LOS ANGELES — After dozens of interviews and seven public hearings, the Civilian Oversight Commission's special counsel has released a 70-page report condemning the "cancer" of violent deputy gangs and urging Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna to create a policy officially banning the secretive groups.
"They create rituals that valorize violence, such as recording all deputy-involved shootings in an official book, celebrating with 'shooting parties,' and authorizing deputies who have shot a community member to add embellishments to their common gang tattoos," the special counsel team wrote this week.
The Sheriff's Department has long faced allegations about violent groups of inked deputies who run roughshod over certain stations, and the new report not only bolsters some of the most troubling claims about them but calls out those who could have done more to solve the problem — including the deputies' union, county counsel and the district attorney's office.
