{"id":761316,"date":"2026-04-29T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/761316\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:30:14","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-cultures-of-obedience-cost-los-angeles-taxpayers-far-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/761316\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Editor: Cultures of obedience cost Los Angeles taxpayers far too much"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To the editor<\/b>: In the Sunday paper, the Los Angeles Times published a story about L.A. firefighters\u2019 mass obedience to authority under fear of retaliation, even in questioning orders that could put residents in danger (\u201cLAFD\u2019s culture of obedience runs deep. Firefighters say they fear retaliation from bosses,\u201d<\/a> April 23). Cited is the Lachman fire that was abandoned while still smoldering on orders from command, which later reignited into the Palisades inferno. One day prior, the California section ran a story headlined in print, \u201cLAPD officers faced reprisal, jury decides\u201d (\u201cOfficers called out serious problems at firearms training facility; LAPD retaliated, jury finds,\u201d<\/a> April 24). That lawsuit, brought by four officers who \u201cattempted to raise concerns about unsafe working conditions at a firearms training facility,\u201d cost the city $15 million. Just imagine the coming number for the lawsuits against the city for the fires.<\/p>\n

Legal payouts cost the city more than a quarter of $1 billion<\/a> last fiscal year. That number is expected to climb<\/a> in fiscal 2025-26 as L.A. staggers under budget cutbacks<\/a> on infrastructure and services. That a significant element of the budget deficit is caused by gross, unprofessional behavior \u2014 excessive shootings, violations of civil rights \u2014 is unconscionable and unacceptable. It\u2019s also unacceptable that firefighters engaging in self-censorship on doing the right thing despite being sworn to protect us from fire catastrophe will inevitably play into that mounting deficit.<\/p>\n

Firefighters worried about ruffling the feathers of their \u201csecond family\u201d at the station should instead be teaching and adopting the moral code ideally taught to the children at their \u201cfirst family\u201d at home. If that\u2019s not possible, let\u2019s start cleaning house from the top down until it is.<\/p>\n

And where are the mayoral candidates on this topic? Nowhere. Just more \u201comerta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitch Paradise, Los Angeles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: In the Sunday paper, the Los Angeles Times published a story about L.A. firefighters\u2019 mass…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":747487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[13236,1582,276,2451,392,7129,312867,312866,12768,13155,265045,2961,29170,224,312865,5337,312864,8145,9951,645],"class_list":["post-761316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-budget-deficit","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-city","tag-culture","tag-editor","tag-excessive-shooting","tag-firearm-training-facility","tag-firefighter","tag-jury","tag-l-a-firefighter","tag-la","tag-lapd-officer","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-taxpayer","tag-losangeles","tag-obedience","tag-order","tag-retaliation","tag-story"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116488006847929395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}