LAPD Rampart Division had a group of cops, primarily working in gang control, that ended up being totally out of control.
The cops engaged in a large number of activities such as beating citizens, shooting citizens, framing citizens for crimes that did not occur. One of the worst cases involved handcuffing then shooting a person, leaving him permanently paralyzed then charging him with crimes, then allowing a plea bargain to get a lesser prison sentence (and, of course no trial).
All of this, of course, was hidden behind the “Blue wall of silence” and "Pinstripe wall of silence" until one of the cops was caught stealing cocaine from an evidence locker and started talking to get himself a lesser sentence for his crimes.
There have been, at last count, over 70 cops fired, retired, transferred. In a recent trial, several cops were found guilty and of course claim jury problems.
There have been over 100 criminal cases thrown out of court.
The expense to the city of LA from lawsuits is growing by the day and will cost the taxpayers many millions of dollars.
One of the completely amazing parts of this entire series of incidents is that the LA DA’s office has had absolutely nobody fired, retired, transferred let alone indicted relating to these non-existent crimes that they happily sent people to prison for. It is absolutely ludicrous to think that the DAs involved in these cases had no idea that they were sending innocent people to prison.
Police/DA, local agencies and the California Attorney General must have been aware of these serious crimes, but chose to do nothing. It took the exposure by the press and action on the part of the US Department of Justice to get attention drawn to the problems. LAPD is the latest police department to essentially get put under the control of the Federal Government because of their staunch refusal to deal with their internal problems and their continual abuse of citizens.
There are a large number of web references relating to this continuing story, just go to your standard search engine and enter "LAPD Rampart", there is a lot out there and very little paints a good picture of LAPD and their ability to deal with crime in their ranks. For the large number of local stories following the events, go to the Los Angeles Times ,