FIX FOR L.A. COP SCANDAL REALLY A SCANDAL IN ITSELF

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has proposed a scandalous way to pay
the costs of the city's police corruption scandal. To cover the
anticipated hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards to those
wrongly imprisoned, or even shot by rogue cops, Riordan would tap the
city's share of the national tobacco settlement -- for the next 25
years.

Police in the city's Rampart Division planted evidence, provided false
testimony, staged crime scenes and shot unarmed suspects. As a result,
at least 20 officers have quit or been relieved of duty, suspended or
fired. Forty convictions have been thrown out by prosecutors. The
convictions of at least 100 defendants are in question.

Recent revelations have darkened the picture even more. Members of the
division's anti-gang unit in effect comprised a gang of their own,
sporting tattoos of a grinning skull in a cowboy hat and badge. A
special counsel to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said it
"smacks of lawless, cowboy vigilante behavior."

It's also been revealed that four of the officers linked to the
scandal never should have been hired in the first place, because of
financial problems and arrest records.

The tobacco settlement money is no mere windfall to state and local
governments. It is an attempt to recoup government's cost of health
care directly related to smoking.

"This is the best use of these dollars," Riordan said.

Nonsense.

Cuts in city services or tax increases would more appropriately share
the penalty for pursuing public safety by hiring and tolerating thugs
in uniform. The tobacco settlement gambit is a shallow attempt at
sugar-coating a grave public problem by cushioning citizens against
the true costs of the scandal.