PLATFORM : Court of Public Opinion May Not Allow Briseno Back on the Streets

Ted Briseno reasons that he has been acquitted twice of all charges against him by all 24 jurors (in the state and federal trials), therefore, he should be allowed to return as an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

What Briseno fails to realize is that there is courtroom justice and justice through public opinion. Even though the jurors found him innocent, I’m not so sure public opinion as a whole would be as kind.

Also, what makes Officer Briseno think that the Los Angeles Police Department wants him back? Remember, many officers view Briseno as a traitor who turned on his colleagues to save his hide.

If you were a police officer, would you want to drive the streets of Los Angeles with Ted Briseno as your partner?

It’s highly questionable that his return would be beneficial to himself, let alone beneficial to the Los Angeles Police Department or the city of Los Angeles.

If we’re sincere about closing the chapter on the Rodney King tragedy and defining a new relationship between police and the community, then we cannot allow Ted Briseno to return to the Los Angeles Police Department. True justice dictates that all officers involved in the Rodney G. King beating, no matter how insignificant their role, be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

No justice, no peace is more than a slogan; for Officer Briseno, it means a denial of his request to return to the Los Angeles Police Department.