It is hard to remember a local reputation fading as rapidly as LAPD Chief Bernard Parks’.For more than a year, Parks‘ aloof pride — or was it hubris? — insulated him from the Rampart scandal and the ensuing municipal crisis. Parks stood apart from the apparent double failure of the LAPD: first, to reform itself, and secondly, to stem a surge in street crime. And he could seemingly say anything in his defense without adverse reaction. As when he told the City Council last year that there was no such thing as a culture of silence in the LAPD.Even Bill Clinton rarely reached that level of public effrontery. But this whopper elicited nary a shaken councilpersonic head. I don’t even recall the remark being reported in our Newspaper of Record. And early this year, most of the major mayoral candidates still said that, if elected, they were reasonably certain to renew Bernie Parks‘ franchise when his reappointment comes up next year.