ON THE DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD: The City of Los Angeles banned the use of chokeholds by its police officers in 1982, following a number of controversial deaths. The City was having a particular problem with black suspects dying while in custody from the use of chokeholds. And now, in 2020, the City of Minneapolis has just done the same.

How many other cities have ignored lessons already learned? How much can still be learned from the Christopher Commission’s study of the LAPD after the Rodney King beating and the federal consent decree that followed?

How could those lessons possibly be ignored by other cities and their police departments for 38 years after the worst civil uprising in the country’s history shook Los Angeles to its core with more than 60 dead and over a billion dollars in damage?

Having returned to the east coast after more than 30 years in Los Angeles, I continue to be amazed at how removed the west coast is from the collective consciousness of the east, sometimes to our disadvantage. This of course would exclude products offered up by the entertainment industry, which gives new life to the old Hollywood credo that “image is more important than reality.”