LA Weekly Reporter Reacts to Bratton Stepping Down

We’ll recap: Chief of Police Bill Bratton has been touting this statistic about how LA, this LA – the LA we live in, is one of the safest cities in the country and crime is down to 1956 levels. Patrick Range McDonald at the LA Weekly wrote a piece refuting those numbers. Then Bratton on Patt Morrison‘s KPCC show said because of the piece rebutting Bratton’s stats everyone at the LA Weekly was smoking a little weed. Well played. Your move, Sir.

Today Bratton announced he’s leaving before his term is over and so we asked McDonald for his thoughts and he sent us this:

I’m mostly not surprised about Bratton leaving L.A. There have been very recent signs this was going to happen.

First, there was Bratton’s home going up for sale. Then a good source told me and other reporters at the Weekly about a certain event involving the chief that made us wonder about things. Lastly, Villaraigosa recently called an important press conference, saying he was against releasing criminals early from California prisons. It was the kind of high profile event that Bratton usually shows up for, so he can throw around his political weight. This time, Bratton sent over assistant chief Jim McDonnell. I thought that was interesting. It made me think Bratton was grooming McDonnell for the top job.

So, like I said, the signs were there.

McDonald is SO holding.

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