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LA County Sheriffs killed an 18 year old kid while he was working his job as a security guard Friday night. LASD says Guardado had a gun and ran. There's plenty of reason not to trust them. (Thread) https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/fatal-deputy-shooting-security-guard-andres-guardado
The first thing to know about LASD is that the man who shaped the modern department, former Sheriff Lee Baca (served 1998-2014), is in federal prison right now for corruption crimes. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-05/former-los-angeles-county-sheriff-lee-baca-is-now-a-prison-inmate-in-texas%3f_amp=true
The crimes Baca was convicted of revolve around a scheme to hide a federal informant, who was an inmate in the jail, from the FBI. The informant, Anthony Brown, was providing information to the FBI about brutality against inmates by deputies in the jail. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-deputies-jail-abuse-arrests-20131209-story.html
Per the article above, jailers *changed Brown's name* in the jail records to prevent the FBI from finding him. Incredibly, LASD's response was that they were hiding him from their own deputies so that they wouldn't attack him.
Ten sworn sheriff's employees, ranging from jail deputies to Undersheriff Paul Tanaka to Sheriff Lee Baca himself were convicted of crimes related to brutality in the jails and interfering with the FBI investigation into the brutality.
Tanaka, the second-in-command at LASD, was sentenced to five years, with the judge noting “the incalculable harm you have caused this community.” Tanaka is also the former mayor of Gardena, the town where Guardado was killed Thursday evening. https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/paul-tanaka-former-no-2-los-angeles-sheriff-s-department-sentenced-five-years-federal
Tanaka was also a member of the infamous LASD "deputy gangs." The thing to know about these gangs is that they are LITERAL street gangs, which CA law defines as "ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal...
"...having as one of its primary activities the commission of crimes... who have a common identifying sign, symbol, or name, and whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of definable criminal activity." https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&division=&title=7.&part=1.&chapter=11.&article=
The LASD deputy gangs, which still exist today, clearly meet this definition. In order to join, deputies must get tattoos signifying them as members of the gang. One gang made a pamphlet which "promoted aggressive policing and portrayed officer shootings in a positive light."
At least one of the gangs also used a "three finger gang sign" to identify members. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-may-09-la-me-sheriff-clique-20120510-story.html
The gang Tanaka was a member of, the Lynnwood Vikings, was described by a federal judge as a "neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang." (Yes, Tanaka is Asian, but that doesn't preclude him from participating in white supremacy.) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-mar-24-mn-20461-story.html
Per the article above, "Tanaka was tattooed as a member of the Vikings while a young deputy in 1987--a year before he was named in a wrongful-death suit stemming from the shooting of a young Korean man. The department eventually settled for close to $1 million."
An LASD spokesman quoted in the article says about Tanaka's tattoo, “It is perceived by some in a way that was never intended. He’s having it removed. He wants it behind him.” The article is from 1999, 12 years after Tanaka got the tattoo.
I mentioned the gangs still existing. A federal lawsuit, still ongoing right now, focuses on current Sheriff Alex Villanueva's protection of one particular gang known as the Banditos. https://theappeal.org/deputy-gangs-los-angeles-banditos/
This lawsuit was brought *by LASD deputies* who say the Banditos have been trying to literally get them killed for interfering in the gang's criminal behavior, and that Villanueva is protecting the Banditos. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-19/former-deputies-la-county-lawsuit
Per the LA Times article, "In one September 2018 incident, two deputies were knocked unconscious at a department party, the lawsuit says. A few months later, it alleges, the Banditos secretly removed ammunition from another deputy’s shotgun."
Vilanueva has publicly defended the gangs, "calling them a “cultural norm” and a source of intergenerational hazing among lawmen. He said there is nothing wrong with the clubs as long as they don’t promote misconduct" per the LA Times https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-fbi-investigating-sheriff-20190711-story.html
LA Mag had called Villanueva "the Donald Trump of law enforcement" for his apparent glee in pissing off police reform advocates. One of his major initiatives has been a plan to rehire up to 400 employees previously fired for corruption and/or brutality. https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/sheriff-alex-villanueva-interview/
LASD also has a recent history of extreme anti-Black racism. While Lee Baca was in office, the Obama DOJ sued LASD for colluding with officials in Palmdale and Lancaster to terrorize Black Section 8 residents into leaving their homes. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/l-a-county-sheriffs-colluded-with-city-officials-to-kick-out-black-section-8-families
Notably, Palmdale is where the body of Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old Black man, was found hanging from a tree last week. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-14/hundreds-gather-in-palmdale-to-call-for-investigation-of-black-man-found-hanging-from-tree
The LA County Coroner initially ruled Fuller's death a suicide, but his family believes he was lynched, and there have been regular protests in Palmdale against his death. There's a sit-in scheduled tonight at the Palmdale LASD station.
On Wednesday, LASD killed Fuller's half-brother, Terron Boone. They also shot and wounded a woman in the car with Boone after they claim Boone shot at them. Afaik, no witnesses have yet come forward and the only side of the story we have is LASD's. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/sheriffs-shooting-robert-fuller-brother%3f_amp=true
Boone is one of three people LASD have killed since protests began last month. Two were Black and one was Hispanic. Less than a week before killing Boone, LASD deputies killed Michael Blu Thomas, a 63-year-old Black man. https://www.google.com/amp/s/ktla.com/news/local-news/man-shot-by-deputies-in-lancaster-2/amp/
Deputies say Thomas tried to take one of their guns before they killed him, but according to KTLA "Thomas’ girlfriend, who was with him at the time, reported that four deputies proceeded to restrain Thomas, while a fifth shot him in the stomach"
On Thursday night, LASD killed a third person: 18-year-old Andres Guardado. Guardado was killed while on the job as a security guard at an auto-body shop in Gardena. https://www.google.com/amp/s/losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/06/19/lasd-deputies-shoot-kill-security-guard-gardena-andres-guardado/amp/
LASD claims Guardado was armed and ran before they killed him. But the manager of the auto body shop tells a different story, as seen in these videos by @el_tragon_de_LA https://twitter.com/el_tragon_de_LA/status/1274118743661047808?s=19
Contrary to LASD's story, the manager says Guardado was on his knees with his hands behind his head when a deputy shot him seven times in the back. The manager says deputies then destroyed security cameras at the shop. The destroyed cameras can be seen in the video above.
The manager, Andrew Haney, says he doesn't think Guardado had a gun. "In the year and a half that I've known him, I've never known him to be armed or anything, he wasn't a gang member, he'd never even been so much as arrested... He was the coolest kid."
So, as I said, given LASD's history, there's ample reason to be skeptical of their claims re: Guardado. His family and @UniondelBarrio along with the Harriet Tubman Center are organizing a protest for him tomorrow at 2pm.
I don't know of any GoFundMe or anything for Guardado's family or Thomas' family, but if anyone hears of some, please pass them along and I'll post it! You can support Robert Fuller's family here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/community-support-for-robert-fuller
Couple more things to add to this thread. LASD is currently being sued for allowing Coronavirus to spread in the jails, and the allegations are horrendous: https://laist.com/2020/04/24/lawsuit_la_county_jail_inmates_coronavirus.php
Per the article: "The lawsuit describes cramped and unsanitary conditions inside jail dormitories where there's not enough space for inmates to practice social distancing and too few masks and too little soap and other cleaning supplies."
From the same article: ""Prisoners are going to die at an incredible rate unless something is done to address these horrible conditions," said attorney Dan Stormer, who represents the Youth Justice Coalition, Dignity and Power Now, and nine inmates named as plaintiffs"
Infection rates in some parts of the jails have reached as high as 40% https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-27/coronavirus-infection-rates-los-angeles-county-jails
Villanueva released some jail inmates in response to the pandemic, namely those with less than 30 days left on their sentence or those with bail of under $50,000. But more than 14,000 people remain in the LA jail system https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-26/coronavirus-inmates-release-la-county-jails%3f_amp=true
Incredibly, Villanueva has claimed the reason for the high Covid infection rates is that inmates are infecting themselves on purpose https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/12/inmates-coronavirus-infect-los-angeles/%3foutputType=amp
The article above includes a video shown by Villanueva to "prove" his claim that inmates are getting infected on purpose. But absent Villanueva's commentary, it's impossible to tell what the grainy video is supposed to actually show
Additionally, the crowded conditions in Villanueva's video show pretty clearly that nobody would have to *try* to get infected on purpose. Look at how many people are in those rooms and decide for yourself if it looks like social distancing is possible in those jails
I first came across Baca's case while researching a database of criminal cops in California for the along with @jason_paladino @robertianlewis and a bunch of other reporters from the @mercnews and @ucbsoj https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/10/californias-criminal-cops-convicted-but-stay-on-the-job/
The database found 78 LASD members that had been convicted of crimes in a ten-year period, including Tanaka and Baca. Other charges ranged from "wet and reckless" DUI's to spousal battery to filing a false report to torture and sexual assault.
The high number of LASD deputies convicted of crimes is partly a reflection of the size of the department. It has approximately 18,000 employees, making it the largest Sheriff's department in the country. But at least part of the problem sure seems to be LASD's culture!
Oh and regarding the 78 sworn LASD employees convicted of crimes, those are only the ones we could *find* and *prove* There could definitely be more!
Here’s a fundraiser for Andres Guardado’s family, please donate if you can! https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforandresguardado
And here's a fundraiser for the family of Michael Thomas: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-michael-lynvell-thomas
