| I attended a police academy in the Los Angeles metro area back in the early 1980s [0]. The instructors complained about LAPD and LASD frequently [1]. This means that the problems that are still complained about were happening at least as early as the 1970s. I think the Rampart scandal would be illustrative of how deep is the problem of corruption in the LA policing community. As part of the clean-up, prosecutors were asking the courts to vacate every conviction that the corrupt police officers had worked on - it wasn't possible to separate the false from factual testimonies. Notes: 0 - I had run out of money for my (engineering) university program so I dropped out. Amusingly enough, the courses comprising the police academy (which was part of a community college) counted as humanities electives when I returned to finish that degree program. 1 - LAPD & LASD had their own academies. Any students that graduated from this community college program would still have to attend those department's academies. 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_scandal > CRASH officers would get together at a bar near Dodger Stadium in Echo Park to drink and celebrate shootings. Supervisors handed out plaques to shooters, containing red or black playing cards. A red card indicated a wounding and a black card indicated a killing, which was considered more prestigious. Pérez testified that at least one Rampart lieutenant attended these celebrations. > Rampart officers wore tattoos of the CRASH logo, a skull with a cowboy hat encircled with poker cards depicting the "dead man's hand", aces and eights.
Police-Gang tattoos are not new. |