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Frequently, hateful comments were targeted at Black people. . Los Angeles, Randall Emmett, Ambyr Childers settle domestic violence restraining order dispute, Column: Supreme Court conservatives may want to block student loan forgiveness. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, Left-handed pitchers offer gold-like value for high school teams, Column: How I finally learned to care about Orange Countys crumbling coastline, Shipping firms to pay pipeline company nearly $100 million in O.C. Jose Esparza, 19, Luis Ortiz, 20, and Jose Rodriguez, 21, described similar comments by police in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the department last month. The department has also hired an outside law firm to conduct a review of the scandal, he said. Chief De Ladurantey said he receives as many citizen complaints from whites as minorities. Although the Rastello case shocked much of Southern California, equally startling was a string of other cases--long kept in private police files and brought up at the trial--that offered a rare peek into disciplinary procedures at the department. oil spill, Column: Column: Hydrogen cars should be a bigger part of Californias battle against carbon emissions, Sikh motorcyclist joins a cross-country ride against hate: I have to do this, How to connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs in L.A. County. 3300 Civic Center Dr. Any documentation or reports that detail the annual number of officer-involved shootings in your department for the past 10 years would be sufficient. At certain levels noises are The Rastello familys attorneys, Browne Greene and Brian Panish of Santa Monica, had alleged that fellow officers protected Green by not testing his blood-alcohol level, altering witness statements and using one of the departments few untapped phone lines to report the accident to commanders. WebThe Torrance Police Department has made vigorous efforts to achieve this status, and it is our desire to provide the means whereby it might be sustained. NIT stands for Nigger in Torrance, they said; NITAD stands for a black person spotted in Torrance after dark.. The officers comments spared no color or creed: They joked about gassing Jewish people, assaulting members of the LGBTQ community, using violence against suspects and lying during an investigation into a police shooting, according to district attorneys office records reviewed by The Times. Non-Emergency Police Response: (310) 618-5641 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503 Animal Control: 310-618-3850 Community Affairs : 310-618-6392 In both cases, plaintiffs alleged that the officers leveled guns at their heads, tore apart their vehicles with no probable cause and without permission, intentionally and painfully yanked their testicles during body searches and made numerous racist threats. Investigators had Dunn phone Weldin while they listened in on the call. I dont know that we can take anything theyve said at face value.. Records operates on a round-the-clock basis, performing numerous tasks aiding our department, other law enforcement agencies, and the general public to gain access to necessary records. Ashcraft also mentioned her concern that Torrance simply doesnt have the money to create and operate an oversight board with investigation power. He declined to offer a timetable on that review and would not say whether the officers involvement in the text scandal would affect that probe. Ask the lawyer, LA County reaches $28.85 million settlement with Kobe Bryants family, San Pedros Fish Market on fast track for long-term temporary West Harbor spot, Swap meet at historic Alpine Village, near Torrance, says goodbye, Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton will headline Coastal Country Jam in Long Beach, Southern California home sales fall to all-time low, Palos Verdes Historical Society museum plans in limbo after RPV denies location, Denver gang member gave 14-year-old permission to open fire on woman with AR-15 after fender-bender, DA alleges, In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime, Florida lawmakers to consider expansion of so-called dont say gay law, Drone crashes at Disneyland after hovering over visitors heads See video, Rapper Travis Scott wanted for assaulting Manhattan club sound engineer, destroying $12K in equipment, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Your complaint will be quickly, professionally, and objectively investigated in order to arrive at an appropriate conclusion. Minutes later, firefighters on scene noted Ross pulse was beginning to weaken. Want the latest investigative and FOIA news? Some supervisors point out to new officers during their probation periods the difference between street niggers and upstanding black citizens, one former officer said. Both the department and residents cite relatively low crime statistics as evidence of the departments success. Usually, conversations always seemed to circle back to vile insults or depictions of violence against Black people. Out of hundreds of pages of documents, the judge allowed the Rastello familys attorneys to present 14 cases of alleged misconduct that resulted in little or no punishment, including an off-duty officer who fired 22 shots at a car, many of them out the window of his personal vehicle; a lieutenant who allegedly molested several children; evidence of rapes and beatings by officers, and officers driving drunk while on duty. Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly. In the course of my work I regularly defend police officers and police policy, Cramer wrote. Tice and five other party-goers settled a lawsuit against the city for $105,000. According to an investigation by The Times, the theft of 44 guns from an L.A. gun store has spurred a cascade of allegations against LAPD officers and a roiling department scandal. The other cities have reached agreements with the government, offering payments to a few African Americans and Asian Americans who were denied jobs. Rob Bonta announces an investigation into the Torrance Police Department after a Times report on racist texts between officers. WebNon-Emergency Police Response: (310) 618-5641 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503 . Hutchings holds a B.A. The fate of two former Torrance police officers may rest Monday with a Superior Court judge who has been asked to throw out evidence that the officers shared Ive been pissed at Weldin since then, according to the affidavit. This is a brand new process for the state of California, and I think we have to see how it plays out, Councilmember Heidi Ann Ashcraft said in an interview Wednesday. Prior to joining the Press-Telegram, she served as the Daily Breeze's lead city hall reporter. The council and Hart appear to have full faith in the oversight power of the state oversight board, though. In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. The panel also found Torrance was the only city it studied that indicated a police officer may bring a civil action against a complainant who falsely accuses a police officer of misconduct, criminal conduct or incompetence. The council also referenced Senate Bill 2 which will allow the state to decertify police officers who commit serious misconduct, and will establish a statewide oversight board as a reason not to pursue a locally-controlled oversight body. Dunn then placed a monitored call to Tomsic, who tried to blame Weldin, saying, Weldin is the instigator of all this. What those text messages revealed was an extraordinarily hostile attitude toward people of color, people who are nonbinary, people who have different sexual orientations, said Walter Katz, a former independent police auditor in California who now serves as a vice president of criminal justice for research firm Arnold Ventures. But the blow that many believed would force change in the department came in 1989. While I am understanding of the pressures borne by the police, I do not wish my son to live in a world in which he and his friends are confronted and ordered about by two officers at gunpoint, in which he is intimidated and traumatized by uniformed thugs . What is the total number of citizen complaints (allegations of misconduct) made against your departments officers annually for the last 10 years? This is a prime example of running away from local control and accountability and trying to delegate to some people far away who arent a part of the community.. The complaints against Torrance allege a more intense racism. Many of the officers under investigation as part of the scandal also have use-of-force histories involving the communities for which they expressed hatred. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, New: California Attorney General to investigate Torrance Police after racist text scandal, Ex-Torrance police officers charged with spray-painting swastika on car, How the theft of 44 firearms from an L.A. gun store exploded into an LAPD scandal. I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 25, 2017. Through interviews with sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, public records requests and a review of district attorneys office records, The Times examined some of the contents of the until-now secret texts and identified a dozen Torrance police officers under investigation for exchanging them. One should allow 10 days for an agency to comply with a records request. . He said, You little ----, you went to my watch commander and made a complaint against me. In a four-page letter written earlier this month to Superior Court Presiding Judge Daniel J. Buckley, City Manager LeRoy Jackson said the city had complied with the grand jurys recommendation and removed such warnings from its complaint forms and related materials.. Truly favorable attitudes cannot prevail when a question of misuse of authority, either real or imagined, arises. . Share & Bookmark, Press Enter to show all options, press Tab go to next option, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Consolidated Plan: HOME, HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP), Candidate Registration & Qualification Form, Torrance Police Department Quarterly Reports, Trust Building Campaign - Torrance Police Department Strategic Plan, 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503. Records operates on a round-the-clock basis, performing Newly disclosed text messages in which a trio of San Francisco Police Department officers referred to minorities as barbarians, cockroaches and other slurs should trigger an even larger review of past criminal cases for signs of racial bias, according to the citys public defender. Schroeder initiated contact with the man because he was sleeping in a park after it closed, the records show, and used the choke to take him down after an altercation. Attorneys for the former officers contend the phones were obtained through a search warrant that was overly broad and violates Californias digital privacy law. What constitutes an officer-involved shooting in your department? Johao Miguel Chavarri, 26, threatened the victims through social media platforms if they refused his request for explicit photos or videos. Such claims represent one of the most sensitive areas of police-citizen relations and were cited as a fundamental cause of both the 1965 Watts riots and the broader 1992 Los Angeles riots. The officer has also been implicated in a racist text message scandal involving a dozen other officers. First, three officers were suspended, and now face firing, for allegedly socializing--in uniform and on duty--with strippers at a private Torrance residence. The text messages were not on one continuous thread, according to two of the sources. What they found has resulted in a black eye for the Torrance Police Department. A report to the city council estimated the potential cost being anywhere from $233,000 to $711,000. Torrance police sustained 35 out of 43 internally generated complaints of officer misconduct from 2016 to 2020, Ponegalek said. . The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. Gascn has already publicly identified two of the men involved in the scandal as former Officers Cody Weldin and Christopher Tomsic, who were charged in August with conspiracy and vandalism for allegedly spray-painting a swastika inside a vehicle. Share & Bookmark, Press Enter to show all options, press Tab go to next option, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Consolidated Plan: HOME, HOME-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP), Candidate Registration & Qualification Form, Torrance Police Department Quarterly Reports, Trust Building Campaign - Torrance Police Department Strategic Plan. oil spill, Column: Column: Hydrogen cars should be a bigger part of Californias battle against carbon emissions, Sikh motorcyclist joins a cross-country ride against hate: I have to do this, How to connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs in L.A. County. A knife was recovered at the scene. In total, the officers were listed as potential witnesses in nearly 1,400 cases in the last decade, according to district attorneys records The Times obtained through a public records request. The exact number of officers involved in the scandal is unclear. maybe its something else. The department would not comment on citizen complaints against police beyond saying that it investigated 34 of them in 1993, sustaining 23. In court documents recently filed by the government, former officers--some of whom are minorities fired after probationary periods--said two epithetic slogans are commonly used within the department. 4. Prosecutors are reviewing dozens of additional cases linked to the officers, said Diana Teran, a special advisor to Los Angeles County Dist. 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