http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3917&IssueNum=158
Los Angeles City Beat
June 15-21, 2006
Resisting Reform
A judge extends federal oversight over the LAPD for three more years, but
the department shows little willingness to change
~ By TOM HAYDEN ~
It looked as though the fix was in, that federal oversight of the LAPD would
be sharply reduced even though the department was still failing to comply
with key requirements for identifying "problem officers," curbing
stop-and-frisk excesses, and better handling of civilian complaints about
police brutality.
Chief William Bratton chose to be on vacation on the very day, May 15, that
the request to shrink the consent decree was scheduled for decision in the
federal courtroom of Judge Gary Feess. (Bratton, incidentally, is out of
town one-third of the year despite L.A.'s reputation as a crime capital.)
President George W. Bush's Justice Department would rather get out of the
whole thing; the president has long campaigned against federal
"interference" in local police controversies. Mayor Villaraigosa, former
head of the local ACLU, was siding with the LAPD against his old liberal
friends. The mayor's lead person on police reform, the civil rights leader
John Mack, was taking the department's side as well.
In what has become a pattern, L.A.'s political leadership was banding
together against federal court orders they themselves had accepted rather
than going to trial. L.A. is the only American city under court mandates to
clean up ocean pollution, end racial disparities in bus service and, since
2000, eliminate unconstitutional practices of its police department.
But Judge Feess wasn't going along with the locals. He mandated an extension
of the federal consent decree for three more years, which "caught leaders by
surprise," according to the Los Angeles Times. The ACLU, which filed a brief
asking for a two-year extension, also was surprised - pleasantly - at the
judge's decision on a longer period of oversight. Activists and clergy from
the black community were almost ecstatic.
Some historical perspective, along with street-level accounts, is necessary
to combat the fading civic memory of why police reform is necessary. There
is a straight narrative line from the McCone Commission of 1965 through the
1992 Christopher Commission to the Rampart scandal which resulted in the
2000 consent decree. When one scrutinizes the mind-numbing documentation,
the heart of the matter - the heart of darkness if you will - is that the
LAPD refuses to concede control over its street tactics and internal
procedures to any independent outside authority.
It has been stonewalling for a decade on implementing TEAMS 2, a program to
track problem officers (some would say "rogue officers") with significant
records of brutality or abuse. It has failed to dent the problem of
discriminatory profiling. During 2005, the federal monitor found LAPD
officers demanding that blacks and Latinos step out of their cars more often
than white motorists, and five times as many blacks and four times as many
Latinos than whites being forced through a pat-down or frisk. The monitor
also found failures in the LAPD's internal investigations of use-of-force,
and in the LAPD inspector general's oversight of the citizen complaint
process.
Since these patterns have prevailed for decades despite all the blue-ribbon
commissions, the judge was understandably reluctant to return control to a
city which has never achieved civilian control of its police. Feess seems to
understand that the goal of police reform is to "outlive the consent decree
itself," in the words of the ACLU. The decree requires substantial
compliance with each of the 187 provisions for a period of two years before
the department can be considered truly reformed.
Given the department's history, it's not certain that's ever going to
happen.
As an example of modest reform, city officials led by Councilmembers Janice
Hahn and Tony Cardenas, however, are beginning hearings on how to "tweak"
the controversial database of gang information collected by police during
street interrogations and used by prosecutors in securing gang injunctions.
Issues surfaced in the 1999-2000 Rampart scandal when the L.A. Times
reported that rogue officers were fabricating allegations against gang
members to help prosecutors obtain injunctions. In the most notorious case,
one 18th Street gang member allegedly pointing a weapon at two LAPD
officers. He was released from prison after the officers admitting shooting
him and planting dope on his body.
I interviewed the Police Assessment Resource Center's Merrick Bobb, who was
in charge of monitoring L.A.'s county sheriffs in those days, and his
comments still resonate today. "There could and perhaps should be a lawsuit
that says you cannot use the CAL-GANG [database collection] model unless it
is purified, because you are jeopardizing the constitutional rights of too
many people." I also was present at a discussion with Sheriff Lee Baca when
he described the thousands of names collected on the gang database as
"mostly junk."
We have our own little gulag here in Los Angeles south of the 10 Freeway,
and some people want to keep it that way. At a May 31 hearing by Cardenas
and Hahn, several police-friendly homeowners testified passionately in favor
of the injunctions - but they all accepted the need for fixes to ensure
fairness.
To better understand how it works these days, I recently interviewed Matthew
Hale, a deputy alternative public defender who has been handling gang cases
for five years. Hale seems to have no quarrel with going after hardcore gang
members, but objects to the sweeping nature of enforcement policies that
occur every day beyond the public's gaze. He has these suggestions:
First, thousands of young people are approached by police on street corners
and interrogated as to possible gang affiliation, which can be "proven"
based on a tattoo, a T-shirt, a hand gesture, or the word of an informer. If
the individual officer identifies them as a gang member or "associate," they
can be served with a gang injunction and be incarcerated for violation. Hale
thinks that field investigations should use tape recorders or require a
written statement on the card. "Now it's an easy way of hooking up kids to
all be gang members."
Hale thinks the parent or legal guardian should be served with the
injunction as well, and that there should be a method to contest gang
membership with a public defender and a court date. He believes this
opportunity might be taken by 10 or 20 percent of the youths served.
Second, the list of "prohibited activities" under the gang injunctions is so
broad that public defenders say police can arrest someone whenever they
wish. For example, the named individual must not "associate" with any
alleged gang members in their neighborhood - which can consist of nodding to
someone walking down the street, or attending a church meeting to discuss
violence prevention. "So, your client is going to be picked just for living
there," Hale says. "Prosecutors have told me the solution is to move." They
don't say where or how.
One of those prohibited activities is the use of cell phones. "The problem
is that every 12-year-old has one, and sometimes their parents or
grandparents got them cell phones because their neighborhood is dangerous,"
Hale says. Other prohibitions - for example, against loitering, loud music,
boisterous parties, or gang apparel - are overly-broad and used solely in
the inner city, not the suburbs.
Third, there needs to be a way to remove one's name from the lists.
Currently, prosecutors always say one can apply for de-listing if the
individual is arrest-free for two or more years, and removes his tattoos.
But as long as the individual resides in the inner city, the possibilities
of arrest are imminent - even if there is no conviction. And being listed on
the injunction makes it certain that he will be arrested for violations as
long as he "associates" with the neighborhood. "It's bizarre and classist,"
says Hale.
The answer, he says, is to require them to be conviction-free, not simply
arrest-free. Further, they should have to be convicted of a crime in
furtherance of a gang purpose; for example, possession of drugs for sale,
not something like driving on a suspended license. Any requirement for
tattoo removal has to recognize the long waiting periods for the paltry
services that are now available.
No one really knows how many young people, or once-young people, are listed
in the database, but it's in the tens of thousands. No one is charged with
public oversight of the database, despite public funding through the state
attorney general's office. There is no office or phone number for the
controlling agency, only a central node which is dialed up by local nodes,
all of them law enforcement or prison sites.
The defendant, usually indigent and homeless, faces this gang injunction
goliath alone. In court, the injunction is considered an action to abate a
"public nuisance" from continuing. In addition to being stigmatized as a
"nuisance," everyday behavior like using a pager or cell phone, or talking
with friends, is denied him. Any violation and he can return to jail. And
because it is deemed a civil action, the youthful indigent is not entitled
to any legal representation, which is a police and prosecutor's dream.
This goes on every day, every week in Los Angeles, the Global City, the
Crossroads of Civilizations, not in a mad and backward dictatorship. Because
it is not acknowledged by those who are responsible, and because it is not
even known by the disconnected public, only a solitary judge now keeps the
hope for accountability alive.
06-15-06
---
A Legacy of Trouble:
An LAPD Timeline
1965: On August 11 in the city of Watts, a routine traffic stop of a
suspected drunk driver by a California Highway Patrol officer segues into
violence, resulting in six days of intense rioting among the mostly
African-American community. Thirty-four people are killed, over 1,000
injured, and more than 600 buildings damaged. The violence inspires the
Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, headed up by former CIA
Director John A. McCone.
1982: A police commission bans nightstick chokeholds after several deaths
are attributed to LAPD officers using the technique. Then-Chief of Police
Daryl Gates, credited with creating the first SWAT team, raises eyebrows and
tempers with his comments that blacks are more susceptible to injury than
"normal people."
1988: Tensions between the LAPD and ethnic minorities in L.A. neighborhoods
hit the mainstream with gangsta rap group N.W.A.'s song "F-- Tha Police."
1991: Four LAPD officers are caught by an amateur cameraman beating motorist
Rodney King. The officers are indicted on charges including use of excessive
force.
Christopher Commission is formed, headed by future U.S. Secretary of State
Warren Christopher, to examine all aspects of the LAPD's operations and
structure.
1992: The four officers in the Rodney King case are acquitted on all but one
of the charges against them, touching off a riot in which 55 people die,
over 2,000 are injured, and damage is estimated at $1 billion.
Willie Williams becomes the LAPD's first black chief of police after Daryl
Gates is forced out.
1997: Bernard Parks, a LAPD veteran, becomes police chief.
Rapper Notorious B.I.G is shot and killed outside the Peterson Automotive
Museum on Wilshire. Several investigative news articles claim LAPD
involvement.
1998: Rafael Perez, an LAPD officer, is arrested on suspicion of stealing
cocaine seized as evidence by the department.
1999: Perez enters into a deal with prosecutors in which he names several
Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (C.R.A.S.H.) officers involved
in illegal activity in the Rampart Division. This explodes into a massive
scandal which results in the reversal of many rigged convictions.
2000: A Federal Consent Decree is established in the aftermath of the
Rampart scandal in order to identify and combat misconduct within the LAPD.
2001: L.A. Police Commission approves database to track problem officers,
which has never gone into effect.
2002: Former NYC and Boston chief William Bratton is appointed as LAPD
chief.
May 2006: Federal Consent Decree is renewed for three more years.
-Kendra Gilbert
06-15-06
***
TODAY Opening Reception: Pico House Gallery, Saturday June 17,
7:00-10:00 p.m. Live music by Son Real.
AT WORK: THE ART OF CALIFORNIA LABOR EXHIBIT EXPLORES
THE ARTISTS AND IMAGES OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT
LOS ANGELES - El Pueblo Historical Monument in collaboration with
California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA) will present AT WORK: THE
ART OF CALIFORNIA LABOR, from June 13 through August 14, 2006. The free
exhibit examines the rich and tumultuous history of California's workers and
their movements from the turn of the 20th century to the present. The
exhibition features the work of such artists as Diego Rivera, Dorothea
Lange, Tina Modotti, Emmy Lou Packard, Malaquias Montoya, Yolanda Lopez and
Ester Hernandez. A complete list of participating artists is available upon
request. The Center for the Study of Political Graphics is a sponsor of
the exhibit and has contributed several of the posters displayed.
The opening reception will be held on Saturday June 17, 2006 from 7:00-10:00
p.m. at the Pico House Gallery at El Pueblo Historical Monument, 424 North
Main Street, Los Angeles, 90012.
About El Pueblo Historical Monument
El Pueblo Historical Monument is the oldest section of Los Angeles and is
the site where the City was first established in 1781. The forty-four acre
park consists of numerous historic buildings, museums, a beautiful outdoor
plaza and the world famous Mexican marketplace on Olvera Street. The
Monument represents the rich history, culture and ethnic diversity that is
the foundation of the City of Los Angeles.
Calendar Editors Please Note:
What: "At Work: The Art of California Labor" is an exhibition of artwork
that explores the artists and images of labor in California. It is
presented by El Pueblo Historical Monument.
Where: Pico House Gallery at El Pueblo Historical Monument.
When: June 13 through August 14, 2006.
Free Public Programs:
Opening Reception: Pico House Gallery, Saturday June 17, 2006;
7:00-10:00
p.m. Live music by Son Real.
Panel Discussion: July 15, 2006; 6:00-9:00 p.m., Pico House Gallery,
"Get
the Picture?! Art & Social Change," featuring artist Mark Vallen and
photographers Sheila Pinkel and Slobodan Dimitrov.
Film Screenings: "Salt of the Earth," July 28, 2006; 7:45 p.m., 125 Paseo
de la Plaza (plaza area). Also: "Women in California Labor History," August
11, 2006; 7:45 p.m., 125 Paseo de la Plaza (plaza area).
Public Information: Pico House Gallery, 424 North Main Street, Los
Angeles, 90012. 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. daily. Please call (213) 485-8432
or (213) 485-6855 for more details.
Contact: Marianna Gatto
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(213) 485-8432
MAY 15, 2006
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