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Does this mean next time they arrest Mel they can just water-board the guy? |
Posted on 07/18/2009 3:22:53 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
LOS ANGELES-- The Los Angeles Police Department has been released from a long running decree after a federal judge decided the department had reformed significantly from prior corruption charges.
The city was forced into the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after the Rampart corruption scandal and brutality complaints.
The agreement, which aimed to improve the LAPD's policing standards, meant more than 100 reforms to the department, the tightening of internal checks on officers' conduct, improved training, increased oversight of the anti-gang unit at the center of the Rampart corruption scandal, and a ban on racial profiling.
The decree also required officers to submit to strict audits by an outside monitor who reported the results back to Judge Feess.
Under the new agreement, audits will still be conducted with the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD, taking over the monitor's duties of supervising reform improvement.
According to Judge Feess, the court will keep jurisdiction over the agreement, and if lawyers from the Department of Justice are unsatisfied with the commission's oversight, they are allowed to bring the department back before Feess.
The judge noted in his decision the LAPD's distinct turnaround from its "troubled" state following the Rampart gang-unit corruption scandal.
"In 2008, as noted by the Monitor," the judge stated, 'LAPD has become the national and international policing standard for activities that range from audits to handling of the mentally ill to many aspects of training to risk assessment of police officers and more.'
The American Civil Liberties Union, which argued for continuing the consent decree, criticized the decision.
"The department has made substantial progress under Chief Bratton, but there's still too much evidence that skin color makes a difference in who is stopped, questioned and arrested by the LAPD," remarked Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California.
The L.A. City Council agreed to the consent decree in November 2000 and it was expected to last five years then. The decree was extended to eight years in an effort to change the negative public image formed by the violent 1991 arrest of Rodney King and the 1992 citywide riot that ensued after the officers accused of beating King were acquitted.
Yeah, the cops are reformed, but crime is up. The people are worse off!
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Does this mean next time they arrest Mel they can just water-board the guy? |
What jail is rodney in now
I’m not good at movie references, because I hardly ever go to them. What was that one about?
LA Confidential. It was a 1997 movie about corruption in the LAPD in the 1950's. If you've never seen it, you ought to. It was really well made.
Okay, thanks.
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