Things are broken and need fixing. Systematic fixing.
Los Angeles County's Board of Supervisors voted to reach a settlement with the Department of Justice over their findings that the sheriff's department systematically harassed, intimidated, and abused low-income and
mostly black and Hispanic citizens.
The settlement follows a scathing report on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office abuses cited by the Justice Department in 2013, capping a two-year probe of policing practices in the Antelope Valley, an area of Mojave Desert communities north of Los Angeles.
The report concluded that county sheriff's deputies, along with authorities in the towns of Lancaster and Palmdale, routinely targeted blacks and Hispanics in a "pattern and practice" of unlawful traffic stops, raids and excessive force.
Some of the more disturbing findings have to do with the handling of low-income housing residents,
where police treat citizens like inmates.
In particular, the report accused the sheriff and county housing agency investigators of waging a discriminatory campaign of surprise inspections and other actions against African-Americans living in federally funded Section 8 affordable-housing units in the area.
As many as nine deputies would accompany investigators on housing checks, sometimes with guns drawn.
Some county and city officials defended their conduct at the time, denying they engaged in discrimination and asserting that Section 8 compliance checks were necessary to ensure residents were abiding by the terms of the public assistance program.
The settlement includes a $700,000 victims' settlement fund, another $25,000 to the
government as civil penalty. It includes mandatory programs for outreach to the communities being adversely affected by the sheriff's department.
The agreement requires the department to provide “bias-free policing” and to train its deputies on stops, searches and detention so that they do not make arbitrary searches and only make stops warranted by “reasonable suspicion.” That suspicion cannot be based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or perceived immigration status.
Sadly, all of these things are already
supposed to be exactly how policing is practiced in the United States. Also unfortunate is that under the agreement the sheriff's department doesn't have to
admit or agree with the DOJ's findings. But it is a step. It's a
we haven't done anything wrong but if you look at the settlement it's sort of clear we have been doing a lot of things terribly wrong.
The DOJ might be the busiest and most important institution this country has at work right now. Their finds have been excruciating but also a long time in coming.