EDITORIAL L.A. AT RISK QUESTIONABLE COP MAKES US ALL UNSAFE.

THOSE who are inducted into the ranks of law enforcement are necessarily held to a higher standard than the rest of the population. Anyone who is issued a firearm and is bestowed with the powers to arrest and detain people ought to be considered beyond moral corruption, inasmuch as that is possible to determine.

But the Los Angeles City Civil Service Commission apparently has other ideas about what is befitting of an officer of the law. Commissioners saw fit to reinstate fired LAX cop Anthony Edwards, who was arrested and convicted when he pleaded no contest to a public-nuisance charge that grew out of his lewd behavior to two teenage girls.

The commission concluded that even though Edwards was convicted in an off-duty incident in 2003 in which he made lewd gestures and comments to two teenage girls, there wasn't enough evidence to prove the allegations, and therefore he should have his job back.

Citing the unwillingness of the witnesses to testify at the hearing, the Civil Service Commission last week ordered Edwards reinstated, and with back pay for the year or so since he was fired.

But Edwards' no-contest plea is equivalent to a guilty plea. Apparently this conviction means nothing to the commissioners who all too often are more concerned with the welfare of city workers than of city residents.

This decision has outraged not just the common sense of many, but also the city's legal experts. Deputy City Attorney Jean-Claude Bertet called the decision a mistake and one that opens the city up to serious liability.

What this incident shows is the deep disconnect between civil-service rules and the real world. These types of decisions put the entire city at risk.

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