Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991, p. 264 |
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Residents urge
Action Against
Police 'Atrocity'
By LOUIS SAHAGUN,
Times Staff Writer
Fifly-five residents of a South-Central
Los Angeles neighborhood who claim their
apartments were stormed and ransacked
by police challenged Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner
on Tuesday to bring charges against the
officers.
With the statute of limitations running
out next week, the residents told of being
terrorized and beaten by Los Angeles
police officers who stormed their apartments last August. Police said they believed the buildings were havens for drug
activity.
Damage to the duplexes on Dalton
Avenue, just west of the Coliseum, was so
extensive that the Red Cross provided
emergency food and shelter to the four
faraflies that lived there.
At a news conference in front the
buildings, residents and their attorneys
said prosecutors have only until Aug. 1 to
file criminal charges.
Attorney George V. Denny called on
Reiner's office to lake action,
claiming that the police officers
were "guilty of atrocities" against
his clients.
"Or are the pohiical pressures to
stonewall and whitewash the incident just too great for you lo
withstand?" Denny asked rhetorically.
Reiner waa out of town Tuesday
and could not be reached for comment. But Deputy Dist. Atty.
Christopher Darden. the prosecutor
in charge of special Investigations
in Reiner's office, said a decision on
whether lo file criminal misdemeanor charges against any of the
officers involved would be made
before the end of the week.
"I have literally reviewed the
conduct of each and every officer at
the scene," Darden said. "If wc find
it proper to file misdemeanor
charges, we'll file before the end of
the week. If not, we won't."
Officers Disciplined
To date, 28 of the 88 officers who
participated in the raid have been
disciplined for misconduct ranging
from lying to police investigators to
damaging personal properly—the
largest number ever disciplined at
one time as the result of an internal
LAPD inquiry. Disciplinary action
against these officers included suspensions and loss of pay.
In addition, Police Chief Daryl F.
Gates said that nine others have
been scheduled to appear before a
departmental tribunal and could
ultimately be fired or given six-
month suspensions wlthoul pay.
The lengthy district attorney's
Investigation has led victims' attorneys to express doubts whether
prosecutors are vigorously pursuing the controversial case.
"We are concerned that even if
there is a prosecution, it will be a
token effort and not pursued in
good faith." victims' attorney Gary
Casselman said.
"The district attorney, I'm certain, will give all kinds of assurances thai this will be a fair-minded
and tough prosecution," Casselman
added. "But why did it take 51
weeks and a press conference to
dislodge him?"
Meanwhile, a civil rights suit has
been filed in federal courl in Ixis
Angeles contending thai some of
the officers kicked and punched the
victims, broke windows, tore open
plaster ceilings and walls, and
overturned kitchen and other appliances.
Two additional damage suits
have been filed on behalf of owners
of the two apartment buildings.
Among the alleged victims was
Johnnie Mac Carter, 61, who claims
lhat her four children were
roughed up and arrested during the
raid only to be released later
without charges being filed against
them. ' *
She said one of her sons was
handcuffed behind his back and
forced to lie in the front yard wllh
his face pressed against dog feces.
Another son. 22-year-old Edward Carter, told reporters at the
news conference that he was handcuffed behind his back and then
kicked In the head and ribs.
Al one point in the raid, Carter
said, "an officer pointed at a cockroach and said he would make mc
cat it if I didn't stop looking at
him."
In all, 33 people were taken Into
custody but ultimately only two
teen-agers were prosecuted, both
for possession of drugs.
Object Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991 |
| Description | Newspaper clippings (Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, New York Times, Sentinel) and magazine articles (U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek) documenting Los Angeles Police Department misconduct under Chief Daryl F. Gates, 1978-1991, compiled by Irving Kessler and Lynn F. Kessler. Includes: Introduction, Contents, Excessive force, Rodney King, Mexican nationality, Civil rights, Property, Silence, Discrimination, Accountability, Gates intolerance, Recommendations. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Coverage date | 1978/1991 |
| Creator |
Kessler, Irving, compiler Kessler, Lynn F., compiler |
| Publisher (of the original version) | Los Angeles Times; L.A. Weekly; U.S. News & World Report; Los Angeles Daily News; New York Times; Newsweek; Sentinel |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California, USA; Washington, DC, USA; New York, New York, USA |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date created | 1991 |
| Date issued | 1978/1991 |
| Type |
texts images |
| Format | 368 p. |
| Format (aat) |
clippings (information artifacts) articles summaries |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Complaints, suggestions, and support |
| Box and folder | box 23, folders 7-9 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box23-07_09 |
Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991, p. 264 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | Residents urge Action Against Police 'Atrocity' By LOUIS SAHAGUN, Times Staff Writer Fifly-five residents of a South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood who claim their apartments were stormed and ransacked by police challenged Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner on Tuesday to bring charges against the officers. With the statute of limitations running out next week, the residents told of being terrorized and beaten by Los Angeles police officers who stormed their apartments last August. Police said they believed the buildings were havens for drug activity. Damage to the duplexes on Dalton Avenue, just west of the Coliseum, was so extensive that the Red Cross provided emergency food and shelter to the four faraflies that lived there. At a news conference in front the buildings, residents and their attorneys said prosecutors have only until Aug. 1 to file criminal charges. Attorney George V. Denny called on Reiner's office to lake action, claiming that the police officers were "guilty of atrocities" against his clients. "Or are the pohiical pressures to stonewall and whitewash the incident just too great for you lo withstand?" Denny asked rhetorically. Reiner waa out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden. the prosecutor in charge of special Investigations in Reiner's office, said a decision on whether lo file criminal misdemeanor charges against any of the officers involved would be made before the end of the week. "I have literally reviewed the conduct of each and every officer at the scene," Darden said. "If wc find it proper to file misdemeanor charges, we'll file before the end of the week. If not, we won't." Officers Disciplined To date, 28 of the 88 officers who participated in the raid have been disciplined for misconduct ranging from lying to police investigators to damaging personal properly—the largest number ever disciplined at one time as the result of an internal LAPD inquiry. Disciplinary action against these officers included suspensions and loss of pay. In addition, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said that nine others have been scheduled to appear before a departmental tribunal and could ultimately be fired or given six- month suspensions wlthoul pay. The lengthy district attorney's Investigation has led victims' attorneys to express doubts whether prosecutors are vigorously pursuing the controversial case. "We are concerned that even if there is a prosecution, it will be a token effort and not pursued in good faith." victims' attorney Gary Casselman said. "The district attorney, I'm certain, will give all kinds of assurances thai this will be a fair-minded and tough prosecution," Casselman added. "But why did it take 51 weeks and a press conference to dislodge him?" Meanwhile, a civil rights suit has been filed in federal courl in Ixis Angeles contending thai some of the officers kicked and punched the victims, broke windows, tore open plaster ceilings and walls, and overturned kitchen and other appliances. Two additional damage suits have been filed on behalf of owners of the two apartment buildings. Among the alleged victims was Johnnie Mac Carter, 61, who claims lhat her four children were roughed up and arrested during the raid only to be released later without charges being filed against them. ' * She said one of her sons was handcuffed behind his back and forced to lie in the front yard wllh his face pressed against dog feces. Another son. 22-year-old Edward Carter, told reporters at the news conference that he was handcuffed behind his back and then kicked In the head and ribs. Al one point in the raid, Carter said, "an officer pointed at a cockroach and said he would make mc cat it if I didn't stop looking at him." In all, 33 people were taken Into custody but ultimately only two teen-agers were prosecuted, both for possession of drugs. |
| Filename | indep-box23-08-04~11.tif |
| Archival file | Volume77/indep-box23-08-04~11.tif |
