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Rampart Scandal In The 1990s

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Rampart Scandal
One of the most notorious police scandals of all time was the Rampart affair in the 1990s. This was one of the most widespread of documented of police misconduct in US history. More than 70 police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department in the Rampart division’s Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (A.K.A CRASH) anti-gang squad were implicated in numerous crimes including planting evidence, framing suspects, unprovoked beatings, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and unprovoked shootings. What was even more shocking was that many of these officers were on the payroll of known Death Row Records CEO Suge Knights.
The Rampart investigation was based mostly on statements made by officer Rafael Perez, …show more content…

On September 26, 2000, Detective Poole filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and Chief Parks and resigned from the department stating that Chief Park shut down his efforts to fully investigate the extent of corruption within the department. Poole even specified conversations that he had with Chief Parks in which prevented him from investigating the criminal activities of David Mack and Kevin Gaines, that notably involved the murder of Christopher Wallace (A.K.A. Notorious …show more content…

The LAPD Board of Inquiry made 108 recommendations for changes in LAPD policies and procedures. The “Report of the Rampart Independent Panel”, published in November 2000, created by a panel of 190 community members, issued 72 findings and 86 recommendations. The elimination of the Rampart CRASH division is believed to have enabled the MS-13 gang to grow its power amongst the Rampart district. The rival 18th Street Gang also continued to thrive in Rampart as well and multiple movies such as Crash (2004), Cellular (2004), and Rampart (2011) were released that depicted the corruption that occurred. The city of Los Angeles faced more than 140 civil suits resulting from the Rampart scandal and paid total settlement costs of about $125 million dollars. Javier Ovando, a man who was shot and framed by corrupt Rampart officers Rafael Perez and Nino Durden, was awarded a $15 million settlement, the largest police misconduct settlement in Los Angeles history. On October 4, 2000, all of the Rampart CRASH unit were tried on charges of perjury, fabricating arrests and filing false police reports and all officers pleaded not guilty. On November 15, 2000, three of the officers were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and filing false police reports. However, the sentences

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