Criminal Justice Reform

Adding Fuel To The “Defund The Police” Fire

LA Sheriff says that trust in the criminal justice system should be emphasized as his deputies are caught in the act of destroying evidence.

Carl J. Petersen
5 min readSep 16, 2020

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We have people fanning the flames of hatred and just turning up the volume when we don’t need it. We need to be turning it down

- LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva

The police are entrusted with broad powers which give them the authority they need to enforce the law. If just a small percentage of these officers abuse their power they risk setting off a chain reaction within the public that will cause some to question if that trust is well placed. George Floyd’s murder on Memorial Day was such an event.

As protests spread throughout the country to demand accountability, the police were put in the precarious position of having to enforce the law as crowds directed their anger directly at them. To add to their stress, they had to do so under a microscope where every mistake was subject to capture by the ever-present cell phone camera. Even under these conditions, the public has the right to expect that they would maintain their professionalism at all times.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in

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Carl J. Petersen

Parent, special education advocate and former LAUSD School Board candidate. Still fighting for the children. www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com