Metro Council president accused of colluding in lawsuit against the city

He owed his rise entirely to Abramson and Hamilton. The other chiefs and Mayor Armstrong didn't see enough potential to put him in charge of anything non-administrative in nature. I have a feeling he let the career command staff run that small city department out in Arizona since he was a fish out of water. If he'd done that here instead of try to micromanage the people who know better, I doubt he'd have nearly the problems he does today. His sole focus appears to be plastering over all the problems and pretending they're not there, whether its gangs, pedophile officers or poor management.

If Conrad had a better Mayor, he'd probably be forced to be a better Chief. Fischer's an empty suit. He's the one setting the political tone requiring weak policing that Conrad follows and bears much of the blame for crime going up. Even though Conrad's the one dictating to people below him, he is still just a Fischer lackey, not the one pulling the strings at the top level. Conrad downplayed gang shootings for years because Fischer didn't want to hear the words "We have a gang violence problem" or see an LMPD Gang Unit on TV.

Fischer's typical day is doing speeches for his business donor friends, showing his face at special events and and cutting ribbons for businesses that will pay a few people $10 per hour plus tips. He also appoints racist professors to police oversight boards.