The highest paid elected official in the United States is the Sheriff of Los Angeles County. And while the President is the chief executive of the republic, and the governors are the chief executives of the states, the only executive on the county level - in every county of the United States - is the sheriff. While the elected officials debate and argue, the police act with executive swiftness, right or wrong, legal or illegal, knowing that these issues may never be put to the test if the political will to oppose the police cannot be mustered; and in most cases, it cannot be. For one thing, the police deal in brute force, and there is an implicit threat that to oppose the police - who have a tendency to act as a monolithic command structure - might invite retaliation.

There have only been three Los Angeles County sheriffs since the 1920s. However, the "rite of succession" to the office of sheriff bears none of the trappings of a democratic process. This is, of course, not the case in all locales, but the insular nature of law enforcement often works against democratic tendencies, to the benefit of secretive groups of senior officers who dominate the institution of the police in their communities. The police decide all upon their own discretion how laws will be enforced, and even if some laws will not be enforced at all. They often decide to "clean up" neighborhoods, in crackdowns that have the most devastating effect upon the underclass. Police protection is always best in the wealthiest sections, and the worst in the poorest.

In 1975 then-Sheriff Peter Pitchess handpicked Sherman Block for the Number 2 position in the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, which amounted to an anointment of succession in the secretive world of police politics in southern California. According to the rules of this undemocratic cabal that controls the exercise of all official coercion in the county, the incumbent handpicked his successor and then would resign in order to enable his personal choice for the succession to enter the next election with the unassailable position of being an incumbent. Then the command structure that is at the heart and soul of the Sheriff's Department, proceeded to frighten off competitors within the department who imagined that it was up to the voters to decide who should be Sheriff of Los Angeles. Elections were reduced to rubber-stamp formalities. However, Sheriff Block inadvertently upset this careful system of control by dying in office.

Out of the blue, a cadre of concerned police joined forces with the bureaucratic core of the Establishment in Los Angeles County, and actually had the nerve to ask voters to vote for a deceased candidate! This would throw the selection of the next sheriff to the county Board of Supervisors, which means the police would be able to manipulate the selection process behind the scenes, to control the succession to the office. Of course, there is a difference between having professional law enforcement agencies, who protect and serve, and having a police state, wherein the police run the state. Unfortunately, the United States, under the republic, is a police state.

By Sharon Bernstein
TIMES STAFF WRITER

LOS ANGELES-One of the strangest electoral contests in local history took another dizzying step toward a crescendo of sorts Friday, as officials in the late Sheriff Sherman Block's reelection campaign told voters the only way to "preserve their right to choose" is to cast ballots for the dead incumbent, thereby delegating the decision to the county Board of Supervisors. (Only in the obscure world of police politics can it be construed that voting for an alternative that will put the power of choice in the hands of the Board of Supervisors, instead of the voters, "preserves the right to choose." WFI Editor)

At the same time, deputies - many of whom have never worked for another sheriff - and other law enforcement officials spent the day in mourning. Flags flew at half-staff at police and sheriff's stations across the county, and Sheriff's Department employees wore black ribbons on their badges and nameplates. "Employees are walking around in a state of bewilderment and sadness," said Undersheriff Jerry Harper, who is running the department until a new sheriff is elected or appointed. "They all want to stop and say how much it means to them. And they all have a story to tell about Block," who died Thursday evening. But to the dismay of many county officials, it was difficult to escape the campaign - and the questions of power and succession. Top campaign officials came and went from sheriff's headquarters Friday to discuss funeral arrangements and, sources said, Block's possible successor. (It reminds one of the days when pundits spent hours speculating about the Soviet Union's strategies, by observing the line-up every May Day on Lenin's Tomb. WFI Editor)

At least one member of the campaign staff expressed the hope that the media attention over the funeral, scheduled for 11AM Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl, would increase support for the campaign. For his part, Lee Baca, Block's opponent in the race, has no plans to resume active campaigning… Baca, a Mexican-American who rose through the ranks to become one of Block's proteges, is a retired division chief whose base of support comes from outside the traditional political and fund-raising circles to which the deceased sheriff's major supporters belong. When he decided to run against Block - a maverick decision in an institution that, like most law enforcement agencies, has a culture based on loyalty - he engendered ugly feelings not only in the sheriff, but among many in his command structure and in area politics.

In a poll conducted for the Block campaign last month, Baca had a slight lead, but because it fell within the margin of error, observers deemed the race too close to call. In what has become a mantra in the hours since Block's death, campaign said Friday that by assigning their proxy to the supervisors, voters would get their only chance to "select the best-qualified candidate." "Sherman Block… wanted the voters to have a real choice on Tuesday," his longtime campaign chairman, Jay Grodin, said at a news conference just 16 hours after the sheriff's death. "To preserve that choice, let the Board of Supervisors choose a qualified interim successor to serve until you can vote in the next election." (What he wants to preserve is not the choice of the voter, but the selection process that has been in place since the 1920s. WFI Editor)

That sentiment was echoed by two of the potential lawmaker-selectors, Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe. But, sensitive to criticism, a majority of the board backed away from urging the electorate outright to vote for a dead man. Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who was among those endorsing Block on Tuesday, issued a statement saying she would vote her conscience and urged voters to do the same. And the two supervisors with the most to lose by potentially antagonizing the Latino community - Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina - were decidedly cool on the notion of voting for a dead candidate. "I don't like being put in this situation right now," said Molina, who has switched her support from Block to Baca. "I don't think this is something that I should be discussing at a time when I should be in mourning."

Yaroslavsky, an old friend and longtime supporter of Block, described the situation as "surreal." "I think the sheriff's campaign has made its point, and I think everybody has heard it more than once," he said. Molina and Yaroslavsky said if Block wins, they would not wish to appoint someone for the full two years required by the county charter. However, Molina said research by county attorneys appears to show that the document expressly prohibits its board from holding an early election. That means whoever the board appointed would probably serve two years and then face election from the strong position of an incumbent.

In a local radio interview, one of the candidates known to be favored by the supervisors - former Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Mark Kroeker - stopped short of asking voters to elect a dead man, but said he would be eager to serve if selected by the board. Block's second-in-command, Harper, said he would not accept the position of sheriff if the board offered it to him. Mike Graham, the assistant sheriff, is the departmental candidate most often mentioned by insiders. A savvy manager who maintains good relations with the supervisors and the media, he said he did not wish to run for sheriff but would accept the job if appointed. "I don't want to have to run for office," Graham said. "I don't want to have to start raising money." (Of course, if Graham were appointed, you would suddenly see him very willing to run for office in the next election. WFI Editor)

Meanwhile, the Block campaign pressed forward, pleased with the free publicity provided by the news conference and announcement of funeral plans. "I don't know who's running that thing," one county official said angrily of the campaign. "It's like a hydra. You chop its head off and it still stays alive. It's like they're channeling Sherm from beyond the grave and carrying out his wishes."

SOURCE: Excerpted from the 31 October, 1998, issue of the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, from an article entitled, "Amid Grief, Voters Urged to Black Block Despite Death." Reprinted in the public service of the national interest of the American people.

UPDATE: