“In my opinion, your Sheriff’s Department is the greatest law enforcement agency in the world,” said Sheriff Lee Baca during a press conference to declare his resignation while embroiled in scandal.
The assertion was both bold and ridiculous. While it was intended to soften the repeated blows to LASD credibility it only further illustrated how the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had completely collapsed under the current crisis.
The average worker in Los Angeles and other parts of southern California has been subjected to years of headlines surrounding the crimes, abuses, and other scandals of the LASD. It is common knowledge that the sheriffs are lead by corrupt officials, staffed by criminals and almost never held accountable by a regularly complicit District Attorney’s office. A federal investigation of LASD jail abuse by the FBI recently resulted in the arrest of 18 deputies involved in an assortment of crimes. This unprecedented scandal lead directly to top cop Lee Baca’s resignation and the emergence in the current race for Baca’s position of several new, equally vile contestants.
Resignation is not enough—arrest Lee Baca!
Baca’s resignation is nothing more than a retreat with the intent to dodge as much responsibility and consequently as much jail time as possible. Baca has steered the LASD for over 15 years of rampant brutality and jail abuse, the proliferation of cop gangs, rape, theft and much more. Evidence from the investigation has indicated that Baca knew about many of these crimes and is being held personally liable up to $100,000 for his role in supervising and covering up such abuses. Baca should be arrested on felony conspiracy charges related to these crimes and face a lengthy prison sentence – which is exactly how the sheriffs would treat the “kingpin” of any street gang in Los Angeles.
LASD—one gang, many cliques
To call the LASD a gang is no exaggeration or figure of speech—it is a fact. The first cop gang or clique was called “The Little Devils” and was organized at the East Los Angeles station in 1971, notably at the peak of the Chicano movement.
Arguably the most notorious clique was The Vikings, a notorious group that controlled the Lynwood Station through the 1980s and 1990s. A federal judge described the Vikings as a “neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang” when awarding a class action settlement of $9 million associated with racially motivated violence. Many Vikings went on to take high ranking positions in the department—including several of Baca’s top aides—and have since encouraged the proliferation of cliques throughout the county.
Paul Tanaka, who was Baca’s second in command, is a Viking himself and still sports their gang tattoo on the inside of his left ankle. Tanaka ruled the day to day functioning of the department through his influence with similar cliques and his encouragement of them—often in direct opposition to their immediate supervisors. Eventually, Tanaka took control of Internal Affairs, a group within the sheriff’s department that Tanaka had repeatedly criticized for attempts to check police brutality and corruption.
Tanaka took control of IA at a time when a federal sting investigation found that a close associate of Tanaka’s, sheriff captain Bernice Abram in command of the Carson station was involved in a high profile drug ring. While this may have spurred Tanaka’s decision, he was nonetheless excited to render IA toothless on any upcoming investigation. Abram has since retired under the pressure of the ongoing federal investigation into her tipping off of drug traffickers about pending sheriffs operations against them.
Baca and Tanaka also protected the so-called “Teflon Lieutenant,” James Hellmold, from any IA investigation whatsoever into his role as watch commander during the sheriffs’ notorious shooting of Winston Hayes—where sheriffs fired a total of 120 shots through Hayes’ car, across sheriffs’ patrol vehicles, into nearby buildings, and even into the leg of one LASD deputy. Hellmold was Baca’s personal driver and a close ally to Tanaka.
The Vikings, including high-ranking leaders, are not the only cliques connected to the LASD gang. There are also the Grim Reapers of Lennox station, The Cavemen, The Regulators of Century station, The Pirates, The Rattlesnakes, and the three cliques at the center of the jail controversy—2000 Boys, 3000 Boys, and 4000 Boys, each representing a different floor of Men’s Central Jail.
The Sheriff’s own gang unit became the Jump Out Boys and seven members of the gang were fired by Baca after a controversial membership pamphlet was discovered that romanticized rogue behavior. The Jump Out Boys also came under fire for their tattoo depicting a red-eyed skull with a bony hand over a revolver—to which they add smoke over the barrel once they earn their stripes by shooting someone. Some of these various gang cliques even get the number 998 tattooed on themselves—the call for an officer-involved shooting—and have a series of gang signs.
‘The greatest law enforcement agency in the world’?
A short list of the revelations in recent years would quite effectively support the argument that LASD is actually one of the worst law enforcement agencies in the world. The crimes include kidnapping, sexual assault during traffic stops, rape, felony spousal assault, cruelty to a child, drug trafficking, child endangerment, grand theft, false imprisonment, excessive force, felony assault with a deadly weapon, refusing to provide medical treatment to prisoners, soliciting prostitution, sexually assaulting inmates, child molestation, conspiracy, witness intimidation, bribery, aiding known criminals, obstructing a federal investigation, and almost every other crime there is to commit.
All of these crimes do not even account for the dozens killed at the hands of LASD each year, mostly young, unarmed Black and Latino men. Some of these deputies, such as Anthony Forlando, are serial killers—Forlando patrolling proudly with a record seven shootings.
Finally, a recent study showed that out of a sampling of 280 new hires in 2010, at least 188 had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies. Many of these 188 had been involved in crimes or forced to resign from their former positions. These included officers with excessive force allegations, rape allegations and even inmate abuse on their resume. LASD apparently felt they fit right in.
The FBI is no force for good
While the unprecedented arrest of 18 deputies should be celebrated, it is important to contextualize the arrests resulting from the investigation. The charges faced by the deputies relate to their active interference with an FBI informant inside the jail and the assault on an Austrian diplomat. Sheriffs hid the FBI informant and intimidated an FBI agent at her home to try to stop the ongoing investigation. In their arrogance—and stupidity—they ignored diplomatic immunity and assaulted an Austrian diplomat who came to visit an Austrian prisoner.
The charges have nothing to do with the vicious beatings suffered by inmates at the hands of deputies every single day. Nor is there any movement on the part of the FBI to investigate the endless number of unarmed men killed by LASD.
These facts illustrate how the FBI only selectively cares about LASD on the basis of its own activities and jurisdiction and will eventually leave the institution as vile as they found it. This should come as no surprise since the FBI orchestrated COINTELPRO to demolish progressive movements, admitted involvement in the assassination of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., and has killed countless unarmed, innocent people. No faith can be put in the FBI’s investigation as a conduit for change.
Elections won’t solve the problem
As soon as Baca resigned a whirlwind of new contestants in the race for top cop ensued. But who exactly are they and does the election matter in changing LASD?
James Hellmold threw his hat in and was signaled by Baca as a top pick to maintain the status quo. The “Teflon Lieutenant,” however, is deeply entrenched within the clique of Baca and Tanaka and has claimed he is “not a politician,” in the hopes that the statement will allow people to ignore his obvious connection to the crimes of LASD.
Paul Tanaka has been running from the start but is certainly the most criminal candidate. If he won it might be one of the few times a known gang member has taken office.
Jim McDonnell, the chief of Long Beach Police, has also announced his bid for the position. He intends to play up his distance from the scandals but he has been at the head of one of the most deadly departments in LA County since 2010—so racked by officer involved shootings that he was forced to go on record about their dramatic increase in 2013, which included 21 shootings and six deaths at the hands of his LBPD officers. He has also imposed a spy network on oppressed communities in Long Beach through the installation of cameras in public parks and the creation of a “camera sharing program,” where businesses opt in to allow unfettered access to their live feeds from a central hub at LBPD headquarters.
The final candidate, Bob Olmstead, has styled himself as a “reformer.” He claims to have blown the whistle on Baca and Tanaka due to jail abuse out of his own kind-heartedness. This seems particularly suspect when he has decades of experience with LASD, was formerly a close ally and aide to the Baca-Tanaka clique, and knew of an upcoming election at a time when he was upset about another officer’s promotion.
Some in the police brutality movement have even begun to believe in Olmstead’s ability to reform the sheriffs. But we know from the investigations that the entire department is run by gangs who use violent force to ensure their continued control, even against supervisors when necessary. Furthermore, regardless of who is in the top cop position it is the deputies on the ground that commit violence against inmates and kill people in the street. Even if Olmstead were sincere, which is highly improbable, he would be left powerless as a leader after being branded by deputies as one of the snitches that launched the political scandals.
What must be done?
When a police department is controlled unequivocally by criminal gangs and corrupt leadership and is constantly involved in unprovoked violent assaults on community members, killing them, pillaging, and worse—what must be done?
Only a fool would believe that a one man top cop savior would reform the cops away from behaviors that have existed for decades, especially if it means running counter to the interests of the vast majority of deputies. It is evident that LASD only views itself as a gang in competition with other gangs in Los Angeles—the only difference being that when they kill people in the street they walk free.
Given the scandals and the impossibility of reforming the sheriffs it becomes clear that the demand put forward by the police brutality movement and the people of Los Angeles must be succinct and effective. That demand?
Abolish the LASD! Arrest all criminal and killer cops now!
