A month ago, not long after, the news broke out in Los Angeles

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Police Chief Michel Moore is said to have ordered a sample of Mayor Karen Bass’s grant to USC, a group of black religious and civic leaders who gathered at a South LA church to make some demands.

If LAPD Chief Moore has directed detectives to investigate our Mayor, Karen Bass, based on a personal agenda, we ask him to resign immediately, KW Tulloss, Pastor and President

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baptist minister

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s Los Angeles Conference, stated to reporters. And if he doesn’t give up? We have asked the LA Police Commission to remove him immediately.

Afterwards Tulloss told me that he had been the Baptist minister until then

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‘s Conference had a “pretty decent” relationship with Moore.

“But at the end of the day, we all support our mayor and any time we feel like she’s being undermined, those relationships can change,” he explained. “We have very limited options to get it right. And I believe our mayor is doing her best.”

We rarely act unless it’s really important, Tulloss added.

On Friday, Bass and Moore stood before reporters at LA City Hall to announce that the chief would step down at the end of February years earlier than many expected when he was appointed to a second term just a year ago.

The story goes that Moore approached Bass to explain that “his timeline was moving up to spend more time with his family,” the mayor explained. And indeed, Moore repeatedly choked up talking about missing his daughter and wanting to retire and move with his wife to be closer to her in his “golden years.”

It has been my great honor and privilege to serve for more than four decades in the best police department in the world and for the last five years as chief, Moore said.

He wants

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stick around to serve in an “advisory capacity” for whoever the Los Angeles Police Commission selects as an interim replacement while a national search is conducted for a permanent successor.

In the meantime, I’m sure there will be plenty of speculation that the real reason Moore is leaving is because he crossed Bass to reflect the outrage of those black religious and civic leaders.

In December, my Times colleagues Libor Jany and Richard Winton revealed a whistleblower complaint accusing the chief of ordering two LAPD detectives to investigate the then-newly elected mayor over a $95,000 grant she received for the social work program of the USC.

That grant, though awarded years ago, became a point of contention in 2022, when federal prosecutors labeled it “critical” to their massive corruption case against a former USC dean and Bass’ longtime political ally, former L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley. Thomas.

Prosecutors have never been accused of wrongdoing. But during her campaign for mayor, the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League spent nearly $2 million on TV ads insinuating that she was guilty of the same kind of quid pro quo that Ridley-Thomas was ultimately convicted of.

So you can see how the accusations that Moore wanted to investigate this could strike a nerve.

The chief has repeatedly denied any involvement and is angry

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win on Friday. Bass, meanwhile, echoed Moore, saying the whistleblower’s complaint had nothing to do with his decision to retire early and that there was “no daylight” between them, a sentence that appears to be true.

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is having its moment in democratic political circles. But I’m leaving.

The truth is that these political intrigues and attitudes don’t really matter. Not for the people of Los Angeles.

There are far more important reasons Moore had to leave early, and just as many reasons to hope the city can do better for Angelenos with its next chief.

When asked what his successor should prioritize, Moore rattled off a list.

“To listen, to understand the needs of our communities. To understand perceptions,” he said. “To take into account the city’s overall efforts to look across Los Angeles [and ask] “What does safety mean to you?”

“To ensure this department remains on a strategic path,” Moore added. ‘That we avoid the mistakes we have made in the past. That we don’t try to force our way out. That everything is not a police function or police responsibility.’

I agree with all that. Too bad the LAPD under Moore’s leadership hasn’t done nearly enough

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all, even as the department’s budget has continued to rise.

There have been a series of cases of officer misconduct, from the gang unit officers accused of stealing and illegal stops, to the assistant chief accused of following an officer he had been in a relationship with.

Before that, there was the shoddy work that led to an LAPD bomb squad accidentally blowing up an entire South LA neighborhood in 2021. After carelessly stacking too many fireworks into a container ship and then detonating them, cars were flipped, windows were shattered and homes were destroyed. were destroyed, upending the lives of dozens of working-class Latino residents.

And it was this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend one year ago that hundreds of people went to Venice and stood outside in a brutal and cold downpour at a vigil for Keenan Anderson, a black man who went into cardiac arrest and died after LAPD officers hit him had been tasered repeatedly. .

Anderson received the most attention because he was a cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. But he was just one of three men of color who died in the first weeks of 2023 after encounters with the LAPD.

All three were in the midst of a mental health crisis, and in all cases, officers inexplicably failed to ask mental health workers to assist with de-escalation, despite previously agreed upon reforms.

These cases, along with the many other Angelenos who continue to die or be injured in police shootings despite the overall decline in crime rates, prompted activists to call for Moore’s resignation. They gathered on the steps of City Hall to call on Bass not to reappoint him for a second five-year term.

But last January, a month after Bass took office as mayor, she endorsed Moore, but with a few caveats. In a letter to the Police Commission, she called for more reforms at the LAPD.

“All three deaths underscore the need for continued and significant reforms in the city’s approach to public safety,” Bass wrote.

I’d settle for a new chief who prioritizes enforcing the reforms already on the books, whether it’s finally getting a handle on the heavy-handed tactics officers use against activists and journalists during protests, or tackling the apparently still prevalent racist profiling. as detailed in the latest report from California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board.

Melina Abdullah, the founder of Black Lives Matter-LA and one of Moore’s fiercest critics, believes it was “the people,” fed-up Los Angeles residents, who forced the chief’s resignation. And it’s true that even the Baptists preach

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The conference had apparently had enough.

“During my tenure, I know I have made mistakes and missteps,” Moore said Friday. But I also believe that my work has had success on a broad spectrum of issues unmatched by any other law enforcement agency in this country.

LA can still do better.