11082: Stupid Joke Or Racist Joke?

From The Los Angeles Times…

L.A. County sheriff’s officials investigate ‘stupid joke’

A deputy from the agency’s jailhouse intelligence unit allegedly sent an email containing the words ‘Black Panther LASD’ that singled out two African American colleagues, department spokesman says.

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials launched an investigation Friday into a “stupid joke” a deputy from the agency’s jailhouse intelligence unit allegedly played on two black colleagues, a department spokesman said.

The deputy sent an email to the rest of his unit — including his boss — singling out the two black deputies, the spokesman confirmed. “Due to the recent tension between the black and Hispanics, I implemented a new unit,” Deputy Mickey Manzo, who is not black, allegedly wrote. “Please give them your full support.”

Apparently attached to the email was a document depicting a Black Power fist in between the words “BLACK PANTHER LASD.” At the bottom of the document is a slogan for the fictitious new unit, “PUTTING IT DOWN AND KEEPING IT REAL,” and the names of the two black deputies.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department received notice of the 2009 email in January. He said a departmental review panel looked at it and recommended a low-level probe. But after a call from The Times on Friday, he said it was decided the agency would conduct a formal internal affairs investigation.

“The sheriff is disturbed by this,” Whitmore said.

Whitmore said the email appeared to clash with Sheriff Lee Baca’s oft-repeated “Core Values” — a department mission statement that promotes fighting against racism, sexism and other types of bigotry.

The email was sent out within the Operation Safe Jails unit, a team of deputies who try to develop inmate informants inside the county jail system.

The unit has been under fire in recent months. Federal authorities are looking into whether its members purposely hid an inmate working for the FBI from federal agents investigating the jails.

The unit’s former boss — Lt. Gregory Thompson — was also accused of interfering with an investigation of a jailer suspected of working as an operative for drug-smuggling skinhead gangsters.

Whitmore said that everyone who received the email — nine deputies in all — had a responsibility to report it, particularly the unit’s former supervisor, Thompson.

Called by The Times, Manzo and the two black deputies named in the email all declined to comment.

8580: Happy Anniversary, Rodney King Beating.

From The Los Angeles Times…

Twenty years after the beating of Rodney King, the LAPD is a changed operation

In the wake of the videotaped police attack on motorist Rodney King, the department has learned to embrace video scrutiny.

By Joel Rubin, Andrew Blankstein and Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times

It was shortly after midnight, 20 years ago Thursday, when George Holliday awoke to the sounds of police sirens outside his Lake View Terrace apartment. Grabbing his clunky Sony Handycam, he stepped out on his balcony and changed the Los Angeles Police Department forever.

The nine minutes of grainy video footage he captured of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King helped to spur dramatic reforms in a department that many felt operated with impunity. The video played a central role in the criminal trial of four officers, whose not-guilty verdicts in 1992 triggered days of rioting in Los Angeles in which more than 50 people died.

The simple existence of the video was something unusual in itself. Relatively few people then had video cameras, Holliday did — and had the wherewithal to turn it on.

“It was just coincidence,” Holliday reflected in an interview a decade ago. “Or luck.”

Today, things are far different and the tape that so tainted the LAPD has a clear legacy in how officers think about their jobs. Police now work in a YouTube world in which cellphones double as cameras, news helicopters transmit close-up footage of unfolding police pursuits, and surveillance cameras capture arrests or shootings. Police officials are increasingly recording their officers. Compared to the cops who beat King, officers these days hit the streets with a new reality ingrained in their minds: Someone is always watching.

“Early on in their training, I always tell them, ‘I don’t care if you’re in a bathroom taking care of your personal business…. Whatever you do, assume it will be caught on video,’” said Sgt. Heather Fungaroli, who supervises recruits at the LAPD’s academy. “We tell them if they’re doing the right thing then they have no reason to worry.”

The ubiquitous use of cameras by the public has helped serve as a deterrent to police abuse, said Geoff Alpert, a leading expert on police misconduct.

“At the time of King it was just fortuitous that someone had a camera,” Alpert said. “Things are a whole lot more transparent now and if you’re going to do something stupid, then you’re going to pay for your stupidity.”

Although some officers remain uncomfortable about people filming them, the culture shift has been particularly profound among younger officers who grew up in a world of mobile video and picture-sharing.

“We grew up with reality TV and smart phones. Everybody’s life was on camera,” said Joseph Stevens, a 26-year-old officer in the LAPD’s West Bureau. “It’s a given that everything I do could end up on television or YouTube. With the older era, they’re still surprised at some of the technology…. They have questions about it but are starting to adapt.”

Read the full story here.

7097: Another Rodney King Beating.

From The New York Post…

This time, King does the hitting

By Annie Karni

It’s been 18 years since African-American Rodney King was brutally beaten by white LAPD cops, whose acquittal in the incident sparked race riots in Los Angeles.

But King, 44, famous for asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” got his vengeance Friday in the boxing ring.

King was the unanimous winner in a three-round celebrity boxing match against retired Police Officer Simon Aouad, 31, outside Philadelphia.

“We had offers from everyone—Joey Buttafuoco to John Wayne Bobbitt—wanting to fight Rodney King,” said fight promoter Damon Feldman. “We received over 5,000 e-mails after we announced the fight. Simon was a police officer for two years, that’s why we picked him.”

King was paid $5,000 to fight in the bout at the Philadelphia Airport Ramada Inn, said Feldman. The match drew a crowd of about 500 boxing fans.

To prep for his big win, King trained in his hometown of Los Angeles by sparring, hitting the bags and jumping rope, said Feldman.

King’s next foray in the squared circle is scheduled for November, and will take place in Los Angeles against former Oakland A’s outfielder Jose Canseco.

The former LAPD punching bag was awarded $3.8 million in a civil case against the city of Los Angeles, and used part of the money to start a hip-hop music label.