The LAPD Central Bureau covers the Hollenbeck, Central, Newton, Northeast and Rampart divisions of the LAPD, serving a population of almost 1 million people. It's also home to the densest, most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Until yesterday, the bureau was headed by Deputy Chief Cayler "Lee" Carter Jr, who was demoted and sent home by Chief William Bratton in a major shake-up of his command staff after the May Day police melee. Carter was the highest ranking officer at MacArthur Park. His No. 2, Louis Gray, was also demoted.
Replacing him is new Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, a bilingual native of Cuba with a 30-year LAPD career. At WitnessLA, Celeste Fremon describes Diaz as "one of the good guys," and points to some compelling, thoughtful quotes she gathered during her time reporting on Diaz when he headed the department's training division. I watched tonight as Diaz, speaking in impressively lucid Spanish, faced Telemundo's evening news magazine "En Contexto" and maneuvered challenging questions about the MacArthur Park meltdown. He said there was no "dark agenda" at play in the officers' actions on May 1. It's a worthwhile line of inquiry, as Earl Ofari Hutchinson notes. The violent police response to immigrant rights marchers is in a way a validation of their movement's growing strength and power.
Diaz seems decent and smart enough, and certainly an improvement over Carter, who claims in his bio (which is still up) that "without strong collaborative relationships success becomes questionable." Indeed. * UPDATE FROM BLOG: Just recalled that Carter has a fresh history of instructing his officers to respond to crowds with intimidation and force. See "LAPD: Winning hearts and minds in East L.A."
* Diaz photo by Ann Fishbein.