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If you are not familiar with Devin Brown and his death, the facts are sad. A kid who everybody described as 'nice' went for a joyride at four in the morning on Sunday, and ended up being shot and killed by an LAPD officer. All the facts in the case are not known, and the investigation will probably take several months to complete. This case has captured so much attention that the FBI is now investigating what happened. I expect a wrongful death lawsuit to be filed against the city any day now, regardless of what the investigation finds. Even...

Around four in the morning last Sunday, an LAPD patrol car spotted a 1992 Toyota Camry being driven erratically on Century Blvd in Los Angeles. The officers tried to pull over the vehicle, but a chase ensued. This story is like so many that come out of LA every day. Angelenos love their car chases, and sadly enough, it has become a form of entertainent for the local news channels. The San Onofre nuke plant could be doing a Chernobyl, but if there is a car chase going on, all other news stops. After OJ, car chases have become as...

Like on KCAL 9 LAPD witnessed drive by shooting, pursuing suspect to Mission Viejo.....

LOS ANGELES - The city's police commission unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at discouraging officers from using flashlights as weapons, except in emergencies. The proposal comes months after a telvised beating by Officer John Hatfield showed him striking a motorist 11 times following a foot chase. The June 23 incident sparked widespread objection to the use of flashlights as weapons. "Officers don't mind being held accountable as long as they have a clear policy to follow, and that's what we're providing here," said Alan Skobin, vice president of the police commission. The proposed policy, to be considered Jan. 11, stops...

A young San Bernardino couple is going public with questions about supermodel Gisele Bundchen's "no questions asked" $5000.00 reward offer, which remains unpaid more than two weeks after the couple returned Bundchen's dog only to be arrested at gunpoint, handcuffed and held in custody. Although cleared by the police, the couple has no explanation from Bundchen of why they were treated like criminals and denied the reward. Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) December 10, 2004 -- Supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s “no questions asked” $5000.00 reward offer for her lost dog just before Thanksgiving, may have gotten her dog back, but, according to the...

Group Accused Of Stealing Drugs, Cash, Guns LOS ANGELES -- A second former Los Angeles Police Department officer has admitted he was among a group of rogue cops who committed invasion-style robberies across Southern California staged to look like police raids, it was reported Thursday. Jesse Moya, 27, has agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge for his role in the criminal organization, which has been accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs, cash, guns and other items over about four years starting in 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing court documents. The onetime...

LAPD's Homeland Security Chief Gives Up His Guns After Baggage Screeners Find Unlicensed Weapon The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - The head of the police department's counterterrorism bureau has turned in the unlicensed handgun that airport screeners found in his carryon luggage last month. "He did it voluntarily," Sgt. Catherine Plows, a police spokeswoman, said Friday. "He just thought there was a lot of unnecessary press about it when there didn't need to be." The police department had issued John Miller the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson, but it was never registered because of a paperwork glitch, officials said. Miller,...

LOS ANGELES -- Major motion picture studios on Thursday sued a suspended Los Angeles police captain for alleged copyright infringement in her scheme selling pirated and counterfeit DVDs. Capt. Julie D. Nelson, 52, was arrested in December after police found hundreds of bootleg movie DVDs in her car, her home and a friend's apartment. Nelson, who pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges, was sentenced last month to three years probation, 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles by Columbia Pictures, Disney, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Miramax, Paramount Pictures,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federally appointed monitor overseeing reforms at the Police Department said a suspected car thief who was struck repeatedly with a flashlight during a videotaped arrest was complying with officers' orders. Although the monitor said he is "pleased with improvements" the department has made since a major corruption scandal the beating of Stanley Miller was deemed "questionable." The June 23 incident "came as no surprise to anyone in the criminal justice system," Michael Cherkasky wrote. "The incident immediately conjured up images of Rodney King and reignited the emotions that had surrounded that incident a decade ago,"...

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday that he would prohibit officers from carrying large metal flashlights of the type used by an LAPD patrolman to club car theft suspect Stanley Miller — a beating that was captured on videotape and broadcast internationally. Bratton told members of the Los Angeles Police Commission that he would soon require officers to carry smaller, rubber flashlights. John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League and the chairman of a special committee investigating the Miller incident, described Bratton's announcement as a "positive step in the right direction.” Ramona Ripston, executive director...

L.A. Lays the Groundwork for Another Riot by Patrick Rooney 12 July 2004 The car chase and subsequent arrest of Stanley Miller is drawing comparisons to the Rodney King incident, and Al Sharpton is on the scene. Thirteen years ago, convicted criminal Rodney King led law enforcement on a chase at speeds estimated at up to 110 to 115 mph. When finally stopped, the hulking King looked to be high as a kite, refused requests to get into the prone position and appeared to lunge at one of the officers. After repeated Taser blasts had no serious affect, he was...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles city leaders scrambled on Friday to defuse tension over another videotaped police beating, pledging a thorough investigation, meeting community activists and declining to file car theft charges against the black victim. Several dozen protesters rallied in downtown Los Angeles, demanding justice and holding placards saying "How Many More Beatings?" They waved long metal flashlights like the one used by a police officer to strike a black motorist after he had been wrestled to the ground. The incident, which drew immediate comparisons to the 1991 Rodney King beating, was captured by TV news helicopters at...

LOS ANGELES — A police officer who helped arrest a black man suspected of driving a stolen car was captured on video repeatedly hitting him with a flashlight after it appeared the man had surrendered. The incident was under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department (search), the FBI and the Los Angeles County district attorney. It came a week after the LAPD said it had made reforms mandated by a federal consent decree in what the Justice Department called a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations. TV news footage shot from a helicopter showed the car chase end...

LOS ANGELES - A suspect in a Palmdale murder was arrested in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, sheriff's officials said. Roy Montes, 26, a parolee and alleged gang member who received a monetary settlement from the city of Los Angeles as part of the Rampart scandal, is suspected of killing Travis McMillon, 58, on May 15 in the garage of an apartment unit, Homicide Detective Richard Ramirez said. Montes and McMillon were visitors at the apartment unit in the 38700 block of 10th Street East in the early morning hours of May 15, according to witnesses. Approximately half a dozen...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles police officer was videotaped on Wednesday repeatedly hitting a motorist with a flashlight, apparently after the man surrendered, in what one civil rights activist compared to the 1991 videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King. Videotape shot by a television news helicopter showed the officer striking the suspected car thief 11 times with a metal flashlight after tackling him at the end of a car chase early on Wednesday morning in the city of Compton. The footage, which aired on several local news channels, showed the man getting out of a car at the...

LOS ANGELES — Police today chased a man suspected of driving a stolen car and arrested him in Compton, and news footage showed an LAPD officer hitting him repeatedly with a flashlight after he appeared to surrender The chase began shortly after 5 a.m. in an area patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Station, said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante of the Media Relations office. The man's name was not immediately released, and it was unclear if he was injured. Patrolling LAPD officers saw a white Toyota Camry that was reported stolen from Compton, Escalante said, adding that the...

LOS ANGELES - The sight of two life-sized mannequins toting machine guns and wearing bloodstained body armor has brought gasps from kids and tears from tough cops. The figures at the Los Angeles Police Department Museum depict the two heavily armed bank robbers who fired thousands of shots before being killed by officers during a North Hollywood shootout in 1997. The televised gun battle was a historic event for the LAPD, which soon began issuing automatic weapons to officers to keep them from being outgunned. It quickly joined the list of other sensational LAPD cases that have captured the attention...

LA police to begin limiting burglar alarm response Wednesday December 31, 2003 LOS ANGELES (AP) Police are to implement a new policy Thursday requiring that burglar alarms be verified before police respond if the home or business has already had at least two false alarms in a year. The plan by Mayor James Hahn also lets the city require customers buy $31 alarm permits and charge for responding to false alarms, starting at $95. The changes approved by the police commission in July was less drastic than a plan advanced a year ago, which would have ended police response...

<p>DECEMBER 9--A confidential investigation by Los Angeles police and child welfare officials concluded earlier this year that allegations Michael Jackson sexually abused a cancer-stricken boy were "unfounded," according to an internal government memo obtained by The Smoking Gun.</p> <p>The probe's findings were based, in large part, on interviews with the alleged victim, his two siblings, and the boy's mother. According to the memo, when the child was questioned in February by a social worker assigned to the Sensitive Case Unit of L.A.'s Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS), he "denied any form of sexual abuse" by Jackson and said that he never "slept in the same bed as the entertainer." While not specifically named in the DCFS memo, the 45-year-old Jackson is referred to repeatedly as "the entertainer."</p>

Hollywood is buzzing over "investigator-to-the-stars" private eye Anthony Pellicano, who copped a plea earlier this year after the FBI caught him with a draw full of hand grenades and, in the words of one agent, enough plastique explosive to "take out a 747." But Left Coast celebs may not be the only folks currently losing sleep over Pellicano - especially since news broke late last week that he had the habit of illegally wiretapping the targets of his investigations. Besides causing trouble for headliners like Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Kevin Costner and dozens of other stars, Pellicano's tapes could...