LAPD Thanked for Convention Effort

The Los Angeles Police Department received kudos in the form of giant thank-you cards Monday for its performance during last week’s Democratic National Convention.

Police Chief Bernard Parks and a dozen officers attended the event outside the department’s San Fernando Valley headquarters in the Van Nuys Civic Center.

Messages in English and Spanish on the two poster-sized cards expressed similar sentiments. One read: “I was there. You did a great job.” Another read: “Bradley would have been proud of you,” in apparent reference to the late Mayor Tom Bradley, who served with the LAPD.

Parks said that before last week, there were “many doubters” who questioned his department’s ability to handle the convention.

“We showed from Day One that we could keep the city safe and preserve the 1st Amendment rights of those who came to protest,” he said. “Those who came to tear up the city--we sent them home without their achieving that goal.”

Among the signers were Nahid

Hyde of Granada Hills and her 6-year-old daughter, Laura.

“Whether they act or don’t act at an event, the police are criticized,” said Hyde, who added that she watched the coverage of the convention on television. “I don’t want to see police officers leaving the force. I want to get them when I call 911.”