LAPD scandal widening
Cops routinely abused
suspects, immigrants
By
Preston Wood
Los Angeles
A
widening scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department has produced charges
of perjury, evidence tampering and attempted murder by cops.
Now
come revelations that the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, along with the LAPD, are implicated in routinely
abusing the civil rights of immigrants. This is despite a 21-year-old city
policy that supposedly has prohibited police officers from initiating police
action to determine immigrants' residency
status.
In
spite of complaints by some INS field agents that the policy of deporting
immigrants detained by LAPD Ramparts division officers didn't meet federal
guidelines, these agents claim that INS directors and the FBI "rammed it down
our
throats."
Every
day, there are new revelations of corruption and brutality among Ramparts
officers, particularly the infamous CRASH (Community Resources Against Street
Hoodlums) unit. Hundreds of suspects were railroaded off to prison based on lies
by officers and cooperation among judges and city attorneys, who all conspired
against the rights of
defendants.
Many
of these convictions are now being
appealed.
Police
often shot suspects and left them to die after planting evidence on their
bleeding bodies. Then, to ensure that their wounded victims would die, cops
turned away ambulances called by alarmed
neighbors.
The
gang in
blue
Ramparts
officers held regular parties where they celebrated the death or maiming of
immigrants or neighborhood youth. The guilty cops who perpetrated the murders
would be toasted as heroes, often in the presence of
supervisors.
CRASH
officers adopted a menacing tattoo of a grinning skull wearing a cowboy hat with
a so-called "dead man's poker" hand behind
it.
It
is obvious the LAPD is unwilling and unable to monitor itself. Yet the ruling
political circles of Los Angeles--including Mayor Richard Riordan, District
Attorney Gil Garcetti and a majority of the City Council--have turned their
backs on calls for a civilian agency to deal with public complaints of police
abuse.
On
March 2, Riordan had cops forcibly remove three City Council members who are
calling for civilian review from a press conference he had called. The mayor
opposes civilian
review.
While
a few corrupt officers will no doubt be prosecuted for excesses and violations
of the law, the role of the police will continue to be, as described by the 1991
Christopher Commission, an "army of
occupation."
A
362-page report by some of LAPD's top brass candidly admits that the LAPD failed
consistently to take steps to head off what has become the worst corruption
scandal in its scandal-ridden history. The report maintains that widespread
police misconduct exists throughout the LAPD, is not restricted to the Ramparts
division, and could not have happened without the backing that Mayor Riordan and
the City Council have given the
police.
In
order to avoid calling for a civilian review process for complaints, though, the
report claims the LAPD has implemented reforms called for by the Christopher
Commission report. This is far from true. The LAPD remains a violent, racist and
highly militarized force of repression against the over 14 million people who
live in Los Angeles.
A
victim of police abuse has nowhere to go with complaints but to the police
department itself. The tactic of random detentions and shakedowns of Blacks and
Latinos is more in effect today than
ever.
Throughout
its violent and racist history, the LAPD has moved from scandal to scandal.
Intermittent attempts at reform have done little to alter the policy of what
police call "pro-active" crime prevention. What pro-active means is aggressive
and hostile harassment of the communities that comprise the vast city of Los
Angeles. This translates into violence and brutality against oppressed people,
from shakedowns and detentions to all-too-frequent murders of Black, Asian and
Latino youth and
others.
Fear
of possible renewed anger and even uprisings has prompted talk of reforms. L.A.
police chief Bernard Parks' recent announcement that anti-gang units will be
disbanded is part of the effort to salvage the situation and keep the police in
charge of monitoring themselves.
In
reality, the present units are only being reorganized rather than
scrapped.
Some
in the ruling strata of Los Angeles might call for cosmetic reforms in police
conduct. Still, there appears to be consensus among them that the policy of
police repression and brutality serves them and their great wealth well, and
that the low-paid workers who produce this wealth, most of them people of color
and immigrants, need to be ruled with an iron
fist.
Further
revelations and truths about the real nature of the LAPD will help those opposed
to police racism and repression organize a broad and diverse movement against
the terror perpetrated by the police and the capitalist rulers they protect and
serve.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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