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The chief-turned-councilman insists in his Times profile by Tina Daunt that he's not running for mayor just to avenge the humiliation of having his 37-year LAPD career ended by Jim Hahn, who he dismisses as "Jimmy No-show." Parks says he's in this for real and has plans to turn the city around. In the piece, he's described as proud, stubborn and controlling, and draws a mixed rating from a senior vice president at Weber Shandwick PR who works with the Police Protective League and was close to former chief Ed Davis:
"He's bitter, and he's brilliant," says Eric Rose, a political consultant with ties to law enforcement. "He was the most prepared police chief-in-waiting. But he's also a micromanager…. He has to know so many details that he gets lost in the minutiae. He's well-read, he's very smart, but he's also stubborn. Once he makes up his mind, he's intransigent."
Parks' formative experiences at the LAPD include several incidents of racism. His son and chief of staff, former Channel 2 newswriter Bernard Parks Jr., said he remembers the day his father became a captain in 1977. His new car was vandalized in the LAPD lot. "Someone had written 'Nigger Captain' on the door, dashboard and ceiling. I don't know how he went to work every day. It was not a friendly environment." The piece, as any on Parks must, also explores the role in his public life played by his wife Bobbie.
Also in the paper: Parks' successor, William Bratton, is vowing to speed up new rules for shooting at moving vehicles after an officer fired ten shots and killed 13-year-old Devin Brown when he backed his car into a police cruiser. It followed a brief chase at 4 a.m. Sunday.
And: Hahn contributor Mark Alan Abrams is hit with a $270,000 fine from Ethics Commission. Collecting is another matter: his assets are managed by a receiver, the Breeze says.
* Afternoon update: Parks talks with Warren Olney at 7 p.m. on KCRW about the Devin Brown shooting and his campaign for mayor.