For more than four decades Los Angeles has seen an increase in crime, drugs, guns and gangs. It is one of the largest cities in the United States with its population made up of mostly Latinos and African Americans. In the 1980’s LA’s epidemic of crime was due to crack cocaine; therefore, LAPD was very heavy handed in regards to dealing with crime in the 80’s; however, in the 90’s police brutality became rampant due to the massive increase of gangs, guns, drugs and violence, which turned Los Angeles into the murder capital of America. The Rampart Scandal and the Rodney King riot was a very dark period for LAPD in 90’s; for this reason LAPD lost all confidence and trust with their community. In the 1990’s LAPD’s Rampart Scandal was known …show more content…
According to my friend Lieutenant Al Labrada, he says that the police department is working with the community and clergy leaders to obtain a better understanding of the community’s needs, but above all, to build their trust. When there is a gang related shooting they immediately make contact with these leaders to help calm the community; furthermore, to solve the challenges that LAPD is faced with, they have adopted the SARA approach to help develop methods to identify and reduce crime. In addition, they are working towards re-building relationships and changing its racist image to win over the trust of the minorities’ by having officers wear body worn camera’s, as well as hiring a more diverse force and training officers community oriented policing strategies. By the same token, they have developed numerous outreach programs, such as the LAPD Latino Outreach program and over fourteen different youth programs to help build a trusting relationship with the next wave of …show more content…
There were numerous officers in the unit who participated and were responsible for the corruption, which consisted of stealing and dealing drugs, perjury, covering up evidence, and malicious shootings and beatings. Rafael Perez aka Ray Lopez was part of the corruption during Rampart. He was arrested for stealing and selling pounds of cocaine; thus, he cut a deal with the prosecution to exploit the rampart division. Rampart division was responsible for several scandals; for example, the Officer Kevin Gaines road rage shootout in 1997, the Bank of America armed robbery that LAPD officer David Mack devised and the Rampart Station beatings; consequently the list goes on. Most of the Crash officers were aware of the misconduct that was happening and the superior officers would encourage them to engage. Officers were proud of this corruption and would often celebrate their killings. According to Wikipedia, officers flaunted a tattoo of the CRASH logo which was a skull with a cowboy hat encircled with poker cards and depicting the “dead man ‘hand”, aces and eight. It didn’t matter if a person was black, white, pink or purple everyone was deathly afraid of LAPD, for fear of becoming a victim. When Rampart was finally exposed, Chief Parks and others tried to cover up the scandal and many officials had a
“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?”
Three Kansas City police score unit officer’s Jeffrey M. Bell, Dustin Sillings, and Darryl M. Forrest were charged with theft of federal government property, conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of the law. The Kansas City police officer were caught by FBI (Federal bureau of Investigation). The Kansas City police officers stole several items and cash in a house that had surveillance cameras during a staged sting operation. The type of situation always makes people wonder what would make these people want to do something like this? Why would the officers discarded their commitment to the city to protect and serve as they swore to do so?
This isn 't great on the grounds that with cops speculation like that it gives them to some degree a need to overstep the law. They essentially feel that with the end goal them should implement the law they need to break some. Cops hone this unwritten manage all over the place, particularly Los Angeles ' CRASH unit. Debasement was so basic in the CRASH unit that they had standard systems to cover it up if something turned out badly. In general, the LAPD didn 't have the solid bolster it required from the group.
This is not a racial issue, this is a social problem. By July of 2015, the number of police- related deaths extended to 664 making the country’s police force one of the deadliest in the USA. Out of the total of 644 deaths, 321 were Caucasian fatalities, 174 were African Americans, and 96 were Hispanics. According to the reports, 578 of these deaths were involved guns, others involved car
We learned that over the last 40 years the police department of the City of Miami and Miami- Dade County have experienced their share of civil disturbances. To illustrate, there have four cases of race riots between both police departments which led to innovation to be involved in their pursuits to better their responses. These were the race riots in 1968, the Liberty City Riot, 1980, the McDuffie Riot, 1982 Luis Alvarez Riots, and 1989 Loranzo Riots within the Liberty City over town areas. However, the article stated that these riots were resulted by either police shooting of young black men, or thanks to the federal government the deporting of a young Cuban boy. Thus, it was not until the civil arrest of the 1980’s McDuffie Riot which seemed
When it comes to the topic of police reform, many agree that our country is long overdue for it, however the questions is how exactly do we, as a nation, go about changing one of the most rigid power structures that exist in the country. While some believe that reform must come from within the individually flawed police departments, others argue that the entire criminal justice system needs an overhaul. An analysis of Ta-Nehisi Coates essay “The Myth of Police Reform” reveals that the complex issues of police shootings of minors (especially African Americans) and how difficult it may be to change these problems. In “The Myth of Police Reform” the author exemplifies the use of logos, ethos and pathos therefore making the argument effective.
Chicago has had its ups and downs in the cities violent history, but early 2016 to present has been an exception. Chicago increased in homicides by 59 percent in 2016 and it has only become worse since then with a 29 percent increase in just the first few months of 2017 (Asher, FiveThirtyEight.com; Ford, The Atlantic). It is obvious that something needs to be done, but so far there have not been any major changes made or drastic measures taken in order to improve Chicago’s current state of being. Right now, the three most predominant causes are Chicago’s Police, Chicago’s many gangs, and firearms, hand guns in particular. If the city wants to make any improvements whatsoever then it needs act decisively on gangs and guns, start using different
One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.
Police corruption has been the largest ongoing problem in the United States criminal justice system. In the documentary, “The Seven Five” directed by Tiller Russell, he sheds light onto the story of former NYPD officer Michael Dowd and how he and his prescient were involved in committing numerous crimes, including running their own cocaine ring while on the job in the 1980’s, early 90’s. Per the Criminal Law- Lawyer Source, police corruption is defined as “the abuse of police authority for personal gain or to gain advantage for the police organization. Police corruption can take the form of a variety of criminal activities ranging from actual commission of serious criminal (i.e. drug trafficking and money laundering) to the instances where
While the other book used is useful for providing an account of what happened at the beginning of the decade, this book is able to look at police brutality throughout the 1990s and how the earlier events impacted the later ones. Journal Articles Matheson, Victor A., and Robert A. Baade. “Race and Riots: A Note on the Economic Impact of the Rodney King Riots.” Urban Studies, vol. 41, no. 13, 2004, pp. 2691–2696, Academic Search Premier, doi:10.1080/0042098042000294628.
An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer
Police brutality remains a common yet controversial topic around the world. Police brutality is “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (thelawdictionary.org). It’s a topic that segregates communities and makes each other their enemy. Specifically, a white officer has been the enemy of the black community. Unfortunately, the tension between police and blacks grew over the past few decades.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.
Police Brutality is an ongoing problem and existent concern in the United States and should be resolved immediately. Law enforcement must function as an element that consists of organized and civilized officers. The presence of police brutality is becoming more of an issue as society grows. The problem posed by the illegal exercise of police power is an ongoing reality for individuals of a disfavored race, class, or sexual orientation. Police brutality must be stopped so that police do not forget who they are serving – not themselves, but the public.
The topic for this research proposal project is on community policing, and the factors that are involved in determining if relationships between law enforcement and citizens in these neighborhoods are strained. In order to be successful, community policing must be built on trust, as both civilians and law enforcement must work hand in hand to protect their communities. If there is a lack of trust, then these programs becomes broken, and can therefore lead to other violence and criminal acts. This research proposal project will focus on minority based communities and citizens, where the majority of the citizens are either African American or Hispanic.