Letters: Backing Sheriff Baca
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Re “Who’ll step up?,” Letters, Aug. 10
For a combined 12 years we each served as Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s undersheriff. As second in command, we witnessed the consummate professionalism and leadership county voters expect from their elected sheriff.
Mistakes have been made, as Baca has publicly admitted. But a truly good leader admits his mistakes and commits, as Baca has, to correcting those errors.
Baca has provided unequaled leadership as sheriff for almost 15 years. He has provided unparalleled innovation in the field of law enforcement. He has instilled community policing into the fabric of the department, implemented progressive rehabilitation for jail inmates and has set the standard in law enforcement technology.
To those critics who continue to “point out how the strong man stumbles,” to quote Teddy Roosevelt, we suggest that they refer to the 26th president’s definition of leadership. What they will see is a leader who, like Baca, “strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error.”
William Stonich
Incline Village, Nev.
Larry Waldie
Walnut
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