The L.A. Police Protective League took umbrage at Times columnist Tim Rutten's chiding of Mayor Villaraigosa for injecting a bit of politics into his TV time at the funeral of LAPD officer Randal Simmons. Statement from Tim Sands, the union's president:

Let's get this straight: Tim Rutten politicizes Officer Simmons' funeral by writing a column in which he accuses the Mayor of politicizing the funeral? And he accuses the Mayor of reckless comments in a column in which he balances the heroism of Officer Simmons by noting "On the other hand, there are the corrupt, brutal and racist cops."? Is Rutten so smitten with his own language that he misses the irony here? The "rhetorical lowpoint" Rutten speaks of is not the Mayor's remarks; it is his own deeply insulting, insensitive and politically biased non-reporting that attempts to belittle what was a profoundly moving funeral for a true hero.