U.S. attorney is doing his job

Re “U.S. atty. in L.A. set quotas, staff says,” April 18

So some disgruntled prosecutors in U.S. Atty. Tom O’Brien’s office are upset because he is setting performance goals or quotas, as they claim. Too bad.

The fact is that we finally have a high-energy U.S. attorney who is focusing the efforts of his office in a highly productive way, by putting the attention on gangs, violent offenders and illegal immigrants with felony convictions who have been caught in the country again after being deported.

O’Brien is doing that in response to requests from the general public and officials such as myself. We understand that violent crime here in Los Angeles cannot be successfully reduced without the help of the federal government. O’Brien’s prosecutors should understand that too.

William J. Bratton

Chief of Police

Los Angeles