Baca vs. Bratton

That said, the sheriff needs to parse his contribution to the discussion a little more judiciously and, in particular, ought not to project the genuinely poisonous racial atmosphere in the jails onto the community as a whole. Baca deserves a lot of credit for developing and funding programs that address racial animosity and other social pathologies -- particularly domestic violence -- in the jails. It simply isn't true, however, that Los Angeles is in the grip of a "crisis" of racially motivated gang violence. Every instance of racial violence is intolerable, but it's reckless to suggest they're more numerous than they are.

Overstating the frequency of any sort of racially motivated violence risks turning the unacceptable incidents that do occur into political symbols that easily can be manipulated by those with something other than the common good in mind. We've already seen something like that occur in the tragic case of Jamiel Shaw II, the Los Angeles High School student shot to death steps from his front door, allegedly by a gang member.

Shaw was black, and his accused assailant is a Latino immigrant in the country illegally. The murder has become the centerpiece of a move to essentially repeal the LAPD's Special Order 40, which states that "officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person." Backers of "Jamiel's Law" insist that the alleged killer, who was released from jail shortly before Shaw was killed, would have been held and deported had Special Order 40 not been in force. One of the problems with this conclusion is that the accused assailant never was in LAPD custody. He was arrested by the Culver City police and released by the Sheriff's Department.

Neither of those facts has kept Shaw's death from assuming a symbolic importance in the vocal campaign against the order by the usual anti-immigrant forces. If that campaign were to become "racialized" with black leaders lining up on one side and Latino leaders on the other, things could become ugly very quickly.

The voices of Los Angeles' top cops must be raised against that possibility, but Bratton needs to speak up a little more clearly and with a little more heart, while Baca needs to speak more softly and with greater care.

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timothy.rutten@latimes.com