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After NBC4 Los Angeles exposed an internal police email directing officers to make more arrests so that the Los Angeles Police Department can "avoid negative coverage" over illegal rabbit sales, Chief Charlie Beck defended the directive.
At a press conference Thursday, Beck focused on protecting animals, among other topics.
"I wanted to ... give the media some sense of what the LAPD’s involvement in preventing animal cruelty is," Beck said, noting the department's dedicated animal cruelty unit.
See the video report on NBCLosAngeles.com
His presentation was part of a campaign to spotlight Los Angeles Police Department officers and the animals they've rescued.
"I've yet to meet a cop that didn't have a soft spot for animals," Beck said.
For months, NBC4 Los Angeles' "Get Garcia" hidden-camera investigation into illegal animal sales has asked: Where are the arrest statistics to back that up?
When an officer working the fashion district responded to a NBC4 Los Angeles inquiry that just one arrest had been made for illegal animal sales, Cmdr. Andrew Smith at LAPD headquarters was not happy.
Knowing NBC4 Los Angeles was investigating, Smith wrote back in an email:
This story could be a black eye for us if we dont have a few arrests to show. The law has been on the books for months now, and the "rabbit people" are gonna scream that we dont care. Is there any way you or your crew could make a few arrests for illegal animal purchasing so we can avoid negative coverage?
Smith apparently hit "reply all" and accidentally copied a NBC4 Los Angeles producer on the email.
Asked to comment about the email Thursday, Beck responded that Smith was choosing how to allocate police resources.
"Cmdr. Smith at times gives direction to other people to enforce different laws, and that's fine. This is a big city," Beck said. "We respond to over 2 million 911 calls a year, 300 murders, 1,000 assaults … We have to make decisions about where we're going to put our enforcement dollars. And sometimes those decisions are influenced by people higher up in the food chain."
But when NBC4 Los Angeles' Ana Garcia tried to ask Beck if he would talk about the email's statement that the TV station's story could cause a "black eye" for the department, the chief stopped the questioning and moved on to another topic.
“Ana, I'm done with your question,” Beck said.
Also from NBCLosAngeles.com: Rescued from traffickers, bunny ready to be adopted
Smith told us he is very concerned that he and the LAPD be portrayed accurately as being animal lovers.
"The Los Angeles Police Department is committed to making a difference in the lives of animals here," Smith said.
Watch the investigative report on illegal animal sales from NBCLosAngeles.com:
View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.
Ana Garcia is an award-winning investigative reporter for NBC4 Los Angeles, NBCLosAngeles.com.
Leave a Comment:
"This story could be a black eye for us"
Guess what? Now the story is definitely a black eye for you because you are too incompetent to send an email properly.
I wonder, in the scheme of things, just how big a threat illegal bunny rabbit sales is to the citizens of L.A.?
I would venture to guess that if the police stopped wasting their time focusing on gangs and concentrated on eliminating rabbit sales.....crime in L.A. would drop to zero in no time.
Leave the wabbit crime to Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fud.
tom-1768340, I live in L.A. where this is happening and know the bunny groups involved in the rescue. This is bigger than just selling rabbits. What the story didn't tell you is that the police aren't making arrests because it's the Mexican Mafia who is actually behind a lot of the illegal animal sales. They have been given names and other information regarding the people involved, but it seems they're too afraid to do anything. Selling these animals (mostly to tourists of Santee Alley or people feeling sorry for the bunnies) helps to fund the Mexican Mafia's other criminal ventures. So yes, if the LAPD did make more arrests, that's putting a dent in the Mexican Mafia and helping to stop crime.
And by the way, these are baby bunnies that are just days old, literally the size of a tennis ball. Walk down Santee Alley in the Fashion District of L.A. and you'll see them stuffed into 6 inch long cage that barely fits their bodies and in which they can't even turn around. Until you've seen it yourself in person, you don't know how sad it truly is.
"Pssst. Hey, buddy. Wanna score some rabbit? Just keep an eye out for the cops."
How is this news story about a news story, news? Is anyone surprised that police departments care about their public image and make decisions to avoid negative publicity?
What's next? A breaking story about politicians trying to look like they care about their constituents?
When I read the original head line:
"Illegal bunny sales: LAPD defends 'reply all' on arrests"
I was wondering if Hugh Hefner was in trouble.
Same here. We have to get our minds out of the gutter :-)
"I've yet to meet an officer who didn't have a soft spot for animals" - what a CROC OF @!$%# - most 'police officers' are HIRED THUGS AND KILLERS in LA Chicago and NYC . Any city which is CORRUPT will have CORRUPT Authority. They go hand in hand together - why the American Sheeple are headed for the slaughter house, because they are TOO Stupid to stand up to Inequity, Injustice, Murder and Thievery from their own Government Employees
Spend a lot of time on the wrong side of the law, don't you? Did little Bobby get in trouble and now you whine about cops?
The only soft spot for animals most cops have is for those on their plate. Prime rib is pretty soft. I like A-1 on my animals, medium rare.
Roberta, I think most cops do have a soft spot for animals, its just the Constitution they have a problem with.
They shoot dogs but save rabbits? Snakes have to eat too!
Bunnies are edible! Nuff said!
WOW!! Keep the hell out of Wisconsin if you have a problem with eating rabbit! Only in Californicate do you do away with the mining, timber and fishing industries and then hold your hands out begging to be bailed out of your fiscal nightmares now you can't even eat a friggin rabbit!!
DUMAS: No problem for us staying out of Wisconsin. I wish you cheese-eating cousins of Ed Gein would stay home and out of CA.
And....uh....this is about illegal rabbit sales as in unlicensed sales as pets because a lot of them wind up dead.
Rabbit hunting and eating is alive and well.....we even eat brats, here.
Cheese eating cousins of Ed Gein? Having a hard time coping with the thinking process aye night stalker.
The problem with this law is that the buyer has the heavier fine. If the sellers say it it for food and the buyer says the same thing, no laws broken. Where a law could be enforced and should be is animal cruelity for not giving them proper water and food because they are confined or caged. I could see a twelve year old girl buying a rabit and getting a $1000.00 fine, while the seller gets a $100 dollar fine.
I lived in L.A., and it is a mafia-ridden pit where the cops are too pussyish to stand up to anything there. They're always hiring cops since no one wants to be one there. Why? The mafia/gangs have now overpowered everything.
Hint: they could not possibly care any less about a poor bunny rabbit.
The cops are just as irresponsible as everyone else is. The cops are gangsters; it's not just Compton, either.
Los Angeles is all up in arms about rabbits? This is totally ludicrous. If I were that officer being interviewed, I would've said: "We're dealing with murders, rapes, assualts, robberies, domestic abuse and hosts of other horrendous crimes. Rabbits are so far down on our radar they don't even appear on it. If the rabbit people want to save those wascally wabbits from ending up on someone's plate or coat, then let them go and do it themselves."
With all the gangs shooting each other & there's plenty of areas that the police won't even go into, they are worried about rabbits? Sure glad i left there years ago. Raise more taxes in order to hire more police & camera's so big brother can watch all the rabbit owners just in case they mistreat them
D.A.R.E. Really means "Doughnuts Are Really Exciting" hard to get them out of Dunkin's long enough to catch rabbits. And proof once again these guys are self inflated morons
you have to be kidding me? haha well i guess i w ill just have to start smuggling rabbits into los angeles, i raise them for pets and i think that some one will pay a lot for a illegal rabbit, cool,, one more bussiness enterprise, like my one i have in nyc , i sell 40 oz cokes with ice to city employees,600% profit there, meet them in a alley off of times square at midnight, now have to do the same with bunny rabbits, usally sell good registered one for 50 bucks, now? 500 cash, no check no paypal no money oorders and no shipping, best place to meet? police parking lots, they wont go out there at night, how you think i sell my guns in la. either in the police parking lot or thier precient lobby,the cops usally hide out if someone walks into thier lobby,good deal, thanks l.a.p.d.
The commander giving the news conference in the video, gives a bigger black eye than anything. He comes off sounding like an arrogant jerk.
Watch the video.
His proclamations of love for animals is overshadowed by his smug comments...
Massive FAIL , L.A.P.D.
Hang your heads low on this one.
The LA police should do one of two things here have animal control go down there and put the bunnies in to be euthanized or shoot them these are rabbits not dogs and there not in danger of going extinct yes there are breeds of rabbit who are endangered, but are they rabbits easily accessible to someone on the streets of LA well no there not, in fact the breeds of rabbit which are endangered are not even local in general to North America, has anyone ever heard the saying breed like Bunnies it exists for a reason!
Rabbit is very good when fried like chicken, raised them for food for years back in the 70s and 80s. but nowdays eating a rabbit is cruel and unusual treatment.
to bad they can't round them up and fry them for the transients.
@scott-2438163
Are they serious? Hasenpfeffer is now illegal in Los Angeles?
"its illegal to sell animals on the streets or sidewalks of LA" ,wtf I SEE PLENTY OF "PUSSY" FOR SALE IN KOREATOWN :P
This is a total non-story as far as I'm concerned. NBC LA News makes an expose undercover news story about abused baby rabbits being sold and seeks to get the police to enforce the animal abuse/sales violations. When the police commander encourages his officers to enforce those violations, the news pounces on him for enforcing the law. Such hypocrites are the media and want to make a story out of nothing.
This article is totally retarded and this journalist is part of the problem with this culture.
LA cops strike another oj blow!
Typical management behavior. Put the responsibility on the cops on the street to make the managers look better. I mean, you really don't want to incur the ire of those "rabbit people", now do you?
Pretty "hare-brained" comment from the brass there.
Refreshing to know that if I go to LA and find myself in a bad part of town, the rabbit issue will have been resolved. I was worried.