All the colors that make blue

It had the hallmarks of a typical graduation ceremony -- awards, speeches and hordes of excited families.

But these graduates were not in caps and gowns. They wore blue uniforms, white gloves and holstered guns.

And from my vantage point on the Police Academy lawn, the 44 cadets who graduated into the Los Angeles Police Department on Friday looked impressively tough -- and impossibly young.

At the morning ceremony, I was invited to join the procession of officials passing down the row of cadets, checking the "function and lubrication" of each graduate's gun. But I looked past the Glocks and into their eyes, studying the name tags pinned to their chests.

Sosa and Singh, Doherty and DelGado, Maynard, Moya and Vaidhayakul.

I heard accents that tied some to foreign countries. And saw a hint of street swagger in some of their marches.

There were veterans with military ribbons. And diminutive women, hair tucked under their caps, with "Sharpshooter" badges.

Some came to the LAPD straight out of college. Others left careers to join: accountant, musician, locomotive conductor. One -- the wife of a cop -- was 34. A young man from Florida had just turned 21.

And for all we joke dismissively about the "melting pot," it was a pleasure to see, through their ranks, what our city -- and our police force -- has become.

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None of this was lost on my host, Assistant LAPD Chief Earl Paysinger. He entered the academy in 1976 -- before most of these recruits were born -- when a class of 75 might have half a dozen Latinos and blacks.

That's not the only difference; it's not just about racial and ethnic change.

"In yesteryear the academy was all about the physical dimensions of policing -- arrest and control, shootings, foot pursuits," Paysinger said. "Now there's this other part of the training that teaches our recruits how to deal with people on multiple levels."

That would explain the speeches I heard Friday morning.

Police Commissioner Anthony Pacheco opened his talk with a warning to the new graduates to "engage only in constitutional policing." He followed with a reminder they might land not just in the line of fire, but "at the intersection of serious social problems."

Paysinger encouraged them to "conduct yourself with dignity. . . . During every public contact you make, you are our ambassador."