DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — This morning a pair of officers from LAPD stopped by my apartment to pick up some equipment DLANC had purchased for Central Division. Along with the horse we recently donated, DLANC has given the department a number of items that had been identified as needs in fighting crime Downtown.

The officers today were here to pick up four EMT bags and a battering ram which had been delivered to me. I joked about having to resist the urge to open up the battering ram (after all, how often do you actually have a battering ram lying around the apartment?) and one of the officers said he was sure he could find a door for me to knock down if I really wanted to.

But then walking down the hall the subject turned to the EMT bags, and the officer said to me,

These things are going to save someone's life.

And that struck me. These aren't contributions for the sake of helping LAPD. They are things that can make a real difference in the community. If an LAPD car has an EMT bag in it that contains supplies that stop a wounded person (officer or otherwise) from bleeding to death, that's important. And if it was the neighborhood council that was able to make that happen, then we've done our job.