crime in San Diego and San Francisco counties combined, there were five in Los Angeles. By any explanation, that's a lot of hate." Pasadena goes WiFi. (via LA Voice) In city politics and news, fines......

As of right now, we are en route to the Aqua Line (usually referred to as Expo Line) running between Downtown and Culver City. But city councilman Bernard Parks doesn't like it. And there are so many more choices: amber, copper, olive, plum, rose, sienna, gray, lemon, lime, pink, purple, salmon, sky, tan, teal and violet. What would you name it? The Amgen Tour of California bicycle race will finishline in Long Beach next......

The whole airports/power-failure fiasco last night was started by one car hitting one pole up in Palmdale. L.A. Times profiles K-Mozart 105.1 FM and founder/owner - Saul Levine. The station is worth an estimated $100 million and Levine won't sell it. Good for him, we don't want this station to go away. While the article speaks of the other full time classical station in town, K-USC 91.5 FM, Angelenos should not forget about a......

the good news - The Valley's Orange Line bus is a big hit: after just 7 months, it carries 22,000 passengers a day. It wasn't expected to reach those levels for another 14+ years. the good news pt 2 - Crime is down! Murder is down 10.8% citywide, overall crime down by 11%. Chief Bratton is smiling. the bad news - South LA accounts for 43% of all the homicides in the city —......

The Stompinator - What is it about us Democrats that we nominate the pencil-neckiest, geekiest guy of them all to go up against Arnold Schwarzenegger? This strategy that we can paint a popular action star as a puppet of Washington is preposterous. Sigh. How about we save the millions of campaign dollars and just give the gubernatorial election to Arnold right now? Oh, in case you missed it, Phil Angelides has won the democratic......

pissed police - LAPD Chief Bratton is furious over Assembly Bill 1882, which would transfer some airport security duties from the LAPD to the LAX police. But when making his official statement, he tried to be nice, avoiding calling LAX police fumbling idiots. "Why would you trust the security of a major terrorist target to a police force that is made up of many qualified people, but whose training, capabilities and hiring procedures are......

Judge nails jail Judge Dean Pregerson, who is presiding over a long-standing suit about conditions at the jail, left his chambers and visited Men's Central in downtown Wednesday. And he really didn't like what he saw. Inmates are being housed in a way "not consistent with basic human values." Jail in South Korea? Hwang Woo-suk, the respected South Korean scientist who was thought to be the first to clone human embroys and extract stem......

We went to the pro-immigration rally that gathered at MacArthur Park today and skedaddled home to post some photos as the march got under way. How many were there, we're not sure. 15,000? 50,000? 200,000? We couldn't find a decent vantage point to count all the people in white t-shirts. Mayor Villaraigosa, who organizers had thought might attend, had a great view. LAist learned that he was in a helicopter overhead with Chief Bratton......