Panel Condemns Zine for Bin Laden Remark

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday denounced a comment by City Councilman Dennis Zine in which he referred to Police Chief Bernard C. Parks as “Osama bin Parks,” a reference to the Saudi terrorist leader.

The commission issued a statement after hearing complaints about Zine’s comment from civil rights leaders, including John Mack of the Los Angeles Urban League.

“To compare him to a murderous madman like Osama bin Laden at a time of national crisis is insulting and offensive,” the commission said in a statement.

Zine said Tuesday that he has apologized in writing for the comment, made in jest over a dispute in which the chief challenged officers’ wearing patriotic lapel pins distributed by the police union. “I sent a letter of apology to the chief, which he did not accept,” Zine said.

“It was a statement I made without premeditation. It was said at a private meeting as purely a joke.”