Free Republic

It was 20 years ago today when O.J. Simpson climbed in the back of his white Ford Bronco and took us all for a ride. On June 17, 1994, you, me and 95 million of our closest friends turned our heads away from the opening night of the City Stages music festival in Birmingham, Game 5 of the NBA Finals or whatever else we were doing to watch live as the Hall of Fame running back - one of the most beloved athletes of his generation - sat in the back of a white Ford Bronco with a gun to...

Multiple videos have been posted online showing what uploaders described as hockey fans destroying a Los Angeles Police Department drone outside the Staples Center Friday night after the LA Kings won the NHL's Stanley Cup. Riot police were called in to break up what the LA Times described as a "melee" outside the arena following the King's victory over the New York Rangers. In one clip posted online, a drone can be seen hovering over the crowd of hockey fans before it was knocked out of the sky by people throwing shoes and clothing:

Los Angeles police officers tampered with voice recording equipment in dozens of patrol cars in an effort to avoid being monitored while on duty, according to records and interviews. An inspection by Los Angeles Police Department investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division were missing antennas, which help capture what officers say in the field. The antennas in at least 10 more cars in nearby divisions had also been removed. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and other top officials learned of the problem last summer but chose not to investigate which officers were...

The LAPD Now Has a Lamborghini Cop Car, Because Charity Los Angeles is a town of dreams, of wonder, of authenticity, heart, and soul. Oh wait. No. It is none of those things. Which is why instead of getting a Morgan Three Wheeler like my constant letters have suggested, they went out and got a Lamborghini Gallardo. Figures. Just like Dubai. In all fairness, the LAPD Lamborghini isn't actually part of the force to show off, or just to keep up with the Emirati Joneses with their ridiculous Bugatti Veyron cop car, but was rather donated to them by a...

27-year-old pharmacist Kim Nguyen was hospitalized for two weeks, had her jaw wired shut, and lost several teeth after a security camera captured her tumbling from a moving LAPD squad car. Around 2 a.m., Nguyen and two male friends were standing outside of a downtown restaurant. The three had been drinking and were waiting for a cab when, according to Nguyen and her companions, two nearby officers abducted Nguyen without apparent cause, driving away and leaving her male friends behind. In a videotaped statement, Nguyen says that an officer then got in the back of the car with her and began molesting...

A Metro passenger used his cell phone's video camera to capture a confrontation between a woman and two LA County sheriff's deputies on a bus in Bellflower.

sculpture in honor of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Detective Jeremiah MacKay, who was slain by former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, will be revealed in Lake Arrowhead Sunday, Sept. 1. A resident of Lake Arrowhead, MacKay died February 12. He left behind a wife and two young children. Part-time resident and sculptor Khachik Khachatouryan decided to create something that would honor MacKay after meeting several sheriff deputies at a party in April. ... Khachatouryan said he didn’t want to make a sculpture just about a law enforcement officer, but also of a person, father, husband and hero. ... The bronze sculpture shows...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Afternoon traffic delays can be expected Tuesday when President Barack Obama makes a brief visit to Los Angeles to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. The president is scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 3:25 p.m. and will be in Burbank for the show’s 4:30 p.m. taping, according to the White House. Motorists should expect a number of street closures and congestion to accommodate the president’s motorcade, although President Obama will likely be taken to Burbank by helicopter from LAX. Although routes or security operations surrounding presidential visits are never officially...

LAPD is testing a program in several of their divisions that predicts where crime may likely to occur. Headed by Predictive Policing company known as PredPol (a team of mathmaticians & social scientists) LAPD reports a 13% crime down during the 4 months it was rolled out compared to an increase 0.4% in the rest of the city where the rollout had not happened. But, its still not 100 percent effective. So a big concern is who's paying for this experiment and what rights will be violated in the future to seek deeper information so law enforcement can predict.

Authorities released new video Wednesday showing an at-large shooter believed to have ambushed two detectives at a Los Angeles Police Department station earlier this week. Clad in dark-colored clothes, a man is seen on the video (embedded below) quickly walking past cameras set up near the Wilshire Community Police Station about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Video Linky Here

Times reporter Ruben Vives is reporting live in South Los Angeles, where protesters are taking to the streets around Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards to oppose the not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin. Earlier, dozens of protesters gathered in Leimert Park for a vigil in support of Martin. Following the vigil, marchers moved along Crenshaw Boulevard chanting "No justice, No Peace." Police estimated that 80 to 150 people began engaging in lawless activity along Crenshaw as they jumped on top of vehicles and appeared to assault bystanders. Some protesters stormed a...

Matt Pearce @mattdpearce Trayvon Martin demonstrators are marching on the FREEWAY in LA. pic.twitter.com/GB8oJBp2sS

The Michael Hastings Car Crash: No Skids Marks, A Flying Engine And “Boston Brakes” In cases such as the highly suspicious and tragic car crash/explosion that killed celebrated investigative journalist Michael Hastings, I try to reserve commentary for a little bit to let facts emerge following the initial speculative flurry. Particularly when it involves a journalist with whom I am only slightly familiar. I think we can all agree at this point that based on what has come forward in the past several weeks it is more than likely Mr. Hastings was murdered.

The findings, which are expected to be made public this month at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting, concluded that Dorner had a history of embellishing stories, misperceiving slights and making bogus complaints against his fellow officers, Rice said. He took more than twice as long as most officers to complete his training, was nearly incomprehensible during the hearing over his firing, and only filed a complaint against his training officer when he learned she gave him a bad performance review, Rice said.

In 2010 the LAPD completed an investigation into alleged gun purchases made by SWAT team members for the purposes of reselling the guns at a profit. Now the FBI has been called in to determine if any laws were violated. The investigation will attempt to determine why the LAPD's SWAT team, which has around 60 members, purchased over 300 specialized handguns from Kimber Manufacturing. The LAPD has a longstanding agreement with Kimber which allows the company to brand weapons with LAPD insignia and market them as "identical to" the ones used by LAPD's SWAT team. On the open market these...

Circa 1960 - LAPD Robbery Squad officers dressed as women “as part of an operation to catch a purse snatcher who murdered an elderly woman while she was on her way to church.”

Show us the data. That’s the message behind a joint lawsuit seeking to force the Los Angeles law enforcement authorities to release a massive trove of information collected by ubiquitous cameras that read license plates and can thus track the movements of millions of motorists not suspected of any crime. The cameras, called automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), are on fixed locations, including stop lights, street signs and in squad cars. Each camera can record as many as 1,800 plates per minute, and more than 160 million "data points" have been collected in Los Angeles County, according to one report....

<p>Two women whose truck was riddled with bullets fired by Los Angeles police officers in a case of mistaken identity during the pursuit of fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner will a receive $40,000 cash settlement to replace their vehicle.</p> <p>At a news conference Thursday afternoon, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich announced the deal reached between city officials and the women's attorney, Glen Jonas. Officials stressed that this deal was to compensate the women for the loss of the truck and is separate from any discussions regarding potential litigation involving the LAPD shooting incident in Torrance.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city has agreed to give $40,000 to two women whose pickup was shot up by LAPD protection detail that mistook their vehicle for the truck driven by rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner during his rampage, officials announced Thursday.</p>