Editorial: What Sheriff Villanueva got right (and why it wasn't enough) (via latimesopinion)
The Los Angeles County sheriff’s election is more significant for Alex Villanueva’s defeat than Robert Luna’s election, which, if judged by the amount of money it recovered, failed miserably. Wage theft falls under the jurisdiction of the California Labor Commissioner’s Office within the state Department of Industrial Relations, and it’s not clear what value is added by a sheriff’s participation. In better hands, though, the department might play a constructive role.
For example, he carried a grudge against what he considered the unfair treatment of himself and other deputies by department superiors during his career. Complaints about perceived slights and injustices are typical of any large, bureaucratic organization. But at least some of Villanueva’s complaints bore a ring of truth and are important to the future of the department and the people it serves.
Should county residents care about Sheriff’s Department promotions? Yes. When confidence in official processes disappear, members of an organization will develop alternatives. Off-the-books relationships and codes of conduct supplant rank and chain of command. It’s a phenomenon that produces criminal street gangs, and, quite possibly, exacerbated the problem of, and raises the specter of armed officers on the street and in the jails playing by rules they make up themselves.
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