THE PURPOSE OF AMERICAN POLICE IS THE PROBLEM

"Intimidate Those Who Intimidate Others" - motto of LAPD CRASH unit

The worst scandal in LAPD history, the Rampart scandal involving widespread police corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the LAPD's Rampart Division in the late 1990s first came to light around 4 p.m. on March 18, 1997, when LAPD undercover officer Frank Lyga shot and killed Kevin Gaines, a plainclothes Rampart CRASH officer, Kevin Gaines, in self-defense, following a case of road rage. The incident began when Gaines pulled his green Mitsubishi Montero up to Lyga's Buick and flashed Blood gang signs and waved a .45 ACP handgun. Lyga later testified, "In my training experience this guy had 'I'm a gang member' written all over him." Lyga pulled away from the light and Gaines followed, brandishing the pistol. Using a hidden radio activated by a foot pedal Lyga called for backup, saying, "Hey, I got a problem. I've got a black guy in a green Jeep coming up here! He's got a gun!" Lyga unholstered his Beretta 92 service pistol as he came to a stop light. He heard Gaines shout, "I'll cap you!" Lyga fired into Gaines' SUV twice, one of the bullets lodging in Gaines’ heart. Lyga radioed one final transmission: "I just shot this guy! I need help! Get up here!” and reported that Gaines was the first to pull a gun to which he responded in self-defense.

Inside Gaines's car, a Death Row Greatest Hits CD was found, as he was listening to Death Row's inclusion of No Vaseline at the time of the confrontation. In the ensuing investigation, LAPD investigators discovered Gaines had been involved in similar road rage incidents, threatening drivers by brandishing his gun, and also that Gaines was associated with both the Death Row Records record label and its controversial owner and CEO, Suge Knight.

Following three separate internal investigations, Lyga was exonerated of any wrongdoing. The LAPD concluded that Lyga's shooting was "in policy" and not racially or improperly motivated.

In the ensuing investigation of the Rampart CRASH unit, which was based on statements by admitted corrupt CRASH officer Rafael Pérez, initially implicated over 70 officers in wrongdoing, including unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these crimes..

In the end, enough evidence was found to bring 58 officers before an internal administrative board, which found only 24 guilty of any wrongdoing, with 12 receiving suspensions of various lengths, seven forced into resignation or retirement, and five terminated.

As a result of the falsified evidence and police perjury, 106 prior criminal convictions were overturned and the City of Los Angeles paid out an estimated $125 million in settlements of more than 140 civil lawsuits against the city.

As a result of the scandal, Mayor James K. Hahn did not rehire African-American Police Chief Bernard Parks in 2002. The scandal and de facto firing of Parks are believed to have precipitated Hahn's defeat by Antonio Villaraigosa in the 2005 mayoral election

Within three days of the incident, the Gaines family retained Johnnie Cochran and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for $25 million, which was eventually settled for $250,000. Lyga was angryover the settlement, which denied him the chance to clear his name. Judge Schoettler - who presided over the trial, wrote a letter to Chief Parks, stating, "Had the matter been submitted to me for a determination, I would have found in favor of the City of Los Angeles." He alleged that the case was settled as it was for political reasons involving City Attorney James K. Hahn's planned run for mayor and his desire to court black voters.

Things were far from settled.

On November 6, 1997, $722,000 was stolen in an armed robbery of a Bank of America branch. Following a month’s investigation, assistant bank manager Errolyn Romero confessed to the crime, implicating her boyfriend, LAPD officer David Mack, as the mastermind. Mack was sentenced to 14 years and three months in federal prison. He has never revealed thelocation of the money and while in prison bragged would become a millionaire by the time of his release on May 14, 2010. The case is still considered open.

It continued.

On February 26, 1998, Rampart CRASH officer Brian Hewitt brought in 18th Street gang member Ismael Jimenez in for questioning. According to CRASH officer Rafael Pérez's recorded testimony, Hewitt "got off" on beating suspects. During the interrogation, he beat the handcuffed Jimenez in the chest and stomach until he vomited blood. Released, Jimenez went to the emergency room and told doctors that Hewitt and his partner Daniel Lujan had beaten him while in custody. Hewitt was fired from the LAPD as a result of the investigation and Jimenez was awarded $231,000 in a civil settlement with the city. Hewitt served time in federal prison for the distribution of drugs and conspiracy to commit murder while a member of CRASH.

Then, on March 27, 1998, LAPD officials discovered eight pounds of cocaine were missing from an evidence room. Detectives soon focused their investigation on Pérez. With evidence that one of the elite CRASH units had officers working off-duty for Death Row Records, robbing banks, and stealing cocaine, Chief Parks established an internal task force to investigate the scandal in May 1998.

The Rampart Corruption Task Force focused on the prosecution of Pérez following an audit of the LAPD property room which revealed another pound of missing cocaine which had been booked following a prior arrest by Lyga, the officer who had shot Gaines. It was speculated Pérez had stolen the cocaine booked by Lyga in retaliation for Gaines' shooting.

Rafael Pérez, a nine-year LAPD veteran, was arrested August 25, 1998, for the theft of six pounds of cocaine from the evidence room, estimated to be worth $800,000 on the street, or $120,000 wholesale. Perez signed a phony name on the forms when he checked out the drugs, but his signature was a "dead bang" match.

When he was arrested, Pérez asked, "Is this about the bank robbery?" He never testified against Mack. Eleven additional instances of suspicious cocaine transfers were discovered and Pérez admitted to ordering cocaine evidence out of property and replacing it with Bisquick.

Following a mistrial on September 8, 1999, Pérez agreed to cut a deal with investigators, pleading guilty to cocaine theft and in exchange providing information about two "bad" shootings and three other CRASH officers engaged in illegal acts. He received a five-year prison sentence and immunity from prosecution for misconduct short of murder.

Over the next nine months, he met with investigators more than 50 times. He admitted framing four members of the Temple Street gang for the murder of Mexican Mafia member Miguel "Lizard" Malfavon.

In extensive testimony, Pérez provided a detailed portrait of the culture in the elite CRASH unit, insisting that 90% of CRASH officers were "in the loop", framing civilians and perjuring themselves on the witness stand, and that superiors were aware of and encouraged CRASH officers to engage in misconduct since the goal of the unit was to arrest gang members by any means necessary.

He claimed CRASH officers were awarded plaques for shooting civilians and suspects, with extra honors if they were killed, that CRASH officers carried spare guns in their "war bags" to plant on civilians and suspects, and revealed the CRASH motto:

"We intimidate those who intimidate others."

CRASH officers celebrated shootings at the Short Stop, a bar near Dodger Stadium in Echo Park to drink and celebrate shootings. Pérez testified that at least one Rampart lieutenant attended these celebrations. Rampart gang officers wore tattoos of the CRASH logo, a skull with a cowboy hat encircled with poker cards depicting the "dead man's hand", aces and

The Rampart Corruption Task Force investigators discovered hip hop mogul Suge Knight, owner of Death Row Records, was hiring off-duty Rampart policemen to work as security guards for substantial amounts of money. After Gaines was killed, investigators discovered he drove a Mercedes-Benz and wore designer suits, and found a receipt in his apartment for a $952 restaurant tab at Monty's Steakhouse.

On March 9, 1997, Durden, Mack and Pérez were present on the night of the murder of East Coast rapper Christopher George Latore Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard

LAPD investigators Brian Tyndall and Russell Poole believed Mack and other Rampart officers were involved in a conspiracy to kill Wallace. Poole claimed Chief Parks refused to investigate Mack's involvement, suppressed their 40-page report, and instructed investigators not to pursue their inquiries. Poole, an 18-year LAPD veteran, quit in protest.

The $125 million in settlement costs included a $15 million settlement to gang member Javier Ovando on November 21, 2000, the largest police misconduct settlement in Los Angeles history. Ovando, learning nothing from the event, was later arrested for using the money to finance his decision to become a major drug dealer.

There have been multiple allegations that Chief Parks and members of the LAPD were actively involved in obstructing the Rampart Investigation.Many city officials, including District Attorney Gil Garcetti, expressed a lack of confidence with Parks' handling of the investigation.

As a result of all this, on September 19, 2000, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 2 to accept a consent decree allowing the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee and monitor reforms within the LAPD for a period of five years. The DOJ, which had been investigating the LAPD since 1996,, agreed not to pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the city.

The "L.A.P.D. Board of Inquiry into the Rampart Area Corruption Incident" report was released in March 2000. It made 108 recommendations for changes in LAPD policies and procedures. The report was widely criticized for not addressing structural problems within the LAPD.

"An Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal" was published in September 2000 by University of Southern California Law School Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, currently the Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, at the request of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, in which he outlined six specific criticisms of the Board of Inquiry report, namely that the LAPD minimized the scope and nature of the corruption, and abetted the corruption through its own internal negligence or corrupt policies.

The "Report of the Rampart Independent Review Panel" created by a panel of over 190 community members, issued 72 findings and 86 recommendations in November 2000. The report noted the Police Commission had been "undermined by the Mayor's Office" and that the Inspector General's Office had been "hindered by ... lack of cooperation by the LAPD in responding to requests for information."

Around the same time, the results of an investigation into Los Angeles’s Special Investigations Section, which had earned the nickname “Death Squad” because it had killed so many people, led to more than an additional $100 million in settlements to victims and court costs. The unit was finally disbanded in 2005.

In 2002, the television series “The Shield” premiered, depicting a band of rogue Los Angeles police officers. It was so directly inspired by the Rampart Scandal that "Rampart" was initially used as the series title until it was changed in order to avoid conflicts with the LAPD.

The Rampart Scandal is merely the best known of the many police scandals around the country, all of which share in common that the criminal perpetrators are members of an elite police unit.

These “elite” units operate with far more leeway and less oversight than do regular police officers. While some units have impressive records of arrests and gun confiscations, the statistics often do not correlate with a decrease in crime. They all rest on the idea that to be effective, police officers need less oversight. But in city after city, these units have proven that putting officers in street clothes and unmarked cars , then giving them less supervision, an open mandate and an intimidating name shatters the community trust that police forces require to keep a community safe. These units are always touted as the best of the best, composed of highly experienced, carefully selected officers with stable temperaments, who have earned the right to work with less supervision. And, as with the Rampart Scandal, the members of such units, which are usually aggressive officers who are drawn to the unit for all of the above reasons, all too often succumb to taking criminal advantage of their “elite” status.

These units tend to attract aggressive, rules-skirting officers who bring in like-minded officers to join them It isn’t difficult to see the danger in telling the under-trained, generally lower-educated police officers one finds throughout police departments in the United States that they are “elite;” the remarkable thing is how far the ideal is from reality. Stephen Downing, a retired Los Angeles SWAT officer, has said, “The guys who really want to be on the SWAT team are the last people you should be putting on the SWAT team.”

Memphis formed the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, or SCORPION in 2021. Four groups of 10 officers each would saturate crime hot spots in unmarked cars, using pretextual traffic stops to investigate homicides, aggravated assaults, robberies and carjackings. The result was the police murder of Tyre Nichols, who was stopped for no reason by five inexperienced, untrained, undisciplined officers who were supported by two others, because that was what they do.

In the late 1980s, Chicago created the Special Operations Section, or S.O.S., in response to rising crime. By 2005, whistle-blowers in the CPD and official investigations accused S.O.S. officers of armed robbery, drug dealing, planting evidence, burglary, “taxing” drug dealers and kidnapping. S.O.S. member, Keith Herrera told “60 Minutes” that S.O.S. officers pulled over motorists without cause, confiscated their keys, then broke into their homes and stole from them. The head of the unit eventually pleaded guilty to hiring a hit man to kill Herrera.

Officers from the NYPD’s Street Crimes Unit, whose motto was “We own the night” shot and killed unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo, after mistaking his wallet for a gun. Though the SCU was officially disbanded, later incarnations were the leaders in the city’s notorious stop-and-frisk policy, implicated in the deaths of Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Kimani Gray. A 2018 investigation found that though these units account for just 6 percent of NYPD officers, they were involved in over 30 percent of fatal police shootings. They were again disbanded after the George Floyd protests in 2020. But in 2022, responding to a sharp rise in crime, Mayor Eric Adams restarted them.

Last year, eight officers from a Baltimore special unit were convicted and imprisoned after allegations they robbed residents, stole from local businesses, sold drugs and carried BB guns to plant on people.

Despite such sordid and scandal-plagued results, which ultimately cost cities many millions of dollars more than was lost to the crimes the units were set to eradicating, politicians continue to create similar units for the publicity of having a “get tough response” to claims of rising crime.

As a full-time resident of Los Angeles since 1980, who was here off and on since 1967 before that, I have watched every scandal of the LAPD going back to the Century City police riot against people protesting a visit by LBJ during the Vietnam War. There were three “reforms” of the LAPD before the Rampart Scandal and two since. They are still the gang of thugs they were when the force was created in 1880 to “keep down th’ Mes’kins.” Keeping down the have-nots and dispossessed has been the purpose of every police force ever created in the United States since the colonal “slave patrols” in the Southern colonies in the 18th Century. Most people I know in Los Angeles laugh at the supposed LAPD motto, “To protect and to serve.” Those are the last things American police departments have ever been created to do.

American police are, compared to the rest of the police forces in other developed countries, the least-trained and least-educated. Changing that will still not “reform” these departments into the kind of police we say we want, until the purpose for which they were created is changed.

Yes, the “bad cops” are a minority, the “few rotten apples” we are told. People forget that left alone, three rotten apples in a barrel of fresh apples will go rotten in a matter of days.

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