The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday requested Sheriff Robert Luna for a progress report on his promise to root out deputy gangs from the nation’s largest sheriff’s division.
The transfer got here in response to a Occasions report this month a few violent incident involving a bunch of off-duty deputies, a few of whom allegedly belonged to a beforehand unreported gang on the Metropolis of Trade sheriff’s station.
A movement by Supervisor Hilda Solis requested that the sheriff compile a report in regards to the so-called Trade Indians, together with when the group fashioned, misconduct it has been linked to, and any warning indicators of gang exercise on the station. The movement additionally requested for an replace on a stronger anti-gang coverage, which Luna highlighted as a precedence after he took workplace in 2022.
In a information launch, Solis stated the movement was a step towards “eradicating” deputy gangs.
“Our communities deserve higher,” she wrote. “Not solely do these incidents require fast investigation, however transparency and self-discipline.”
A 2023 oversight fee report documented deputy gangs at a number of stations, together with South L.A., Century, Lancaster, Compton and East L.A., with names corresponding to Grim Reapers, the Banditos and the Executioners.
The Sheriff’s Division stated in a press release that it’s “actively addressing the difficulty of deputy gangs” and has drafted a brand new anti-gang coverage that’s below negotiation with the unions.
“The difficulty of deputy gangs is a problem that impacts solely a small proportion of the Division,” the assertion stated. “The overwhelming majority of personnel are devoted professionals who’re dedicated to serving our neighborhood.”
Final month in an interview with The Occasions, the sheriff acknowledged each the “outrageous” bowling alley incident and the existence of an Trade station group whose members are stated to have tattoos on their ankles, although the division has in any other case launched no particulars in regards to the case. This week’s movement requested the sheriff to ship solutions to almost a dozen inquiries to the Civilian Oversight Fee’s advert hoc committee on deputy gangs inside two weeks.
“This movement is a step in the best route,” Sean Kennedy, who chairs the oversight fee, informed The Occasions on Wednesday. “Permitting the LASD management to cover what’s going on with the deputy gangs perpetuates the issue and is in opposition to the general public’s finest curiosity.”
A number of Trade sheriff’s station deputies allegedly attacked a bunch of teenagers outdoors a bowling alley in Montclair.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Occasions)
Division leaders discovered of the Trade Indians throughout an investigation right into a February 2022 incident by which a number of off-duty deputies drunkenly confronted a bunch of youngsters within the car parking zone of the Bowlium bowling alley in Montclair. One deputy flashed a gun in his waistband and one other punched a teen within the face, in keeping with a police report and legislation enforcement sources who weren’t licensed to talk publicly.
Throughout the investigation, two deputies concerned admitted to having Trade Indians tattoos, one of many sources stated. The ink is described as resembling a personality from Shock Prime beer labels, a cartoon face in profile with sun shades and a mohawk.
{The teenager} who was punched within the face is now 21. He and and 4 of his associates who had been with him on the bowling alley sat down with The Occasions not too long ago for an interview in regards to the encounter. All of them requested anonymity as a result of they worry folks affiliated with the Trade Indians deputy gang and the fired deputies.
“The explanation why we’re so petrified of retaliation is as a result of they nonetheless have associates within the police division,” stated one lady current for the incident, additionally now 21.
Whereas they had been bowling that night time, the buddies stated, they seen a boisterous group inside. The lads had been loud and throwing their baseball caps within the air.
On his manner out, the 21-year-old who was punched recalled telling his associates to be careful; he thought the fellows strolling out behind them had been drunk.
Moments later, one in every of them — a sergeant — shook the teenagers’ automotive door as folks had been getting in, the buddies stated. Issues escalated from there, with deputies hurling racist and homophobic slurs, the buddies stated.
Two days later, the buddies reported the incident to Montclair police. The Occasions reviewed a brief video of the tip of the confrontation, recorded by a then-16-year-old within the group, that exhibits the deputies surrounding the teenagers’ automotive whereas cursing at them.
The boy’s older sister, now 26, stated some males who weren’t concerned within the combat had been standing round laughing.
“You guys are a bunch of 30-, 40-year-old males selecting on youngsters and stuff — like are you able to at the least assist?” she stated. “Just one individual all through the entire thing helped us and was pushing guys again.”
The sister and others within the group stated they weren’t conscious on the time that the lads had been legislation enforcement officers. They stated they discovered that prosecutors had declined to file prices in opposition to two of the deputies and that 4 had misplaced their jobs solely after studying about it in The Occasions.
The 26-year-old lady questioned why there weren’t extra penalties, and whether or not the fired deputies can be employed by one other police company.
“In order that they’re going to go search for one other job, then what?” she stated. “What’s that going to do?”
The fired deputies have all appealed their punishments to the county’s Civil Service Fee, in keeping with a county supply accustomed to the scenario who was not licensed to talk publicly. In an interview with The Occasions final month, Luna pointed to these doable appeals as the rationale he couldn’t give extra particulars in regards to the division’s investigation.
This week’s Board of Supervisors movement may immediate the discharge of extra data, although it doesn’t require any of or not it’s made public. The movement particularly asks the sheriff to ship his written report back to a committee that Kennedy stated has extra freedom to satisfy in closed session than the total oversight fee.
Along with requesting particulars in regards to the Trade station group, the supervisors on Tuesday handed a movement asking the Sheriff’s Division to ban deputies from carrying weapons whereas consuming or from coming to work drunk. The movement cited a latest Workplace of Inspector Normal report elevating issues in regards to the variety of incidents by which deputies drunkenly brandished or misplaced their weapons.
Apart from the Bowlium case, the report described an incident by which one deputy was pulled over for driving on the unsuitable facet of the street with 0.256% blood alcohol stage and two loaded weapons within the automotive. Two years later, the report stated, that very same deputy handed out after going residence with folks from a bar and awoke within the morning to search out his gun lacking.
4 supervisors voted in favor of the movement. Supervisor Janice Hahn abstained, saying she wished to assist the sheriff by leaving coverage selections as much as him.
In an emailed assertion, the division stated it was “reviewing the present coverage” regarding alcohol and weapons.
“There are a number of stakeholders that should be integrated into this determination,” the assertion stated. “Any coverage adjustments have to undergo the suitable meet and confer course of.”
