Saturday, November 04, 2000

Inbox
In The News

LAPD to be Policed
"Outside Supervision of LAPD Approved" -- AP (via YahooNews!)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001103/us/lapd_consent_decree_2.html
"Defense in Los Angeles police corruption trial to finish Friday" -- CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/03/lapd.trial/index.html
"One Bad Cop" -- New York Times Magazine [free registration required]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20001001mag-lapd.html
"Rampart Area Corruption Incident" -- LAPD Board of Inquiry [.pdf, 362p.]
http://www.lapdonline.org/pdf_files/pc/boi_pub.pdf
"An Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal"
http://www.usc.edu/dept/law/faculty/chemerinsky/rampart_finalrep.html
LAPD Homepage
http://www.lapdonline.org/index.htm
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/
"Cochran takes case of actor killed by officer" -- Mercury News
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/costume01.htm
Yesterday, the mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan, reluctantly agreed to allow an outside monitor to oversee the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for the
next five years rather than face the federal civil rights lawsuit threatened by the Department of Justice (DoJ). The consent decree is the latest development in what has
come to be known as "the Rampart scandal," a corruption scandal that came to light last September when officer Rafael Perez gave testimony against the police as part
of a plea bargain. Since then, more than 100 criminal convictions have been overturned, thousands more are still being looked at, and over 70 police officers are being
investigated. The first corruption trial against four LAPD officers may draw to a close as early as next week, and meanwhile, some have raised new criticism against
the department after the recent fatal shooting of actor Anthony Lee at a Halloween party.

AP (via YahooNews!) and CNN cover the latest news, with the former reporting on yesterday's agreement between the city and the Justice Department and the latter
reviewing the progress of the trial of the four officers charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and false arrest. The New York Times Magazine's lengthy article
from last month, "One Bad Cop," gives the background on the Rampart scandal and Rafael Perez's career and testimony. On March 1, the LAPD Board of Inquiry
(BOI) released the results of its investigation, "Rampart Area Corruption Incident." The report determines that "the Rampart corruption incident occurred because a
few individuals decided to engage in blatant misconduct and, in some cases, criminal behavior." Nonetheless, the BOI recommended 108 changes to departmental
policy and procedure (see the March 10, 2000 Scout Report for a full description of the report). In turn, the Police Protective League commissioned an analysis of the
BOI report in which University of Southern California law professor Erwin Chemerinsky argues that the BOI minimizes the issues it was tasked to address and "fails
to recognize that the central problem is the culture of the Los Angeles Police Department." The LAPD and the DoJ Websites offer extensive coverage of their
activities above and beyond the Rampart scandal. Finally, the Mercury News reports that Johnnie Cochran is representing Anthony Lee's family in their case against
the LAPD. [TK]
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