The Los Angeles Police Commission is being criticized by both community activists and the police union, for its ruling yesterday that one officer violated department policy, but another was justified in firing his weapon at Ezell Ford, an unarmed, mentally ill black man.
In ruling that Officer Sharlton Wampler’s use of deadly force in the death of Ford last August violated LAPD policy, the commission rejected Chief Charlie Beck’s finding that Wampler had adhered to policy.
The commission ruled there was no reason to have detained Ford in the first place and that Wampler badly mishandled the encounter, leading to the fatal confrontation.
Alan Skobin is a former police commissioner and spoke to KCRW’s Eric Roy about how that decision was made, and how the process might be reformed.