Free Republic

The Los Angeles Police Department received criticism from Democratic lawmakers and the Black Lives Matter group, who argued that officers who used batons against a crowd outside Mayor Eric Garcetti’s home used excessive force and infringed on protesters' First Amendment rights.

FBI special agents arrested Andrew Rene Hernandez, 22, on a complaint charging him with one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft... [P]olice officers responding to a burglary call at a Hollywood pharmacy on Sept. 18 requested air support. The police helicopter was approaching the pharmacy when the pilot saw the drone and unsuccessfully attempted to evade it. The helicopter’s nose, antenna and bottom cowlings were damaged. The complaint states that if the drone had struck the main rotor it could have brought down the helicopter. The drone’s camera and memory card led to identification of Hernandez as the...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's (D) has come under fire for allegedly turning a blind eye to one of his top aide's sexual misconduct and harassment. Rick Jacobs, the mayor's deputy chief of staff, has been accused sexual assault and harassment. LAPD officer Matthew Garza, who has been on the force for 23 years and served on Garcetti's security detail, filed a lawsuit against the city earlier this week, accusing Jacobs of harassment. He said "Garcetti had witnessed the assault and harassment and did nothing to stop it, nor hold Jacobs accountable," Yashar Ali reported.According to Ali, he had personal experience...

Protesters visited the home of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore and plastered it with anti-police posters Thursday night, according to reports. Journalist Samuel Braslow of the Beverly Hills Courier accompanied the protesters as they entered the gated community in which Moore lives, capturing footage of the protest. The video, posted to Twitter, does not show how the group entered the gated community. The group supposedly claimed that it was going to protest at District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s home, ABC News reported.

Judicial Watch Issues Statement on Appeals Court Decision Blocking Hillary Clinton Testimony Today I made the following statement about the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding the request of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s and her former Chief of Staff, Chery Mills to avoid testifying under oath about Clinton’s emails. The court granted Clinton’s request to avoid testimony but denied Mills’. Today’s extraordinary Appeals Court decision protecting Hillary Clinton from having to obey a court order requiring her to testify about her emails is contrary to longstanding precedent and undermines...

A councilor for Los Angeles who voted to slash $150 million from the annual budget of the LAPD has called the police to his house eight times since April, it has been claimed. Mike Bonin, 53, was among 11 councilors who agreed in June to reduce the annual budget, in the wake of calls to defund police forces across the country following the May 25 death of George Floyd. On Friday night Bonin was accused of having called the cops to his LA home eight times since April, including requesting protection from protesters.

A Los Angeles Police Department officer was shot by a fellow officer in Hollywood Wednesday afternoon while responding to a suicidal man who was allegedly armed with scissors, Chief Michel Moore said. The incident began about 2 p.m. in a residence along the 1110 block of Wilton Place when police responded to a call about a man threatening suicide with kitchen scissors. The 33-year-old man had a Rottweiler dog with him when officers arrived, and his wife, mother-in-law and three small children were inside the home, Moore said. During an encounter, a female officer was struck by gunfire in the...

       LOS ANGELES – A Sylmar man was charged today in a federal grand jury indictment alleging that he deliberately set Hollywood’s Pizzeria Mozza restaurant on fire during the civil disturbances that struck the city in late May.          Mario Ernesto Alvarado, 42, is charged with one count of arson. His arraignment is scheduled for August 10 in United States District Court. Alvarado was arrested on a federal criminal complaint in this case on July 16. He is free on $25,000 bond.          During the civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles on May 30, Alvarado allegedly walked into a commercial...

Three people were taken into custody and two were cited Saturday afternoon outside the Windsor Square home of Mayor Eric Garcetti, where hundreds of protesters converged to demand the mayor cancel rents, according to an LAPD spokesman.

At the beginning of the year, it looked like Jeremy Miller and his 9-year-old daughter were finally going to have a home of their own. They’d been homeless and relying on family, shelters and motels for housing. But he’d found stable work in the Kern County oil fields and had enough money for an $875-a-month, two-bedroom rental in Bakersfield. They moved into the apartment in March, and Miller lost his job within days. The pandemic caused a worldwide drop in demand for oil, triggering mass layoffs in the oil patch. Miller tried to find other work through a temp agency,...

SILVER LAKE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A tribute was held Sunday for Mely Corado, a Trader Joe's assistant manager who was killed in the crossfire of a police shootout in Silver Lake two years ago. Corado's family led a march from the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast station to the Trader Joe's where the gunfight took place. Corado, 27, was struck by a police officer's bullet in the shootout on July 21, 2018. "This is a march is to keep the memory of Mely alive, to bring justice for Mely," said Albert Corado, Mely's father. "All we want is for...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was driving around her Los Angeles district when she noticed police detaining a black man – so she stopped to keep them in check, according to a report. “They stopped a brother, so I stopped to see what they were doing,” Waters, 81, tells a person who recorded the Friday incident on South Vermont Avenue, TMZ reported. “They said I’m in the wrong place and that they’re going to give me a ticket,” she adds about the LA County sheriff’s deputies. “That’s OK as long as I watch them.” A woman is then heard saying: “Gotta...

n LAPD ‘top shot’ who had become somewhat of a social media darling is facing a lawsuit after she fatally shot a man who appeared to advance towards her with a knife. Toni McBride, 23, shot and killed Daniel Hernandez, 38 on April 22. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of Hernandez’s 14-year-old daughter, claiming that McBride had “reckless, violent and homicidal propensities,” the Daily Mail reported.

A 23-year-old Los Angeles police officer known as 'top shot' is being sued by the heartbroken 14-year-old daughter of a man she killed, after he appeared to lunge at the cop with a box cutter. Toni McBride, an officer in LAPD's Newton Division who has appeared in magazines and practices at gun ranges alongside Hollywood stars including Keanu Reeves, is being sued after bodycam footage showing her shooting Daniel Hernandez, 38, in downtown Los Angeles in April was released. The footage shows that after instructing him to drop a box cutter he was holding, Hernandez appeared to continue to walk...

The Los Angeles Teachers Union says its schools can’t open in the fall unless charter schools are closed and the police are defunded.These are the Marxist loons teaching your kids. Oh, and they want more money.83% of teachers voted to not reopen in the fall.But they still expect to get paid.Just the News reported: United Teachers Los Angeles, a 35,000-strong union in the Los Angeles Unified School District, made those demands in a policy paper it released this week. The organization called on local authorities to “keep school campuses closed when the semester begins on Aug. 18.”The union outlined numerous major provisions it says...

LOS ANGELES - Three Los Angeles police officers have been charged with falsifying records reporting that people they stopped were gang members or associates, prosecutors said Friday. The members of the Police Department’s Metropolitan Division were charged Thursday in a 59-count complaint alleging one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and multiple counts of filing a false police report and preparing false documentary evidence. The officers were identified as Braxton Shaw, 37; Michael Coblentz, 42, and Nicolas Martinez, 36. Directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, said it expects the department “to investigate...

An unsigned letter circulated among the Los Angeles Police Department rank and file last week, encouraging officers to call in sick to protect their own interests. It had been been a month of upheaval for police, with unprecedented protests over police killings of Black people and the Los Angeles City Council agreeing to cut the LAPD’s budget by $150 million amid calls for sweeping reforms. LAPD commanders are investigating whether an unusual spike in officers calling in sick over the July 4 weekend was the result of an orchestrated protest or labor action, which would be illegal. Sources in the...

Video at link.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) urged residents Thursday to continue following the social distancing guidelines ahead of Independence Day to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the police department in Los Angeles posted a photo of a crowded protest taking place in the city. What the mayor said: Garcetti praised the coronavirus measures the city introduced at the beginning of the pandemic and called on residents to avoid large gatherings and wear face coverings in public places or places where they cannot keep a recommended distance this July 4th because “COVID-19 has taken control.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti said that Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who felt demoralized by recent protests and budget cuts should take heart and “remember why they became police officers.” Garcetti was speaking after numerous reports of “record low” morale in the LAPD, after the Black Lives Matter riots led the mayor to announce $150 million in cuts to the department, which became official on Monday. Garcetti is also feuding with the local police union, which took offense last month when the mayor referred to police (in general) as “killers.” LAPD officers also learned that they would to be paid...