In all the hoopla surrounding the resignation of LAPD Chief William Bratton and his scheduled Oct. 31 departure, little note is being taken in the city of the more imminent leave-taking of our other stellar law enforcement official — U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien, who is resigning at the end of the month. Like Bratton, O’Brien will be sorely missed because he’s been a giant during the almost two years he headed the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California — the largest office that covers the biggest territory outside of Washington, D.C. He’s been gold. Pure gold.

The work of the U.S. attorneys has always loomed large in the life of African-Americans because, since the beginning of time, it was they who enforced the laws that guaranteed our civil rights and punished those who violated them, and O’Brien has meted out more justice in that regard during his tenure since Jim Crow officially died with the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act.

Before he became the U.S. attorney, O’Brien served as the chief of the criminal division and also as chief of the office’s civil rights section, during which he investigated and prosecuted federal hate crimes, racially motivated murders, human trafficking violations and police misconduct cases. It was he who brought the notorious Avenues street gang to bay.

O’Brien indicted the Avenues, a gang with a long violent history and which was reputed to be under the direct control of the Mexican Mafia. The gang killed Black people just because they were Black, so its members were prosecuted under the federal hate crimes statutes, and when O’Brien indicted them, that was the only time federal civil rights statutes have been used to prosecute street gang hate crimes. I was told he received some kind of man of the year award from the government for having done that.

While other local law enforcement officials were in denial about the systematic use of racially motivated violence by street gangs in the Southland, O’Brien was busy prosecuting them for it. After he became U.S. attorney in October 2007, O’Brien supervised the prosecution and conviction this year of the first 10 of the 102 Florencia 13 gang members charged in four RICO indictments alleging drug trafficking and shootings of African-Americans.

Just three months ago, O’Brien indicted and arrested nearly 200 members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang in what is described as the largest federal gang prosecution in U.S. history. The Hawaiian Gardens gang is alleged to have been involved in the murder of a sheriff’s deputy in what people say was a war against the Sheriff’s Department, as well as systematic efforts to rid the community of African-Americans with a campaign of shootings and other attacks.

“I am proud that we could keep our investigations moving a lot faster thus enabling us to throw our net around a lot of gang members at a time — from 25 to 100 gang members would be caught in one fell swoop,” O’Brien said. “That led to positive impacts in those communities they terrorized.”

O’Brien got a federal racketeering indictment against and the arrest of 61 members of the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang, whose wide range of criminal activity included hate crimes against Blacks, and he named 70 members and associates of the Drew Street clique of the Avenues last summer in a federal racketeering indictment alleging a long series of violent crimes, including murder, attacks against police officers, witness intimidation and extortion of local businesses.

The jurisdiction of the Central District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office covers the seven counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. O’Brien went after gangs all over them: He targeted the Crips and Bloods who distributed drugs and firearms across South L.A. and Baldwin Village. A federal grand jury returned him a 17-count indictment against 13 members of a Pomona gang for drug trafficking, and in beautiful, well-heeled Santa Barbara (where Oprah Winfrey had her party for Barack Obama and didn’t invite me), O’Brien indicted 28 members of a violent Santa Barbara street gang on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and the usual assortment of narcotics distribution and racketeering allegations.

In an interview Tuesday, O’Brien said, “I am immensely pleased and humbled by the amazing work my lawyers and staff do everyday to pursue justice.” Indeed. In addition to all the gang busting O’Brien’s staff has done during his tenure, his Central District of California office is number one in the nation in child porn prosecutions and number two in the pursuit of health care fraud.

Of particular interest to minority communities was the “affinity fraud” indictment O’Brien got against the promoters of an $18 million real estate investment scheme that targeted Los Angeles’ Black community through a local church. Such a scam is called an “affinity fraud” because it preys upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters frequently are — or pretend to be — members of the group themselves. The Central District Office also indicted people who perpetrated an affinity fraud against the local Asian community.

O’Brien declined to comment on whether he is conducting a grand jury investigation of Cardinal Roger Mahony’s handling of child molestation charges leveled against priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I read somewhere that he is, but O’Brien would “neither confirm nor deny,” such an investigation, which is what the FBI always says whenever I ask them anything. There must be a rule requiring federal officials to tell me that.

O’Brien, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Oct. 4 and 5, 2007, is stepping down as U.S. attorney on Sept. 1 to take up the defense of white collar criminals at the humongous Paul Hastings law firm here in town. O’Brien has resigned because he believes it is the right thing to do.

“It’s because of the change in administration,” he said. “I fully respect and endorse President Obama’s right and ability to put his own people into federal offices. I am fortunate and blessed for having had the opportunity to work in this office, and I believe we did some good here. Now I’m ready to go and seek new challenges.”

It’s too bad he’s leaving, as it feels like he’s just getting started. Imagine, if he stayed here seven years like Bratton, this might again become a decent place in which to live. Anyhow, while everybody is busy remembering William Bratton, let us not forget Thomas O’Brien, the best G-man we ever had.

THIS AND THAT — Rep. Maxine Waters will hold a town hall meeting on the national health care reform legislation on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Little Theater at Los Angeles Southwest College, 1600 W. Imperial Highway. Be there and lift every voice. … Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law last week the California NAACP-sponsored AB 412, which prohibits the act of terrorizing and threatening a person’s life by hanging a noose. Authored by Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, the new law applies to noose hanging the same principles that have prohibited cross burning in 20 states. AB 412 stems from a State NAACP Youth and College Division response to recent California noose hangings that were reminiscent of the institutional practice of lynching employed to maintain white supremacy against Blacks, spanning from the late 1800s well into the 20th century.

A memorial was held Sunday for Adele Cannon who died Aug. 12. Adele, whom I’ve known well for 30 years, was an extremely active political progressive who spent the past 60 years fighting for causes of the committed left. She was a member of the group that founded Los Angeles Southwest College, among other things. Calling the Democratic Party “spineless sell-outs,” at the age of 83, Adele became the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for the 30th Congressional District against the Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman. She set up her campaign headquarters in the modest house in Watts in which she and her husband, Oneil Cannon, lived since 1947. May she rest in peace.