Jury hands demoted LMPD officer $300,000 verdict in case against city

Sullivan and Conrad were embarrassing to watch. Tells everyone how sad LMPD is right now. Great officers and detectives stuck with them.

Maybe. But it's too top heavy when the appointed ranks outnumber the merit ranks. Chief, Col, LTC, Major (4). Officer, Sgt, Lt (3).

That is completely false and revisionist history. They were done away with because city hall wanted to interfere with law enforcement, aka corrupt the justice system with their petty political concerns. They wanted to tell police to not enforce the law just as Fischer's administration has done. It wasn't as easy to obstruct justice with Captains protecting the officers from corrupt politicians. The 100-120 murders per year is proof of that. Look at what Fischer's hug-a-thug don't-arrest-nobody agenda has done. 15 years of history says there will never be "a good chief" in a merged city-county government like this. The only fix is get rid of politics inside the department. Police are not supposed to be political lackeys in this country. You can move to China for that.

"You can't have a good/great Chief/command staff if you have Captains that won't allow the Chief to implement his programs."

I was around in the days of Civil-Service Captains (LPD), and I don't believe it prevented "Good Chief/command staff" at all, but rather provided a much-needed system of checks and balances.