Compton City Attorney Requests State, Federal Probe Into LASD Patrol Station
COMPTON (CBSLA) — The city of Compton Friday called for a federal and state investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, alleging that deputies have engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations including discriminatory policing, misconduct and excessive force.
Compton City Attorney Damon M. Brown — in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — requested the civil rights probe into the city's patrol station over allegations that deputies have demonstrated racist behavior toward Black and Latinx residents.
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LASD, which has provided law enforcement services to the city of Compton since the city disbanded its own police force, said it was aware of the allegations and has launched multiple investigations.
"Early on, the Sheriff invited the FBI to conduct their own investigation and information is actively being shared with them," the department previously said.
In the letter, Brown urged officials to "open an investigation immediately into all potential civil rights abuses, including a pattern or practice of systemic, unconstitutional policing, and obtain a court order requiring LASD to address systemic institutional failures."
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Brown also referenced recent whistleblower allegations, raised by LASD Deputy Art Gonzalez, that a violent gang of sheriff's deputies who allegedly call themselves "The Executioners" control the Compton station through threats, work slowdowns, force and acts of revenge against those who speak out.
Gonzalez, a sheriff's deputy since 2007, said that the gang retaliated against him for months after he anonymously reported a fellow deputy for allegedly assaulting a co-worker in February in order to "further the reputation of the gang."
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)