One Law for All

It is a sad day for Los Angeles. City Councilman Mike Hernandez has checked into a drug treatment center after being arrested Thursday night on suspicion of possessing cocaine.

Hernandez was carrying one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine when he was taken into custody, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The investigation had lasted more than two months.

Hernandez faces a felony charge, but because he is a first offender it might be dismissed if he completes a treatment program. He has admitted having a drug dependency problem and begun treatment. That is a good sign, and we hope he’ll get the help he obviously needs.

But as a public official for six years, Hernan- dez should have known better than to succumb to the lure of drugs. He failed his constituents; he failed the thousands of kids whom he had warned about the dangers of drug abuse. It was just recently that he stood at a press conference with other elected officials and decried the scourge of gangs and drugs in the community.

What happens to the councilman’s job--representing the people of the predominantly Latino 1st District--remains to be seen. L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said Hernandez will be handled like any other first-time offender, no better and no worse. That is as it should be.