Earlier this week the CBS Evening News produced this report about how the L.A.P.D. has improved so much from the "bad old days" that produced the Rodney King Beating and the Rampart Scandal, moving from an era of mutual fear and antagonism between the Police and the City using Community Policing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
"The relationship back then, it was hostile. There was mutual disrespect. There was mutual fear," said Capt. Phillip Tingirides, who took command of the community police station here in 2007.
"We were so busy going from one shooting scene to the next, sweeping up the casings, and just not even looking at this community as being families, as being people who are suffering, as being people who have no other options because there are no jobs."
Tingirides has led his officers in changing attitudes and changing language.
"There's a difference between telling someone, 'Hey, can I talk to you?' and 'Hey, get over here!'" said Tingirides.
L.A.P.D. has a long history with the shooting of unarmed Black men going at least as far back as 1966 when Leonard Deadwyler was gunned down after being stopped for erratic driving while attempting to take his pregnant wife to the hospital, as noted by author Thomas Pynchon in his book "A Journey into the Mind of Watts".
The night of May 7, after a chase that began in Watts and ended some 50 blocks farther north, two Los Angeles policemen, Caucasians, succeeded in halting a car driven by Leonard Deadwyler, a Negro. With him were his pregnant wife and a friend. The younger cop (who'd once had a complaint brought against him for rousing some Negro kids around in a more than usually abusive way) went over and stuck his head and gun in the car window to talk to Deadwyler. A moment later there was a shot; the young Negro fell sideways in the seat, and died. The last thing he said, according to the other cop, was, "She's going to have a baby."
The coroner's inquest went on for the better part of two weeks, the cop claiming the car had lurched suddenly, causing his service revolver to go off by accident; Deadwyler's widow claiming that it was cold-blooded murder and that the car had never moved. The verdict, to no one's surprise, cleared the cop of all criminal responsibility. It had been an accident. The D.A. announced immediately that he thought so, too, and that as far as he was concerned the case was closed.
No threatening moves. No knives. No "charging". No "Bum Rushing". Just Bang. Dead. Then "Not Guilty".
And that wasn't anywhere near the end of it, not with situations like the Dalton Ave Incident in the L.A.P.D's future.
On Aug. 1, 1988, scores of Los Angeles police officers descended on two apartment buildings on the corner of 39th Street and Dalton Avenue in southwest Los Angeles. It was an all-out search for drugs and a massive show of force designed to deliver a strong message to the gangs.
The police smashed furniture, punched holes in walls, destroyed family photos, ripped down cabinet doors, slashed sofas, shattered mirrors, hammered toilets to porcelain shards, doused clothing with bleach and emptied refrigerators. Some officers left their own graffiti: "LAPD Rules." "Rollin' 30s Die."
Dozens of residents from the apartments and surrounding neighborhood were rounded up. Many were humiliated or beaten, but none was charged with a crime. The raid netted fewer than six ounces of marijuana and less than an ounce of cocaine.
There was one other real problem with this raid. They were at the
wrong address. They thought they were raiding a gang drug stash house. They weren't. It was just a house, with regular law abiding people in it who may have had a teeny bit a drugs - a few ounces of MJ and coke - but certainly weren't major players who deserved to be beaten and have their property destroyed like this.
Even if these had been "gang bangers" even they didn't deserve this kind of treatment, but the fact of the matter is that the attitude that prompting the justification, rationalizing and escalation of this was already part of the L.A.P.D. DNA.
And that wasn't the worst example. Then there was S.I.S., the L.A.P.D.'s own Undercover Death Squad.
An elite group of detectives in the Los Angeles police force known as the "death squad" is under investigation by the FBI after officers killed two unarmed robbers by shooting them in the back.
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The only weapon found [an unfired 9mm] was not on either of the suspects, but was on the passenger seat of the getaway car.
In other cases, suspects have been kept under surveillance while they committed a crime, then followed in unmarked police cars that pull up alongside so the suspects cannot get out of their vehicle. They were then shot dead after apparently reaching for guns.
Except that in this, and many other cases they weren't "reaching" for their guns. The gun was sitting on the seat. Untouched. Unreached for. All by itself. Alone.
And if you listen to Cop Fan Sites talk, they are absolutely Ga ga over S.I.S., like they're the baddest of the bad, like they're S.W.A.T. on Nitro-Steroids with a Depleted Uranium Chaser. Just look.
These “hot take downs” are the most dangerous situation for an officer: “… these guys don’t want to come in quietly,” a senior training officers explained, “many of these individuals are looking at their Third Strike, and facing Life…” For that reason, exchanging gunfire with desperate, heavily armed suspects including bank robbers, serial killers, and drug dealers is more the norm for S.I.S. Former commander of the S.I.S., Capt. Dennis Conte explained to TW, “Public safety is our concern, because if we arrest someone for ‘attempt,’ the likelihood of a conviction is not great.”
...
S.I.S. was formed in 1965 and comprises the “cream of the crop,” detectives who have attained the highest level of performance in the field. Just as every member of LAPDs’ S.W.A.T. team had to first achieve the highest level of performance on the street, the detectives chosen for S.I.S. must have exemplary records in their Detective Division. Possible team members are selected by the LAPD. They must pass physical and psychological tests along with other requirements. In four decades, only 110 candidates have made the cut.
Only 110. Natural Born Killers All, no doubt.
"Hot Take Downs", eh? How about waiting until the suspect has left his vehicle and can't try to ram your car with his? How about waiting until they're away from any weapons? I mean, they already waited for them to commit a robbery, or an assault, or a murder (although they claim they wouldn't ever do that... but then how many times have they ever intervened?)
The problem here is the entire design of the squad, heavily armed plainclothes officers in unmarked cars who followed suspect for weeks, let them commit a crime without interfering or attempting to stop that crime, then stalking and cornering the still presumably armed suspects so they have no escape using their unmarked cars, without uniforms, or visible badges, and then not at all surprisingly - a deadly gun fight ensues.
The entire strategy of the squad was not to "bring 'em back alive", not to mention the fact that quite often the suspects didn't even get a chance to "reach for their weapons" before they - and any passengers - and any nearby bystanders - are totally blown away.
"They were reaching for guns" was merely a pretext to implement a premeditated street execution. And S.I.S. were not hesitant to "pull their triggers". During their history the SIS participated in over 50 gun battles, killing 34 suspects and wounding dozens of others.
This is the perspective, the Cop-tude that S.I.S. had, and to a lesser extent other LAPD officers who look up to, or aspire to join SIS, also tend to exhibit. They think they're big game hunters. On Safari, out in the Wild Bush, the "Jungles" of South Central. This has, for decades, been the core of their dysfunctional culture.
So when people think the worse thing that L.A.P.D. ever did was beat the late Rodney King to a near pulp and shatter his skull, they don't realize that Rodney, who was an ex-con, was actually fortunate he wasn't being hunted by S.I.S. He would not have survived, not a chance.
So yes, compared to these bad old days of Dalton Ave, of the Rampart Scandal, of Deadwyler, and the Eula Love Shooting and several dozen S.I.S. shootings, we have certainly come a long way baby with the culture of the L.A.P.D.
Yep. Things are much better now. We should be celebrating. We should be making sure that this shiny new L.A.P.D. becomes the model department for the nation. The kind of force that former Chief Parker envisioned when he struck a deal that allowed the L.A.P.D. Public Relations Division - yes, they have an entire Division PR Unit for that - to have script approval over the 1950's and 60's Jack Webb radio serial and TV show "Dragnet". And it's sister show "Adam 12" starring Martin Milner & Kent McCord. After that you had Aaron Spelling's "Chopper One" in 1974 staring Dirk Benedict a show that help get everyone used to the idea of being constantly surveilled from above. Spelling went on to produce cop show "The Rookies", which generated a spin-off that could be considered the ultimate L.A.P.D. cop show PR crown jewel - "S.W.A.T." starring Steve Forrester in 1975.
Yeah, I watched all that shit back then.
Since Parker's protege then Lt. Darryl Gates had invented the Special Weapons and Tactics teams specifically for L.A.P.D. it only seemed appropriate they should have they're own show too, right?
L.A.P.D. has always known how to burnish their Hollywood image. How to sell the vision of Officer Friendly who'll help you get your cat out of the tree - while in many cases their Officers had been participating in mass beatings ever since they were used as enforcers to break up Union Strikes in the 1930's. They've always known how to work the refs in the media.
So yeah, sure - things are better. On the surface. Cops in L.A. don't start out yelling four-letter-word filled commands at people like "Get the Fuck on the Sidewalk". Anymore.
It's better.
I mean, we only once in a while have shootings of unarmed people like that of Ezell Ford this year. We only occasionally have a police officer kick a woman in the groin who later dies. I mean, that was just so long ago. Like way, way back - Last Year.
And it was forever ago - like in 2012 - when two L.A.P.D. Officers decided to Body Slam a Nurse to the ground. Handcuffed her, then Slammed Her Again. And of course gave each other a fist-bump when they were done.
Yeah, now the Officers are very polite just before they kick you the groin or body slam you to the ground - so that's better. Isn't it? Yay.
Vyan
6:50 PM PT: Made a few edits, and fixes as are always needed. Before I get into the comments I want to say that it's an absolute given the Police have the Right of Self Defense. That isn't even a question. There is no doubt that is true. The question is, do they have the right to use the authority they've been granted to punish people for daring to piss them off? When it's not about self defense, it's about Ego. Why else do you tase, or kick, or body slam, or shoot in the back (ala Oscar Grant) a person whose already handcuffed, already on the ground, already subdued, already been rendered non-dangerous? Community Policing may help things, I'm sure it won't hurt. Cop-Cams may help things, also they can't hurt. But if they're going to change Police Culture, they have to dig deeper than just the surface... they have to change it from what we see coming for murderous teams like SIS completely inside out.
This is not about Michael Brown, it's about a lot more than just that.