Life, not fiction
Brutal LAPD frames victim
By John Parker
Los Angeles
From the Watts rebellion in 1965 to the widespread rage over
the Rodney King beating, the historically corrupt and
scandalous LAPD has been the agent provoking every major
rebellion. On this already dirty and smeared canvass lies the
latest corruption, which the media is calling the worst LAPD
scandal in 60 years.
Throughout its history the Los Angeles Police Department has
been an army of occupation that uses systematic racist terror
against the African American, Latino and other oppressed
nationalities. On a regular basis, the police gun down innocent
Black people. Just recently, cops killed a homeless African
American woman here.
Latino youth are systematically lined up in public and
searched, and police helicopters constantly patrol and harass
neighborhoods--buzzing over houses in maneuvers that recall the
war in Vietnam..
Currently a corruption probe involving the FBI has already
uncovered two incidents, one of which a judge referred to as
attempted murder on the part of the police and subsequent
frame-ups by the LAPD Rampart Division. The evidence is coming
from an ex-LAPD officer convicted of stealing drugs who is
cooperating with authorities to get a lighter sentence.
Framed and paralyzed
Javier Francisco Ovando has been sitting in a wheelchair in
jail for the past three years, paralyzed from multiple gunshot
wounds he received in 1996 from two police officers. One of
these cops, convicted of stealing eight pounds of cocaine, now
admits that he and his partner shot Ovando point-blank in the
head while he was handcuffed, then framed him for assaulting
police.
Ex-LAPD officer Rafael Perez is doing the talking now to
save his skin. He has implicated many in the Rampart Division,
including his former partner Nino Durden. Durden was relieved
of duty last month concerning the planting of drugs on suspects
and making false arrests.
Already, 12 officers implicated in the probe have been
relieved of duty or fired.
In the second high profile case, police detectives are now
investigating the possible cover-up of another unjustified
shooting by the Rampart Division officers. That shooting killed
one man and left another wounded and framed for assault on
police with a deadly weapon.
There were nine officers present at this shooting, and the
LA Times reported that at least five of them, including the
sergeant, were relieved of duty this week. One of those
involved was already fired earlier this year in connection with
a beating of a handcuffed informant.
From Los Angeles to New York, many people in the African
American and Latino communities have been victims of false
arrest and imprisonment and are forced to endure drug-selling
operations and violence encouraged and sometimes orchestrated
by the police.
Many in these same communities have witnessed how police
re-ignite the violence between rival youth "gangs" once at
peace. Many of those implicated in this latest scandal involve
officers in Rampart's anti-gang C.R.A.S.H. unit.
The 12 LAPD officers being investigated are suspected of
actively participating in drug dealing. And, investigators are
admitting that more cops may be involved.
C.R.A.S.H. stands for Community Resources Against Street
Hoodlums. The Rampart Division, where the unit operates, has a
large immigrant and poor population. Since this type of unit
only exists in the oppressed communities, some see this
branding of youth as "hoodlums" as racist.
But, if the name doesn't convince you, the unit's actions
here should. "You go in there and rock `n' roll," said one
LAPD-C.R.A.S.H. veteran quoted in the Sept. 12 LA Times. "It's
a group thing. It's a kick-ass thing."
"They figure these guys are gang members, they're here
illegal. If they [the youths] didn't do something, they'd plant
something on them," quotes the Times.
`Many abuses by police'
The article quoted Max Ocon, a businessman and member of the
division's community policing advisory board who said, "There
were many abuses by the police ... They treated the people like
animals."
Officials at Police Watch, an organization monitoring police
abuse, said they received many complaints against Rampart
Division officers. The justification for the abuse always
points the finger at the oppressed youth and their
organizations labeled primarily by the media and cops as
"gangs" to instill fear. This allows the police even more power
and legalizes more repression through ever-restricting laws and
stiffer penalties.
This latest corruption case proves that those justifications
are built on lies.
The convicted cop Perez also admitted that prosecutors used
a cop's false testimony to obtain a highly repressive anti-gang
injunction against the 18th Street "gang" in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County district attorney and the city
attorney used this false testimony to win what the LA Times
called "the most sweeping anti-gang injunctions ever handed
down in a Los Angeles court against dozens of 18th Street
members."
Whenever a rebellion or police scandal has unfolded in Los
Angeles, there has been silence on the part of LA's liberal
establishment. They call for band-aid remedies, but the use of
the police in violation of the human rights of the masses are
ignored and basically condoned.
Following the 1992 uprising in reaction to a pro-cop
decision on the Rodney King case and subsequent findings by a
commission, Katherine Mader became the first LAPD inspector
general, with the task of monitoring complaints of unwarranted
excessive force.
After three years, from 1996 to 1999, Mader resigned, citing
the powerlessness of her office, or the office of the police
commission, to do anything about the cops.
Mader cites drawn out procedures and technicalities and the
exclusion of the Police Commission staff from investigations of
police shootings, which allows the police, the Chief of Police
and their lawyers to get their stories together. (LA Times,
Sept. 19)
Millions of low wage earners comprise the majority of the
urban Los Angeles population. According to the Washington-based
Low Housing Coalition, nearly a million families are earning
the $5.75-per-hour minimum w age in this city and the vast
majority of workers make $7-per-hour or less.
The ruling class needs this labor force but recognizes that
it can be explosive in its demand for justice. Thus, it uses a
repressive and highly militarized police force and a curb on
civil liberties to keep the population under control.
Police cadets at the academy are systematically fed the lie
that working class people here are a lawless, rebellious and
highly dangerous mob that needs to be repressed. Racism is
employed as the best way to beat them down.
Unemployment, poor schools, and drug epidemics that have
been traced to the police and the CIA, unaffordable housing,
and inadequate transportation for low-income workers is the
reality for many here.
And the police repression they face doesn't just occur in
Los Angeles. Even the conservative Human Rights Watch recently
showed that police abuse occurs regularly, and is encouraged
and covered up in much the same way all over the country as it
is here.
As long as folks think these problems in the police
departments stem from just a "few bad cops" instead of seeing
them as a ruling-class policy to maintain control, the root of
the problem will remain buried.
But in the communities where police abuse is most
horrendous, people have no illusions about the police. And one
day they will unearth these weeds that are choking society.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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