Corrupt LA Cops Saddle The City With More Lost Convictions (original) (raw)

from the efficiency-at-its-worst dept

The LAPD’s handling of gang violence hasn’t gone well. For years, gang task forces roamed the city, violating rights repeatedly. Adding insult to these injuries, the city spent millions funding a predictive policing program that did little more than encourage biased policing.

Then there’s the LAPD’s gang database, a horrendous mess filled with people designated as gang members simply because they live or work in areas where gangs operate. As of early 2020, the gang database contained 90,000 names. Removal options weren’t even introduced until 20 years after this database’s debut. On top of that, the gang unit apparently faked paperwork to add people to the database for no other reason than these officers knew they’d likely get away with it.

Some officers in the PD’s gang units have been suspended or fired for altering or vanishing body cam footage that undercuts their narratives. In July 2020, three of these officers were hit with criminal charges for filing false reports and falsifying evidence.

Three years later, the investigation into LAPD’s gang unit continues, this time with the FBI attached. According to allegations, members of this unit routinely failed to document stops. On top of that, some were caught editing camera footage to remove evidence that might undercut their chosen narratives.

Some people believe it’s best to take a hands-off approach to specialized units like these. Some of these people are local legislators but most of these people are LAPD supervisors. The theory is cops can deal with crime better when they don’t have someone staring over their shoulders. The LAPD has spent decades sacrificing goodwill and respect for small gains in law enforcement efficiency.

Or so it seems to believe, despite evidence to the contrary. The “gains” provided by a specialized unit that apparently routinely violated LAPD policies and broke actual laws are being rolled back because of these violated policies and broken laws.

The Los Angeles Times reports a few hundred convictions are now in jeopardy, thanks to the actions of the officers who helped secure them.

With criminal charges looming against the officers at the center of the Los Angeles Police Department’s latest corruption scandal, county prosecutors have started a broad review of hundreds of cases that rely on testimony or evidence from at least two members of a gang squad suspected of making illegal stops and stealing items from suspects, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss deliberations within the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, said as many as 350 criminal cases have been identified as potentially compromised.

When your gang unit appears to be completely compromised, it’s hardly a surprise the convictions it obtained might be “potentially compromised.” All of this was carried out under the heading of making the streets safer. But no one’s gaining any more safety when officers and investigators are undermining their own convictions because they’re unwilling to do the job without violating rights or engaging in criminal activity of their own.

According to the LAPD, at least 15 members of its gang unit are implicated in this debacle. Only two officers appear to be on the chopping block, however, which means the LAPD still isn’t taking this as seriously as it should. The remaining officers have been suspended with pay or assigned to desk duty. For the moment, the gang unit does not exist.

And, as is almost always the case when a bunch of officers are facing criminal charges, the person on top wants to pretend there’s nothing to get upset about… at least not yet.

In a briefing at Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said he wanted to let the investigations play out before commenting further.

“I will not project or guess the number of charges and the outcomes of this; I’ll wait for the investigation and I’ll look forward to the prosecuting agencies making those determinations,” he said.

That’s the chief putting some distance between himself and the people he was supposed to be overseeing, all without specifically condemning any of the confirmed crimes/violations committed by these officers. These are empty words meant to do nothing more than allow Chief Moore to gracefully exit a briefing without having to answer any tough questions.

As for the alleged body cam footage alterations performed by gang unit members, the chief is even less willing to take any responsibility for allowing this to happen on his watch.

On Tuesday, Moore said the department’s review found “a lack of consistent understanding about our supervisors’ ability to review body-worn video.”

See? It’s all just a misunderstanding. Probably no one did anything wrong. Things were misunderstood, although Chief Moore isn’t capable of saying who they were misunderstood by, nor what these misunderstandings entailed. Instead, it’s a thing that occurred that was committed by no one.

Just more of the same for a police department that has routinely refused to earn the respect of the people it serves, much less respect their rights when “serving” them. At the end of this, convicted criminals will walk and residents will be on the hook for every lawsuit settlement linked to this scandal, not to mention the pension plans of every officer allowed to resign, rather than face termination.

Filed Under: gang activity, la, lapd, michel moore