Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums
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Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known as CRASH, was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department established in the early 1970s to combat the rising problem of gangs in Los Angeles, California. Each of the 18 divisions had a CRASH unit whose primary goal was to suppress the influx of gang-related crimes in Los Angeles that came about primarily due to the increase in narcotics trade.[1][2]
In addition to gang-related crime prevention, CRASH officers also had to obtain information about a specific gang that was assigned to them and relay that information between districts.[2] The CRASH officer's "freedom of movement and activity" and "gung-ho" nature has led some of them to incite controversy among themselves and the whole CRASH unit.[3]
In March of 2000, CRASH was gradually diminished and replaced with a similar anti-gang unit. This unit's minimum requirements for enlistment are higher than was CRASH's, requiring recruits to have a sufficiently high amount of experience and a low criminal record.[4][5] Every crime offense and attempt of 2000 in Los Angeles increased over those of the previous year, when CRASH was wholly intact.[6]
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[edit] Operation Hammer
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Operation Hammer was a CRASH initiative that began in 1987 to crack down on gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. After a drive-by killing of six to seven people, Chief of Police Daryl Gates responded by sending CRASH officers to gather suspected gang members. At the height of this operation in April 1988, 1,453 people were arrested by one thousand police officers in a single weekend. This operation was susceptible to racism charges; some believe Operation Hammer heavily employed racial profiling targeting African-American and Hispanic youths that were labelled as "urban terrorists" and "ruthless killers." However, proponents of the operation remonstrate that it was not discriminatory as each gang member corralled had warrants for their arrests.
[edit] Rampart CRASH Scandal
One of the prominent CRASH units was stationed in the Rampart Division.
On February 26, 1998, two CRASH officers from Rampart were stripped of their jobs when allegations arose of a cover-up of the beating and asphyxiation of an 18th Street gang member. Officer Brian Hewitt was accused of choking the gang member in an interview room when the latter refused to provide evidence of gang activities. Hewitt, along with officers Ethan Cohan and Daniel Lujan, did not report this incident. When the gang member reported his beating at a hospital, evidence, including blood in the interview room, implicated the three officers. Before a Board of Rights council, only Lujan was acquitted of his role.
In August 1998, the same month that Chief Bernard Parks claimed that the Christopher Commission reforms were "essentially complete", officer Rafael Perez, a nine-year veteran of the department, was arrested on charges of stealing six pounds (≈three kilograms) of cocaine from LAPD's Property Division. Perez was initially tried on one count of possession of cocaine for sale, grand theft and forgery each. After a mistrial on December 7 of that year, more reports of cocaine theft by Perez arose. In September 1999, in exchange for partial immunity from prosecution, he testified about a pattern of abuse and misconduct that threatened to overturn thousands of criminal convictions, accusing about seventy fellow CRASH officers.
Though three officers were convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges in October 2000, these convictions were overturned that December. Three more reached plea bargains the next year.
These events are sometimes referred to as the Rampart Scandal. The State Librarian, Kevin Starr, in discussing this sordid episode, wrote that "CRASH ... became, in effect, the most badass gang in the city."[7]
[edit] Media references
- The 1988 film Colors starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall revolved around the LAPD C.R.A.S.H. division.
- The video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is set in a fictional state of "San Andreas" that is intended to represent a combination of 1990s Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The corrupt officers of the fictional "Los Santos Police Department" are members of the C.R.A.S.H. unit.
- The cable channel FX's series The Shield centers on a corrupt police unit named the Strike Team, modeled after the Rampart Division's corrupt CRASH unit. One of the names originally considered for the show was "Rampart."
- The exteriors of the Rampart Station were featured in the 1960's television show, Adam 12.
- Rapper Xzibit mentions the "Crooked ass cops from the Rampart District" on the song "Multiply".
- Rapper The Game mentions the Rampart scandal in a song called "Start from Scratch" from his album, The Documentary.
- The films Cellular (2004) and Dirty (2005) were inspired by the Rampart Scandal while Training Day (2001), written before the incident, was modified to include some elements from the scandal.
- In the Special Features section on the DVD version of Cellular, there's a segment on the Rampart Scandal called "Code of Silence."
[edit] References
- ^ Gangs: Additional Resources. Los Angeles Police Department. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ a b CRASH Culture. PBS Frontline. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Interviews: Gerald Chaleff. PBS Frontline. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ LAPD's Anti-Gang Unit is Disbanded Following Widespread Corruption Scandal. CNN (2000-03-12). Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Rampart Scandal Timeline. PBS Frontline. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Crime Statistics - Year 2000 (PDF) 2. Los Angeles Police Department. Retrieved on June 26, 2006.
- ^ Kevin Starr, Coast of Dreams: California On The Edge, 1990-2003 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 92.
