officers - The Black Vault

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F0-35®-.(Rev. 5·8·81)
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,...--------------------~(M~o~u~nt~C~Ii~pp~in~:g~in~S~p~a=ce~Be=lo~w~)--------------------~ DAILY NEWS
Da~~: THURS • 1 :VJ.AR 21
1
1991
Ed1t1on: •
House panel
f hears testimony
t .
ron LA. Probes
! By David. Pru.:rish
~ Daily News Staff Writer
\
'. WASHINGTON - The Justice De­
,partment has investigated 720 com­
, plaints of police brutality in Los Angeles
since 1982 and prosecuted four officers,
Winning three convictions, federallaw­
:makers were told Wednesday.
•: Among the cases were 186 invoJving
'Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies
; and n· involving city police, according
r to testimony before .a House subcommittee
investigating police brutality in the
:aftermath of the Rodney Glen King
. beating on March 3.
· . The cases resulting in convictions in­
:V:olved one LAPD officer, a sheqff's depmtv
and a U.S. Border Patrol ~gent
Details of those cases·were not I .
released, but subcommittee
members criticized the Justice
Department for being too timid
in investigating and prosecuting
police brutality cases.
· "There is a crisis of confidence
in law enforcement in Los Angeles
and thro.)lghout the country,"
Rep. John Conyers, D-
. Mich., said in a prepared state­
. ment. "So far, the Justice
.·Department has yet to demonstrate
it is willing to take the ac­
. tion necessary to make people
feel safe from the police."
. Conyers' comments came as
the House Judiciary Committee's
subcommittee on civil and con­
·Stitutional rights began the first
of several hearings into the videotaped
beating of King, a black
motorist who had been stopped
· by Los Angeles police for speeding.
William M. Baker, assistant
director of the FBI, and John R.
Dunne, assistant attorney general
for civil rights, defended the federal
response in the King case. .•
"I am proud pf the record C?'
this division in investigating atlJ
prosecuting incidents of ·p~~z6
misconduct throughout the c
·tion," Dunne said. "HowJ .
the nature of the federal eJi 1
8
I.··
ment effort in this area 1 ..,t
not·be overstated. We art11 tQ
~·frontline troops in cornz c
'stances of police ab:use. ~'>~ea.)
Front Sect~on 1 Page 1
HOUSE PANEL HEARS
Tltle:TESTU10NY ON L.A. PROBES
Character:
or
Classification: 8 0-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
Indexing:
CIVIL RIGHTS
SEARCHED
JNDEXEO, ___ I
SERIAIJZED·:.:.:.:.-:_ fiLECI....._ ___ 1
MAR 2 6 1991
FBI -
LOS ANGELES j_
I /l rv"\
1
Dunne said local prosecutors prosecute because of the unrelia­
. and police inte.mal affairs inves- 'bjJity of witnesses ..
· tigators are better equipped to .Subcommittee. members cited"
deal with police aouse than feder- · t~timony at the hearing given by
al prosecutors.
]~aul Hoffman, ACLU of South­
"The federal enforcement pro-· ~rn California's legal director,
gram is more a backstop to these that police brutality problems 41
other resources," Dunne said. · the Los Angeles area have been
Conyers said the federal gov- ignored by local officials. .
emment should be more 'than a · Hoffman said the vicious beat­
"backstop"- particularly in Los ing King received at the hands of
Angeles. · police is a common occuiTence fu
Dunne said the department the Los Angeles area, especially
·would expand a nationwide re-. ,among black.and Hispanic peaview
of police brutality com-·: ·pie.
plaints to include civil lawsuits ···
"The Justice Department must
. and interviews with the Urban ·consider the ineffectiveness and
·League and other organizations. , secrecy of the internal LAPD in- .
concerned about police miscon- · : vestigations into police miscon- .
t duct. · ·duct, the failure to refer cases for
1 Attorney General Dick Thorn- :prosecution and the failure of the
· burgh agreed last week to review Los Angeles District Attorney~s
. an estimated 15,000 police bru- ·Office to impose criminal sanctality
complaints made to the tions on the police officers in­
' l!JStice Department over ~he past ]volved in bl'll:tality cases," Hoff­
.. SIX years. man said. . ., - "
'' . J?unne ~d that in 1990 th~ d~-' . ·~'The systems which are suP,-·
~on rece1ved 7,960 complamts·' · posed to guarantee the account-
, of civil rights cases, about half in~ · ability of police officers are funvo~ving
comJ?l~~ts of poij~ bru- tlamentally flawed and do noJ
·tahty; the dtvlSlon mvestigated operate as adequate safeguards
3,050 of the cases, and referred against police abuse," Hoffman
46 to grand juries for prosecu- .said. . · '
·tion. . · ·Conyers said a major purpose:
Bake~ ~d ~he FBI inv~stigated ~fthe hearing was, to get the 'Jus-;
· 4,803 cml nghts cases m fiscal tice Department more ·involved,
1990, down .from 5,156 in 1989 ·in l?rob_ing police brutality com<
.·and 5,506 !n 1988. Of,thos~, .l>lamts.; · .. j
·ab~ut half tp.volved.charges of · .~"We are reversing this pattemt
,police brutality, he said. ·Of lethargy by the FBI " Conyers!
Dunne and Baker wq- police said. "'n .. eed 'eat · · !
r , n-sy.n somez in;':this FBI/D~J}/
.bruta tty cases are. diffitult to ;are;t. ~ t_.(),.- . ttft:f51.11)..J~
1