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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the LAPD's controversial Special Order 40, which directs officers not to ask arrestees about their immigration status. The city of Los Angeles and the ACLU had asked the judge to dismiss the suit.

About 50 protesters marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to decry violence by illegal immigrants and to demand that the Los Angeles Police Department change its controversial policy limiting when someone can be questioned about their immigration status. The marchers, including anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen and local community activists, also called for justice for Jamiel Shaw II, 17, a black athlete who was shot and killed in March by an alleged gang member who was in the country illegally.

FORMER LAPD VETERAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND CHILD ANNOYANCE AFTER TAKING SEXUAL PICTURES OF YOUNG GIRLS AT 2007 STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL GARDEN GROVE – A former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) veteran was arrested and charged today with felony possession of child pornography and multiple counts of child annoyance following an extensive joint investigation by the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) and Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD). Ralph Cameron Lakin, 53, La Palma, was charged with one count of felony possession of child pornography involving Jane Doe #10, eight counts of misdemeanor child annoyance involving Jane Does #1...

Local Media was there, KTLA and FOX, so watch the news. Lots more pictures: http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm86/wendylajamielshaw/?albumview=slideshow This was very emotional event. The marker marking the spot where Jamiel Shaw was shot down is just three doors down from their family home. Attending was Terry Anderson, Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND, Sheriff Lee Baca and City Councilman Zine. Sheriff Lee Baca spoke briefly of the need for "intervention programs" to prevent young people such as Pedro Escobar from joining gangs. This was generally met with groans and eye rolls. City Councilman Zine spoke of his initiative to amend Special Order 40. He...

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs. The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order. "The kids were crazy, running from place to...

New York City police officers fire their weapons far less often than they did a decade ago, a statistic that has dropped along with the crime rate. But when they do fire, even at an armed suspect, there is often no one returning fire at the officers. Officers hit their targets roughly 34 percent of the time. When they fire at dogs, roughly 55 percent of shots hit home. Most of their targets are pit bulls, with a smattering of Rottweilers and German shepherds. Officers’ guns go off unintentionally or by accident for a variety of reasons: wrestling with suspects,...

LOS ANGELES — Rana Parker tells pudgy police they have the right to remain chubby, but it can and will be used against them on the streets of Los Angeles. The dietitian lays down the law for recruits, veterans and top brass, letting them know that eating right can help them do a better job and could even save their lives.

LOS ANGELES—When May Day protesters take to the streets downtown to call for immigration reform, police will be using new tactics and technology in hopes of overcoming the memory of last year's event. LAPD officers pummeled demonstrators and reporters with batons and opened fire with rubber bullets last May Day, rekindling accusations of excessive force that have dogged the LAPD for decades. Police brass have spent the past year trying to undo the damage done during those few minutes at MacArthur Park. Chief William Bratton promised things would be different Thursday and made a point of meeting with organizers beforehand....

The report to the city Police Commission is greeted with skepticism. 'This is not a racist department,' Chief Bratton says in defending the report. Los Angeles Police Department officials announced Tuesday that they investigated more than 300 complaints of racial profiling against officers last year and found that none had merit -- a conclusion that left members of the department's oversight commission incredulous. It is at least the sixth consecutive year that all allegations of racial profiling against LAPD officers have been dismissed, according to department documents reviewed by The Times. In 2007, the LAPD's Internal Affairs Group closed 320...

Their son's alleged killer, in the U.S. illegally, had been let out of jail onto streets.   The attack on the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Order 40 -- which limits when officers can ask about the citizenship status of suspects -- has come largely but not exclusively from anti-illegal-immigration forces. But now the order has a new and potentially potent foe: the family of Jamiel Shaw Jr., the Los Angeles High football star who was killed last month. Police have charged a gang member who was in the country illegally with Shaw's slaying. Jamiel Shaw Sr. and his wife,...

Article Last Updated: 03/29/2008 11:38:27 AM PDT A female police officer has been accepted into the Police Department's SWAT training program that could make her the first woman to join the elite group. Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 officers selected for spots in the department's 12-week training school, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, according to an internal department e-mail quoted in a published report. A confidential report made public earlier this month said a panel of law enforcement experts sought changes in SWAT testing to make the process more open to women. Police Chief William Bratton...

A young convict and alleged gang member had been released from jail a little more than a day before he shot and killed Los Angeles High School football star Jamiel Shaw Jr., LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday. On the same day mourners attended the 17-year-old's funeral in the Crenshaw district, authorities announced that the alleged gunman, Pedro Espinoza, 19, had been formally charged with Shaw's death. Espinoza, according to officials, is a member of the 18th Street gang and had spent nearly four months in a Los Angeles County jail for exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest before...

The release of former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson from prison has angered Jon Opsahl, whose mother was gunned down in a Carmichael bank by the SLA. Myrna Opsahl was shot to death in the lobby of a Carmichael bank during an April 21, 1975, SLA bank robbery. After serving six years in prison for his mother's death and for trying to bomb police cars, Olson is now free. She was released Monday from the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. "She's out of prison too soon by far," Jon Opsahl said Friday. "It's another in a series...

Nearly nine years after she was arrested and six years after she went to prison, Sara Jane Olson will once again call St. Paul home. Olson, who pleaded guilty to a failed plot to kill Los Angeles police officers and to her role in a deadly bank robbery, was released from the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla on Monday and is expected to arrive in the Twin Cities by today. A young man who answered the phone at the family home in St. Paul early Friday evening said the family would have no comment. Olson is scheduled to report...

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Walth wanted an adventure and something different, so he joined a group of International Police Advisors in Iraq to train Iraqi police officers on community policing. Training Iraqi police officers in a war zone is a job unlike any other mission he has taken and has significant differences from training deputies at the Lancaster Sheriff's Station. "As much training as we received before going over there, it's still an eye-opener when (an explosive attack) happens right in front of you," Walth said. Walth believes the challenges he encountered in Iraq will be useful to...

The LAPD's assault on SWAT Would you rather have an elite fighting force made up of the best cops, or of officers who 'look like L.A.'? By Robert C.J. Parry March 16, 2008 On a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2005, Jose Peña fueled himself with cocaine and grabbed a 9-millimeter pistol. Waving the gun at the head of his 19-month-old daughter, Suzie, he told the LAPD officers who arrived at the scene that he was Tony Montana -- the character played by Al Pacino in "Scarface" -- and that he was going to kill his daughter and himself....

When Los Angeles cops busted through Mae Phillips' front door last month looking for her grandson, they blew out the door jamb, ripped out casing and drywall, and left the shattered remains hanging by the hinges. But just as sometimes happens in the movies, the suspect wasn't there - and Phillips became the unwitting victim in a real-life police raid seeking members and associates of a Venice street gang. Enter LAPD's little-known "Wrong Doors Unit" - also known as Mark Jenkins. "Mistakes do happen now and then," said Jenkins, a civilian carpenter with the Los Angeles Police Department. "We're just...

LOS ANGELES - A jury awarded a man a $1.3 million verdict, saying deputies used excessive force when they peppered his sport utility vehicle with 66 bullets. Winston Hayes, 46, suffered nine bullet wounds when deputies fired 120 shots at him at the end of a low-speed pursuit on May 9, 2005. More than half the bullets hit Hayes' vehicle. "Justice was done," Hayes said after the verdict. "We do hope this verdict acts as a catalyst for building relationships between the Sheriff's Department and the community it serves," said Brian Dunn, Hayes' attorney. Lawyers for the county declined comment....

MORE THAN 100 YEARS AGO, Drew Street was a beautiful green spot named by pioneer Andrew Glassell after his son, Drew. For most of the 20th century, it was a tucked-away suburban enclave flanked by the Los Angeles River and Glendale's Forest Lawn cemetery. Then, starting in the 1960s, the city built apartments on its dead-end streets and avenues — and a bad element moved in, seeing the isolated little neighborhood as the perfect lair. Drew Street, with its long, straight rise, offered the perfect viewing base from which to espy approaching cop cars. It turned out to be just...

A gunman fired into a crowd of children and adults at a South Los Angeles bus stop Wednesday, wounding eight, authorities said. Three girls, ages 10 to 12, and a woman were in critical condition. The gunman ran away, and streets in the area were shut down as numerous police officers rushed in. Ezequiel Cornejo, 23, a tire mechanic, said he heard about 10 gunshots, probably from a handgun, just after neighborhood schools let out. "After that I saw a little girl running, she was running back to the school, she was holding her arm," he said. The shooting occurred...

Eight people, including five under the age of 15, were shot at a bus stop south of downtown Los Angeles this afternoon, officials said. Witnesses told police that a man opened fire multiple times into a crowd waiting for buses at Central and Vernon avenues shortly after 3 p.m. The gunman exited a bus and argued with someone on the street before firing his weapon, said LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith. "It appears he was shooting indiscriminately into the crowd at the bus stop. It was a busy area and it is not clear who he was shooting at, but he...

Thousands stranded, schools locked down as notorious group battles the LAPD after a drive-by killing. A drive-by attack followed by a wild shootout between gang members and police shut down dozens of blocks of Northeast Los Angeles for nearly six hours Thursday afternoon, stranding thousands of residents, keeping students locked in their classrooms and leaving two people dead. Veteran L.A. Police Department officials described the bizarre midday shootings -- and the widespread disruption they caused -- as highly unusual even in an area known for gang activity. It left the neighborhood littered with shell casings and its residents fearful. Police...

Los Angeles police shot and killed one man and wounded another after a wild incident in northeast Los Angeles that began when one of the suspects jumped out of a car stopped for a traffic violation and began firing on officers with an AK47 rifle, authorities said. Two suspects remain at large. One is believed to be barricaded inside an apartment building in a neighborhood now surrounded by police. A fourth suspect apparently fled the area in a vehicle, officials said. The incident began shortly after noon when officers attempted to make a traffic stop near Drew Street and Estara...

Hello All, I wanted to pass along some observations for people that weren't able to make it to Randy's funeral yesterday. I don't think I ever met Randy, but had heard of him from others following his death. I think like a lot of officers, we wanted to show up to pay our respects. I figured out some years ago that a lot of the funerals are really for the families, since we are really writing the last "chapter" of our officer's professional life, from the perspective of their family. I figured that if a lot officers show up, and...

LOS ANGELES - One veteran SWAT officer was killed and another wounded during a shootout with a man who called police and said he had killed three members of his family, police said Thursday. The standoff with the barricaded gunman continued at 5 a.m., first-assistant police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference. The standoff started at 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man called police and said he had killed three members of his family, McDonnell said. When the SWAT officers arrived, there was a shootout and the pair were shot.

LOS ANGELES, February 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An article published today in the LA Times gives new details about five abortion mills in southern California, owned by Bertha Bugarin, that were raided last summer by a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force (HALT).At the time of the raids Bertha Bugarin and her sister were arrested and then released on bail. They have now been charged with practicing medicine without a license on five patients in February and March 2007. The LAPD charges Bertha Bugarin "with five felony counts of practicing...

Pistol for police marketed to the public City leaders criticize the modified version of a gun originally made for an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department that has a history of fatal shootings. By Richard Winton Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 12, 2008 To the dismay of some city leaders, a gun company is marketing a line of high-end pistols named for the LAPD's Special Investigation Section, an elite group of plainclothes detectives with a history of fatally shooting suspects. The guns for the undercover unit were created at the request of the Los Angeles Police Department....

Since yesterday's post about Cardinal Mahony's claim that he was violently assaulted this summer is receiving a great deal of traction, I've decided to post an update. For starters, in today's world you can't simply mention to your priests "Oh, and by the way I was assaulted" and expect it to stay quiet. Indeed, LAPD detectives began investigating Mahony's report yesterday (the same day the story went public): LAPD detectives Tuesday began investigating reports that Cardinal Roger Mahony told hundreds of priests he was assaulted by a man angered over the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal, police said. Police found...

...after 30 years of the institutionalized intellectual vandalism of our city’s most precious and needy children, when will we call it DELIBERATE regularity? If LAUSD was a private company, it would have collapsed a generation ago like the stinking necrotic tumor it is. LAUSD is a criminal enterprise – a $30 billion dollar (allegedly $11B operations, $21B construction) protection racket that extorts tax dollars under the pretext of improvement and higher scores. It makes schools I’ve seen in Calcutta, Rio, and Nairobi look like Cal Tech and MIT. ....LAUSD makes us lament the good old days before Brown v. Board...

Department scraps heavily-criticized plan, but continues outreach efforts LOS ANGELES - A police plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling, has been shelved, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday. The LAPD planned to have its counterterrorism bureau identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism." Several Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized the plan and sent a letter to Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing expressing their concerns. ~~~ There are an estimated...

A police plan to map out Muslim communities that was sharply criticized and called racial and religious profiling by civil rights groups has been at least temporarily halted, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday. "There was a clear message from the Muslim community that they were not comfortable with it. So we listened," Mary Grady, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, told The Associated Press. Grady said the program hadn't been dropped, but rather had been indefinitely postponed. She couldn't immediately say when it might be resumed. Grady said the police initiative to strengthen ties with Muslim communities would go...

"Civil rights advocates criticized plans by the Los Angeles Police Department to map the city's Muslim communities, calling it racial profiling. The LAPD's counterterrorism bureau plans to identify Muslim enclaves in order to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism," said Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing on Thursday." "Downing testified about the plan before a U.S. Senate committee on Oct. 30. In his testimony, Downing said his bureau wanted to "take a deeper look at the history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status and social interactions" of the city's Muslim communities....

An extensive mapping program launched by the LAPD's anti-terrorism bureau to identify Muslim enclaves across the city sparked outrage Thursday from some Islamic groups and civil libertarians, who denounced the effort as an exercise in racial and religious profiling. Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who heads the bureau, defended the undertaking as a way to help Muslim communities avoid the influence of those who would radicalize Islamic residents and advocate "violent, ideologically-based extremism."

Officers will impound unlicensed drivers' cars under some conditions only, pending a legal assessment of a ruling in an Oregon case. The Los Angeles Police Department has imposed a moratorium on impounding the vehicles of unlicensed drivers amid concerns that the practice may be unconstitutional, officials said Tuesday. The decision touches on what has long been a hot-button issue, because many unlicensed drivers who have their cars towed are illegal immigrants who cannot get driver's licenses. Immigrant rights groups and some legislators for years LAPD officials said they decided to stop impounding until the city attorney's office provides a final...

LAPD is Taking Laws Into Its Own Hands The Police Department shouldn't be able to pick and choose the laws it wants to enforce. Los Angeles, CA -- When federal agents busted down doors raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles in July, Los Angeles Police Department officers were their comrades in arms. The department's assistance in the raids infuriated some City Council members, who chastised them Wednesday for cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Agency and for enforcing federal drug laws that are in conflict with California's medical marijuana law and the will of the public. They even threatened to...

A Lawndale man was arrested by Redondo Beach police Monday, accused of threatening the life of a family member and stabbing a police dog, authorities said. Jimmie Lunceford, 39, allegedly stabbed the dog, apparently in an effort to get officers to shoot him, said Lt. Joe Hoffman, a spokesman for the department. Lunceford was arrested on felony counts of making terrorist threats, inflicting injury on a police dog and attempted burglary, along with misdemeanor evading arrest. Lunceford was taken into custody about 5 a.m. after a short slow-speed chase that ended outside a woman's home on the 2200 block of...

Two Los Angeles police officers were killed Sunday morning in apparently unrelated traffic accidents about ten miles apart on the 101 Freeway, officials said. The first accident occurred around 3:30 a.m. in the Hollywood area when Detective George Selleh, 52, collided his motorcycle into a disabled car, California Highway Patrol Spokesman Alex Delgadillo said. Selleh, who was on his way to a movie set where he was providing security when the accident occurred, died at the scene Delgadillo said. At least 10 other drivers also swerved to miss the car and became involved in the accident, he said. The entire...

A key committee recommended Monday that the Los Angeles City Council add 44 counterterrorism officers to the LAPD, even as two council members warned the move could strain the department's ability to fully train and equip patrol officers. The council's Public Safety Committee voted 4-0 to fund the homeland security initiative, expected to cost $1.27 million this year, and pay for extensive surveillance activities. Councilman Dennis Zine, who voted for the initiative, voiced his dismay after learning that the Los Angeles Police Department would pay for the program using money originally earmarked for the purchase of 1,250 new Tasers. And...

Los Angeles police officer was arrested Saturday in South Los Angeles in connection with a sexual assault, police said today. Police said Officer Hector Villalta was arrested on July 7 after he allegedly sexually assaulted a female companion at his home after he and the woman returned from a nightclub in South Los Angeles. After the assault, the woman ran from the residence to a local gas station where she called police. Villalta was booked on suspicion of sexual assault. He was released on $100,000 bail the following day, police said. He is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles...

VAN NUYS - A 27-year-old Los Angeles police officer who worked at the Valley Traffic Division was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said this morning. Brian Lawrence Gossh was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on misdemeanor DUI charges and released, said LAPD Officer Karen Smith, a spokeswoman. He was arrested in Van Nuys after noon Sunday, police said. Details about the arrest were not immediately available. Police declined to say whether it was drugs or alcohol. A call placed to Gossh's West Hollywood home seeking comment was not immediately returned. In 2000, the Daily...

LOS ANGELES -- Decrying the police actions that marred a May 1 demonstration, thousands of immigrants and their advocates on Thursday marched peacefully down 10 blocks to a candlelight vigil at MacArthur Park in support of immigrant rights. Led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, the march began with community leaders calling for a probe into Los Angeles Police Department tactics at the earlier demonstration, now being called the May Day Melee. Several people, including seven journalists, were injured that day by officers in riot gear firing rubber bullets and wielding batons on crowds of...

The clash between LAPD officers and demonstrators at a May 1 immigration rally will likely result in multimillion-dollar legal judgments that will be a "waste" of taxpayer dollars, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said today. The mayor's comments came during an appearance on KNBC and nearly two weeks after a televised altercation showed police wielding batons and firing rubber bullets at protestors and journalists in MacArthur Park. As the LAPD and Police Commission investigate the melee, the city has asked participants and witnesses to come forward with information and any video or photos. Villaraigosa said evidence provided by bystanders will be a...

LOS ANGELES - The Police Department's violent response at the end of an immigrant demonstration is the latest incident highlighting what critics describe as the force's "warrior culture." It's an ethos that's been on display before — the use of clubs and tear gas to disperse 15,000 peaceful anti-war protesters in Century City in 1967, the Watts riots, the Rodney King beating in 1991, the harsh crackdown on demonstrators at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

It’s another fine, sunny day in Los Angeles, where being a cop means always having to say you’re sorry. I already mentioned the MacArthur Park May Day riot in my last installment. Since then, the mayor of Los Angeles, the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, with a little help from the LA Times, has stirred the pot. Mayor Villaraigosa made an appearance at an inner city Catholic church last Saturday (Cinco de Mayo, which is now a bigger deal in LA than Independence Day ever was) to promise “There will be consequences.” The LA Times chose to report this under a headline...

The first scapegoats in the May Day melee walk the plank. By Jack Dunphy On Friday, word circulated through the Los Angeles Police Department that a protest rally was being planned for the following day in MacArthur Park, the scene of last Tuesday’s May Day melee. A colleague asked me if I would be interested in adjusting my schedule and working crowd control at the rally. I declined. The rally turned out to be a spectacular dud, as it happened, attracting far more cops and reporters than protesters, but staying clear of it was nonetheless the wiser course. In fact,...

The highest-ranking offical at MacArthur Park immigration rally has been demoted from deputy-chief to commander, officals announced today, as the fallout continued over the clash between police and demonstrators

In a show of solidarity with families confronted by police during Tuesday's immigrant rally at MacArthur Park, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Cinco de Mayo audiences around Los Angeles on Saturday that action would be taken against officers found to have violated the law. The mayor stepped up to a downtown pulpit Saturday night and vowed, "There will be consequences.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Sunday offered his strongest apology yet for the actions of an elite platoon of Metropolitan Division officers who swarmed a May Day immigration rally in MacArthur Park, and said that those officers are off the streets until he finds out what went wrong. Saying he watched extensive videos of Tuesday's incident, which left several reporters and rally attendees injured by batons and rounds of foam bullets and sock-like projectiles, Bratton called the officers' conduct indefensible. "I feel comfortable apologizing…. Things were done that shouldn't have been done," Bratton told a group of...

LAPD Acts Against Elite Police Squad Los Angeles Police Chief Says Elite Officers In May Day Melee Off The Street, Will Face Consequences LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2007 This video image provided by KVEA/Telemundo shows KCAL cameraman Carl Stein on the ground during a police response during an immigrants rights rally, Tuesday May 1, 2007, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/KVEA/Telemundo) (AP) Police Chief William Bratton said Sunday that up to 60 members of an elite squad that swarmed into a park and fired rubber bullets during a May Day immigration rally are no longer on the street. Bratton said he spent...

The FBI will open a civil rights inquiry into the Los Angeles Police Department's actions at an immigration rally where officers cleared a city park by wielding batons and firing rubber bullets. The preliminary inquiry seeks to determine "whether the civil rights of protesters taking part in the May 1st immigration rally were violated," according to an FBI news release issued on Thursday. Police Chief William J Bratton had said earlier on Thursday that he planned to meet next week with the FBI to see whether a bureau probe of Tuesday's clashes at MacArthur Park was possible. "I have no...