Dear John,
Warnings about the abuse of power at the highest levels of government are often voiced by activists or members of the political class out of power and, at times, dismissed as alarmist rhetoric or partisan attacks. To appropriately convey the gravity of what's happening in our country, MPAC is presenting to you an editorial by former Deputy Chief and Interim Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Mike Downing.
Deputy Chief Downing spent decades in law enforcement, leading one of the largest police departments in the United States and overseeing the use of state power and the narratives that justify it.
When a senior law enforcement official, who has commanded officers and managed crises, warns that government deception and the erosion of accountability are becoming normalized, it should set off alarms. This is neither abstract theory nor political posturing; it is an insider’s account of how authority operates when institutional checks begin to fail, and the rule of law no longer applies to those tasked with upholding it.
