GATECRASHER

Re Jimmy Breslin’s review of “Chief” (May 24):

What Los Angeles really doesn’t need is a (another) left-liberal “take” on Chief Daryl Gates, and especially one designed by that opinionated blatherskite Jimmy Breslin (from New York City, yet; maybe the crime capital of the world).

For example: Excoriating Gates, and indeed the entire Los Angeles Police Department, for all human error on his watch (New York City police don’t make any?), and for his refusal to take immediate retirement, Breslin cites former Mayor Abe Beame’s disposal of what he judged to be a recalcitrant police commissioner: He terminated him with a stroke of his pen.

Say, that worked out swell, what? And crime plummeted in New York City? Sure, making that city’s administration and police force the paradigm by which Los Angeles’ should be measured? I don’t think so.

Breslin should be reminded that in a city a fraction of the size of Los Angeles, New York’s police force numbers 22,000. Gates’ department employs 8,300. However, these are facts that could contribute to Breslin’s confusion.

As a reasonable arbiter with a worthwhile perspective, Breslin is probably the living embodiment of the old saw that if one discovers a New Yorker with an open mind, he has probably just suffered a head wound.

ELLEN CLARK, PASADENA