| The Rampart scandal may be the most serious man-made disaster our city has ever faced, stated Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Parks in the 'Daily News of Los Angeles' newspaper (February 16th, 2000). "Think about the horrors. People killed, framed, imprisoned, beaten by the very people we've entrusted to protect us from such criminal behavior. The Rampart scandal has scarred the city, and tarnished the reputations (sic) of an internationally renowned department." LAPD's Rampart Division has been running berserk from the mid-1990s to today, with Police Chief Bernard C. Parks already asking that ninety-nine separate cases against framed suspects be dismissed, with another three thousand at least that need investigating. Parks wants up to US$9 million from the city to further investigate allegations, and has estimated damages from civil actions at close to US$125 million. Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti has said that it might take years to 'unravel' the entire scandal. The reason this scandal is in the news is not because an honest policeman reported rampant corruption, but because one dirty cop got caught stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker. One of Rampart's anti-gang unit CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), Officer Rafael Perez has worked out a plea agreement for a five year prison sentence with prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation. Rafael, initially arrested for stealing eight pounds of cocaine from LAPD evidence, has outlined such egregious behavior on the part of himself and fellow CRASH officers that it is almost beyond belief. His first sale was through a confiscated beeper, and an accompanying pound of cocaine, which he and his then-partner sold, passing themselves off as associates of the beeper's owner, an arrested dealer. When Rafael's new partner in CRASH, Nino Durden, found out Rafael was stealing coke, he wanted in, immediately. Rafael has implicated himself and Durden in handcuffing, shooting, paralyzing, then framing unarmed gang-member Javier Francisco Ovando in 1996. Ovando was freed after serving three years of his twenty-three year prison sentence in September of 1999. Rafael, and one other unidentified officer, have both painted a picture of CRASH officers who were routinely committing illegal searches, beating suspects, shooting them, planting drugs on them, lying under oath, then awarding each other plaques for the shootings, red for wounding the victim, black for killing them. Twenty officers have already been fired, with hundreds more under suspicion, merely for being LA cops, in any department. Joe Domanik, author of 'To Protect And Serve: LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams', wrote an article for the 'LA Times' newspaper (February 13th, 2000) in which he draws attention to the political power of the police in California, and how that has worked to stifle investigations into the police department itself. "The LAPD's rank-and-file union, the 'Police Protective League', and the 'Command Officers Association', both used their influence and political clout to punish or reward local politicians during election campaigns. They wanted high-pay, and benefits, but they didn't want DA investigations and officer indictments. The last thing a DA wanted in the months leading up to an election was for the chief, the league, or the officer's association to point at him and say he's anti-cop." DA Garcetti has ceded the investigation of the LAPD Rampart division to the LAPD, allowing the police to police themselves, which got them where they are today. How could LAPD Rampart have gotten so out of control, especially after the Rodney King beating in 1991, and the resultant riots? Didn't the message that people are fed up with police corruption and brutality get through? |
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LAPD Chief: Signs That Could Have Tipped Off Corruption Missed
This 'Court TV Online' article (February 17th, 2000) offers Chief Parks' view on the scandal: now it is because of the overworked supervisors simply missing the signs of his underlings committing horrendous, psychotic, sadistic offenses against the neighborhoods they were supposed to be protecting.
Cannabis Culture: Corruption
Here is a long list of corruption-related links from the folk at 'Cannabis Culture'.
Just Shoot Him
An irreverent look at the sickening shooting of Ovando by former Officer Rafael in LA.
Fourth Inmate To Be Freed In Wake Of LAPD Corruption
This 'Court TV Online' article (November 18th, 2000) makes me ask How many people are going to go free at the end of this scandal, if an end is ever reached? How will any jury be able to look and listen to any officer testifying against a suspect after this CRASH of the LAPD Rampart division?
LAPD Crime Ring Unfolding
Here in this September 1999 article, it is first revealed that Rafael is going to work with investigators implicating other officers in his criminal schemes and endeavors.
LAPD Officer Arrested In Cocaine Theft
Great photo here of Rafael, the thief who worked as a cop, shooting, killing, maiming, lying, beating and framing innocent people for at least part of his 9 years as a cop.
LAPD Officer Suspected In Cocaine Theft
This August 7th, 1998 article dealt with the very beginning of this LAPD scandal, which may eventually effect thousands of cases and convictions.
LAPD Organization
Learn how the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is organized, which departments are in charge of which investigational areas of operation, and who is in charge of who.
LAPD Corruption Grows To 7 Shootings, New Allegations-
This 'LA Times' article (October 22nd, 1999) examines the widening probe into police shootings and frame-ups, not to mention the cover-ups perpetrated by the officers involved and their superiors. There are a lot of archived articles here on the CRASH/Rampart scandal.
Shooting Scenes Doctored, Former LAPD Officer Says
This 'LA Times' article (February 15th, 2000) describes how Rafael and other officers would set up the situation whereby they could get fellow officers off after they had shot unarmed civilians, and how superiors would cover-up the mistakes, or willful murders.
Largest Police Corruption Scandal In Los Angeles In Over 60 Years
Here is a good long list of links to articles on this, the largest scandal in LA involving cops in over 60 years, and it can be directly traced to 'Drug War Prohibition'. Good work guys! Look for 'Ethan Nadleman's Prescription' to the situation in the essay following the links.
Bobby, I Didn't Know
This is a very informative article about the LAPD officers closest to the RFK/SUS investigators by Mike Ruppert, the former LAPD detective who has been shinning very bright spotlight on CIA drug running for years. Since LA is where the first cracks began showing up again, ten years after the first allegations of Contra/CIA/drug running, Ruppert is right in the thick of things, and seems to know what he is talking about.
Criminal Subculture Thrived Within LAPD, Former Officer Says
This report (February 11th, 20000) states that there are more than thirty officers who are now under investigation for various crimes, like planting guns on unarmed shooting victims, then rewarding each other for the shootings.
LA Cops Accused Of Beating Gang Suspects Regularly
While shooting unarmed civilians is pretty low, how about beating a man's face bloody, then passing it off as results from his attempted leap face-first from a 3rd floor window? Or using a suspect as a battering ram, slamming his head through the plaster wall when he refused to divulge information on the whereabouts of a gun. Anyone else ready to throw up yet?
Search Unwarranted
Placer County, California anti-drug cops have been accused in lying in over seventy drug cases where officers basically used identical language on search warrants to justify the searches. This is the first of two parts, and a very frightening look at how widespread the problem is with California police and 'Drug War Prohibition' corruption.
Police In Secret Group Broke Law Routinely, Transcripts Say
About 30 officers, including supervisors, celebrated their shootings and frame-ups of innocent people, according to informants statements, states the introduction to this article.
There's A Riot Goin' On: Tales Of Police Misconduct Pile Up In Unfolding Los Angeles Scandal
Drcnet.org's 'Week Online #124' quotes Chief Parks as saying the "one positive light is the work of those officers on the (LAPD's) Task Force." Parks means the task force of 46 officers, out of 9500 sworn police officers in LA, put together to investigate the rapidly growing numbers of allegations of police misconduct, the sheer criminality on the part of the law enforcers.
Police Misconduct
'Voice of the Nation' radio show recorded on February 15th, 2000 (at CRRH - 'Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp', the Oregon 'Cannabis Tax Initiative' supporters, and all around smart folk who are stressing the need for massive amounts of Drug Law Reform in the US), with Los Angeles DA Gil Carcetti guesting on the show, discussing the police misconduct scandal, and what his office is doing to investigate the cases that have been, and may have been, 'tainted' by all the cop criminality. "We are prepared to go to whatever division is needed . . .we're going to get to the bottom of this," says Carcetti. How many reports and allegations, how many civilian complaints were ignored by his office before Rafael got caught. Also guests talk about other police crime and corruption, and what might be done about it.
LA Mayor Says Tobacco Money Should Be Used To Cover Corruption Suits
Mayor Richard Riordan is quoted in this 'Fox News' report (February 18th, 2000) as saying that using the tobacco settlement money to pay out police corruption settlements is "the best use of these dollars," ignoring the idea that the money may be needed to pay for all the medical costs of lung cancer, or for new classrooms. I get more nauseated as I read more about this scandal.
Former Los Angeles Cops Supplied Drugs To Informant As Payment For Information
This 'LA Times' article (February 13rh, 2000) reveales that Rafael and his partner used this crack addict as their guinea pig to test a 'foul-smelling brick' of drugs they had stolen from a dealer, and suspected was fake. They would also get snitch 'Mary' to give them information about various dealers so they could go and shake them down and steal their wares.
Judge Reopens Case
According to this 'LA Weekly' article (November 12th, 1999) in 1980, two LAPD CRASH officers handcuffed a suspect to a chair in one of the interrogation rooms in an LAPD police station, then one of the two cops then shot the suspect in the chest. The two cops remained as lead investigators in the murder they subsequently charged the suspect with, and they finagled a twenty-five year prison sentence for the guy, even though another man's fingerprints were found on-scene of the murder, and that man confessed later to the crime.
Sirhan Sirhan And The RFK Assassination Part 1: The Grand Illusion
This is a great article on the RFK assassination and the subsequent investigation by the LAPD, by Lisa Pease, who is always entertaining, insightful, and educating. She points out in this article (and in part 2, "If Sirhan Didn't Kill RFK, Who Did?") that in this case, the LAPD have pulled off the biggest illusion of all in covering up true facts of the assassination.
Police Corruption Scandal SPreads Nationwide
Mike Gray, author of the exceptionally brilliant expose 'Drug Crazy' on 'Drug Prohibition' and its effects on our society, is quoted in this article from the drcnet.org's 'Week Online' (February 18th, 2000), pointing out that there is a 'system of deceit' in the US, in which cops regularly get up on the stand in court and lie under oath about drug suspects, and that this has a corrupting effect on the system as a whole. "Looking back in history, there certainly is precedent for what we are seeing, and the outrage that accompanies it. King George, back in colonial days, found that the Colonists were quite efficient smugglers. In response, King George had his troops breaking down doors looking for contraband. As we know, the colonists took exception." This article also looks at how the problem is not limited to LA either, that it is all over the US of A now, just another symptom of the idiocy of the 'War Against Some Drugs'.
ACLU Says LAPD Unit Used Deportation Threat to Retaliate Against Immigrant Whistle-Blower
Not only were these insane police officers breaking laws all over the place, it has now been revealed that some of them were enforcing federal laws it is illegal for them to enforce, to get back at a man who works with the LA gangs towards peace, and who had testified against police abuses and brutality against gang members by CRASH squad cops.
Police Brutality
This is a poll of New Yorkers and what they think aobut the Amadou Diallo shooting by four cops, who shot at unarmed Diallo forty-one times, hitting him with only nineteen of those shots, killing him in his own doorway. In the recent trial, still to be completed at this writing (February, 2000), one of cops involved testified on the stand that even after he saw it was only a wallet Diallo had, the cop thought it might be "one of those new Wallet Guns, new to NYC still." No one seems to find it odd that the cops asked Diallo for his ID, and when he tried to pull out his wallet to show it to them, they shot him dead. I would think they would have been prepared for him to reach into a pocket for ID since they had asked him for it. Do they always shoot people they ask for ID? No, so something is not adding up here.
New York's Killer Cops Shoot Innocent Man Outside Apartment Block
Being innocent in the US is no guarantee of remaining alive if the police have their way, begins this justifialby angry article on the shooting of unarmed Amadou Diallo by four hyperactive, itchy trigger fingered anti-street crimes unit in New York City. One cops has actually admitted that he thought he had only fired twice but actually fired five times, and no one seems to find that odd, that he didn't even have control over how many shots he fired, nor even awareness of the number. He was paid to wear a badge and a gun? This guy had authority to lock people up? What is going on here?
The Shooting Of Amadou Diallo
I realize that this has not much to do with LA's cop-crime problems, but on the other hand, this case is very similar in that the police were indifferent to this, and if charges has not been sought by the family of Diallo, the NYPD most probably would not have ever even considered trying these four cops for any offences, much less for murder. Granted, these cops are still on trial, and perhaps the jury will be convinced that it was not a murder after all, but it is hard for me personally to find any jutification for their shooting Diallo whatsoever. Here you can find a huge selection of news ont he case, from the very first reports of the shooting, to the judge allowing the jury to consider other lesser charges against the cops now on trial. Well worth a visit here.
The Abner Louima Case Archive
Here is a run down of another case of horrid case of police brutality, and of trying to cover-up the heinous deed afterwards, though how these sadistic cosp thoguht they were going to hide the fact they had shoved a plunger up Loima's ass is beyond me. Did they really expect him to keep quite about it? "Oh, that's OK guys, just goes with the territory of getting busted for nothing, and run throught the system in NYC. Think nothing of it, I understand. All in a day's work." Thanks goodness that he didn't just take it, and made as loud a noise as possible over this unbelieveable perversion and sadism on the part of sworn officers of the law.
INS Probes Its Role In Rampart Case
Great, here is another example of the cops making sure to police themselves. Will we ever really get to the bottom of this scandal? Is the revolution drawing nigh? Are people going to finally tell these fascists who they really work for? Probably not, actually. Rather, we'll probably read this stuff, shake our heads, and talk about what bad guys they are, "but here, here's a raise and bigger, more powerful guns for you guys to help you enforce the laws even better." This is more probably how this is all going to turn out, not to be too cynical or anything.
LA Cops Union Suspects High-level Corruption, Calls For Outside Investigator
This is from the 'DRCNet' gang (February 25th, 2000) on the fact that even the Police Union in LA is calling for an outside investigation to be conducted, as that is the only way to really get to any sort of truth in how far the corruption goes in the LA Police Department. They themselves are saying that they cannot handle the investigation. So why are they investigating ANY crimes in LA? This is a very drastic statement, and obviously rhetorical, but just obviously needs to be asked.
Board Of Inquiry, Final Report
Read the LAPD's own executive summary, or the entire corruption report involving the CRASH corruption and resulting scandal.
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