Infiltration into LA sheriff department? (Los Angeles: lawsuit, gangs, budget)

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

"The retired Long Beach police chief easily beat incumbent Sheriff Alex Villanueva in this year’s general election by 61% to 39%. Luna’s reward: a scandal-plagued department.

He inherits multiple lawsuits alleging horrific conditions in a jail system still under a federal consent decree. A former sheriff, Lee Baca, completed a stint in federal prison this year for corruption charges. An uproar over deputy gangs has sparked nationwide attention. And he succeeds Villanueva, who won in 2018 promising to bring a progressive approach to the largest sheriff’s department in the country but instead ushered in a reign of favoritism, paranoia, vendettas and political punishment straight out of “Game of Thrones.”

So howzabout that toast, Sheriff Luna?"

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...st-los-angeles

Villanueva reminds me of the Sac Sheriff Scott Jones, he refuses independent oversight of the department and refused to disclose inmate deaths until the state passed a law this year requiring that he do so. He apparently has no control over his staff because you'd better be dead or dying before a deputy will show up. They try not to arrest anyone, or investigate any crimes- it's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life. He's going to be replaced by Jim Cooper, I don't know much about him but I'm pretty sure he can't be worse.

I have no knowledge of inmate gangs in LASO, but I have a friend who was an investigator at CDCR. He uncovered a group of correctional officers who had formed a gang, they had gang tattoos, used gang symbols and would look the other way when certain inmates were injured or killed. They would set up "gladiator" fights and bet on the winner. When they got caught he had to move, his wife and kids were run off the road and his life was threatened several times, he finally took an early retirement and moved out of state, it was really bad. So it would not surprise me if a similar gang exists in other law enforcement agencies.

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Villanueva reminds me of the Sac Sheriff Scott Jones, he refuses independent oversight of the department and refused to disclose inmate deaths until the state passed a law this year requiring that he do so. He apparently has no control over his staff because you'd better be dead or dying before a deputy will show up. They try not to arrest anyone, or investigate any crimes- it's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life. He's going to be replaced by Jim Cooper, I don't know much about him but I'm pretty sure he can't be worse.

I have no knowledge of inmate gangs in LASO, but I have a friend who was an investigator at CDCR. He uncovered a group of correctional officers who had formed a gang, they had gang tattoos, used gang symbols and would look the other way when certain inmates were injured or killed. They would set up "gladiator" fights and bet on the winner. When they got caught he had to move, his wife and kids were run off the road and his life was threatened several times, he finally took an early retirement and moved out of state, it was really bad. So it would not surprise me if a similar gang exists in other law enforcement agencies.

I haven't really followed the issue but I wouldn't be surprised if retied Sheriff Villanueva was a "gangster" as he rose to Lieutenant. The deputy gangs seemed to be insider groups at the different Sheriff's patrol stations as opposed to the jailer deputies. So "Banditos" worked out of the East LA station while the "Executioners" worked out of the relatively new Compton, which used to have its own independent police department before contracting with Sheriff. But maybe the different jails, bus drivers and court bailiffs have their own gangs for deputies who want to stay in the jails and not move to community policing units.

How much they are "gangs" or The Ten from The Lords of Discipline down to how much are they like Trojans are from USC and Bruins are from UCLA depends upon the commentators world views.

[CA4Now]

Facing long-standing allegations of “appalling” conditions inside the county’s jails and violent deputy “gangs” operating on its streets, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna on Wednesday announced the appointment of a former federal prosecutor to oversee a new office designed to combat those problems within the department.

Eileen Decker, a high-profile attorney who previously served on the city’s Police Commission and on Luna’s transition team when he took over the department last year, will hold a chief-level role leading the Office for Constitutional Policing.

“This new office will be tasked with helping to eradicate all deputy gangs from this department,” Luna said at a midday news conference outside the Hall of Justice. “I will have an absolute zero tolerance for this type of conduct.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...l-deputy-gangs

[BlakeJones]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Facing long-standing allegations of “appalling” conditions inside the county’s jails and violent deputy “gangs” operating on its streets, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna on Wednesday announced the appointment of a former federal prosecutor to oversee a new office designed to combat those problems within the department.

Eileen Decker, a high-profile attorney who previously served on the city’s Police Commission and on Luna’s transition team when he took over the department last year, will hold a chief-level role leading the Office for Constitutional Policing.

“This new office will be tasked with helping to eradicate all deputy gangs from this department,” Luna said at a midday news conference outside the Hall of Justice. “I will have an absolute zero tolerance for this type of conduct.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...l-deputy-gangs

I see the new progressive administration will spare no effort to find all the witches. The witches cannot hide, we will hunt for them forever!

[Thekdog]

All these deputy gangs and no convictions in a court of law

[CA4Now]

"When he stepped up to the witness stand last week, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Jaime Juarez told the court about his first inking party — the day he got his Compton station tattoo. The intimate gathering was at a home somewhere in Pomona, and most of the people there were strangers.

But he knew the man who invited him, and knew that man sported the same ink Juarez was about to get — a design commonly linked to a suspected deputy gang known as the Executioners.

On Thursday afternoon, while testifying in a civil trial, Juarez pushed up a pant leg to reveal that tattoo: a helmet-wearing skeleton gripping a rifle. The rare and candid disclosure came in a case centered on the secretive world of deputy gangs, reports of which have plagued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for half a century and led to an array of investigations, studies and legal settlements.

The case that led to last week’s tattoo-bearing trial began in 2020, when Lt. Larry Waldie sued the county on claims of retaliation, alleging he was targeted and demoted after he “openly opposed” the Executioners’ control over the Compton station while he was acting captain there.

That trial continues, and its first two weeks have featured testimony from an array of current and former Sheriff’s Department officials. Some witnesses offered the names of everyone they’d seen with the so-called Executioners tattoo. One provided pictures of a detective bureau desk decorated with the group’s symbol in several places. Another — Juarez — explained the voting process used to decide who could get a tattoo and said he’d helped make that decision several times."

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...attoo-in-court

[Thekdog]

This tattoo stuff is such weird hysteria. This latest guy is just suing because he didn't get a promotion.

The jails are in bad shape because of the county, not the sheriff. It's the county's choice not to find tbem

[Winter Coven]

Originally Posted by Finper

It’s almost like they’re in Fort Apache

Keeping a "low profile".

[Winter Coven]

These "gangs" are real, but they are actually cliques rather than gangs.

Anti-LEO groups started calling them deputy gangs to "flip the script" and pretend that they are lawless.

Now, back in the day that may have been true. But, they are not unique to LASD.

LAPD CRASH unit (of Rampart scandal fame) was lawless and they had tattoos as well.

Another label that these deputy "gangs" are being tagged with is "white supremacist" despite many the clique members being Hispanic.

Paul Tanaka (ran for sheriff a few years back) was a member of the "white supremacist" Lynwood Vikings - out of the old Lynwood Station (now Century).

He is Asian, but his opponents turned him into an "Asian white supremacist", just like they made Larry Elder a "black white supremacist" when he ran for governor in Gruesome's recall election.

A real white supremacist deputy gang operated out of Pitchess jail up in Castaic (or is it Saugus? - I only go up that way to go over the Grapevine) during the 1980s and early 1990s, and called themselves the "Wayside Whities".

They had it in for any black inmates on their tier.

Some indy LA paper did a series on these groups and it is online.

I'll try to find it.

[Winter Coven]

Ah, here it is.

Knock LA is a bit biased, but this is a good informational series.

https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-vi...-gang-history/