LOS ANGELES _ A congressional subcommittee has requested that the Department of Justice investigate allegations of systemic abuses by "criminal gangs" that employ aggressive policing tactics within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"The allegations of abusive behavior by these criminal gangs within the LASD are deeply disturbing," Reps. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote Thursday in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "If true, they represent egregious violations of the civil rights of the residents of the communities subjected to their violence and to the deputies who oppose these heinous practices."
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Sheriff's Department also did not respond to a request for comment.
Citing reporting by the Los Angeles Times, the letter says that deputy gangs have plagued the Sheriff's Department for decades, since 1971, and that settlements related to "gang-affiliated deputies" have cost L.A. County taxpayers roughly $55 million.
"Not surprisingly, gang members have been implicated in heinous acts of brutality against Black people," wrote Gomez and Raskin, who both serve on the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
The allegations have come up in recent excessive force and wrongful death claims and lawsuits, including one filed this week by the family of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, who was shot and killed in June by a deputy in Gardena in an incident that sparked weeks of protests.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva has denied the existence of gangs within the department, saying trial attorneys are exaggerating the problem to get the best deals for their clients.
"I'm not buying it," Villanueva said during a live broadcast Wednesday. "They don't care that the product they're selling doesn't really hold weight, doesn't have the facts to support it."
A whistleblower deputy, who has also filed a retaliation claim against the department, said under oath recently that the two deputies involved in Guardado's shooting were prospective members of a deputy gang called the Executioners entrenched at the Compton Station, claims their lawyers have denied.
The whistleblower testified that 15 to 20 deputies are Executioners, who mark themselves with distinctive tattoos, and at least a handful more are prospective members who are "chasing ink" by trying to prove they're worthy of a tattoo. He said that only two deputies are inked each year and that women and Black people aren't allowed to join. A vast majority of members and prospects, he said, have been involved in high-profile shootings or beatings.
Villanueva said he has implemented _ and is vigorously enforcing _ a new policy that prohibits membership in illicit groups.
