CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS CHECK IN CALLS FOR REVIEW OF LAPD GROW LOUDER.Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services A coalition of 49 civil rights groups added its voice Saturday to a chorus of people calling for an independent review of the widening Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . corruption scandal.
Coalition supporters including state Sen. Tom Hayden Thomas Emmett "Tom" Hayden (born December 11, 1939) is an American social and political activist and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. , D-Los Angeles, and representatives of Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of and the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. insisted at a downtown news conference that the police department cannot police itself. ``By now it should be painfully clear to any impartial observer that nothing less than a truly independent investigation of the ever-deepening LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. corruption and brutality scandal can ever hope to uncover the full truth,'' said James Lafferty James Martin Lafferty (born July 25, 1985 in Hemet, California) is an American actor. He stars as Nathan Scott on the CW’s prime time teen drama One Tree Hill. Biography Lafferty was born on July 25, 1985 in Hemet, California. , executive director of the National Lawyers Guild in Los Angeles, an activist group that's part of the coalition. ``Trusting the LAPD to police itself is like trusting the fox to guard the henhouse,'' said Daniel P. Tokaji, an attorney with the Southern California branch of the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. . Mayor Richard Riordan and a number of City Council members have opposed an independent review but have supported the Los Angeles Police Commission's probe of the scandal, which will include a series of public hearings beginning March 14. On Tuesday, the Police Commission is scheduled to receive a proposal to hire anywhere from 25 to 50 people to investigate the matter and help the commission members develop a comprehensive review. On Saturday, the coalition of civil rights groups called the news conference in front of police headquarters in response to an internal police report on the Rampart scandal released Wednesday. The report was brutally critical of mediocrity and lax oversight in the department but did not call for outside review. The scandal, which came to light last fall, has centered on allegations by former Officer Rafael Perez that officers in an anti-gang unit operating in the poor, mostly Latino Rampart neighborhood beat, framed and even shot suspects. The revelations have led to 40 convictions being overturned and 20 officers being relieved of duty. Police Chief Bernard C. Parks Bernard Parks (born December 7, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas) is a member of the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 8th District in South Los Angeles and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Parks attended Los Angeles City College, received his B.S. has insisted no outside investigation is necessary, pledging to implement the 108 recommendations in the 362-page Board of Inquiry report. Mayor Richard Riordan has backed Parks up, and so have the majority of members of the City Council. But watchdog groups, civil rights attorneys, minority activists and others have been calling for an outside review. They say Parks' promises ring hollow, especially given that the recommendations of the Christopher Commission convened after the 1991 Rodney King beating were never fully implemented, allowing a new scandal to arise. Supporters of the Los Angeles Police Commission's probe also cite the Christopher Commission which gave the Police Commission increased authority to investigate and reform the LAPD. But civil rights coalition members called Saturday for a strong, independent group with subpoena subpoena (səpē`nə) [Lat.,=under penalty], in law, an order to a witness to appear before a court. A subpoena ad testificandum [Lat. power and the ability to recommend the filing of criminal charges. Speakers were also critical of Parks' announcement Friday he would abolish the police department's anti-gang CRASH units like the one at the center of the Rampart scandal. CRASH stands for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known as CRASH, was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department established in the early 1970s to combat the rising problem of gangs in Los Angeles, California. . Lafferty dismissed the move as tinkering and ``a transparent effort to divert calls for an independent examination'' of the Police Department. |
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