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LAPD Rampart Scandal Analysis

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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

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